Graves on SOHO Technology

I started writing this blog just over six months ago. It was largely a reaction to the fact that I saw a lot of people in various places asking the same questions over and over again. How do I make the best of VOIP in my home or home office? What is QoS? How do I ensure call quality?

I’ve been involved with VOIP in one fashion or another since 1997. Back then I lived in Toronto and was engaged to my lovely wife, who lived in Texas. Back then dial-up was the primary means of internet access and long distance calling was costly. We used software from Vocaltech to stay in touch over 1800 miles apart.

I’ve worked from a home office since 1998 when I moved to Texas. It always grieved me to pay the traditional telecom carriers for service while suffering their definition of customer service. So I was driven to explore VOIP for the home office. We’ve had some form of VOIP service since 2002. We’ve had an Asterisk server in production since late in 2003.

It’s been a long and winding road making VOIP work for us, but we’ve done it. This culminates in the fact that we haven’t had a POTS line since June 2005. We’re 100% VOIP for home and business.

We’re still actively exploring VOIP advantages for SOHO. Hardware. Software. Services. All of it. The experience gained along this path is what I set out to share.

I’m continuously surprised at how many people visit this site. The traffic has grown steadily and this past month we managed over 3500 page views. Not bad for a guy who simply got tired of repeating the same answers again and again in public forums.

My aim is to keep undertaking projects that expand my experience, then share that experience openly and honestly. To those who happen by to read this, I welcome your comments…and I thank you.

To my wife, thank you ever so much for your patience. She especially likes when the phones work. They undergo rigorous, daily spousal approval testing.