VoIP has become a hot topic and already is a part of our life.
Different standards and platforms are already in development and use:
H.323 and SIP are only some of the most famous used VoIP protocols. A
marvellous piece of software called Asterisk PBX
(http://www.asterisk.org), developed by Mark Spenser from Digium Inc.
(http://www.digium.com) proved again that the Open Source CAN PRODUCE
QUALITATIVE SOFTWARE for the business and can save money with its full
set of features of an advanced PBX. In the process of the development
of Asterisk a new protocol has gathered the attention among the VoIP
users - the Inter-Asterisk eXchange, or IAX (TM), Protocol, used as a
the native communication protocol between Asterisk PBX Servers. What is
particularly good in it is that it requires only one UDP port per
endpoint to create a successful communication channel for VoIP calls.
This makes it much friendlier for users behind NAT, which is not the
case with SIP and H.323 - they required specific router configurations
for their channel establishment, thus hindering faster spread of VoIP
on the home and corporate desktop. The IAX (TM) protocol is already
adopted by major VoIP providers and Telcos. If you register in Free
World Dialup (http://www.fwdnet.net), IAXTel (http://www.iaxtel.com) or
Freshtel (http://www.freshtel.net) or any other VoIP termination
service like VoIPUser.org (http://www.voipuser.org) or PSTN Termination
Provider like VoIP Jet (http://www.voipjet.com) then you may be
interested in using Kiax. What is Kiax? - Kiax is an IAX client
application (a so called Softphone) which allows PC users to make
ordinary VoIP calls to Asterisk servers, the same way as they do it
with their hardware telephone. It aims to provide a simple and
user-friendly graphical interface and desktop integration for calling,
contact list, call register management and easy configuration. That is
- a simple to use IAX Client.