Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #253013 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-30
• Released on: 2005-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 502 pages

Customer Reviews

Good choice for investigating VoIP for your organization...
It seems like Voice over Internet Protocol, aka VoIP, is starting to become much more mainstream. Not only are businesses switching over, but now you can set up your home phone access to use VoIP (aka "broadband") technology. Ted Wallingford has done a nice job in explaining the business side of the possibilities in the book Switching to VoIP - A Solutions Manual for Network Professionals.

Contents: Voice and Data - Two Separate Worlds?; Voice over Data - Many Conversations, One Network; Linux as a PBX; Circuit-Switched Telephony; Enterprise Telephone Applications; Replacing the Voice Circuit with VoIP; Replacing Call Signaling with VoIP; VoIP Readiness; Quality of Service; Security and Monitoring; Troubleshooting Tools; PSTN Trunks; Network Infrastructure for VoIP; Traditional Apps on the Converged Network; What Can Go Wrong?; VoIP Vendors and Services; Asterisk Reference; SIP Methods and Responses; AGI Commands; Asterisk Manager Socket API Syntax; Glossary; Index

I think the biggest thing to keep in mind when approaching this book is the target audience. While there are a few books out there on "internet telephones" that talk to the consumer, this isn't one of them. The tag line of "for Network Professionals" is the key here. While you don't have to be a network guru to read this book, some level of familiarity with network and telephony concepts would help. Someone either working with the communication systems in a company or heading up a communications department would be a perfect match here. You'd probably even do alright if you just have an interest in the subject, as Wellingford does a good job taking what can be complex material and making it understandable. An admirable task in itself...

What makes this book stand out from other books I'd expect to see is that it doesn't just dwell on jargon and theory. There are a number of projects included in the book so you can get your hands dirty actually working with the technology. Add to that the fact that the author uses an open source PBX system called Asterisk for the exercises. So now you have no reason in terms of cost for not diving right in.

Although I'm not necessarily the target audience for this book, I'd have no problem recommending it to someone looking for material that covers this subject. The book is very well written, and after finishing it you should have a very firm grasp of the essentials. You might even know enough to start yourself on your next career path... :)

Pretty Good
As the telcom manager for a rather large enterprise (45,000 users) I try to keep up on the various books on VoIP and this one is pretty good. It is designed towards someone who is knowledgeable about voice and data but not necessarily someone how is an expert in either subject. It also does a very good job of not focusing on any one type of technology but covers H.323, SIP and Cisco amongst many others and gives you a good sense of each flavor that is available. I would recommend it for anyone looking to deploy VoIP.

A very thorough introduction
I can't say this book will answer every question you might have about every piece of VoIP hardware on the market today, but it does a pretty good job of building an understanding of the core concepts shared amongst all the brand names so that you can make the jump from general to specific without too much hair pulling. If any specific product is given more attention than others, it's Asterisk, but that's not only welcome, it's unavoidable given the subject matter. The treatment it receives here also beats the everloving tar out of the O'Reilly book dedicated to Asterisk exclusively.