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All About
Computers, Internet and the Web
Links to articles, listed in the order in which a new computer user might
learn about & buy a new computer and connect it to the Internet.
DotOrg Essentials
A free online journal for nonprofit professionals who want to learn how
to effectively integrate the Internet into their marketing and communications
plans.
ECC - Extended Community Calling - service that promotes equality of local calling areas.
FOLDOC (Free
On-Line Dictionary of Computing)
Searchable dictionary of acronyms, jargon, tools, operating systems, networking,
products, and anything to do with computing.
How Stuff Works: Computers
How
Does a T1 Line Work?
How
DSL Works (Digital Subscriber Line)
How
Firewalls Work
How
IP Telephony Works (VOIP and Voice Over Internet Protocol); includes
information on PBX (Private Branch eXchange)
NPower Technology
Resource Center
Free articles, tools and resources to help nonprofits use technology to
better serve their communities.
ONE/Northwest
An online reference with brief, jargon-free articles to help you use technology.
Techdictionary.com
Chat abbreviations that are used in Chat Rooms, Instant Messaging, Short
Message Service (SMS),
and Email -- have fun!
TechSoup
One of the nation's oldest and largest nonprofit technology assistance
agencies, TechSoup.org offers nonprofits a one-stop resource for technology
needs by providing free information, resources, and support.
Voice over IP
The term Voice over IP (Internet Protocol) means many different things
to
many different people. The term describes an Internet protocol
(defined set of standards for how these should be transported across the
Internet) that was set up years ago to standardize the way phone calls
would go across the Internet.
However, most of the VOIP does not go across the Internet, it goes across
telephone lines.
Normal telephone traffic on a POTS line (plain old telephone system) takes
up 64K of bandwidth per call. If VOIP is used to compress the calls coming
into that line, then you can get multiple calls going across that same
64K
of bandwidth, thus reducing your costs because you do not have to have
to
use as many telephone lines.
Telephone companies have figured this out years ago and are using VOIP
to
send their long distance calls across telephone lines, thus reducing their
cost for these calls. Telco people say that about 60-70% of calls going
across long distance telephone lines are using VOIP. That does not mean
they are using the Internet, only that they are using that
protocol.
How can VOIP be used in 2-1-1 centers? The state of Texas takes all calls
from Central Offices (little brick buildings around town that house
several exchanges) and converts them to VOIP, sending them over state
lines to a network that will determine whether to send the call to the
closest 2-1-1 or to send it somewhere else (according to a pre defined
set
of rules). They are using telephone lines, but it is much cheaper to use
the VOIP because they can send multiple calls on one line.
The other use for VOIP would be where you are setting up remote sites.
An
example of this might be where you have the main call center in one city
and a small rural county has one person to answer the calls during the
day
and gives night and weekend calls to the main center. The remote center
could be set up using a VOIP setup where all of the phone
features of the main call center would be available to the remote
center, they would use the same types of phones, and all the phone
statistics could be kept for the remote center by the main center. If
the
remote center (which is looked at as an extension by the main center phone
system) gets too backed up, the main center could answer the extra calls.
It would be as if it was in a cubicle in the same building. These could
be
connected either by the Internet or by a phone line. This setup could
be
used to send calls to an at-home staff person as well, but this is not
easy, and would require a high level of understanding of how to use and
program your phone system.
If you are not using a statewide system and do not have any remote sites,
it does not make much sense to use VOIP, unless you are actually willing
to use the Internet. There is danger in using the Internet, it is not
as
reliable as phone lines so you could lose some calls (although not many).
There also might be sometimes that it sounds kind of jerky, but that would
depend a lot on your connection to the Internet and how good it is. But
if
some of your phone traffic comes long distance
(usually over 800 lines) you may want to look into using VOIP over the
Internet. The problem will be that you will have to have a server to
convert the calls at each call origination location which will have to
have an Internet connection. You will have to weigh the costs.
Peter S. Bishop MA
Manager 2-1-1
United Way of America
peter.bishop@uwa.unitedway.org
Webopedia
Online dictionary of easy-to-understand definitions of words, phrases
and abbreviations that are related to computer and Internet technology.
WhatIs.com
Definitions for thousands of the most current information technology-related
words.
Wisconsin State Law Library Newsletters - Each newsletter contains Tech Tips.