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Shopping for Internet Phone Adapter

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A lot of Internet phone providers (Callcentric, ViaTalk, Broadvoice) allow you to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). This means that instead of going to buy hardware from the same provider you buy your service from, you can shop around (on E-bay or Amazon for example), to save some money or to go with a company you can trust, like Linksys, Grandstream or Snom to name a couple.

Internet Phones: - Some of the companies listed above promote telephones specifically designed to be used with Internet. While this sometimes costs much more, they normally contain more useful features built into the phone's hardware. You also must to know that you're getting new phone equipment that handles modern technologies like NAT (Network Address Translation), VPN (Virtual Private Network) and ENUM (telephone number mapping).

VoIP Adapters: - Another way to go is buying an adapter for your existing phone equipment. This is usually a small unit (that varies in size) that you connect with your existing phone device and your Internet to allow them to talk to each other. When going this way, you'll want to check that the internet phone adapter can handle all the Internet phone features you want to have present to you that might not be present in your existing telephone equipment.

Here are some of the companies that offer VoIP equipment:

Avaya - According to their website, 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500® companies use Avaya hardware for VoIP communications.

Cisco (Linksys) - Known primarily for their routers and modems, Cisco also has a lot of broadband phone hardware for both businesses and residential customers.

Snom - Based in Germany, Snom produces a lot of different VoIP specific phones and other accessories, very reliable and impressive.

Motorola - Motorola has several models of VoIP adapters available.

When choosing any equipment for your home or office, you'll want to do some research to make sure all the pieces are compatible. For example, you want to make sure your modem will work with the device.

Also, you'll want to make sure that the device works with whatever Internet phone service provider you are going with. The easiest way is to check the manufacturer's website for each of the products. When in doubt, it is good idea to contact customer service of your provider.

Internet Phone Adapter Prices:

As with most things in life, you get what you pay for--invest too little and you might not be getting a good product. That said, when shopping for an internet phone adapter, you should expect prices to range from $25 (very low end) to several hundred dollars (latest top of the line VoIP equipment).

VoIP Adapter Backups:

Last but not least to think about, when looking for an Internet phone device is something people completely forget but is important if you're just going to have VoIP as your primary phone--power. Without power, you lose your online connection. One idea is to look for a temporary battery backup (UPS).

Article Source: http://bytepowered.org/articles

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