Internet Phone Survival Tips

Steve Bass

Want to get in touch with me? Send e-mail. But if you want to chew the fat, or maybe gossip about the dork your company just hired, you've got to call me. (Don't, please--this was just a dramatization.)

See, I'm cloistered in a home office and I'm a perennial cheapskate, so I've been playing with Internet ("Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?") phones. My take: Internet phones are coming along nicely. They're either free or cheap, and if you know what you're doing they can even work as advertised.

To get up to speed on the technology, zip over to "Net Phones: Dialing Without Dollars." It's a definitive article on Internet phones that I wrote recently.

Everyone at PC World has an opinion about Internet phones (as well as everything else, and they rarely hesitate to tell me). Editor/Reporter Cameron Crouch isn't wild about Internet phones: See "Calling All PCs." And Senior Reporter Tom Spring thinks there's a better way; see what he says in "Net2Phone Gets You Yapping Online."

The Big 'But,' and Tips

Okay, now the caveat. If you're going to make Internet telephony work right, you need to do five things:

1. Impress your friends. Call it VOIP, the official geekspeak acronym for Voice Over Internet Protocol.

2. Don't scrimp--buy a decent headset with a built-in microphone. Don't bother using your PC's speakers and the Mickey Mouse microphone that came with your sound card; you won't be happy. (Don't argue. Headsets block outside noise, making it easier to hear. And the microphone's nearer your mouth, which helps it focus on your voice and not the dog barking in the background.) Read "A Headset for the PC Audiophile" for details.

3. Get a fast, high-speed Internet connection. If you're using a 56-kilobits-per-second dial-up connection and it works for you, cool, but I can't deal with the inherent delays and crummy voice quality. To improve your experience, get wired and read "Warp Speed Web Access: Cable vs. DSL vs. Everything Else" for fast relief.

Dig this: An example of what it's like to switch from a 56-kbps dial-up to a broadband connection.

4. Have patience. Call your buddy over a land-line while making the first few VOIP connections. That way you can work out the details--say, changing volume and speaker settings--and really hear each other.

5. If the interface drives you nuts, or if the sound quality is poor, try another service. Quality may vary depending on where the company's server is located. If it's at the opposite end of the country, your service might be awful.

The important thing? If you're hot to try an Internet phone, don't give up. Because when VOIP works, it's a cool way to talk to a buddy across the country, absolutely free.

Dig this: Didn't get that terrific headset you ordered in time for the holidays? Here's why.

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