Skibum, thatnks for the link!
With the SIPURA SPA-2000 that Skibum mentioned, it makes adding a regular phone to the network VERY easy. Simply plug your regular phone into it, and then plug it into your network.
This will allow you to use ANY standard phone for FREE PC to PC calls. To calll another regular phone, a provider like mentioned in the messages above is needed.
Registering with Free World Dialup, they assign you a 6 digit phone number. Once this is done, and configured in the SIPURA SPA-2000 you are ready to go. Anyone that then is using a softphone (Computer running the phone software), or another SIPURA SPA-2000 type device can then call you. They simply dial your 6 digit number, and your phone will ring.
With VOIP gowiing by leaps and bounds every day, more and more people are becomming available to communicate with.
For instance, for me to call from West Palm Beach, FLorida, to Jon in England, all I have to do is pick up the phone and dial a 6 digit number. His cordless phone will then ring like any other phone on the other end, complete with Caller ID.
FWD now offers free Voice mail as well. If I'm not at home, they will get the answering machine. I can retreive the voice mail either by dialing 8502 with the phone, or checking my gmail account, where it automatically sends a copy of the voice mail as a .wav attachment.
Sure, the people you can call, and that can call you is limited at the time, but will continue to grow. The great part about this is if you have a friend or family member with Cable/DSL all they would need is the $50 adapter to use a regular phone, or a freely downloadable softphone to talk as often as you want for as long a you want for ABSOLUTELY FREE. Once you hear the quality compared to a telephone you will be amazed at just how much clearer it actually is!
Currently I am not using any hardware, and just using a softphone. I am using a free program called
X-Lite. If anyone wants to give it a try, feel free to call me in the evenings (Eastern Time) at 636047.
You will need to configure any softphone that you download to work with FWD's network. The setup for the different softphones is available on the
FWD Support Page
This is all new to me! But in the past week I have contacted friends and family members all over the US that use a broadband connection, and have helped them set this all up. Now to talk to them its just a matter of dialing a 6 digit number, or clicking their name in the phonebook, for a perfectly clear conversation. I am going to be getting the $50 adapter soon, so I can use a standard cordless phone to make and receive calls.
