The Internet Telephone Toolkit [Paperback]

Jeff Pulver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1996 | ISBN-10: 047116352X | ISBN-13: 978-0471163527

"Here's a book that will tell you everything you need to know about how to make telephone calls over your PC. No one knows voice on the Net technology like Pulver." -Josh Quittner, Time Magazine

"Jeff Pulver is the pre-eminent authority on Internet telephony." -Gary Welz, Internet World

Call anywhere, anytime and talk as long as you like-for a fraction of the price! With special phone software and hardware, you can turn your PC into a phone and save a fortune on your next phone bill. It's called Internet telephony and this book/CD package tells you everything you need to know.

The Internet Telephone Toolkit gives you software that lets you immediately "test drive" all of the leading Internet telephone and broadcasting software.

Jeff Pulver, the leading authority in the field, reveals:
* What the phone companies don't want you to know
* What you can do with Internet telephony
* How to avoid some of the trouble spots of current Internet telephones
* What the future holds for this fast-growing industry
* How other emerging technologies like video on the Web will fit in with Internet telephony

The CD-ROM includes demo software from:
* VocalTec, Internet Phone 3.2 and 4.0 Demo Versions, and Internet Wave
* Voxware, TeleVox ToolVox
* NetSpeak, WebPhone
* FreeTel Communications, FreeTel
* VDONet, VDOLive Video Player
* White Pine Software, Enhanced CU-SeeMe for Windows and Macintosh
* Telescape, TS Intercom
* IDT Corp., Net2Phone
* IRIS Systems, Ltd., IRIS Phone
* IBM Internet Connection Phone-Beta Version
* Tribal Voice, PowWow, and more!

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A new telephone giant is on the way...the Internet. With special phone software and hardware that can turn your PC into a phone and call virtually anywhere, anytime, and talk for as long as you want--all for the cost of a call to your Internet service provider. This book offers a pragmatic overview of this technology, called Internet Telephony. It tells what you can do with it, what are the disadvantages of current technology, what the future holds for this industry and more. Background on leading products in the area is provided along with directions for using them. Includes CD-ROM with... * Demonsations of Internet telephone and broadcasting software (over $500 value) from vendors like: * VocaTec Inc. * Internet Telephone Co. * Quarterdeck Corporation * White Pine Software * Automated Management Systems * VDONet * Progressive Networks.

From the Back Cover

"Here's a book that will tell you everything you need to know about how to make telephone calls over your PC. No one knows voice on the Net technology like Pulver." -Josh Quittner, Time Magazine

"Jeff Pulver is the pre-eminent authority on Internet telephony." -Gary Welz, Internet World

Call anywhere, anytime and talk as long as you like-for a fraction of the price! With special phone software and hardware, you can turn your PC into a phone and save a fortune on your next phone bill. It's called Internet telephony and this book/CD package tells you everything you need to know.

The Internet Telephone Toolkit gives you software that lets you immediately "test drive" all of the leading Internet telephone and broadcasting software.

Jeff Pulver, the leading authority in the field, reveals:
* What the phone companies don't want you to know
* What you can do with Internet telephony
* How to avoid some of the trouble spots of current Internet telephones
* What the future holds for this fast-growing industry
* How other emerging technologies like video on the Web will fit in with Internet telephony

The CD-ROM includes demo software from:
* VocalTec, Internet Phone 3.2 and 4.0 Demo Versions, and Internet Wave
* Voxware, TeleVox ToolVox
* NetSpeak, WebPhone
* FreeTel Communications, FreeTel
* VDONet, VDOLive Video Player
* White Pine Software, Enhanced CU-SeeMe for Windows and Macintosh
* Telescape, TS Intercom
* IDT Corp., Net2Phone
* IRIS Systems, Ltd., IRIS Phone
* IBM Internet Connection Phone-Beta Version
* Tribal Voice, PowWow, and more!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 201 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (January 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047116352X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471163527
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,982,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The presently definitive book on Internet telophony, December 12, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: The Internet Telephone Toolkit (Paperback)

Internet telephony has been around since 1992, although it was not
until 1995 that it become publicly prominent with the release of
Internet Phone. Voice-over-net (VON), as Internet telephony is more
popularly known, is now a focus of interest for net users at large.
The prospect of being able to make cheap international and long
distance phone calls is, no doubt, an attraction; however, I suspect
that fascination with the technology is a big factor in the popularity
of VON.

