When you make a phone call on a normal France Telecom line, it goes to the local exchange and the quality of the call is generally good. However, many with an Internet access, connect their phones to their ADSL box and get the benefit of cheaper calls. But have you noticed how the quality can suffer?

One way that ISP's can reduce costs is to avoid much of the France Telecom network. They direct calls through their network and equipment, which then competes for bandwidth with connected computers and the rest of the network.

The ADSL router converts your voice in to a digital stream of numbers. It sends that data over the Internet using what is called VOIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol.

IP is part of what makes the Internet work. It forms part of the addressing system, how each computer can uniquely identify itself and therefore receive information directed to it.

When you dial a number, mobile or land line, the Internet Provider makes a connection to an exchange, and eventually to the party you have dialed. They convert the digital stream back in to sound so the people you have called can hear you.

I have about 5 computers connected to my own ADSL router and when they are all in use, the quality of phone calls drops considerably. At times the calls have been so bad I have had to disconnect one or two PC's so that the quality is good enough that conversation can continue.

ISP's who handle calls in this way offer a 'service' called 'degrouping'. This is when France Telecom are almost cut out of the picture. All call charges come from your ISP and they are mostly responsible for the line. Of course this can make for 'interesting' times when things start to go wrong. It can be a real pain trying to find out who is responsible for what when things stop working and you are unable to access the Internet.

And that in turn leads on to another problem. If you have an Internet connection and all your calls go through your ISP, sure you get lower calls charges but what happens when the connection goes dead? With no Internet connection – NO PHONE CALLS!

I am considering a second phone line just for phone calls. A normal line that does not require an Internet connection to work. It would mean more bandwidth for our own computers but also, if there is a problem with our connection we would have a line to use that would not be effected.