Top 10 VoIP tips of 2006

1. Echo and VoIP: FAQ
   Echo may be fun when you're shouting your name across the Grand Canyon, but it's not so much fun when you're trying to conduct a business call using VoIP. In this tip, we've pulled together some frequently asked questions about echo (and the answers to them) from our Voice over IP expert, Patrick Ferriter

2. VoIP echo elimination: Leaks, loudness and delay
   Echo cancellers are the easiest and quickest way to eliminate echo on VoIP. But there are several other things you can and should do to eliminate or avoid echo, depending on your environment and budget. In this tip, you'll gain an understanding of the three factors that combine to create echo -- leaks, loudness and delay -- and learn how to avoid them.

3. VoIP: Obtaining toll quality in a LAN or WAN environment
   Many companies are deploying VoIP as a cost-saving measure. However, if the deployment does not provide toll-quality performance, end users can quickly become frustrated, revenues can suffer, and all benefits of the system may be completely erased. This article provides a list of best practices for ensuring toll-quality VoIP in either a LAN or WAN infrastructure.

4. Encrypting VoIP traffic: How and why
   Securing VoIP traffic remains one of the biggest obstacles to its mainstream enterprise use. VoIP traffic tends to be unencrypted, but that doesn't mean that it has to be. In this tip, Brien Posey explores various options for VoIP encryption, including sending VoIP traffic through a VPN tunnel and implementing an encryption tool called Zfone.

5. VoIP services overview: Understanding vocabulary clarifies implementation, ROI
   The vast majority of conversations about the convergence of voice and data could benefit greatly from a generally accepted vocabulary. The primary culprits in this smorgasbord of confusion are the terms "VoIP" and "IP telephony," which are used interchangeably by some but carry subtle distinctions for others. Here, Tom Lancaster categorizes a few of these services and explains how you can use them together or individually in your organization.

6. VoIP careers: Switching from old-school telephony
   VoIP is catching on big time, and that means you may need to get a handle on the new technology whether your background is in data networking or old-school telephony. Here, Ed Tittel reviews some of the fundamental concepts you'll need to learn, then provides information on IT credentials that are useful for pursuing (or enhancing) a career that includes knowledge of VoIP.

7. Asterisk in the enterprise: Benefits and best practices for business deployment
   Asterisk, the open source IP PBX, boasts a full range of features, functionality and friendliness to support a variety of needs and circumstances. This article highlights a few of those high points and lends perspective to the level of maturity Asterisk has achieved. It answers the question, "Why use Asterisk?" and provides some best practices for doing so.

8. Why you need to learn VoIP for your Cisco certification
   Because of the increasing importance of VoIP and Cisco's growing emphasis on it, the networking giant has increased the significance of VoIP in its certification exams. In this tip, David Davis looks at the VoIP focus in popular Cisco certifications, compares the old and updated topics covered in the popular CCNP exam and points you to resources where you can learn more.

9. Carrier MPLS support for VoIP
   Achieving QoS for reliable voice transmissions can be the biggest challenge of deploying VoIP. Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) helps enterprises rise to that challenge because the protocol offers network engineers a great deal of flexibility and the ability to send voice and data traffic around link failures, congestion and bottlenecks. This article discusses how network transport carriers provide support for VoIP with their MPLS offerings. It also explains the best way to leverage a carrier's MPLS services to support the deployment of real-time services.

10. TFTP servers for testing IP phones
    Testing a software upgrade on a single IP phone can present a challenge. In this tip, learn how to implement your own TFTP server for testing your phones' configuration information.

View all our tips on our VoIP tips index page.