VOIP – Dovid's Blog

December 23, 2015Dovid Bender No Comments

Why you wont hear jitter when listening to a call from a PCAP

An employee was noted that our monitoring system must be broken since it said there was jitter on the call yet if we extract the audio from the RTP packets the call sounds normal. I wrote up a small summary which I thought would help others so here it is.

If the packets are out of order when playing them back, since we have all of them (if there is no packet loss) then it will play it in the right order. If I send the word HELLO one letter at a time in 5 separate packets, so long as the letters are numbered you will be able to re-assemble them in the right order. For instance if you get the packets in this order:

December 26, 2008Dovid Bender No Comments

It’s all about service

I was at a client today that wanted to know how to make money in the very competitive market of VoIP. He mentioned that it is hard to make money on minutes since there is a lot of fierce competition. I explained to him as I have explained to others that clients that are coming to you for the price per minute (generally speaking) are not worth it. If they get a rate of $0.015 per minute to the US from you today and some one else tomorrow will offer them $0.013 they will leave in a moment. It’s all about service. There are plenty of clients out there that are willing to pay for service. People don’t just need low rates but the need features (IVR’s, Call recording, Queues, real time statistics etc.). I tend to work with such people since they are willing to pay for the serivce and they wont nickle and dime you for everything. Know what your worth and sell yoru self accordingly. Never undermarket yourself.

July 4, 2008Dovid Bender No Comments

Rant: We are people not crab

I can’t understand how ISP’s are getting away with offering us the same features as they did yesterday and charge us more. My current ISP worked great for VOIP and recently started getting real bad. I called them up and explained my issue’s and they told me I would need the “gamers package” which was optimized for gamers who need a fast steady connection. A month ago it was working fine and now I must pay for “good internet”. I don’t get it. Treating your customers like S*** and expecting them to more to keep up the same level over service does not work out there. What did I do ? I simply switched ISP’s. So far things are working well. It’s a matter of time before my new ISP starts creating issues and I will be forced to move on or pay a premium price for the same lever of service I was receiving a short while earlier. Oh well it seems they are treating us like crab. They boil us down slowly so we don’t see it coming until it’s too late.

July 4, 2008Dovid Bender No Comments

Thank you Mark Spencer

There are a lot of us out there that owe a big thanks to Mark Spencer (creator of Asterisk). Until Asterisk was released pretty much the only PBX’s out there that were legacy systems. Mark came along and opened a whole new market for both sellers and buyers. From a sellers point there are a lot more out there to offer and it is very easy to configure and maintain Asterisk (assuming that you know Asterisk 😉 ). All one needs is a good knowledge of Linux and you are off. From the end user’s point it is great as well. Gone are the days of paying $3,000.00 to have your system work with SIP. I had a client who told me that his system was “SIP Enabled”. We were trying to figure out how to connect to the system since there was nothing in there that pointed to SIP. He called his phone guy and was told to have SIP capabilities he would need to purchase a VOIP card for his PBX that would run him $3,000.00. With asterisk it’s just writing a few lines of code (OK some times more than a few). Gone are the days of paying extra for every feature. A while back I was in a company who purchased a PBX from 3Com. They went with them for the name. They spent a little over $45,0000.00. I could of done the same for them for about $2,500.00 (using good hardware). All that would have been required was some research on working with Asterisk. It amazes me that some people are still scared to use it because it is open source.

To sum it up I think many of us owe our jobs to Mark. He has done something great for many of us.

July 4, 2008Dovid Bender No Comments

Some customers are just not worth it

There is a golden rule in life that I go by “You get what you pay for”. I have potential clients that come to me and want to know why my rates are cheaper than the “other guy”. They want my quality service and the next guys rates. It just does not work. Some one came to us recently. He complained about our rates. When we asked him why he was moving over to us he responded “well my current carrier is down some times for hours”. PEOPLE YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR !!!! If you want quality service you are going to pay for it. Teliax for instance charges 2 cents a minute to the US. Some consider this a bit high, however they have great customer service. If there is an issue generally they are great at solving it.

