VoIP

VoIP Buster So far the best!

Camaleonte — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 15:58:00 GMT

VoipBuster

Forget about all the other VoIP online (not the sip yet!!)

A friend of mine set me a link once. He said:"check this out, look better than Skype or Jajah... After having seen many online voip, I was a bit sceptic of the beauty of an other voip program.

2 days later I do look at it.
I got really surprised!!!

This VoipBuster, busted Skype and Jajah at once!

It put together the best of both and uses lower rates in all ways!!

Here is a brief description:

Go to the http://www.voipbuster.com/ and download the application. Its small and fast.
Once installed it, you have a quick and neat registration to make.

As soon as you did it, you get a nice confirmation messagge and you are up and running.

At this moment already, you are able to test the system.
You are able to call for free MANY countries in Europe and elsewere.
Only 5 minutes!!!

However, when you put a credit on it (I am trying with 10 Euro) you get 300 minutes a month of free calls to landlines (see the free countries available for the offer, US is free on mobile as well) for a period of 120 days (so I understood).

This makes 5 hours a month!! Should be enough!!

After the time is up, you still can use your credits to call at a lower rates than Skype does.

If you than add more credits, you re-gain the free calls capability.

All I wrote above is true using an application on your computer.
HOWEVER, they also have a service called Direct Call that will call your own home phone and connect you to your destination phone. And this for Euro 0.05 connection fee only!! than you call for free (as long as the country is in the free call list!!)

AND... they also have an access number that you can use via your mobile phone!
You call a local number at local rates, than you enter the desired phone number (internetional) and than VoipBuster connects you to your party!

And it cost the normal VoipBuster rates!!

So, I am glad to say that Skype has a good competitor!!

Here are the NORMAL rates from the Netherlands and in Euro. NOT THE FREE CALL. (check the links above for the free countries)

Destination	EUR/min	Incl.
Destination	EUR/min	VAT
andorra (Landline)	0.01	0.012
australia (Landline)	0.01	0.012
austria (Landline)	0.01	0.012
belgium (Landline)	0.01	0.012
canada (Landline & Mobile)	0.01	0.012
chile (Landline)	0.01	0.012
cyprus (Landline)	0.01	0.012
czech republic (Landline)	0.01	0.012
denmark (Landline)	0.01	0.012
estonia (Landline)	0.01	0.012
finland (Landline)	0.01	0.012
france (Landline)	0.01	0.012
guam (Landline & Mobile)	0.01	0.012
hong kong (Landline & Mobile)	0.01	0.012
hungary (Landline)	0.01	0.012
iceland (Landline)	0.01	0.012
ireland (Landline)	0.01	0.012
israel (Landline)	0.01	0.012
italy (Landline)	0.01	0.012
japan (Landline)	0.01	0.012
liechtenstein (Landline)	0.01	0.012
luxembourg (Landline)	0.01	0.012
malaysia (Landline)	0.01	0.012
monaco (Landline)	0.01	0.012
netherlands (Landline)	0.01	0.012
new zealand (Landline)	0.01	0.012
norway (Landline)	0.01	0.012
panama (Landline)	0.01	0.012
portugal (Landline)	0.01	0.012
puerto rico (Landline & Mobile)	0.01	0.012
singapore (Landline)	0.01	0.012
south korea (Landline)	0.01	0.012
spain (Landline)	0.01	0.012
switzerland (Landline)	0.01	0.012
taiwan (Landline)	0.01	0.012
united states (Landline & Mobile)	0.01	0.012
Rates are char

An other VoIP via the web! Jajah!!!

Camaleonte — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 16:19:00 GMT

Since Skype has taken over the cyber world, many more VoIP sort of services have come out.
Among them, I found one that seems quite interesting.
The name is JaJAH.

After a very quick and simple registration, you have 5 minutes free to test. You simly have to tell them your home phone number and and thats it.
The difference is that you can Iniciate a call by choosing your recipient number while being on their pages, than your home phone will call you.
You will hear a voice saying that Jajah is connectiong you.
Than you hear the normal ringing tone and the other party will answer.

