Westchester Small Business Computing

Is VoIP better than regular telephone service?

Short for Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP is a category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls by sending voice data in packets using the Internet rather than by traditional circuit transmissions of a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). 

One advantage of VoIP is that the telephone calls over the Internet do not incur a surcharge beyond what the user is paying for Internet access, much in the same way that the user doesn't pay for sending individual e-mails over the Internet.  Another advantage is the list of features available.  All the standard features of old phones are still there, call Waiting, Caller ID, etc.  But also Voicemail alerts via email and personal control panels to see usage and edit features on the fly.  Portability is great.  If you have remote offices or travel you can take your phones or modems with you with most systems or use a laptop to send and receive calls.  Got a meeting in India, vacation on a remote island.  Get the high speed internet connection in your hotel, plug in your phone and you are sending and receiving calls as if you were in the office.  There are several companies that offer these services to businesses.  The main advantages are low cost and greater felxibility. 

The main disadvantages are in the Quality of Service as you might imagine with any new technology, but with the right system and the right bandwidth, the quality seems to now be on par.  With VoIP you need to implement a modem / router into your phone system and this device could fail, bringing down your phone service.  The setup is a bit more complex with VoIP and the Internet has not yet shown the stability we see in the old Telephone Network.  You also lose your VoIP in a blackout or loss of electric power in your building, whereas the old phone system is on it’s own grid and usually works in a blackout. 

All in all, VoIP is still new and the early adopters are feeling some growing pains, but the advantages of lower cost and remote features are worth the risk for many more companies and I am expecting to see VoIP explode as the dominant market player for new phone systems in the next year or two.

Instant Messaging (AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Trillian)

Instant Messaging is becoming more and more popular in the workplace.  It started as a way for groups of strangers to get together and chat about certain subjects and was a popular feature with early ISPs like Prodigy and AOL.  Now it is becoming one more medium to add to corporate communications.  Face to face, telephone, fax, cell phone, PDA, video conference, email and now IM (Instant Messaging).  IM allows you to open a window on another users computer and type messages back and forth between two or more people.  It is great for quick question and answer dialogue when the Q&A is so short that IM is faster than picking up a phone.  It is often used as a private line for reaching people who don’t normally pick up the phone because they get too many calls.  Because of the instant access many people are careful to give their IM screen name only to a select few people or only to fellow employees.  AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ are the most popular Instant Messaging services.  They are all free to use and there are other options as well.  You can only IM between people who are signed up for the same service.  As the popularity grows you may find that some people you want to IM are on one service, say AOL, and others are on a different service, say MSN.  Trillian is software made by Cerulean Studios that allows you to combine AOL, MSN, Yahoo and ICQ into one application.  You can download a free copy at www.ceruleanstudios.com.

Anti-Spyware

Viruses are becoming a thing of the past.  What kills most computers these days is Spyware.  How do you protect yourself?

Download and Use Mircosoft's Windows Defender -  www.microsoft.com/downloads & Spybot Search and Destroy - www.download.com.  Spyware is defined as any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes.  Unfortunately, many forms of spyware cause problems with your computer, so when you experience slowness, crashes or odd behavior from your computer, spyware is often the cause.  For a full definition of Spyware click here, http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/spyware.html.  If you are experiencing odd behavior from your computer, removing spyware needs to be on your troubleshooting list and it is advisable to run anti-spyware programs on a regular basis using Windows Scheduled Tasks if your spyware removal application does not have it's own scheduler.  The two recommended downloads above are two of the most effective tools used for removing spyware and remarkably, they are both free.