Working with Dr. Haniph Latchman would be great. Among other classes, he teaches communications, computer communications, and control systems. I was in two out of three of those classes. So I knew he was a good teacher, and thought he would be a great manager and enriching to working at his telecommunications research lab (LIST). I was honored he asked me to take on this project. He would provide the 2 computers, and fund $600 for the LineJACK VoIP cards.

At first, I wasn't going to accept since I was swamped with other work in my last semester. I had another project (Ethernet card for the MSX computer), was working part time at an Internet company, and was taking care of the details of graduation. It was a big project and I had no clue what VoIP was about - the protocols, programs or hardware available.

But I took on the project because of two reasons:

1. Girlfriend in Brazil. If I could get VoIP to work here, I could set-up the system in her city in southern Brazil I could talk to her for free and would start a business I could work from Brazil. Unfortunately, we broke-up a month later in February so no business ventures in Brazil for me.
2. Four other students in my class were interested. They all were excited about the idea of the project and I didn't want to miss out on a chance to work with such an enthusiastic group. We could form a team and delegate tasks.

So, I and four others took the plunge into the world of VoIP. Besides being a project for a class, I also made this VoIP project my highest honors (Summa Cum Laude) thesis paper.

The PhoniGators team -
  Back row: Harsha, Janarhdan, Sajan
  Front row: Dave, Ramya

Humorously named the PhoniGators, our group's website maintained by Sajan:

Quick stats of the PhoniGators project:

1. OS - Windows 98 SE
2. Hardware - 2 PCs, 133 MHz ,CDROM, Ethernet card, and available ISA slots
3. Special hardware - 2 Quicknet LineJACK cards VoIP, ISA (www.quicknet.com)
4. Programs - PSTNgw from OpenH323.org that uses the H.323 protocols (www.openh323.org)