softphones

[vince walters]

Hi,
i have been using the traditional analog phone with my voip connection.
I read about the softphones on the internet. Which is better?
Could you share your views?

[andyf]

Sure Vince, here's my opinion:

Softphones serve their purpose but I would generally not use one as my main means of telephony as I have experienced some quality issues with it in the past. However it is very handy for when I am on the road.

If you want to try one out, Skype is the most popular. My experiences with this have not been great though, seems to take a few goes to get it working and then it occasionally loses connection. Now admittedly there are a few other variables here, such as broadband speed and more importantly voice quality.

Most people use standard cheap microphones and speakers and to be honest the quality is pretty poor unless you go higher end. If you have wireless hardware (e.g. bluetooth) you tend to get noise and echo issues and of course the battery drains quickly.
The wired connections are best and pay a little extra for a good headset and one that has a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) in it to cancel the noise and prevent nasty echos.

Anyway just my thoughts.

Thanks.
Andy
http://www.whichvoip.com

[Rob]

Hi,

I am sorry to differ, but I have a different opinion that Andy. Though Andy makes a good point that the mic and speaker can affect the quality of the audio, typical equipment with PCs is now pretty good.

The major problems with softphones are related to echo cancellation (which is required due to the fact that the sound of the speakers can be fed back into the mic - effectively providing a crude form of feedback), and the technology behind the codecs available for Internet usage.

Both are being addressed, and in some cases extremely well. For example MSN Messenger now includes good echo cancellation, and probably the best audio codec around - in fact the audio quality is better than that available on a phone.

The real issue with softphones is finding one that works with the provider you wish to use, due to cost, features etc. This should be your primary concern

Rob