[Asterisk-Users] SoftPhones: Bad, or just bad QoS?

[Ed Pastore]

On Jul 14, 2005, at 11:20 PM, Time Bandit wrote:

>> Is the problem that the technology isn't mature, that the load on the
>> computer is too high, or simply that it doesn't work well in a poorly
>> designed network?
>>
> YMMV. I like the portability of a softphone, but sound may jitter
> because of other apps running on the computer.

Any idea if this applies to Mac OS X clients? We are a strictly Mac  
company, and OS X's Unix core allows for preemptive multitasking. If  
I am unhappy with the performance of the soft phones, I should be  
able to tweak the priority of the phone so that it gets more compute  
cycles.

(Well, in any event, it sounds like I need to set up Asterisk at Home  
and see for myself. But of course I won't be able to easily simulate  
20 users on the phone at the same time, so real-world feedback is  
always appreciated.)

I like not only the portability of the soft phone, but the potential  
hooks into other information systems. My eventual goal is to have  
incoming calls trigger a query on our main database on the Caller ID  
supplied phone number. That way a record for that person will open up  
on a user's computer the moment they receive a call (assuming the  
numbers match). I also like the integration of OS X's AddressBook  
with soft phones, so that people can dial right from their main  
contact list.