Benefits and Disadvantages of VoIP and VPN

In the online world, there are networks everywhere. Some of them, anyone can access like the largest network in the world known as the World Wide Web. Others are more secure such as your standard office network in which you have multiple computers connected together. Still, you have an even more secure network which is encrypted and prevents anyone without the right permissions from gaining access to the network. The later is known as a VPN or virtual private network.

There are many benefits of a VPN which so many businesses have found over the years and which many homeowners are finding useful around the house. The VPN is secure. This means there is no one anonymously surfing around the private network. Because you have an encrypted VPN, they can exist anywhere and in any already existing network. At work, if you have a network of computers and a network administrator, chances are that there is at least one VPN on your network that you do not even know is there. It gives the administrator access to the computers on the network to monitor and update them. It gives the company owner a way of monitoring all the terminals or even handle business decisions from any location in the world without exposing those decisions to the general public.

In your home, a VPN will allow you to monitor and update your children’s computer without them even knowing you are there. You can see what sites they are visiting, without ever having to step foot in their room or giving them an opportunity to hide what they are doing online.

Since they can exist in any other network, it allows a business person to go over seas and still be able to connect with his or her home office’s network in order to conduct business. It is very commonplace too. When you go to the airport, and you pick up your plane ticket and select your seat, how do you think the destination knows what seat you picked? This is not the type of information they want freely available over the internet, but if you have the right encryption key, you can access it from anyplace in the world.

But keep in mind that these are just some of the many benefits of a VPN. Every day more and more uses are being discovered. Some of them may be important to you or your business while others may not be important at all, but none the less it is a constantly developing technology which gets better every single day.

With all of the hype surrounding the use of VOIP rather then a traditional telephone line, many people have failed to realize that there are also many disadvantages of VOIP. Sure the cost is relatively affordable in comparison to a traditional telephone, and while there may not be many disadvantages if you only make calls near your home, but there will always be latency. Not to mention the security issues with communicating over an open line.

VoIP is not inherently secure. Setting up a secure VoIP involves knowledge of encryption techniques and secure firewalls. Otherwise your communications could easily be intercepted by unscrupulous individuals who are out to steal your identity or attack your business. It is important that you take seriously your VoIP security if you are planning on running a business that requires any sort of privacy.

When you make a call using a VOIP phone, your call has to go to a server then it is routed elsewhere. Since sound traveling across most internet connections is not capable of traveling at the speed of light, you have latency. Latency is a difference between the exact moment a bit of data is sent and the moment that same bit is received. The greater the distance a signal has to travel, the more latency there is.

This can really be bad if you are planning on living abroad and having a local telephone number. Let’s say that you have made the decision to move or retire in the Philippines, but you want a phone number in the United States. Well you may be surprised to find that the average latency in the Philippines is 350 milliseconds. This means that when you say something, it takes a third of a second before the person on the other end hears it. Then when they reply, it takes another third of a second before you hear it; and that is on a good day because some times the latency can be so great, you may have several seconds of nothing as you wait for the person on the other end to hear you and reply.

Of course there are other issues as well such as the inability to call 911 assistance using VOIP. Just because you are paying for a phone number, does not mean it is actually registered to you. If you called the police using a VOIP phone and failed to give the home address, ell then they will show up at the office where the server is and not at your home. As a result, many companies are preventing the use of 911 altogether. So if someone breaks into your home, you will need to use your cell phone or run down the street to a pay phone just to get help.

Before you decide to make the switch from a landline to a VOIP telephone, you will need to weigh both the advantages as well as disadvantages before determining whether this type of home or business telephone is right for your situation.