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Thinking About VoIP Home Service? Think Twice There are some definite advantages to having VoIP service, but there are some definite disadvantages as well, some you may need to consider long including hard before signing up with your VoIP provider of choice Sure Voice over Internet Protocol should significantly reduce the amount of dollars you may spend on long distance charges if you make lots of out of area calls, which for most users is why they will need VoIP service in the first place. But few people consider what they are giving up for the sake of new technology. Companies are switching to VoIP service for the larger benefits that it provides the business arena. Voice over Internet Protocol offers business the ability to do more effective multi user collaborations. It gives them a better range of scalability in managing communication including data networks including the ability to merge the 2 if needed. But what most large businesses have that the home users does not have are technical support people to manage including monitor their communications networks. Here in lays the beginning pertaining to the list of disadvantages to the home consumer. If you know everything regarding Internet service at all, you are by now aware of some pertaining to the dangers of using the internet including how they should affect you personally. Things like Identity theft, phishing scams, Spam, Viruses, malware, Trojans, Dos or denial of service attacks, including other nasty internet problems. What most people don't know it that VoIP services at present are susceptible to most all of these types of problems including a few new ones that came regarding including are targeted directly at VoIP service users. Although some pertaining to the terms used to describe the problems should have changes a bit at the time applied to VoIP, it does not lessen their impact. Things like Spam have become SPIT or Spamming over Internet Telephony. The purpose of the article is not to go into detail regarding describing individual threats to VoIP service but shed some light on the fact that there are concerns. Eavesdropping is the common way that most credentials including other information are stolen via VoIP. By the means a third party should collect names, password including phone numbers, giving them the means to gain control over voicemail boxes, calling plan variable setups, call forwarding including billing information. Through these kinds of captured information, the hackers should begin the process of theft of service. Call tampering is made much easier for those that know how, by use of Voice over Internet Protocol. The ability to carry out so called Man-in-the-middle attacks is what 1 should compare to a physical line tap that you hear regarding law enforcement doing in the news, except that hackers should now do it, without you know it, gaining information of all sorts that you should divulge in a normal conversation. During these kinds of attacks, the hacker should do several things, from disrupting the voice call by dirtying up the connection, to intercepting information that could put you at risk for identity theft, to actually intercepting including replacing information with their own, depending on the type of information sent, such as fax transmissions or possibly fabricated voice communications. Many VoIP services should run on what are known as softphone, which are applications run on PC's or PDA's, opening these devises up to all manner of virus including malware. What has been outlined here, should give home users cause to consider more carefully their decision to signup with a VoIP service provider. There are measures that should be taken to protect end users from the Internet Nasties associated with VoIP but they add to the complexity pertaining to the entire process including eventually to the cost. Providers are working had on implementing security measure that could protect customers from these security threats, but it is not a perfect world. My advice, if you currently have DSL including regular phone company service, will be to consider at great length if the dollars you save is worth the security you should have to give up to have inexpensive long distance Service. Tomorrow may bring a day at the time all home based voice communications travel over VoIP networks, but its not going to happen over night so to speak. How safe do you feel at the time you pick up your phone?
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