By Sharla Sikes

VoIP has plenty of pros and cons for both the personal and business user. It’s low-priced and feature-packed, but also faces drawbacks in reliability, 911 access and security.

There’s a few techniques to making it work for you and your specific needs.

Begin with your hardware: The quality and age of your routers and modems could be adversely affecting your VoIP service.  All-in-one router/modem combinations get the green light due to the integration. If not, double check your modem; some models block the ports needed to allow VoIP traffic.

Check your other applications. Call quality is dependent on bandwidth, so if the connection has other bandwidth-hungry traffic such as Bittorrent, your call may break up. Mark Cocquio at Australian IT recommends configuring the VoIP hardware to a more efficient codec; he lists G.711 and G.729, preferring the latter for slow connections. Cocquio also suggests enabling quality of service through the router, if allowed, which lets the router prioritize outgoing data.  

“When set up to prioritise VoIP traffic,” he says, “You’re far less likely to experience problems, even if your fellow network inhabitants are torrenting the night away. The problem with QoS is that it will only help with outgoing traffic. Incoming traffic is QoS-prioritised by your service provider, so it’s out of your hands.”

He also recommends shopping around for the best VoIP service, noting that the VoIP that some Internet Service Providers offer is often the best choice.

Another way to minimize static is to unplug your router and then reconnect, allowing it to reset.  Sometimes the “fresh signal” will improve the call quality.

For those to whom the benefits are worth the extra attention, some patience is a boon.

“Ultimately, perseverance will be your key to VoIP happiness,” says Cocquio.

Links of Interest: Vonage Digital Phone Service - VoIP Unlimited Long Distance with Vonage phone service. Sign up now!

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