Sorenson Vp-100 & D-Link DVC-1000 Videophone Communication

Published in SWCDHH What's Up?! newsletter
September-October 2004 issue
By Frank Mounts

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So many people have difficulty understanding how Sorenson VP-100 and D-link videophone users can “connect” with each other.
Written by Frank Mounts

First of all, I’m not turning this into another Micro$oft monopoly bashing!

But this is exactly where Sorenson is in the VRS market.

Sorenson VRS had taken an aggressive marketing, distribution and deal-with-customers-later stance with a very long waiting list for a free VP-100 Videophone. They have already given out more than 8,000 customized VP-100 videophones out to the Deaf/HH community.

Sorenson customized their own VP-100 videophones with their own firmware (software that run on VP-100) which has its own private “gateway” of registered VP-100 phone numbers. That means Sorenson VP-100 videophone users may call each other by use of “artificial” phone numbers. The phone numbers are used instead of IP addresses because phone numbers are easier to remember.

D-Link videophone are generalized technology currently available to the public which may be purchased in technology stores like Best Buy. It has its own public “gateway” of registered phone numbers.

What happens if Sorenson VP-100 gateway is private and closed to “outside” world and the D-link gateway is publicly available?

The result is both gateways do not work together. Sorenson had made sure of that and gained the edge in the VRS market; however, advocates like NAD(National Association of the Deaf) had sent letters to Sorenson asking them to “open up” their private gateway to the public and to allow their VP-100 to access other VRS providers. Sorenson is blocking other VRS providers on their VP-100 making sure people only will use Sorenson’s Video Relay Service.

Although, Sorenson has made attempts to block out non-Sorenson videophones which causes the inability for VP-100 videophones not to connect with other D-link videophones by using phone numbers.

BUT there is a way in!

Allow me to teach you how you can connect with a VP-100 from another video conferencing sources (such as D-link videophone and web cams. )

NON-SORENSON TO SORENSON VP-100 USERS
How do it? IP address is the answer!

What is IP address?
IP address is like a “phone number” of your computer or videophone which looks like, “66.92.192.104”. (That’s SWCDHH’s IP address for incoming video calls)

There are MILLIONS of computers in the world, so there are MILLIONS of IP addresses given to computers and devices. It is an universal address which cannot be blocked by VP-100.

How to connect with Sorenson VP-100 videophone:
You need to find out your IP address so you can give the IP address to your friend to connect you. OR your friend can find out their IP address and give it to you, EITHER WAY WORKS.

HOW TO FIND OUT THE IP ADDRESS

Type “www.whatismyip.com” onto your web browser address bar like this example below:

You will see something like this:

66.92.192.104

NO COMPUTER? ONLY HAVE VIDEOPHONE?

Using your remote, click on ‘Settings’, then ‘Network’, then ‘Public IP Address’ then copy the IP address: Public IP address: ###.###.###.###

Now you have your IP address and you can give that address to whoever wants to connect with you.

OR… IF YOU KNOW YOUR FRIEND’s IP ADDRESS:
To connect to a Sorenson VP-100 from your D-link videophone:

From your remote: Click on ‘Dial’, then ‘Manual Dial’, then put down your friend’s IP address then OK.

You should be having a BLAST chatting on your TV!

This works EITHER WAY. You look up YOUR IP address and give to your friend OR your friend looks up their IP address and give it to you.