Greetings everyone. Here in this section, we're gonna go over, what is VoIP? Why do we use VoIP? How do we use VoIP? >> So VoIP, V-O-I-P. V-O-I-P stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, and it's pronounced just as you see it, voyp. At the very core, it's essentially a phone service that works off the digital network, for instance, the Internet. >> Even though VoIP tends to use the Internet to communicate from a computer to a computer or phone to phone, you don't actually need the Internet. This is because we just need Internet protocols to allow for the communication. Protocol is just a set of rules so we can communicate with the audio signals or the digital signals. >> Say, if I wanted to make a call to Randy, all I would need to do is establish how I was gonna send the message. I would say, I'm gonna send the message this way and Randy's computer would say oh, I'm gonna receive it this way. As long as those rules are established, we can make a VoIP call and as long as they're connected on a network, also. You don't necessarily need the Internet to make that call. >> Just some way to connect the computers. >> The benefits of using Internet protocols, in general, is that it supports corporate, private, public. It can be transmitted over cable or wireless networks. So it's used in many different mediums and is very versatile in that sense. >> Let's go ahead and check out why we use it. >> Usually, in a traditional phone service, let's say you're making an international phone call, you're usually charged on the minute. If you're gonna call India or China, every minute you talk to your relatives or someone down there, every minute you talk, you have to pay a certain number of cents. When you're using VoIP, that charge is cut down. You're paying on a monthly rate. So you can just make a call, talk for hours on end, and not have to worry about those minutely charges. >> This is usually very appealing to big businesses. Instead of being charged by the minute, or mainly because say it's night time in the certain country, say the U.S., but at that time, most people aren't working so instead your phone calls for customer service will be sent outside of the country, say somewhere in Asia where it's morning. >> Mm-hm. >> That'll help the company dodge any international fees, it just uses the Internet, they just gonna pay their monthly Internet bill and they're good. >> These different applications support call forwarding, voice mailbox, call records etc, and has many different features. >> There are a ton of free ones too, such as Skype and you've probably used Skype, a lot of people use Skype. Skype has that call-forwarding, has that messaging. You can have voice calls- >> You can even have international calls on Skype. >> Call record, everything. That ties into the hows. >> On a traditional phone service, you're making an analog audio signal. Every time you're talking, analog audio signals are getting sent to the tower and that tower carries on that signal to the next one and so on. However, when you're using VoIP, that analog audio signal gets changed into digital data and that digital data is then transmitted. The benefit of using digital data over analog audio signals is that digital data can carry much more information than traditional analog signals. So you can do voice calls, audio calls both at the same time. It gives you much more freedom to work with there. >> In the following lesson, we'll check out these flavors more in depth but basically, the three main things that use voice communication would be the ATAs, which are the analog telephone adapters. That just converts your traditional landline network into using the VoIP networks. Then there's IP phones, which are just Internet phones and then finally, the normal computer interfaces such as Skype. >> Right. Here's a little diagram of how VoIP basically works. You can use your computer or your telephone, it'll go through the Internet. And then that Internet signal will be received on a different computer or telephone and you just talk like that. >> What are some of the disadvantages and advantages as compared to the traditional telephone service? >> We already went over the biggest advantage of using VoIP, it's the cost benefit. You don't have to pay so much money to do international calls or calls that are long distance. However, another very big advantage of VoIP is that it's higher quality. With a traditional phone signal, you might not get the best clarity in voice or video and that's because you don't have that much bandwidth to work with. However, using VoIP, since you're sending the data digitally, and because the Wi-Fi bandwidth is much bigger than traditional phone bandwidth, you can give more data to the receiving end. You can do voice, audio, and it comes out much more clearly on the other side. >> Right. Some disadvantages. Usually when there's a power outage, you lose service because usually your router goes out or something else, unless your router is connected to some kind of back-up power generator. Normally, on regular telephone networks, when you make an emergency call to like, say, 911, they'll be able to pinpoint your location using the cell towers. >> Mm-hm. >> But, with Internet, with VoIP applications, say an IP phone, it will be much harder to pinpoint your location through your Internet, it tends to be more difficult. >> Right. >> Finally, there's no directory service. Normal telephone companies will provide a phone book so you can look up somebody. >> Right. >> Find the number, be able to call them. >> But as of right now, there's no established directory service. Hopefully, there might be one in the future but as of right now, you can't just look at a store that you wanna call and find the VoIP number to call them with. >> At least, that's not too bad because we can just easily exchange contact information and add it to our free contact book. >> Exactly. >> With that, that wraps up the why, the what, the hows of VoIP, and we'll see you next time.
