I just wrote this as part of a work evaluation >I have spent most of Saturday trying out VOIP and the Skype gateways to BT (Scotland >and NI) and Eircom landlines. It works, but the service quality makes it >impracticable at the moment. I will wait six months, or for an announced improvement >before going back to it in earnest.
My connection was ISDN2 (128k) the sound stream was "choppy" - intermittent drop-outs. I think that the problem was primarily with the Skype/PSTN gateway(s), as I did find the quality fairly acceptable calling random US and Australian Skypers using only VOIP. But the only reason to use a commercial service is because of the gateways to landlines and mobiles. I was using a fairly expensive (c£150) GN Netcom 2100 UNC headset, and experimenting with various amplifiers and adaptors. It worked best plugging it into the on-board sound on both my workstation and laptop. I had difficulty in getting the mic volume adequate using a GN Netcom 8100 USB adaptor. Unless this is a demanding professional environment (I work with several call-centres) or you want to make a call while someone else in the room listens to radio/tv/hi-fi, I would recommend the sort of headset recommended for voice recognition. A couple of years ago I had a £20 Labtech (or Labgear - I can't remember), that came with a Naturally Speaking test kit; it outperformed all of the sub-£100 headsets in the call-centres. If you use something with 3.5mm jacks, most of the work is being done by your sound card. USB devices use their own ADC/DACs and companders. The biggest problem is background noise rejection - hence noise-cancelling mics and correct positioning. -- ray _______________________________________________ Scottish mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/scottish
