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THE INTERNET PHONE CONNECTION 

 by Cheryl Kirk 

 Published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill

 Would you believe -- LONG DISTANCE CALLS FREE --

 Yes, you can make long distance calls free - over the Internet - with caveats.  Compared to the conventional telephone, Internet Telephony is more difficult to install, requires more effort and  expertise to use, provides lesser voice quality, needs more  maintenance and is not universally available by the people you want to talk to.  Despite these disadvantages, there is increasing popularity for Internet Telephony, IT, because there is no cost for using it and for features not available on the phone such as video, video conferencing, dual-active whiteboards and facilitated file transfers.  If you are interested in the potential of IT, this book will be very informative and helpful. 

Examples of potential uses for IT, sometimes termed Voice Over Network or VON, include: having long conversations from home with parents in Florida; making calls to an someone overseas; using video during conversations; holding multi-site conferences including video-conferences with interactive discussion boards; or even finding and talking to new friends all over the world.  All without charges. 

Be aware of the differences from the conventional telephone system, which are presented in this book.  With IT: 

1^st - Both parties need to have computers, with modem, unlimited internet account, a compatible sound card, microphone and speakers and IT software.  Higher speed and capacity of the equipment are preferred for better performance. 

2^nd - Both parties must arrange ahead of time to be online concurrently, connected to the internet and have the same or compatible IT software running.  This is often planned via e-mail.  There are some ways around this, but specific person-to-person communication typically requires such pre-arrangement, and it is never as simple as calling someone and waiting for them to answer their ringing phone. 

3^rd - Voice quality is less than with the telephone.  Current IT programs allow for full-duplex communication (two people talking) instead of the previous half-duplex (one person at a time  ….over to you…), so that problem is resolved.  However, with IT the conversation is converted to/from digital data packets and subjected to various compression and decompression techniques.  This reduces the voice quality.  Also, parts of conversations can be lost.  While the telephone establishes a direct connection, IT uses the internet which handles the conversation as sequenced data packets, each packet routed differently between the users and reassembled by the receiver. 

If an interest in FREE LONG DISTANCE CALLS overrides these drawbacks then read this book.  It provides a good discussion of  Internet phone technology and includes detailed comparisons of various programs and accessory products. The comments on whether a program worked the first time and the resulting voice quality are especially useful. It explains the technology involved, which aids installation and configuring  of the IT programs.  It clearly explains what hardware and software you'll need to start placing online calls and then how to make the calls. There are a variety of peripherals available for IT and many are discussed.  Also included is a 57 MB CD which contains functional  versions for many Internet phone programs and an extensive HELP file.  Microsoft’s NetMeeting is included, Netscape Conference is not.  The CD includes programs primarily for the PC  Mac users are also addressed. The PC software is for use under Win95 and WinNT, with some for Windows. 

Internet Telephony is a fast-developing field and any book written in 1996 and published in 1997, as well as the included programs, is expected to become outdated.  Therefore, this book includes web site addresses where updates can be downloaded, allowing a user to continue being up-to-date on the applications.  However, the essentials presented in this book are still relevant.

This book is for those who have never tried Internet Telephony before, as well as for those who have and  were disappointed or are satisfied but would like to use the additional features.  The book can guide the beginner and make the experienced user more effective.