Product Description
More and more businesses today have their receive phone service through Internet instead of local phone company lines. Many businesses are also using their internal local and wide-area network infrastructure to replace legacy enterprise telephone networks. This migration to a single network carrying voice and data is called convergence, and it's revolutionizing the world of telecommunications by slashing costs and empowering users. The technology of families driving this convergence is called VoIP, or Voice over IP. VoIP has advanced Internet-based telephony to a viable solution, piquing the interest of companies small and large. The primary reason for migrating to VoIP is cost, as it equalizes the costs of long distance calls, local calls, and e-mails to fractions of a penny per use. But the real enterprise turn-on is how VoIP empowers businesses to mold and customize telecom and datacom solutions using a single, cohesive networking platform. These business drivers are so compelling that legacy telephony is going the way of the dinosaur, yielding to Voice over IP as the dominant enterprise communications paradigm. Developed from real-world experience by a senior developer, O'Reilly's Switching to VoIP provides solutions for the most common VoIP migration challenges. So if you're a network professional who is migrating from a traditional telephony system to a modern, feature-rich network, this book is a must-have. You'll discover the strengths and weaknesses of circuit-switched and packet-switched networks, how VoIP systems impact network infrastructure, as well as solutions for common challenges involved with IP voice migrations. Among the challenges discussed and projects presented: building a softPBX configuring IP phones ensuring quality of service scalability standards-compliance topological considerations coordinating a complete system ?switchover? migrating applications like voicemail and directory services retro-interfacing to traditional telephony supporting mobile users security and survivability dealing with the challenges of NAT To help you grasp the core principles at work, Switching to VoIP uses a combination of strategy and hands-on "how-to" that introduce VoIP routers and media gateways, various makes of IP telephone equipment, legacy analog phones, IPTables and Linux firewalls, and the Asterisk open source PBX software by Digium. You'll learn how to build an IP-based or legacy-compatible phone system and voicemail system complete with e-mail integration while becoming familiar with VoIP protocols and devices. Switching to VoIP remains vendor-neutral and advocates standards, not brands. Some of the standards explored include: SIP H.323, SCCP, and IAX Voice codecs 802.3af Type of Service, IP precedence, DiffServ, and RSVP 802.1a/b/g WLAN If VoIP has your attention, like so many others, then Switching to VoIP will help you build your own system, install it, and begin making calls. It's the only thing left between you and a modern telecom network.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 9 reviews)

Lots of information by Wiggdog (North Carolina)

3 Stars
June 21, 2009
Since I'm starting with a knowledge base of zero there is a lot of good information in this book. For technical information it is realtively easy to read. Information may be dated at this point, I won't know till I catch-up.

Excellent Guide for a VoIP Migration Project by W. Sears (Colorado)

5 Stars
April 14, 2009
I enjoyed this book a lot and also read Cisco Press's "Taking Charge of Your VoIP Project" by Walker and Hicks. Here's my frame of reference on reading and reviewing this book. I am a sys admin at a 75-person company, and I am generalist (Windows servers and desktops, LAN/WAN/wireless, switches/routers/firewalls, VPN, security, training, helpdesk, and phones). This book was targeted at someone like me, who has a networking background but little phone background. We have a full-featured TeleVantage phone system that runs on a Windows server with a 24-channel T1 line to the phone company. I know enough about it to run our phone system, but I don't know much about the underlying telephone technology. I am considering upgrading to VoIP, because my PCI phone cards (T1 card and telephone station cards) in my phone server are old and no longer supported by new versions of TeleVantage. However, TeleVantage supports VoIP, so all I would have to do is remove the PCI cards and instead use my WAN connection to the outside world and my LAN as my connection to my phones. This book does a good job explaining traditional telephone technology and then VoIP. The author wrote the open-source VoIP software called Asterisk, so he can speak authoritatively to VoIP. If you are so inclined, you can follow his labs (Projects) throughout the books and build your own VoIP system on Linux and Asterisk. I felt the book had the right level of technical depth for someone of my background. I thought he also does a good job making a project of moving to VoIP very practical in a business setting. He covers things like current infrastructure assessment, design, doing a migration in chunks, how to minimize user impact, selecting a VAR (value added reseller) and measuring up-front cost and ROI. Finally, I appreciated his objective perspective on the public telephone network and PBX vs. VoIP, that both have their advantages and disadvantages, and that while implementing and supporting VoIP can be complex, it can be achieved successfully if be done correctly. My take-away is that I gained a general understanding of how the public phone system works from the point of view of my business, and I now generally understand how VoIP works. I can now speak somewhat intelligently and generally ask the right questions of my TeleVantage software provider and when selecting a SIP provider. Am I comfortable starting my VoIP migration project based on these two books? Yes. I still have a lot to learn and will make some mistakes, but at least I understand generally where to start and how to proceed.

