Understand VOIP and SIP

Posted on July 27, 2009 | By Voicent News

I would prefer to use a SIP based VOIP. I do not understand what that is. Do you have any suggestions?

Basically VOIP service enables your computer to make phone calls to landline or cell phones. You use a soft phone – software that looks like a phone, to talk to the other party using computer microphone and speaker (or computer headset). The following is a picture of a free soft phone called x-lite:

VOIP has a few standard and SIP is the most widely used standard. You do not need to understand what SIP is in order to use SIP based VOIP service. All you need to do is to do google “sip service”, “voip service”, or “sip trunking”, and find a service provider and service plan that fit you best, make sure it allows using your own SIP softphone, sign up, and configure Voicent software to use it. Once it is set up, you use Voicent software the same way as using a traditional phone service.

I have Vonage VOIP now but they won’t give me the details needed to set it up

The following is from TMC.net’s blog:

“A source informed VoIP & Gadgets Blog that Vonage plans to open up their SIP credentials to enable users to configure their own SIP softphones and SIP hardphones to work with the Vonage service at no additional charge. Today Vonage still has kept the SIP credentials “closed” preventing users from using their own SIP devices with the Vonage service. One of the main reasons why Vonage has kept the SIP credentials “closed” is that they charge $9.99/month for their SIP softphone client, which then gives you access to your “personal SIP credentials”. It comes with 500 minutes along with a different SIP URI and PSTN number than your main Vonage phone number. The obvious question is why would Vonage do an about face, open up the SIP credentials and start giving away SIP credentials access for “free” when they curerntly charge for them?

According to the source, he stated that Vonage doesn’t make that much revenue on softphone subscribers. But he stated the main reason for the about face is that Vonage is starting to feel strong competition from the MSOs/cable companies, Packet8, SunRocket, and the other VoIP broadband players. He also pointed out that several Vonage competitors already offer SIP credentials, including Broadvoice, SIPgate, and others.”

Both Vonage and Skype are moving toward full SIP support. For now, just find a VOIP service provider that supports SIP.

[update: Nov 27, 2009 - It is now possible to use Vonage through SIP. For details, please see configure Vonage SIP]

Do you recommend a SIP service that works with the system

We currently do not have a recommended vendor list. Once we do, we’ll listed it here. It is a little difficult to produce one since your needs are different from others. The good news is that there are plenty of VOIP service providers to choose from now.

Posted in VOIP |

Migrate Autodialer to Another Computer

Posted on July 22, 2009 | By Voicent News

Hi can you provide me steps on what to backup and restore since we are thinking of migrating voicent broadcast by phone to another machine (newer and faster hardware).

I know the license key is on the network controller which I have as a USB wifi card, but I need to know what needs to be backed up so everything else would be insynch when I restore the data and database on the new machine (same software just newer/better hardware).

There are basically two kinds of data for Broadcast by Phone. The first is the data created by the program, such as settings and customized messages; the second is user created data, such as recorded audio files. You need to copy all the audio files you created and used by Message Designer. We will not know where they are. To find out, open Message Designer and take a look at the included audio files.

To backup and migrate the broadcast by phone data, please do the following:

1). Uninstall all Voicent programs

2). Go to C:\Program Files\Voicent\BroadcastByPhone folder, and back up the following sub-folder: conf, data, message. The message folder is used to save voice messages from the person called. If you never used that option in Message designer, it could be empty. These audio files are not the one you created.

3). Install Voicent program on the new computer

4). Copy the content of the backup sub-folders to the corresponding folder

A note for windows vista user: Windows Vista uses folder virtualization, so some of the sub folders and contents are saved under Document and Files instead of C:\Program Files. The virtual folders are usually under:
C:\Users\{your windows login name}\AppData\Virtual Store\Program Files\Voicent\BroadcastByPhone

Posted in Auto Dialer |

Hosted VOIP Dialer

Posted on July 22, 2009 | By Voicent News

With Voicent release 7 that supports VOIP, is there any reason to use a hosted VOIP dialer

A hosted VOIP dialer is simply a VOIP dialer service offered through a web interface. Customers who uses a hosted VOIP dialer interact with a web interface to set up call list, setup call message, and view status report.

There are still some advantages offered by a hosted VOIP dialer, however, the list gets shorter with the new Voicent release 7. The major reason to use a hosted dialer is its capacity – say you want to make 1000 calls in a minute. If you would like to set a dialer yourself, you would need really high internet bandwidth and powerful servers. The major disadvantage of a hosted solution is usually its cost, since you have to pay for the hosting company’s hardware and service.

A VOIP dialer like Voicent’s auto dialer and predictive dialer is fairly easy to setup. There is no hardware to install and maintain, which is one major reason to go for a hosted provider before. All that is required is to download and install the software on your PC. The software can be configured to use your existing VOIP service, or any other VOIP service provider.

There are two major advantage of using a VOIP dialer instead of a hosted VOIP dialer: one is the cost. Since you go directly with a VOIP service provider, your cost can be dramatically reduced on a per call basis; the other is the dialer features. It is usually limited when a user interface is offered from a web page. Take a look at the feature list offered by Voicent VOIP dialer you can easily tell the difference.

Posted in General |