[asterisk-users] Which internet phone protocol best to choose

[Tilghman Lesher]

On Friday 12 September 2008 18:31:23 Alex Balashov wrote:
> The short answer is SIP.
>
> Stefan Gofferje wrote:
> > http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-IAX
> > http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-IAX+versus+SIP
> > http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+IAX+clients

The longer and more accurate answer is that it depends on what you're doing
and what your goals are.  If you need to be able to pierce firewalls and
handle NAT easily, especially in areas where a government-controlled telephone
monopoly might be hostile to VoIP, then IAX2 is for you.

If, on the other hand, interoperability and choice of phones are what you
need, then SIP is pretty much a no-brainer.

Of course, nothing prevents you from using SIP for phones and IAX2 for
backbone, either.  Notably missing to this discussion are the MGCP and H.323
protocols, which probably aren't much use to you, unless you need to connect
to certain VoIP providers who haven't yet upgraded their equipment to the 21st
century.

-- 
Tilghman