We've traversed the acronym laden landscape of VoIP for you, and present you with the PC Authority guide to VoIP: what it is, what kinds of services you can find, what savings you can expect to make and how it is that you can go about setting up VoIP for yourself at home.

It turns out that Microsoft [I]is[/I] bringing out Windows XP Media Center Edition in Australia, but until such time as it materialises -- and Microsoft Australia is being very sketchy on the dates -- those of us looking to integrate our PC media files with our televisions and hi-fi systems have to turn to bridging solutions.

Part 1 of our VoIP product and services roundup includes: MyNetFone, Broadbandphone, Skype, Firefly, BBP Global and Chat-Cord.

Voice recognition is the holy grail of computing: the ability to walk around your room and dictate to your PC is an attractive one, however the real experience with voice recognition is far different.

Type: Phone adapterSupplier: OzVoIP (02) 9016 3844Price: $45

Type: Soft phoneWeb: www.skype.com

This solid metal access point is made for business with plenty of ports and connectivity options, but it's a little light on software and driver support.

Although the dual-band NETGEAR WAB501 was an excellent PCMCIA card and scored well, we rated the single-band 802.11a NETGEAR HA501 higher because of its ability to cope with dire signal conditions.

Unlike the Surecom EP-9500 access point, this Surecom PCMCIA card featured a clean and uncluttered software interface

Surecom's EP-9500 access point is one for the technically adept, as the user manual and software CD are next to useless.

Designed in Melbourne, the Century CD can store up to 100 discs but instead of using the shelf-like arrangement of the Fortuna (reviewed March 2002, page 90), the Century CD sports a turntable arrangement reminiscent of old carousel slide projectors.

If your desk is anything like mine, the monitor is ringed with untidy stacks and toppled piles of CDs. It's not all chaos - there's a chronological order to it - the most recently used discs are those thrown on top.

Part 2 of our VoIP products and services roundup includes: MailVoice, LetsChat, Netgear TA612V, Netcomm V40 and Octtel gateway.

Type: HandsetPrice: TBASupplier: Netcomm

Type: VoIP service with ATA Web: www.myfone.com.auPrice: $149 plus monthly charges

This unit is quite similar to the Pinnacle ShowCentre in look, as it's a wide and deep slimline component for nestling in amongst your other hi-fi componentry.

Netgear's Wireless Digital Music Player, the MP101 is one of the easiest music streamers we've reviewed, but for rich multimedia support you should look further a field especially if you're keen on streaming video to your equipment.

With the prevalence of Net connections and all the good things a connected society brings such as community, the ability to share ideas and the openness of information, comes the flipside of digital life -- hackers, spyware, viruses and spam.

Adobe has been riding high on the success of the portable document format (PDF), and the Acrobat creation tools needed to generate them. Later in the year version 6.0 will be launched, but in the meantime we have a preview of Acrobat Professional 6.0 Beta.