Phone Power is EVIL! by DAT (WA STATE)

1 Stars
August 22, 2008
I signed up for PHONE POWER on a promotion for 10 a month or something. I paid $44 to send the adapter. I never got the damned thing to work and they were NO HELP. They were surly and rude -- totally condescending! After the promo I sent their adapter back after the promo ended, for another $8 or soI then got an email from them saying that they didn't get the power plug for the damned thing and billed me another $99.99!!! I know I sent the thing in, I put it together, left it, put it back in the box and sent it back. I don't have the thing in my house! SO I PAID $44 + $8 + $99.99 = $151.99 for no phone service. If you want to spend $151.99 for no service, use PHONE POWER. If you value your dollar, stay far away from them.

Nice introduction to VoIP by Rajeev Pokkyarath (San francisco, CA United States)

5 Stars
June 23, 2007
provided me a smooth introduction to the various components that make up a VoIP network...the projects at the end of the chapters were very good to guide you through the domain.

Great Intro to VoIP by John Downing (San Diego, CA USA)

5 Stars
June 01, 2007
I teach VoIP & SIP Hands on training classes to clients all over the World for TrainingCity.com. Every week I'm asked what books to buy and I always recommend "Switching to VoIP" as a great starting point to build your knowledge base. The book is excellent for beginners who need to get up to speed and are looking to build a home lab using open source products such as Asterisk.

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	Asterisk: The Future of Telephony, 2nd Edition by Jim Van Meggelen (Author), Leif Madsen (Author), Jared W Smith (Author), Jim Van Meggelen (Author) This bestselling book is now the standard guide to building phone systems with Asterisk, the open source IP PBX that has traditional telephony providers running scared! Revised for the 1.4 release of the software, the new edition of Asterisk: The Future of Telephony reveals how you can save money on equipment and support, and finally be in control of your telephone system. If you've worked with telephony in the past, you're familiar with the problem: expensive and inflexible systems that are...
	VoIP Hacks: Tips & Tools for Internet Telephony by Ted Wallingford (Author) Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is gaining a lot of attention these days, as more companies and individuals switch from standard telephone service to phone service via the Internet. The reason is simple: A single network to carry voice and data is easier to scale, maintain, and administer. As an added bonus, it's also cheaper, because VoIP is free of the endless government regulations and tariffs imposed upon phone companies. VoIP is simply overflowing with hack potential, and "VoIP...
	Building Telephony Systems with Asterisk by David Gomillion (Author), Barrie Dempster (Author) An easy introduction to using and configuring Asterisk to build feature-rich telephony systems for small and medium businesses. Install, configure, deploy, secure, and maintain AsteriskBuild a fully-featured telephony system and create a dial plan that suits your needsLearn from example configurations for different requirements In Detail Asterisk is a powerful and flexible open source framework for building feature-rich telephony systems. As a Private Branch Exchange (PBX)...
	VoIP For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) by Timothy V. Kelly (Author) Put your phone system on your computer network and see the savings See how to get started with VoIP, how it works, and why it saves you money VoIP is techspeak for "voice over Internet protocol," but it could spell "saving big bucks" for your business! Here's where to get the scoop in plain English. Find out how VoIP can save you money, how voice communication travels online, and how to choose the best way to integrate your phone system with your network at home or at the...
	VoIP Deployment For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) by Stephen P. Olejniczak (Author) So you’re in charge of implementing a VoIP phone system for your organization? VoIP Deployment For Dummies is a crash course in Voice over Internet Protocol implementation! Here’s how to analyze your network and implement a VoIP phone system, manage and maintain it, keep it secure, and troubleshoot problems. You’ll learn how to plan the rollout, work with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), handle fax issues, and keep your users happy. Understand how VoIP works, common...