"cleaning clean" wrote in
ups.com:

http://voip-at-home.atspace.com/voip-howto.html

Page not found....that's easy. They went out of business already or the
cops showed up to arrest everyone and took the server with them for
evidence...(c;

How is voip possible? That's easy, too. A program inside your computer
hooks to a server that has both all the names of other people running the
same program and it has a telephone interconnect in strategic locations
across the planet so the server can interconnect with old telephone
lines.

The program you run calls the server and logs itself on, putting you on
the "online" list the server keeps. Your "friends" all get notified by
the server you are online with an icon change on their client programs.
When they call you, the server merely tells them what IP you are using
and what port your program is listening to. Their client directly calls
your client across the internet like any other program. The server only
provides IP and port data. Their program calling you tells your program
what IP and port to respond to. The link is made, ready for DATA
interchange.

Your sound card converts audio into wav data and vice versa. The VoIP
program has a compression algorithm module that compresses and
uncompresses wav data into much smaller data streams, like low resolution
MP3 for instance, and sends/receives that compressed data to the other
program. With a slight delay, now measured in milliseconds on broadband,
the two of you can talk in near realtime, not noticing the tiny delays.
Hooking a video cam up to the program makes it work much harder, using
much more bandwidth across the net, for nearly full motion, low
resolution color video on both ends.

To call into the POTS telephone system, the server tells your program
what the appropriate interface server's IP and port number is. Your
program calls it, directly, and sends it the phone number you want. That
server times your call and bills the main server company, which is
probably another company all together, for the usage. They mark it up
and bill you at a tidy profit for doing nearly nothing.

To call YOU, a POTS server near you reserves a telephone number for you
for a small fee per month. When someone calls that number, the POTS
server looks to see if your program is online. If it is, the server
calls your program and the program rings you. When you answer the
interface is the same as program to program calls, except you're
connected to the POTS server which does the data-audio-data conversion
for the idiot on the phone still paying through the nose for telephone
service. Your program MUST be online 24/7 for 24/7 call ins. If you're
not online, the POTS server tells your caller you are unavailable, making
a peaceful dinner with friends without the spammers calling you possible,
which is very nice.

Just go to www.skype.com and download the client program. Install it
like any other Windoze program and let it have at your computer. If you
have a router, you must open up a PORT in the router so the router
listens to that port and passes it onto the computer that has Skype
running on it. Skype uses random ports so the kiddies don't scan one
port across the network to attack it. My laptop uses a different port
than my mainframe, but I have them setup to use the same username so I
can get my home computer calls wherever I have a wifi connection to the
notebook I want. As free wifi spreads across the country, and it is,
Skype wifi phones may replace your cellphone ripoff artist. Won't that
be just wonderful?...(c;

I never bought a Skype call in number. One cellphone number is quite
enough disturbance to my life. Anyone can call me on Skype, if it's
running. If you let your Skype be public and put your interests into
your profile shared by the other 3.6 million Skype users online at this
moment, they can search for your interests, like ham radio, or sailboats
to find you. I have ham radio friends across the planet on Skype. Great
fun in full color video....

Oh, I see Skype has opened their servers across the US and Canada. Until
the end of the year, many months away, you can call ANY telephone in the
USA and Canada FOR FREE! Boy, they are determined to put the others out
of business. It's like everyone has an 800 number....(c;