VOIP (Voice Over IP Phone Service)

You know the cost savings of voice over IP phone service, but only about 16% of small to midsize businesses have made the switch to VoIP, according to a survey by technology consultancy Savatar. Why? Because most Internet Phone services don’t offer communication packages designed for small businesses. Now that’s changing, with a variety of tiered services that can fit nearly any business model.

There are two basic types of VoIP service. The first is designed to replace your existing landline phone with VoIP. Such services are offered by traditional phone companies (AT&T’s CallVantage and Verizon’s VoiceWing), cable companies (Time Warner Cable’s digital phone and Comcast’s Digital Voice), and VoIP pioneers such as Vonage and Packet8.

Vonage is atthe forefront. Its $49.99 Small Business Unlimited Premium package includes unlimited local and long-distance calls anywhere in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, as well as dedicated fax line, unlimited call forwarding, and the ability to send all voice mail to an e-mail account. Additional lines cost around $12.99 for 500 minutes.

The second type of VoIP service is the free or nearly free services such as Yahoo Messenger with Voice, GoogleTalk, and Skype. These software applications let you place calls from a PC or connected handset to other users of the same serivice at no charge. Most also let you call out to regular phone numbers for just a couple cents per minute.

The leader in this category is Skype, which even allows you to purchase a regular phone numbers so that people with traditional phones can call you on your PC. Skype also offers free conference calls, file transfers during calls, call forwarding, and several for-pay features. Skype for Business includes free software that lets group administrators purchase Skype Credits and then track and distribute them to employees, who can use them for Skype premium services such as calls to regular phone numbers and voice mail.

VoIP isn’t a perfect solution. The issue of 911 service has yet to be satisfactorily resolved, calls are sometimes dropped, audio quality is occassionally inferior, and when the power goes out, so does the phone service. But according to the Savatar survey, 91% of SMB’s that have adopted VoIP would recommend or highly recommend it to others.

Question: Recently Yahoo updated Yahoo Messenger to verison 8.0.0.716. MyYahoo Module 8.0.0.1. I’m using Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0. For weeks now I’ve not been able to Login to Yahoo Messenger. Please help this is driving me crazy.

Answer. Firstly the bare basic system requirements are…

Microsoft Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, or Windows XP
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 or later
Pentium II 233 Mhz or better (500MHz recommended)
Minimum 64 M B RAM for Windows 98 and ME
Minimum 128 M B RAM for Windows 2000 and XP
Minimum 30 Mb disk space needed to install

Avatars need Macromedia Flash Player installedAvatars and Audibles require Macromedia Flash Player this must be installed via Microsoft Internet Explorer
Yahoo! Games requires Java to be enabled
spring open Internet Explorer
hit Tools
select Internet Options
select the Advanced tab
Scroll down to Java Sun category
put a check mark beside Use JRE 1.5..
click Apply
click Ok
restart when prompted

If you don’t have or need a Java update head to http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_automatic.jsp and follow the instructions carefully, this must be installed via Internet Explorer

Voice chat requires the basics and also..
voice chat needs a no proxy connection. A non-proxy connection to the Internet. A microphone, sound card, and speakers DSP Group TrueSpeech™ Audio Compression (CODEC) software Voice Chat firewall and proxy settings Protocol: UDP or TCP
Servers: v1.vc.scd.yahoo.com, v2.vc.scd.yahoo.com, v3.vc.scd.yahoo.com, v4.vc.scd.yahoo.com, v5.vc.scd.yahoo.com, v6.vc.scd.yahoo.com, v7.vc.scd.yahoo.com, v8.vc.scd.yahoo.com, v9.vc.scd.yahoo.com, v10.vc.scd.yahoo.com, v11.vc.scd.yahoo.com, v13.vc.sc5.yahoo.com, vc1.vip.scd.yahoo.com
Ports: 5000-5010

Calling, Webcam, and Yahoo! Music require:
Windows Media Player - 7 or above
test your WebCamand to use the WebCam feature you will need to have a Yahoo! Messenger compatible WebCam.
A non-proxy connection to the Internet to check this setting login to Yahoo! Messenger click Messenger select Preferences click on the Connection category make sure No proxies is selected hit OK, log out of Yahoo! Messenger, log back in.

Your firewall must be configured to grant outgoing TCP connections on port 5100
Protocol: TCP Server: webcam.yahoo.com Port: 5100
for Super WebCam to work both parties must have a broadband connection

To test your web cam, using Internet Explorer, head to http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/messenger/win/webcam/webcam-18.html, when prompted install the Yahoo! WebCam Upload Wrapper, it’s an ActiveX control so you need to grant permission first.

If Yahoo! Messenger crashes when you start your web cam then check out this article.

Yahoo’s PhoneOut feature may not be supported for Windows 98 usersPremium Yahoo! Voice services phone out requires Windows 2000 / ME / XP so Windows 98 users don’t be surprised if you can’t get this working properly
PC to PC calling requires Protocol: TCP Ports: 5061 or 443 or 80.
Voice Calls use
Ports: 5050-5070 to set up the call, Ports: 5000-65535 to pass the call media.

scripting must be enabled in Internet ExplorerScripting must be enabled via Internet Explorer (double check this if you can’t see the text in your incoming or outgoing IM’s)
Log out of Yahoo! Messenger and close, now spring open Internet Explorer.
hit Tools select Internet Options.
click on the Security Tab to select it.
Under Select a Zone to view or change security settings click on the Internet icon (world globe)
Under Security Level for this Zone click on Custom Level.
The Settings window will open, scroll down to the category Scripting
Enable
- Active scripting
- Allow paste operations via script
- Scripting of Java applets
click OK, click OK
Launch Yahoo! Messenger, now login again.

make sure Show Pictures has been enabledIf your smileys aren’t animated check…
log off Yahoo! Messenger and close
fire up Internet Explorer
click on Tools
select Internet Options
click the Advanced tab
under the Multimedia category
make sure Show Pictures has been selected
click Apply
click OK
restart Yahoo! Messenger
click on Messenger
select Preferences
under the Messages category
make sure Enable Emoticons is selected
click Apply
click OK

stop Yahoo! Messenger from launchingIf you want to stop Yahoo! Messenger from launching every time your computer boots…
launch and login to Yahoo! Messenger
select Preferences
in the General category
under the heading When I start up my computer
uncheck Automatically Start Yahoo! Messenger
click Apply
click OK