Argos are currently doing an Acer N50 "Pocket PC" PDA for £199.99. Built-in
bluetooth and 802.11b so I thought it was worth shelling out to experiment
with mobile VOIP. Installed Skype and it seems to work fine, then installed
"SJphone" (free SIP and H.323 client) and that works a treat as well. Only
tried using my home wireless access so far but I'll give it a proper workout
from a hotel I'm in next week. My vodafone bill is going to love this.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 10:53:09 GMT, "Joe Harrison"
<newscontrol@crylo.com> wrote:

>Argos are currently doing an Acer N50 "Pocket PC" PDA for £199.99. Built-in
>bluetooth and 802.11b so I thought it was worth shelling out to experiment
>with mobile VOIP. Installed Skype and it seems to work fine, then installed
>"SJphone" (free SIP and H.323 client) and that works a treat as well. Only
>tried using my home wireless access so far but I'll give it a proper workou
t
>from a hotel I'm in next week. My vodafone bill is going to love this.

Yes, please let us know how you get on in a real-world mobile
situation rather than at home.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

"Mark" <markincambs@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
 news:slphs15jbjugff7mbev57n3e8pi4po2d3g@
4ax.com...
> On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 10:53:09 GMT, "Joe Harrison"
> <newscontrol@crylo.com> wrote:
> 
Built-in[vbcol=seagreen] 
experiment[vbcol=seagreen] 
installed[vbcol=seagreen] 
Only[vbcol=seagreen] 
workout[vbcol=seagreen] 
>
> Yes, please let us know how you get on in a real-world mobile
> situation rather than at home.
>

I've been at a conference in a mainland Europe hotel. There was wireless
access available so tried out a few voice calls using the PDA and softphone.
The wireless access was actually pretty crappy - the hotel obviously sees it
as a profit centre so was heavily guarded with passwords and so on. (I hate
that, they wouldn't charge you extra for electricity so why for internet
access.) More importantly I found it rather slow when used for browsing etc.
so was not expecting much from VOIP attempts. ISP providing service was
http://www.ibahn.com

The good news is that the pocket-PC version of Skype worked brilliantly. I
"Skyped-Out" to the PSTN and people I talked to didn't really notice
anything unusual about the voice quality. When I specifically asked them
they said oh yes it is a bit crackly, but overall - usable. I don't have
"Skype-In" incoming number so not tried but presumably same.

The bad news, SJphone with SIP was hopeless. Bad echo and jittery sound, no
way could sustain a normal conversation. I used all the SJphone defaults
including the free pre-configured account somewhere and I was dialing a
Sipgate number. Works alright at home so I have to assume it needs a minimum
amount of bandwidth that it wasn't getting. Too wary to reconfigure SJphone
with a real Sipgate account as I don't know how secure that is (password
presumably sent in clear over hotel wireless.)

Functionality is basically there though and with more work and a better
connection could just possibly replace my GSM or at least take a big chunk
out of its roaming bill.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Joe Harrison wrote:

> Functionality is basically there though and with more work and a better
> connection could just possibly replace my GSM or at least take a big chunk
> out of its roaming bill.

How cruel and heartless of you. How on earth are the poor little mobile
telcos going to pay for their 3G licenses if people keep doing things like
this to them?

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (gebssnfxl@ubgznvy.pbz)
21:13:31 up 4 days,  1:28,  2 users,  load average: 0.61, 0.67, 0.72
This is my BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMSTICK

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Joe Harrison wrote:
> "Mark" <markincambs@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
>  news:slphs15jbjugff7mbev57n3e8pi4po2d3g@
4ax.com...
> 
>
> Built-in
> 
>
> experiment
> 
>
> installed
> 
>
> Only
> 
>
> workout
> 
>
>
> I've been at a conference in a mainland Europe hotel. There was wireless
> access available so tried out a few voice calls using the PDA and softphon
e.
> The wireless access was actually pretty crappy - the hotel obviously sees 
it
> as a profit centre so was heavily guarded with passwords and so on. (I hat
e
> that, they wouldn't charge you extra for electricity so why for internet
> access.) More importantly I found it rather slow when used for browsing et
c.
> so was not expecting much from VOIP attempts. ISP providing service was
> http://www.ibahn.com
>
> The good news is that the pocket-PC version of Skype worked brilliantly. I
> "Skyped-Out" to the PSTN and people I talked to didn't really notice
> anything unusual about the voice quality. When I specifically asked them
> they said oh yes it is a bit crackly, but overall - usable. I don't have
> "Skype-In" incoming number so not tried but presumably same.
>
> The bad news, SJphone with SIP was hopeless. Bad echo and jittery sound, n
o
> way could sustain a normal conversation. I used all the SJphone defaults
> including the free pre-configured account somewhere and I was dialing a
> Sipgate number. Works alright at home so I have to assume it needs a minim
um
> amount of bandwidth that it wasn't getting. Too wary to reconfigure SJphon
e
> with a real Sipgate account as I don't know how secure that is (password
> presumably sent in clear over hotel wireless.)
>
> Functionality is basically there though and with more work and a better
> connection could just possibly replace my GSM or at least take a big chunk
> out of its roaming bill.
>
>
>
Good to hear that it worked.  Although I guess you couldn't have used a
proper wifi phone since you'd need a built in web browser to get past
the password login screen(s).  Such a phone should be available soon
however.

Your problems with SJPhone just sound like a codec issue.  I guess the
software was set to use G.711 which really needs 100K in either
direction to work.  Switching to something like G.729 (if SJPhone
supports it?) should have solved that.  Passwords wouldn't have been a
problem, SIP uses MD5 encryption for passwords these days.  You
shouldn't have to rely on a secure network to protect your password.

I guess eventually hotels (and lots of other places) will start charging
for QoS rather than bandwidth.

Paul.

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