Minimum Bandwith for VoIP
 

I have access to two dialup internet connections, one that runs over a 56k modem, and one that runs on a 56k modem with an "accelerator" that boosts connection speeds to 128k.

I'm interested in using the internet to communicate by voice with my long distance girlfriend. I could talk from my computer to a phone line, or directly to her computer through a program (I don't know any programs except for Net Meeting and AIM, any suggestions?). I'm pretty flexible with that, if it reduces the bandwith requirements.

Does anyone know if I will be able to have a decent conversation over a 56k or accelerated 56k to 128k connection?

Thanks!

Skype is a good computer to computer VoIP program.

56kb you must realize you are only getting 7kB pure bandwidth. (8 bits per byte...56 /8 = 7). Anything you do over that is going to be laggy. Depending on the codec used in the h323 protocol suite, you might be able to get decent at best conversations.

I can only assume that the accelerator is just doing packet compression.

not to sure how laggy it will be but you could try using teamspeak. While i used to play Star Wars Galaxies we had a few members in our guild that were on 56k modems and used teamspeak and sure thay were a bit laggy but you could still talk and hear from them. You can rent a TS server or each time you connect you can find an open channel and use that.

those accelerators are just ISP server-based web caches to give the illusion of faster browsing...it's against FCC regulations to connect above 53k on dialup so you can't actually hit 128k. Judging the fact that ost ISPs don't connect above 48000 bps you're looking at maybe 6K/ sec down and max of 3K up.

Those 56K "accelerator" products work by compressing the text content in web pages and cranking up the compression on JPG's, so less data is moved. You're still on a 56K connection, and you won't get any kind of benefit for VOIP usage.

Is some sort of broadband service available in your area? Dialup is just too damn slow to do anything useful, and frankly I don't know why people still buy it. And this is coming from someone who works for a dialup ISP. :)

Too bad too i have vonage on my cable modem and it just rocks, you need to find a broadband connection.

just signed up for Vonage myself... it's only been a day so far, but my initial impressions are very good.

Once, on AOL of all places, I hit 23 kb/s on a DC hub. Too bad the file was corrupted. I probably wasn't even downloading that fast, just getting garbage. But I can dream!
*pats cable modem*

I've seen this on dialup too. It's from intentionally corrupted files that are full of nothing but spaces. Since all modern modems have built-in compression and that kind of data compresses really well, you get a much faster download. Not that it really does you any good though!