Voice over Internet Protocol Essay -- VoIP Technology Networking Essay

Voice over Internet Protocol Definition of VoIP â€Å"Mr. Watson, come here, I want you!† These were the first words that were spoken over the phone back on March 10 1876. If you combine this invention with the same invention of the first computer that was completed nearly 70 years later in 1946, you would then be able to access VoIP. VoIP is also known as voice over internet protocol. VoIP is in essence the ability to talk with ones voice via computer to computer. In the next few pages you will learn about the history of VoIP, how it works, the requirements that are needed to use VoIP, the benefits and risks of this type of technology, and lastly you will get a glimpse at the future of VoIP. Not many people know what VoIP is or even that it exists. VoIP was designed to help with the costs for long distance charges. The idea or premise of this type of technology was conceived to use ones phone line and make a call through the Internet. It was designed to be used for both local and long distance calls thus cutting phone bill costs. The VoIP way of communication was started back in 1995 and was the result of work done by some hobbyists in Israel (Interangent, 2005). These hobbyists as well as other great inventors saw a good idea. Their idea was to be able to communicate through the computer as appose to talking over the phone. The idea was not so much to get away from the phone system but more to avoid long distance charges. In the beginning VoIP was only available when there was a direct personal computer to personal computer connection. Later in 1995 Vocaltec, Inc. released Internet Phone Software (Interagent, 2005). In the beginning it was fairly difficult to use. Due to the fact that in order to really be able to communicate using VoIP both the computers that were trying to communicate to each other would be required to use the same equipment, have a sound card and use a microphone. It was a good first effort, but as many firsts, the quality was very poor. VoIP would make great strides in the next three years. In 1998 VoIP had made such great strides that some companies were able to offer personal computer to phone services. The strides also were able to offer phone to phone contact. In the beginning VoIP did not charge their customers but chose to get payment through advertisements. When you made the phone call you would have to wait through an advert... ...base TechLand Group (2005). Strategies for Migrating Corporate Voice Traffic to the Data Network, Retrieved June 6, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.techland.co.uk/index/page.index Try-three. (2005). History VoIP Article. Retrieved May 21, 2005, from the World Wide Web: http://www.try-there.com/voip/directory/history-voip.html Tyson, J. (2005). How stuff works. How voip works. Retrieved June 3, 2005, from the World Wide Web: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ip-telephony.htm Voippreview. (2004). History of VoIP. Retrieved May 20, 2005, from the World Wide Web: http://www.voipreview.org/news.details.aspx?nid=51 Wagner, J. (2004, June 21). Networking. Retrieved May 26, 2005, from the World Wide Web: http://www.internetnews.com/infr/article.php/3371431 Webopedia (2005, June). VoIP. Retrieved June 10, 2005, from the World Wide Web: http://www.webopedia.com What Is (2005, June). VoIP. Retrieved June 10, 2005, from the World Wide Web: http://www.whatis.com Wikipedia (2004). Definitions in Technology. Retrieved May 26, 2005, from the World Wide Web: www.wikipedia.com Wikipedia (2005, June). VoIP. Retrieved June 11, 2005, from the World Wide Web: http://www.wikipedia.org