The majos benefit I see on it, it is that you will be using your own home phone to call over the internet.
Its true that today, you can do similar things using many different type of VoIP providers, but this one will not request you millions of info...
Once you like it, you pay an amount (I am testing with 10 euro) and you start calling.

the rates are a little bit more expensive than Skype but, since I am using my home phone, its acceptable. Most of the skype rates are about 2 euro cents per minute when jajah is variate and so far below the 2.9 euro cents.

On top of that, for those with a phone where you can install applications (Symbian, Pocket PC...) Jajah provides you with an application that will be idle on your phone.
When ever you call a number that does not have the country code as the one you are from, it will take over your calling and use the Jajah system.
If you do not have a phone that is WiFi, than it will start a GPRS connection and than call over the internet.

Naturally, you will have to add the costs of a Mobile to Landline or mobile to mobile, to the cost of your GPRS connection.

As a conclusion, I find this last part the most interesting part!
When you are in an other country, calling with your mobile becoimes expensive due to roaming issues.
When using Jajah, it will be cheaper to call!

In your own country... well... today there are operators that let you call for a lot less money than Jajah or Skype. But when you are on the move, it is probably the most practical and cheaper wahy to call.

References:

JAJAH site http://www.jajah.com/
JAJAH Rates http://www.jajah.com/info/rates/
JAJAH Tools and addons http://www.jajah.com/info/tools/

XS4ALL VoIP OUT (www.xs4all.nl)

Camaleonte — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:29:00 GMT

Hi,
This is more like a request of help than a news for you!

XS4ALL has recently released the news of the xs4all VoIP out!!
I personally think its a great news.

However, I am confused about the costs for a xs4all voip out!!
I dont read dutch well enough and so I ask your help.

The following is the xs4all tarif:

Binnenlandse tarieven
XS4ALL VoIP telefoonnummers	gratis
Voicemailbox	gratis
Nederlandse 0800-nummers	gratis
Vaste nummers binnen Nederland	2,0 cent / minuut
Mobiele nummers binnen Nederland	18,5 cent / minuut
0900/servicenummers	niet mogelijk
Bovenstaande tarieven gelden ook als u vanaf uw VoIP account in het buitenland belt.
(see http://www.xs4all.nl/allediensten/voip/gesprekskosten.php)

Bovenstaande tarieven gelden ook als u vanaf uw VoIP account in het buitenland belt.
(see http://www.xs4all.nl/allediensten/voip/gesprekskosten.php)

I am trying to compare it with those from KPN...
KPN Tarif

And I cannot understand it!!

Than I check the Skype one:
SkypeOut Global Rate:
€ 0.017 per minute.

KPN speaks about Starttarief... xs4all mention no starttarief but you pay the first minute (I guess as soon as
you start the communication) and than you pay per second. (and that is very good)

Well... this is 0.003333 (infinite) per second.
Certainly interesting the 'pay per second'...

Please.. Any one can help me to understand the most interesting price between xs4all, KPN and Skype?

Skype ... interesting article...

Camaleonte — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 20:31:00 GMT

I keep a close look on Skype those days.
I have to! After all is my systems that ar at potential risk!
Some of you will think its a bit too much to say "at risk", and maybe you right!
But if you are in IT, you know that this is important... before even you know it, you realize you should have pay attention! So I read this article:

Does Skype Face Security Threat?

