VOIP without a provider

[imported_hooch]

If I understand correctly, VOIP services basically translate a phone number into an ip-address. So if you dial another VOIP customer of the same provider your conversation is completely over the internet. Otherwise you're conversation gets converted to copper someplace close to the destination. Are there any IP phones available to allow you to directly dial an ip address rather than a phone number? basically, I expect this is akin to asking if there is a standard defined for VOIP packets, because if there is, than routing would be a minor concern compared to interpretation of packets.

 

[ivwshane]

http://www.skype.com/

I think this will work

 

[imported_hooch]

yeah, that's the basic idea.... but i've seen that before and it's computer to computer, and more specifically, skype user to skype user. if there were an independent standard than it would matter would program/service people were using. id est, with traditional phones verizon calls att calls sprint no problem. additionally, can this idea be seperated from a computer to an ip phone. i'm thinking of just writing win ce software and testing the idea, but i was wondering if there was a standard other than writing just a app on win telephony.

 

[cmetz]

hooch, this is an area of active development. There are two standards I know of for this, E.164 and DUNDI. E.164 uses DNS to map PSTN numbers to IP calling information, and DUNDI does the same through some "P2P" mechanism I haven't yet found a good explanation for.

>Are there any IP phones available to allow you to directly dial an ip address rather than a phone number?

Yes, I believe that both the Sipura and Grandstream ones can, probably most can. It's just rarely used that way.