A Review of Cloud Net from Freelance Advisor
Posted by Cloud Net on Thu, Aug 05, 2010 @ 09:30 AM
Cloud Net recently recieved this positive review from Freelance Advisor here it is as follows.
"I’ll be honest, I’ve never set up a VoIP phone before. So I decided
to try out a Cloud Net telephonic solution which enables you to make calls via a broadband connection. The good news is, it was pretty simple to set up and provides an effective service for small businesses.
There was, however, one small problem which every prospective purchaser of a VoIP phone needs to keep in mind before they make the leap…
Getting started
I happily take the Cloud Net phone out of the box, chuck the instructions to one side and have a go at setting this thing up. And to be fair it was pretty simple. In fact, I couldn’t really hope for it to be any simpler. I connect the professional looking phone to my broadband router and activate the system online with the account codes I’d been given. The online dashboard isn’t particularly scary looking which is a good sign (though I’m unlikely to delve into most of the options anytime soon being an impatient technological type).
Very quickly I’m able to make calls which can only be a good sign. And the sound quality is pretty impressive.
Oh no, I’ve cut someone off!
One drawback: because of my broadband set-up where everything is running off the same connection – I did experience an abrupt halt to a conversation! Luckily it was a dull conversation and I now had a legitimate excuse for hanging up. But what caused this? The broadband connection? Or a problem with Cloud Net itself?
Of course, it turns out it’s the broadband connection that’s the problem. And this is an aspect which any prospective purchaser of a VoIP service needs to keep in mind. In this instance, because I’m running everything off the same router it means there’s naturally going to be interruptions on the line. This would be the same regardless of your VoIP provider.
To avoid this scenario you have to ensure your broadband set-up is able to handle and maintain a strong connection for telephonic purposes. The solution is often referred to as Quality of Service (QoS), which is something that Cloud Net can provide for an extra charge – they offer voice quality broadband for small offices at £22 a month plus set-up fee.
In summary
Cloud Net works on the same logic as the likes of Skype, i.e. if you phone someone also operating via the same service then the call is free. Naturally, Cloud Net users won’t be as numerous as those of the aforementioned Skype but the service is more business orientated.
The phone itself provides all the options you would expect of a professional business service. Fairly standard features include: 4 lines, call transfers, conference calls, put callers on hold, a call log, call diversion, phone-to-phone intercom and call recording.
If you’re a freelancer who often has to get on the phone to clients then having a professional business phone will be pretty important and Cloud Net provides a decent option. Just make sure your broadband set-up is suitable."
Written by Mel Dixon
Click here for the Article
A great review, it seems however that Mel would benefit from our specially designed voice broadband which helps prioritise voice over data.
Most of us have heard stories in the past about VoIP and they usually involve poor quality and broken conversations. This is very common because your internet connection is used to carry many different types of traffic including web pages, emails and documents - many of them consuming large amounts of bandwidth.
Now the problem is that these different types of traffic share the same connection without any levels of priority - they are all battling for the same bandwidth and as a result things inevitably get delayed. This is fine for most types of traffic but voice is very sensitive to delay and packet loss - each word in a conversation needs to be delivered on time and in the correct order.
Introducing Quality of Service
Quality of Service (QoS) is used to guarantee that certain types of traffic can travel from source to destination within a given time and enables the network to prioritise traffic depending on its class.
Most providers are either unable or unwilling to provide complete end-to-end QoS and as a result their connections are usually not optimised for VoIP.
Cloud Net on the other hand offers ADSL and SDSL high capacity broadband services which not only offer greater throughput, but also provide true end-to-end Quality of Service resulting in a much more enjoyable VoIP experience.