Mobile users and telecommuters don’t have to be left out of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephony because many VoIP providers now offer a Soft- Phone option for their customers. A VoIP SoftPhone is software that places a full-featured VoIP telephone on your Windows notebook PC Desktop. A SoftPhone can be a handy voice communications option especially, if it’s tied into your employer’s VoIP telephone system. Unlike IM (instant messaging) clients, such as Google Talk and MSN Instant Messenger (which include VoIP), a SoftPhone from a VoIP provider can dial landline telephone numbers just like a regular telephone.
Using a SoftPhone can be a bit of a jump to some people; however, major VoIP providers base their SoftPhone software on a strict telephone analogy. When using a SoftPhone, instead of dialing a physical keypad, you dial a keypad display on your monitor using your mouse or keyboard shortcuts. Actually, the typical SoftPhone interface includes components of a desktop phone and a mobile phone that likely look familiar to you and will help you learn the software. VoIP SoftPhone vs. Your VoIP Phone A VoIP SoftPhone replicates the features of a VoIP telephone on your laptop PC. Most VoIP providers, such as Vonage (www.vonage.com) and Cisco Systems (www.cisco.com), went to extra pains to design their SoftPhones to resemble a normal VoIP telephone. For example when you open a Vonage SoftPhone, it resembles a telephone, only it appears on your Windows XP Desktop.
Commercial VoIP telephone manufacturers such as Cisco carry the analogy even farther by patterning phones that match their desktop models; the Cisco IP Communicator, for instance, closely matches the desktop phone offerings of Cisco’s 7900 phone line. This software approach to a VoIP telephone requires that you use a headset and microphone plugged into your laptop’s earphone and microphone jacks. Even if your laptop has a powerful microphone and speakers, you’ll quickly find that background noise can drown out calls. There are many headset and microphone choices available, from inexpensive $10 headsets to the pricey wireless headsets that cost more than $100. If you fall into the ranks of the road warrior and weight is a consideration, some vendors, such as Plantronics (www.plantronics.com), produce ear buds with an attached microphone; visualize how it would look to attach a microphone to your MP3 player’s ear buds. Other headsets provide Bluetooth capabilities or are USB-compatible. No matter your preferences, you are bound to find a headset/microphone option that fits your budget. Usage. Perhaps the first challenge of using your SoftPhone is recognizing its ringer. After you plug a headphone and microphone into your laptop, all of your laptop’s audio channels through your headphones.
The best advice we can give is to get used to such SoftPhone configuration eccentricities prior to going out on the road with the device for the first time. Another difference you’ll notice between a regular desktop VoIP telephone and SoftPhone is audio tuning. A SoftPhone has an integrated Audio Tuning Wizard. Because a VoIP SoftPhone depends on your laptop’s hardware and OS for audio, you need to tune your computer’s audio periodically to provide optimum audio quality for your SoftPhone. When running a SoftPhone’s Audio Tuning Wizard, you need to configure your headset (speaker) and microphone hardware so they work correctly. Audio tuning is part of the configuration process, and you should access your SoftPhone’s Audio Tuning Wizard whenever you make significant adjustments to your laptop’s audio settings. It is also prudent to run your Audio Tuning Wizard after completing a significant update of your laptop’s OS or audio software to ensure your SoftPhone’s audio settings stay in their prime.
