Download/HomepageVoxPhone. The very name calls up images of the
1930's with families sitting around "watching" radio
programs, listening to crackling static along with music and
sound effects.
Which is about where this technology is today for the normal home
user's connection speeds. My "internet bridge" partner
in England and I have been testing several internet phones since
real phoning is prohibitive and my fingers get numb from all that
chatting. We downloaded VoxPhone easily, installed it and went
through an interesting set up that helps the software gather
information and then we were chattering away all last weekend. By
the end of the first hour of conversation, the programme's
[British spelling] cost had been saved in spades and in further
hours was recouped several times over.
Did it sound as good as Ma and Baby Bells, MCI or Sprint? Not a
chance. Was it usually understandable? Yes. Was it neat? You bet!
Do I recommend it? Yes. Would I suggest you give up your current
services? No, but in future???
One of the nicest things about VoxPhone was the familiar
telephone-like interface with dialing and ringing sounds. Also,
the easy access to features like call blocking, dialing and
hanging up were quite convenient. I don't have a full duplex
sound card, but the interchange was not bad. There were some
annoying echoes, delays and other noises that a real phone caller
from the 1930's would recall, perhaps with a bit of nostalgia,
but would not tolerate today. And that is the thing. Its cost of
use for long distances is unprecedented and for a while we will
have to put up with the halting pace, occasional shouting etc.
but my guess is that within a year this will greatly improve. I
will review other internet telephones and compare them to
VoxPhone for you. So far its the best one I have tried.
Oh, did I forget anything? HELLO. It caused both of our systems
to crash about once an hour, would not work without being hooked
up to ICQ and we kept getting unwanted calls from other users in
the directory if we did not check call blocking. BUT there is all
that $$$ saved to consider, it works pretty good as is and WILL
improve quickly. Anyway, its free to try a full featured version
for 14 days and a somewhat disabled version after the trial.
Another thing, the sound is much better than PowWow's. Check it
out for yourself and if you have overseas friends who are online,
I'll bet you will like it even more.
I imagine users
with more system resources, faster modems and ISDN or better
connections may experience vastly different sound quality.
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