Analysts say connection-sharing trait of voice over IP services leave them vulnerable.
Jaikumar Vijayan, Computerworld
Friday, October 28, 2005
The growing popularity of Skype Technologies' free Internet telephony software could soon pose the same kind of security challenges for companies that other peer-to-peer software technologies have created in recent years, according to security experts.
The warning comes after the disclosure this week of two critical flaws in Skype's software, one of which could allow malicious hackers to take complete control of compromised systems.
One of the flaws is a buffer overflow error in Skype's user client for Windows that could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on compromised systems, according to a statement from the company. The other vulnerability is a heap overflow flaw in a networking routine affecting Skype clients for all platforms. That flaw could crash the client software.
Fixes for both problems have been released.
Popular Service
Skype, which was recently acquired by EBay for $2.6 billion, offers downloadable software that allows PC users to make free Internet telephone calls to each other and low-cost calls to telephone users.
So far, Skype has garnered more than 61 million registered users, approximately 30 percent of whom use it for business purposes, according to the company. Almost all of that adoption has been in Europe and Asia, though analysts expect Skype to eventually gain wide accepted in the U.S. as well.
According to analyst firm Gartner, EBay's purchase of Skype could result in a product more suited for corporate use.
In the meantime, business users should refrain from using "voice services based on proprietary protocols like Skype while on corporate networks because of network security issues," Gartner said in a September 15 advisory.
There are several reasons for the concern, industry experts said.
"Skype is VoIP on steroids," capable of punching holes through many of the network defenses that companies typically deploy, said Tom Newton, product manager at SmoothWall, a Leeds, England-based vendor of firewalls and other security products.
Security Risks
Like other P2P technologies, Skype allows users to establish direct connections with each other. It's also "port agile," meaning that if a firewall port is blocked Skype will look around for other open ports that it can use to establish a connection, Newton said.
"If you put Skype behind a firewall or Network Address Translation layer, 99 times out of 100 it will work" without any special configuration, he said.
As a result, Skype could provide a backdoor entry into otherwise secure networks for Trojans, worms, and viruses, Newton said. It could also provide a channel for corporate data to be freely shared between users without any of the usual security considerations.
Also, like other P2P applications such as Kaazaa, the connection-sharing permitted by Skype makes the the host computer and the network available to others as well, said Robin Bloor, an analyst at Hurwitz & Associates.
As a result, "Skype can use a lot of network bandwidth, which may interfere with business applications and services," said Andrea Wuchner-Bruhl, head of global IT security at Novartis Pharma in Basel, Switzerland.
The fact that Skype uses a proprietary protocol instead of a standard one such as the Session Initiation Protocol also makes it an "unknown from the point of view of the vulnerabilities that might be there," said John Pescatore, a Gartner analyst.
"Every nonstandard application can add unnecessary risks to your environment," Wuchner-Bruhl said. "In the end no one really knows what all is built into such an application."
Corporate Challenge
So far at least, there have been no major attacks directed against Skype. But its growing popularity and installed base will inevitably make it a hacker target, analysts said.
Companies will need to keep a close eye on both the sanctioned and the unsanctioned use of Skype on their networks, Pescatore said.
IT administrators may also need to impose measures such as denying local administration rights on the desktop, content control, and management at the network gateways. They may also need to lay out clear policies and procedures for users, Wuchner-Bruhl said.
In the end, the use of Skype needs to be resolved in the same way companies have gone about addressing other P2P applications, including instant messaging, Bloor said. "But you are probably going to have something bad happen to someone first," he said.

From:

Skype uses USER computer???

Camaleonte — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 00:07:00 GMT

I am a bit sad of an articcle I read just today!
I turned out that I found a series of article they all mention the same: Skype uses users to rout calls!
Check those articles... here a couple of example.. the rest you find them by a simple Google search:
Skype uses your computer to route calls?
Can Skype be a good corp. citizen?
After I read that, I than start to check my own connections!
I set a specific port.. lets called it port sky1 (just a name to identify it)
I opened one of my packet sniffer to find out what happen when I call someone.
I creadted a filter based on the port sky1 to filter out only the packets I needed!
And Bang... in a split second I noticed a large number of IPs showing up related to the port sky1!!!
check the few IP I got out of the 10s in my sniffing
I am a bit worried about that.
What does this means!
My Task manager (now that Skype is in standby) Skype uses 11,348K That is the 7th position in my processes!!! mmmm....