Monday, March 31, 2008

How Much Bandwidth is Required for VoIP Phones?

A long-standing question for potential VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) consumers is How much bandwidth does a VoIP phone require to make quality telephone calls?

First of all, Bandwidth is defined as the ability to transfer data (such as a VoIP telephone call) from one point to another in a fixed amount of time. The higher the bandwidth speed you have, the more data you can send over your broadband Internet connection.

There are two types of bandwidth at your location: upload bandwidth and download bandwidth. The Upload Bandwidth is the amount of data you can send to the Internet and download bandwidth is the amount of data you can receive from the Internet. The more Internet bandwidth you have from your ISP (Internet service Provider) the better.

In most cases, the normal VoIP telephone call will use up 90 Kbps (kilobits per second). If you have a broadband Internet service provider that doesnt offer much bandwidth then most VoIP providers give you the option to lower the VoIP voice quality by lowering the bandwidth used for VoIP calls to 60 Kbps or, to really conserve your bandwidth, 30 Kbps. Most people can't tell the difference between the three settings. We suggest you use the high sound quality setting (90 Kpbs in most cases), if bandwidth is not an issue. high VoIP voice quality is generally the default setting but if you are running into a situation where your bandwidth is limited then you can adjust your VoIP bandwidth to one of the lower settings. Some consumers with 128 Kbps upload connections can receive less VoIP service quality due to a poor quality ISP (Internet service Provider). By selecting a lower quality VoIP bandwidth setting, this problem can be avoided.

If you plan on using a VoIP service provider, should you get a DSL or a Cable Internet access provider? In general, DSL upload bandwidth starts at 128k where as Cable Internet upload bandwidth starts at around 600k. Cable Internet is a little bit more expensive, but it is also about 4-5 times faster than residential DSL and a bit friendlier to a VoIP telephone call. Having said that, both DSL and cable modem high-speed services provide sufficient broadband Internet access bandwidth to support any of the top VoIP service providers. If you are experiencing low broadband Internet Service provider bandwidth, we suggest you try Packet8 VoIP. Packet8 VoIP boasts an advanced compression technology in which each active voice line uses approximately only 23Kbps of total data throughput, upstream and downstream.

The amount of bandwidth that a VoIP provider requires to make a quality telephone call is only one thing to consider when choosing a VoIP service provider. In fact, there are many things to consider when choosing a VoIP provider. An educated consumer generally results in a satisfied consumer.

Please see VoIP things to consider article (http://www.voipchoices.com/voip-considerations.html) to find a list of more things to consider when choosing a VoIP provider. You can also compare VoIP providers side-by-side by price and features at www.VoIPChoices.com

Chris Landry is the foremost authority on residential and small business VoIP providers. Chris is the founder of http://www.VoIPChoices.com. Chris has prequalified several high-quality VoIP providers and compares them by price and features at http://www.VoIPChoices.com

Chris can be reach via email at Chris@VoIPChoices.com.

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Improved Sleep Habits With Improved Sleep Hygiene

Okay, so it sounds a bit ridiculous, but there truly is such a term as sleep hygiene. As you truly understand the meaning of sleep hygiene and it is quite likely that your quality of sleep will be significantly improved.

While personal hygiene is known to be that thing we all do in order to keep clean and fresh smelling and dental hygiene involves keeping our teeth clean, healthy, and in our mouth, sleep hygiene is about those things that you can do in order to have a healthier and more restful sleep life.

Sleep hygiene encompasses all of those things that you can do which can help you to get ready for a restful nights sleep. It involves getting ready for bed, and preparing to easily fall asleep and stay asleep.

There are several tips that you can initiate if you are looking to improve your sleep habits by improving your sleep hygiene.

first of all it is important that you establish set times for sleeping and getting up each and every morning. This even includes the weekends. Regularly scheduled bedtimes are important for children and are equally as important for adults.

Unfortunately, there are many nights in which we get caught up trying to catch with the things that did not get taken care of during the day and we force ourselves to stay up later and later. But, this really does not solve the issue since by doing this we began to create a sleep deficit.

Without a set time for you to go to bed and wake up it's hard to get your body in the habit of sleep.

not only do you want to establish set times for going to bed in getting up every day you also want to learn how to relax your body if you want to work towards improving your sleep hygiene. It is never a good idea to simply throw on your pajamas and leap into the bed.

Typically if you try this approach your body may revolt as it is probably not ready for bed. You simply cannot go from exercising or eating or reading a racy novel to jumping into the bed closing your eyes and going to sleep. Your body just does not work that way! If you don't learn how to relax, you will learn that it takes you much longer to fall asleep even though you feel totally exhausted.

So when you are trying to improve your sleep hygiene, it is important that you make the decision to relax at least an hour before you plan to go to bed. begin to settle down and allow your body to be quiet and calm. Both meditation and yoga are excellent examples of ways in which you can take your body, mind, and soul into a state of relaxation.

Good sleep hygiene can also come when you will learn how to relax your body through deep breathing. So when you are busy focusing your concentration on your breathing, your body automatically begins to relax.

There are many techniques, such as progressive relaxation, in which you begin relaxing one part of your body and continue moving throughout the body parts until you are fully relaxed, that can help you to relax as you prepare for bed.

Having a plan for an effective sleep hygiene routine is critical for you to get the restful sleep that you need in order to obtain the restorative sleep your body craves.

For more important information on getting a good night's sleep be sure to visit http://www.sleep-good.com where you will find advice and tips on sleep habits insomnia, sleep apnea, snoring, and more.

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