ISP Information:
An electronic device that converts analog signals into digital signals. For example, the input port of a sound card can accept analog input from a microphone, and it uses an ADC to convert the analog signal to a digital signal that can be sent along to other parts of your computer.
ISP Glossary:
ADC - I am looking to add a second phone line to use in my home office.Since the phone company charges a setup fee, and then every littleextra is more money, I thought I might use one of the new Voice overIP phones/systems that are available.I looked at Vonage (www.vonage.com), and the features are nice at adecent price, but my home network makes it a little awkward. Thecable modem is in my basement, which then feeds into a router thatfeeds all the rooms. Having the Vonage device in my home office meansthat Vonage can't ensure service quality by prioritizing phone trafficover other traffic. Having the Vonage device in the basement doesn'twork at all. If you are interested, here are some schematics:http://www.vonage.com/installation_multiple.phphttp://www.vonage.com/installation_multiple_alternate.phpAnyway, I thought there might be a phone that just plugs into my USBport, which would be pretty slick if it works, although it meansleaving my computer on if I want to get calls. Any suggestions?[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you want to prioritize traffic tomake the phone work better, then a USB port where it will be fightingall the time with the other stuff (on that computer) is NOT the way togo. And what does your *home office* have to do with it (as opposedfor example to an 'office' office? And why is the cable modem in thebasement? Or conversely why can't you use a somewhat longer ethernetconnection in order to put the Cisco ATA box (or whatever kind ofadapter you would get with Vonage) at some place that was more conven-ient for you to use. And instead of running off that box a relativelyshort distance to the nearest phone connection (which if it were inthe basement would be more awkward for you) use the modular connectingplug on the back of the ATA box to a spare addtional pair to yourincoming phone terminal box, then tie that pair all around your houseso you used it at your convenience, as a line appearance on various phones.And there is a 'bandwidth adjustment' on the Vonage website which youcan reach from the Vonage dashboard. But it is confusing the way itappears on your screen: Mine defaulted exactly in the center of thegauge with 'more bandwith' being to the right and 'less bandwidth'being to the left (on this slider thing which ran from 30 Kbs on theleft up to 120 Kbs on the right side.) People would complain theycould not hear/understand me, so I (I thought logically) kept crankingthe slider to the right: more bandwidth! More! More!! But it justkept getting worse. Then the Vonage people explained to me I had tomove it to the *left*, not right. "Move it all the way to the left,at 30 Kbs, reboot the Cisco ATA and wait a few minutes (like 15-20)for everything to catch up you, then try it, and don't forget toinstall the TFTD and SIP things in your firewall." When I did allthat, and waited a few minutes for Vonage to 'catch up with me' itall worked *much better*.Not certain it would work correctly, I put in a call to the onechronic complainer I talk to a lot who *always* knows when I am onVonage 'because it always sounds so crappy' and even he this timesaid 'It sounds a lot better now, what did you do to it?' before Itold him I had done anything at all. He said that before I made theadjustments Vonage gave me, whenever my weather station via theWindows 95 would let loose with an FTP transfer to my display athttp://weatherforecast.us.tf or http://weatherforecast.n3.net itwould always blank out my voice talking on the Vonage. Now, he says,it only ever so occassionally 'clips' a word here and there. Ofcourse I am running not only the weather station and its camera tothe net, but also a camera view of my computer room all the time foranyone who gets their kicks by spying on me http://patricktownson.us.tfso I do put a load on the cable, yet I do not have that much troublewith it since I made the recommended (by Vonage) adjustments. PAT]
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