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Home > Archive > Voice Over IP in UK > December 2006 > VOIPCHEAP and bandwidth use???
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VOIPCHEAP and bandwidth use???
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| It is my understanding that a condition of VOIPCHEAP service is that
they can make use of the subscriber's DSL bandwidth for routing their
other traffic. I am unclear about how this works and its impact on my
use of the DSL connection for non-VOIP purposes. Here are some of the
questions I have:
How much of this freeloading on one's bandwidth do they do?
Does this happen only with PC-to-Phone use, or also in the case of SIP
calls? (I have a PAP2T ATA and can program it.)
How much degradation of DSL performance is it likely to cause?
I assume it takes place at all times, whether or not I am using their
service at that moment; is this correct?
Is this not a security risk (intrusion, viruses, etc.)?
In general, is VOIPCHEAP a reliable way to make and receive calls? Is
quality good?
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| On 2006-12-07, Stan <SPAM_FOILER@some.domain> wrote:
> It is my understanding that a condition of VOIPCHEAP service is that
> they can make use of the subscriber's DSL bandwidth for routing their
> other traffic. I am unclear about how this works and its impact on my
> use of the DSL connection for non-VOIP purposes. Here are some of the
> questions I have:
[Questions snipped]
Answering questions based on what may be a false premise doesn't lead
to fruitful discussion. Is this voipcheap.co.uk and/or voipcheap.com you
have in mind? Perhaps you would like to expand on how you arrived at
your understanding. A URL or two would be helpful.
Brian.
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On Dec 7, 8:07 pm, "Stan" <SPAM_FOI...@some.domain> wrote:
> It is my understanding that a condition of VOIPCHEAP service is that
> they can make use of the subscriber's DSL bandwidth for routing their
> other traffic.
That sounds like Skype to me, SIP services have no need of such
activity.
Phil
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| News Reader 2006-12-07, 7:11 pm |
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"Stan" <SPAM_FOILER@some.domain> wrote in message
news:uViCr8LlbtmJ-pn2-T9QOXfqPjjkt@poblano...
> It is my understanding that a condition of VOIPCHEAP service is that
> they can make use of the subscriber's DSL bandwidth for routing their
> other traffic. I am unclear about how this works and its impact on my
> use of the DSL connection for non-VOIP purposes. Here are some of the
> questions I have:
>
> How much of this freeloading on one's bandwidth do they do?
>
> Does this happen only with PC-to-Phone use, or also in the case of SIP
> calls? (I have a PAP2T ATA and can program it.)
>
> How much degradation of DSL performance is it likely to cause?
>
> I assume it takes place at all times, whether or not I am using their
> service at that moment; is this correct?
>
> Is this not a security risk (intrusion, viruses, etc.)?
>
Hi,
Skype uses this peer-to-peer method and bandwidth sharing. SIP and all the
other VoIP services I know do not do anything like this at all or of any
sort.
I.e. Voipcheap nor any of the other Betamax or any other SIP (certainly) and
other VoIP (generally) services do not do any such bandwidth sharing / use.
> In general, is VOIPCHEAP a reliable way to make and receive calls? Is
> quality good?
>
In my experience VoipCheap by all accounts is ridiculously reliable for
making and receiving calls. All credit to them.
The only (or some of the primary) weakness areas seem to be:
- customer services (or any communication to them what so ever) - zero
to none
- charging (can change prices / free destinations / terms of credit
etc) - very low predictability / stability (and little or no recourse or
come back - even where the law has been broken! ;) )
Best wishes,
News Reader
P.s. Please do not read this as a recommendation of VoipCheap or other
Betamax services - I would argue that they are probably only suitable to
certain types of users / customers (i.e. those that are more early adopters
/ risk takers - etc.). I.e. use a sand trap approach in my opinion.
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| Graham 2006-12-08, 7:11 am |
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> It is my understanding that a condition of VOIPCHEAP service is that
> they can make use of the subscriber's DSL bandwidth for routing their
> other traffic. I am unclear about how this works and its impact on my
> use of the DSL connection for non-VOIP purposes. Here are some of the
> questions I have:
>
> How much of this freeloading on one's bandwidth do they do?
>
> Does this happen only with PC-to-Phone use, or also in the case of SIP
> calls? (I have a PAP2T ATA and can program it.)
>
> How much degradation of DSL performance is it likely to cause?
>
> I assume it takes place at all times, whether or not I am using their
> service at that moment; is this correct?
>
> Is this not a security risk (intrusion, viruses, etc.)?
>
> In general, is VOIPCHEAP a reliable way to make and receive calls? Is
> quality good?
As a user of VoIPCheap.com for outgoing calls and VoIPCheap.co.uk
for incoming calls. Unfortunately, unless you were an early adopter, you
can no longer get a geographic incoming number from either site.
I have no knowledge of such freeloading. Even
of it was occurring, it would only affect people using their softphone IMHO.
As you and I are using are own hardware I shouldn't worry.
--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%
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| On Thu, 7 Dec 2006 21:54:46 UTC, Brian <bandj@o2.co.uk> opined:
> On 2006-12-07, Stan <SPAM_FOILER@some.domain> wrote:
>
>
> [Questions snipped]
>
> Answering questions based on what may be a false premise doesn't lead
> to fruitful discussion. Is this voipcheap.co.uk and/or voipcheap.com you
> have in mind? Perhaps you would like to expand on how you arrived at
> your understanding. A URL or two would be helpful.
>
> Brian.
You are right; VOIPcheap doesn't do that, and that was my
misunderstanding. That came about from my careless reading of their
terms of service (Par. 4), which states only the obvious, namely that
they will use my bandwidth to connect ME to others. The only
explanation I have for this sloppiness is that I had been primed by
reading previously Skype's terms of service, which indicated that they
could use my bandwidth for virtually anything (and that was one of the
things that turned me off about Skype); when I saw "use your
bandwidth...", I stopped reading -- no excuse. Mea Culpa.
The (true) premise of my question was that "it [was] my
understanding...". It did indeed lead to a fruitful discussion,
because the replies, including yours, led me to return to the terms of
service, and to reread what they REALLY said.
Thanks for your response as well as the others.
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