Originally Posted by Etoile

I can't believe people are still talking about Sorenson VP numbers being "fake" and saying they want "real" phone numbers. Let me put this very, very clearly.

High speed internet does not work on the phone system. Your VP does not have a phone number, it is connected to the internet, not a phone.

You cannot have a phone number for your VP because that's not the way technology works. Your VP only has an IP address, same for VOIP services like Vonage. Nobody who uses the internet for communications has a real phone number, what you have is a code that is 10 digits that tells the person what IP to connect to. That's all it is, not a phone number! This is why some people have VP numbers that are not available to dial with a phone. Let's say I know someone whose VP number is (212) 003-5268. You can't use a zero to start when you dial a phone. So it looks like a real number, but it's not.

As for opening the directory...that means opening it so people who use IP addresses (like webcam users) can also use these fake phone numbers. Instead of typing 244.85.36.50 to call my friend, I can just use her fake 212 number. The big "secret" is just what the number translates to. What if no VPs ever had anything but IP numbers? What if Sorenson didn't use this easy-to-remember 10-digit number? Well then we would all be dialing IP addresses and nobody would feel they were missing anything. Because that's all a Sorenson number is...a code that translates into an IP address. Same thing for My IP Relay. They use a phone number and it translates into an AIM name. Same thing. NONE of these are "real" phone numbers, if you pick up a regular phone and call, you cannot be connected to someone using AIM! You are on a phone and they are on the internet. Two different things.

The new DirectVP numbers from Sorenson are a step in the right direction, but they are not YOUR VP's number. When someone dials that number, the Sorenson system sees what number they were calling, and translates that into an IP address that is connected with that number. But you're still going through that translation process.

Now, the point of having these numbers is to make it easier to remember. If it is 10 digits, then we are very used to remembering that kind of number because we use it for phones. It also fits into software very nicely...anytime someone needs to record a phone number, the program lets them put in 10 digits, so these aliases ("fake" numbers) fit very well.

But VPs (and My IP Relay and Vonage) don't use "real" phone numbers. They use 10-digit codes that the software translates into an IP address and connects to you.

If I am misunderstanding the issue, please tell me. This has frustrated me for a long time that people don't know how VP connections work. They get very upset because they can't have a "real" number but they don't realize how it works and WHY they don't get a "real" number. I just want people to understand how it works. And of course if I am wrong, please correct me.