I had a client who wanted to host his Asterisk server from his home off his cable line to save money. I explained him that it was not worth it and that a server in a data center would be worth his while. He went with hosting it in his home. Two months later I get a call at 1:00 AM from him begging me to switch him over to a server in a Data center. He was on a conference call and the quality was horrible. He lost a deal worth all over $30,000. Was it worth it for him to go cheap on the $200.00 a month hosting ?

Remember – Y.G.W.Y.P.F (You Get What You Pay For).

July 4, 2008Dovid Bender No Comments

VOIP is great

I think VOIP is amazing. While I still don’t believe that VOIP is at PSTN quality it is slowly getting there. I have a friend who is thinking of moving out of the US but still needs a US presence. He called me the other night and asked me if it was possible. I explained him that with a few SNOM phones he can have his US number ring any where in the world. Should he decide to move he can work from where ever he wants with out almost any interruption. I don’t know why more business’s aren’t implementing it.

My first system that I set up was for a car parts dealer who had a satellite office in Germany. He was delighted to hear that he could send a phone to Germany and have it act as a local extension. Once most people see the capabilities of VOIP and try it out they never want to go back.

December 18, 2007Dovid Bender No Comments

Some people don’t get it

As I was in the smoking lounge at Tel Aviv airport the other day I started talking with another traveler. He seemed to be pretty business savvy and new a bit. He asked me what I do for a living and I explained him that I consult for an ITSP (Internet Telephone Service Provider). His response was “I thought Skype had that covered”. It amazes me that some people do not even know what is out there. People here VOIP and they think Skype or Vonage. It is a shame that people do not know what else is out there. Just Google VOIP reseller or VOIP provider and the list is endless. Some people just need to learn…..

October 16, 2007Dovid Bender No Comments

Power over Pots

EnGadget recently had an article on getting power from your POTS line. While this is real cool I have the same question as EnGadget, Who is still using POTS ? In my home I have a SNOM 360 and SPA-841 for my calls. I can make a total of 14 concurrent calls. I think the only need for a POTS line is to have DSL come in for your home as well as emergency power when the power lines go out. Click here to see the article on EnGadget.

October 15, 2007Dovid Bender No Comments

VON Israel 2007

Where do I start ? There were so many interesting things this year at VON. From a new wireless phone by SNOM that works on DECT technology to seeing Motorola’s new Canopy Wireless. To some it up I was like a little kid in a candy shop. I also had the pleasure of speaking to the CEO and founder of SNOM Dr. Christian Stredicke. It looks like SNOM is headed in the right direction. There were many lectures held but I was too busy looking at all the toys I would buy if I had an unlimited budget. Here are a few things that stood out.

1) The HD phones from Polycom. I can now finally say that VOIP quality is better than PSTN. The Polycom 650 is definitely on my shopping list.

2) SNOM’s new wireless phone. While I am sad that it does not work on Wifi (I like the option of using it as I am on the go). However it seems that DECT technology has made a name for its self and I will have to get my hands on one once SNOM releases the phone.

3) HTC’s X7500. It’s a cute little toy that can actually help me out a lot. If for instance I need to ssh in to a server of mine it is a lot easier pulling out my laptop on the road or trying to read the tiny font in Putty on my PDA phone.

4) Motorola’s Canopy wireless technology. I like the idea of wireless technology that can go up to 2 kilometers and have constant speeds of 20 mbps. The best part is no license is needed to operate it.

5) Motorola’s power over AC technology. While the technology has existed for a while Motorola has seemed to do a great job with it. They have perfected it so that it can work in a large building environment with little to no issues (current technology limits how far the devices can be from each other).

There were lots of other things presented at VON but these were the ones that stood out most. Anyone out there want to help me with my shopping habit (aka toy addiction) ?