Advantages and problems with Vo Ip

[Westat1]

What are the advantages and problems with VoIp? My inital thought is connection speed is a major barrier but what else?

[Mike_Mackin]

"The presence of certain types of network equipment may make it difficult to establish VoIP calls. NATs make it difficult to locate the destination, local IP addresses may not be useable in the public IP network, and firewalls can keep voice traffic from getting through the network."

The VoIP Problems [nextgendc.com]

[ppg]

AFAIK the main advantage is that you have your voice data and your other data all running over the same network, rather than having your voice data running over a seperate network so your administration costs are less. Internationl calls cost no more than a local one so a big saving there over the standard PSTN (if you make a lot of international calls). If the company is a big one with offices connected by leased lines, then the network is already in place.

Disadvantages: Yes, bandwidth is an issue, you need enough spare to carry the voice data too. also you need some kind of QOS for voice, so running over ADSL say wouldn't do.

I'm no expert but I hope that helps you a bit. I can find out more if you like, the company I work for does VOIP installations and we have a resident expert.

[BlobFisk]

We have a VPN with a client in the States, which we have recently begun utilising for VoIP. The cost saving on voice calls has been significant.

I think that this is the best application of VoIP - on a private network, there is much less chance of network congestion affecting the quality of the call, and lag is not at all a factor most of the time.