As soon as you mention the word VoIP, everyone responds with “Skype?” This immediately gets me into an discussion why people should not use Skype. The fact that your computer is used as a link to route traffic, much like BitTorrent. That it is based on a proprietary protocol, only known by Skype, so no other manufacturers can make compatible equipment without permisson (and probably a big fat wad of cash) to Skype Corporation.
All this means that there’s no connection between Skype and regular SIP phones that is emerging as the standard for VoIP calls. But all hope is not lost.
The Gizmo Project is a program that’s much like Skype, except it’s based on standard codecs and protocols. That means that anyone using Gizmo could call someone with a different provider of VoIP. You can also set up so your Asterisk server automatically receives calls from Gizmo and direct them to their extension. All for free.
All new users get a SIP phone number that can be used from other SIP phones.
So if you already have an Asterisk server, now it should be easy to convince people to try Gizmo out. They can call you for free to your regular phone, and you can call Gizmo users as well.
So I’m going to see if I manages to convert my friends to use Gizmo Project instead. There’s a client for Mac, Windows and Linux.