Anyone Can Understand Basics of VoIP & SIP

It is hard to imagine our present day world without internet and a person without knowledge of internet would not be able to understand how businesses run across the world. Most internet users do not know how it functions but it is always good to have a basic understanding of the technology that we use every day. In layman's terms the Internet is basically a huge number of computers connected to one another through which data can be transferred from one computer to another with a set of programs. So let us see what is VoIP and SIP are' in simple words which a novice might understand even without having to actually be aware of it.

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. Internet protocol refers to a set of rules that are followed to transfer data over internet. Rules/protocols are needed to make sure that computers on the network will understand each other in terms of what information they are sending and receiving irrespective of the operating systems they are using. As per IP, data, which is voice in the present case, is transferred in terms of packages and contains different signals that can be transferred to other location. Basically, you can avoid phone charges if you are able to send voice through internet which you might have done already via simple instant messaging software like Google talk, Yahoo Messenger etc. Different modes of usage of VoIP are by the use of analog telephone adaptors or IP phones or finally through computers. Companies like AT&T provide services of VoIP for businesses, institutions and call centres etc.

SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol which is a set of rules that are defined to initiate or modify or cut the communication between two or more computers. This protocol is different from IP because this does not deal with transporting data but deals with how two different applications on two different computers interact with each other. One example which makes the understanding easier is that of video conferencing where different computers come online at different time and SIP can be followed to initiate the connection between the applications on different computers and also to terminate the same when a user goes offline. The users are generally not aware of these because the programs are built in such a way that these protocols are followed. as a simple analogy of protocols would be that of grammar rules in our language which help us understand each other and communicate easily.

You can dig more information on SIP VoIP using internet. Step by step instructions on configuring x-lite SIP phone can also be found on my blog.