* Reader writes about trying to use a modem over a VoIP line
This time we’re approaching the question of modem/fax/TTY/TTD over VoIP more from the small office/home office perspective.
This time we’re approaching the question of modem/fax/TTY/TTD over VoIP more from the small office/home office perspective.
Evidently, we were right in sync with Tom McKim, network administrator at Niagara Chocolates in Buffalo, N.Y. McKim wrote, “I never gave modems for VoIP a second thought until last week.”
McKim said he has Vonage VoIP for his home phone, and that is connected to the Internet via a cable modem service. Overall, he reported, “It works great. I just have to remember to turn off my P2P software or it hogs all my bandwidth, causing my voice quality to degrade.”
Then begins the story of discovering whether a modem works over this connection:
“Just last week, my mother was complaining her PC wasn’t working. I went over to her house and the problems were minor and easily fixable. She wanted me to also change her dial-up ISP to a less expensive service.
“As I started working I noticed that it was in need of several patches which would take forever on her dial-up. So I packed up her machine and headed to my home about a mile down the road. Then I set her up by my PC with my KVM switch and plugged her into my network. I downloaded all the patches I needed in about an hour (imagine how long it would have taken on the dial-up) and she was ready to go. I then canceled her ISP and loaded the settings for her new ISP.
“As I was about to connect to the ISP, I stopped and wondered if it would work through the VoIP. Needless to say it worked on the first attempt, but it did make me think.”
With some subsequent testing, he reported that his throughput seemed to be around 35K bit/sec. Not bad.
Actually, this makes a lot of sense. Vonage – as well as some other providers – touts its ability to support fax. And fax transmissions are basically modem transmissions. A quick search at the Vonage Web site, however, did not find a reference to TTY/TDD support.
Concerning his “day job,” McKim reported:
“Professionally, I am looking at moving from our regular PBX to a VoIP system and just assumed that a modem will work. We will need modems both for auditors every spring who need to authenticate though the phone lines and for the controller that needs a dial-up connection to do banking because the bank does not allow Internet connectivity.”
