Switching to VoIP: A Solutions Manual for Network Professionals

I enjoyed this book a lot and also read Cisco Press's "Taking Charge of Your VoIP Project" by Walker and Hicks.Here's my frame of reference on reading and reviewing this book. I am a sys admin at a 75-person company, and I am generalist (Windows servers and desktops, LAN/WAN/wireless, switches/routers/firewalls, VPN, security, training, helpdesk, and phones). This book was targeted at someone like me, who has a networking background but little phone background. We have a full-featured TeleVantage phone system that runs on a Windows server with a 24-channel T1 line to the phone company. I know enough about it to run our phone system, but I don't know much about the underlying telephone technology.I am considering upgrading to VoIP, because my PCI phone cards (T1 card and telephone station cards) in my phone server are old and no longer supported by new versions of TeleVantage. However, TeleVantage supports VoIP, so all I would have to do is remove the PCI cards and instead use my WAN connection to the outside world and my LAN as my connection to my phones.This book does a good job explaining traditional telephone technology and then VoIP. The author wrote the open-source VoIP software called Asterisk, so he can speak authoritatively to VoIP. If you are so inclined, you can follow his labs (Projects) throughout the books and build your own VoIP system on Linux and Asterisk. I felt the book had the right level of technical depth for someone of my background.I thought he also does a good job making a project of moving to VoIP very practical in a business setting. He covers things like current infrastructure assessment, design, doing a migration in chunks, how to minimize user impact, selecting a VAR (value added reseller) and measuring up-front cost and ROI.Finally, I appreciated his objective perspective on the public telephone network and PBX vs. VoIP, that both have their advantages and disadvantages, and that while implementing and supporting VoIP can be complex, it can be achieved successfully if be done correctly.My take-away is that I gained a general understanding of how the public phone system works from the point of view of my business, and I now generally understand how VoIP works. I can now speak somewhat intelligently and generally ask the right questions of my TeleVantage software provider and when selecting a SIP provider.Am I comfortable starting my VoIP migration project based on these two books? Yes. I still have a lot to learn and will make some mistakes, but at least I understand generally where to start and how to proceed.

I have been looking to use the VoIP capabilities to do video conferencing and provide smart phone videophone access to existing videophones. I have one of these video phones to use as a base system from a large provider. Perhaps I was expecting too much from this book, because it didn't give me more than a couple of pages of hints. However, it gave me more than any other book on VoIP in the way of a clue as to where to search. Nevertheless, for me this book has been a primary introduction to VoIP.On the other hand, this is an excellent book to help a business administrator become effective in managing a VoIP system and providing examples of command line commands to make this type of system operate correctly. Although the book is becomming dated, it is five years old now, it apparently covers the area of VoIP administration and configuration well. It is going to take me months of further research to explore these areas well enough to see how well this system can provide me with video conferencing ability to smart phones. Perhaps it won't be enough, perhaps the conceptes in this book will lead me to a solution.In summary, this book is the best of several VoIP books that I have bought in search of understanding VoIP and applying it on Linux systems. If you want to know how to modify the code for your particular application, you will need to seek further on the internet. But, this is an excellent reference and I am happy to add it to my reference book collection. However, I do think that an appendix should have been added to help in seeking full knowledge of this area and I am withholding one star because of its absence.

The book is a definitely helpful tool in understanding the world of Voice over IP. It helps explain what the terminology as well as what is being accomplished in the industry with it. I would recommend the book to all. The seller of the book also accomplished all that was promised of what was specified in purchasing a used book. I was very satisfied with the product.

The book was as advertised in excellent condition. Some writing in it but I bought it used so some writing is to be expected and it was minimal. It took a little longer to arrive than I thought it would even through regular mail but overall I was very happy with the book and service.

used this book for school subject. full of information even if it is old information alot of information for such a information technoligy

Good read.

This book provides a comprehensive look at not only VoIP, but all related legacy telephony systems it may interact with or replace. A wonderful resource for anyone considering a VoIP deployment either at the office or at home. The technical detail and background the author provides in his examples and background information is incredibly helpful. I definately recommend..

I really needed this book because it was the one that was required in having for one of my VoIP class here at DeVry University. Really good price as well and thank you.

Having almost zero knowledge of voip / sip this book has given an excellent 'heads up' in to the world of voice over ip.I'm CCNA & MCSE so VOIP is the next logical progression.This bok explains everything in a concise and entertaining fashion. Its easy to read because it was written by a writer who not only knows their stuff but is also able to translate their experience into reading matter that is fun to read and digest.As always O'Reilly have got it right again with another well written book. It also covers a good few pages on conventional telephone circuits. I initially thought I wouldn't need to know such material since I was keen on learning the IP way of telephony. WRONG!! Some very detailed & useful information was gained from the POTS/PSTN area of the book which will prove useful in the future for definite!Plenty of reading material on setting up a simple Asterisk softpbx server also. Ideal for a lab test setup for learning how things ACTUALLY work. Loads of real world examples to learn from!Top marks for a great book!

In my final year of university a couple of years ago now, I had a module in Telecommunications focusing on Asterisk. Anyways I used this book alongside study and assignments, so you can rest assured that the information was relevant, 3 years ago.

For me this was a good introduction to VOIP, some techy stuff but not too much.

Well explained book for someone that does not understand it well. It also has a little project to do so you can create your own VOIP.

a very good book, very informative and covers all you need to know for college work on VOIP.