If you want to save money on your telephone service using the internet, you will need to sign up with a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) service provider. They will sell you the necessary equipment and assign you a number, which is used like a regular phone number.
VOIP providers are useful and very cheap. Most providers offer VOIP connections free of charge. They make their money by charging for calls to the regular telephone network. Most providers allow you to call any phone number in the world for a moderately low fee. For modest monthly fees (about $8-$20), they offer unlimited calls to certain geographic areas. They also provide voicemail, call forwarding and conference calls, at no extra charge.
Vonage, BroadVoice, Diamond, iConnectHere, Lingo, mywebphone, Packet8, and VoicePulse are some of the major VOIP providers. Most of these companies are based in the United States; some also have offices in other countries.
VOIP equipment includes a broadband modem and an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) or IP phone. Both the ATA and IP phone connect directly to the modem, but the ATA allows you to use older analog phones. No matter which equipment you use, it has a unique number that identifies your current IP (Internet Protocol) address. If you're constantly on the move, your VOIP provider tracks your current IP address, which allows people to contact you no matter where you are.
Even if you're using your Internet phone from a single location, a VOIP provider is usually still necessary. The majority of residential Internet connections have 'dynamic' IP addresses, so every time you reconnect to the Internet, you have a different IP address.
The VOIP provider is also useful, because people can contact you by entering your user name, rather than your IP address.
When choosing a VOIP provider, keep in mind the protocol they use. SIP seems to be the emerging standard. It offers fairly easy connection routes between different VOIP providers. H.323 and IAX protocols are sometimes offered in addition to SIP. Skype, popular for PC-to-PC VOIP systems, uses a proprietary protocol, so it is not easy to connect to the Skype network from another VOIP provider.
It is a bit of work to research and set everything up, but the sooner you start, the quicker you will be able to look back and say, "Why did I wait so long?"
About the author:
Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer. Visit http://www.voip-solutions-now.comto learn more about this subject.
Copyright 2005 Ron King. This article may be reprinted if the resource box is left intact.
Data recovery is a tricky thing, and if you've somehow deleted or had
your important files corrupted or lost due to human error, business
espionage, faulty hardware or software or any other reason; the good news
is that your lost data is probably recoverable. This article will show you
a few things NOT to do when an event such as this occurs.
Don't run the drive anymore, or use the device. (MP3, portable storage,
camera card, whatever) If you think it won't hurt to even just poke around
the internet for a solution to this mess you've made/found, you're wrong!
Don't install or run anything on the drive you hope to recover data from.
Only access this drive again from a healthy PC with the software solution
you're going to use. Since files are overwritten in the order they've been
deleted, the last files that have been excised from your drive will be the
first to be lost permanently. Even just surfing, with all the cookies and
temporary internet files that are always being generated will often doom
the process without you even knowing about it.
Don't use tools that may reside on your computer, such as Scandisk, or
a boot record utility, as these will probably overwrite exactly the files
you're seeking to get back.
In short, be careful! Your data may very well be recoverable, as long
as you don't do something to erase it forever! Find a good data recovery
software solution, and then follow the instructions to the letter, and
you'll more than likely live to see your lost data return!
Keith Thompson is the webmaster at
Data Recovery Service a site cenetered around helping you get back
your lost data!
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