Seek Voip

VoIP is getting more popular by the day, but the technology still has its flaws. VoIP is largely limited by its primary medium, the Internet, and most of the drawbacks have to do with connection quality and speed. Usually, as more features are incorporated into VoIP hardware, Internet connections get overloaded and slow down.

However, VoIP providers and developers are working together to create fixes and patches for the common problems. In a few years, most of the flaws will have been worked out, and VoIP is expected to gain widespread consumer acceptance by 2007.

Emergency calls

Most VoIP phones cannot be used to make emergency calls. With a traditional phone, the 911 network can detect your location and reroute your call to the nearest emergency station. However, this system does not work with VoIP connections, and emergency lines have no way of tracking a VoIP call's location.

Security

Most providers advertise their VoIP networks as secure and hacker-safe, but with the right tools and expertise, anyone connected to the IP network can eavesdrop on voice calls. Software-based VoIP connections are particularly vulnerable. They often require users to bypass the computer's standard security measures, creating a tiny opening in the computer's firewall. Such openings are easily found by determined hackers and could open your computer to worms and viruses.

Power

VoIP adapters and broadband modems usually connect to an AC power source, so your VoIP service will be useless during a power failure. To keep your VoIP system running, you need a backup battery system, but not all VoIP hardware can be powered by batteries, and most models use up a standard battery pack after just a few calls.

Networking

Although VoIP is designed for multiple connections, it is not entirely reliable for functions beyond one-on-one calls. Individual members of a video conference or three-way conversation, and sometimes even the service provider, have no way of monitoring the connection's bandwidth. As a result, VoIP tends to slow down or get cut off altogether in the middle of a multiple-party conversation.

Delay

Standard VoIP connections delay transmission for up to 10 milliseconds, barely felt by most users. Long signal delays are uncommon in VoIP, but there have been delays of up to 400 milliseconds. Often, one person speaks before his previous message has reached the other line, preventing a proper conversation flow. This does not happen every time, but it happens often enough to irritate some users.

Sound quality

A common complaint with VoIP is that static interferes with the conversation and that the sound can get muffled or uneven. VoIP calls are prone to echoing, wherein a user hears his own voice echoed through the earpiece. This may be a result of the equipment being turned up too loud on one or both of the parties.