Can I use a Home Alarm system, DVR or TIVO with VOIP?

TIVO equipment may require an updated adapter that is provided by TIVO. It is not a gaurantee that your current DVR equipment will work with VOIP.
Most of the latest DVR equipment uses your internet connection via your home LAN. Many older devices require dial-tone. The dial tone provided by voip may or may not allow modem based data transfers. One of the biggest issues when using VOIP is the QoS and the codecs being used. If you refer to this article http://www.mylowphone.com/2008/11/what-fax-equipment-and-protocols-work-with-voip/ you will see the problems associated with VOIP and faxing or other types of handshake reliant communications.

The same problems that you would have with FAXING will also apply to DVR and Home security systems. VOIP service providers use a compression method known as a codec. The G.729 codec which uses lossy compression, reduces the amount of bandwidth required, but will introduce noise to the call. With this in play your DVR or security system will have problems establishing a modem connection. One way to to fix this problem is to switch the hardware (ATA) to the G.711 codec which uses no compression schemes requiring more bandwidth but with no quality loss. Unfortunately when using more bandwidth you may then introduce other problems that exist when you get close to the max limitations of your internet services. One of which is throttling, this is when your service provider ‘pumps the brakes’ on your connection speed in order to pulse your usage and thus reduces the overhead on the line itself.

Your best bet is to check with the VOIP provider before you sign up for service.

 

 

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Filed under: General VOIP Information

Comments

  1. Derek Says:

    I have used VOIP.com and Vonage and both of them could not handle my DirectTV box, each one dropped the box off the DTV network. I had DTV technicians come out and they spent a few hours trying to get this to work.

    Trust me don’t get voip if you have DTV!

  2. Tom fluilkicuri Says:

    Very usefull post.
    Thanks.
    P.S. I like your writing style.

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