There are now many products, but incompatibility is a problem. Even
though standardisation is on the way, at present parties wishing to
talk to each other by way of Internet telephony have to use the same software.

One reason is that different compression systems are used. Digitised
voice data lends itself to high compression ratios; audio codecs
vary from 5:1 for the European GSM standard to 53:1 in TeleVox. The
advantage of high compression ratios is that less bandwidth is required
for VON applications. TeleVox needs 2.4K as against Internet Phone's
7.7K.

It is that kind of technical information that Jeff Pulver has brought
together in his book, The Internet Telephone Toolkit. It is wall-to-wall
facts about the technology and most of the available products. No hype,
no padding, a minimum of graphics, and a CD - Mac and Windows
partitions - that contains a range of VON software and CU-SeeMe.

Each of the available packages has its own features, strengths, and
limitations. For example, WebPhone has offline voice mail; CoolTalk
has a handy White Board; and IPhone works well with CU-SeeMe and enables
a voice message to be e-mailed. Jeff Pulver describes Internet Phone,
WebTalk, TeleVox, FreeTel, CoolTalk, WebPhone, NetMeeting, PowWow,
VDOPhone, PGPhone, and Speak-Freely in sufficient detail (some in more
detail than others) for prospective users to assess what is best for
their respective purposes. Want on-hold MIDI music? Need secure
communication? The depth of information is quite remarkable.

The author discusses hardware requirements, installation, VON servers, and
how to get connected; the inclusion of FAQs covers most of the things
users want to know, especially the causes (and remedies) of common
problems, even to difficulties posed by firewalls, use with TIA,
choosing between half and full duplex,

An appendix lists vendors and other resources with Web
addresses; another appendix contains FAQs on Free World Dial-Up (FWD), an experiment designed to explore the possibility of Internet users
being able to make telephone calls to any telephone service.

FWD is up and working, thanks to the efforts of Jeff Pulver, Izak Jenie
(in Jakarta), Brandon Lucas (Tokyo), and Steven Mercurio (New Jersey).
The book describes how FWD works and how - within the limits of
existing servers - a connection can be made to telephone services that
are not part of the Internet. Details are included for anyone interested
in being part of the FWD experiment.

I am highly impressed by the book because it covers the full range of
Internet telephony topics, as well as other audio and video issues,
in plain, easy-to-read language. It is an excellent example of
technical communication, containing all the necessary information
anyone needs to get VON up and running. At the same time it is a
fascinating read. Jeff Pulver and the publishers (who have done a
good job of design) are to be congratulated. Even if you have no more
than a casual interest in the technology, this book is worth reading.

There will, no doubt, be many VON books to follow, but presently it is
the definitive text.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed are my own. I have no interest,
financial or otherwise, in the success or failure of this book,
and - apart from a review copy - I have received no compensation
from anyone who has.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth buying, January 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Internet Telephone Toolkit (Paperback)

I'm sorry to say I bought this book and I found it to be poorly written and outdated.
For someone who isn't into the technical side this is NOT the book to buy. I returned my copy. Also I couldn't get the CD-ROM to work, and
all the programs were extremely out of date.

I've read that the author is an industry leader, but I didn't find the information to be worth $29.95
Sorry.

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Incorrect Facts, June 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Internet Telephone Toolkit (Paperback)

Unfortunately, not all of the facts are completely correct in this book. In the chapter that talks about CyberPhone, it mentions only one person, Greg Foglesong as being the creator of that product. I am quite disappointed in the research that went into this book since I, Matthew Krokosz, am actually the original founder and creator of CyberPhone. The idea was originally mine and development had begun even before the first version of IPhone had been made public. I actually brought Greg Foglesong into the project after several months of working it alone. I just hope all of the information in this book had more fact gathering than went into the CyberPhone chapter.