Members daklander Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Yep.So long Verizon land line and your $75.00 per month fees. I've gone to Vonage. I signed up last week and got the router today. Took all of 10 minutes to set up and most of that was crawling under the desk to access the cables & modem. $25.00 a month for the same type of service is a nice savings. Running on a 4 Mbps cable modem I can't hear a voice quality difference with two phones hooked up so far. Once my number is transfered over I'll disconnect the Verizon service and route the whole house to the router. For the time being one hard wired phone and one portable will hold us over.We'll see if there's a voice quality degradation while downloading or uploading files.I got the hard wired router at no charge and will, sometime in the near future, order up a wireless router or grab another one to replace the D-Link unit that took a dump. I was also able to get a kick on the access/setup charges so the only thing I paid for up front was shipping and tax to the tune of under 12 bucks.Part of the decision was my local multiple listing service going to an electronic key update system that works via the internet in lieu of the analog land line cradle that was required until just recently. That is something I brought up with them several months ago.If this voip continues to impress me I'll upgrade to the business plan and still save about 35 bucks over the old land line features. Anyone else going with Vonage or another hardware voip system?Bitches? Accolades? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Edge100 Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 What happens if the power goes out? How do you call the power company to tell them? Seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doug osborne Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Originally posted by Edge100 What happens if the power goes out? How do you call the power company to tell them?Seriously. Vonage automatically forwards your calls to a phone number of your choice if your or their system goes down. I have specified my cell phone number, which is the obvious answer to your question, unless you don't have a cell phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doug osborne Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Originally posted by daklander Yep.So long Verizon land line and your $75.00 per month fees. I've gone to Vonage. ...Anyone else going with Vonage or another hardware voip system?Bitches? Accolades? You missed the Verizon Sucks! thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members daklander Posted January 13, 2006 Author Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Originally posted by doug osborne You missed the Verizon Sucks! thread. I read that thread and really, the only real issue I had with Verizon land line was price vs service. I've been a Verizon wireless customer since, I think, 1994 and have had overall good service from them. And yes, I have calls forewarded to my cell phone in case of an outage on the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members daklander Posted January 13, 2006 Author Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 So Doug, how long have you been with Vonage? Any insight you want to lay out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doug osborne Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Originally posted by daklander So Doug, how long have you been with Vonage? Any insight you want to lay out? Nearly two years. Just make sure your HSI is reliable. And that you have enough upload bandwidth. And that your kids don't play multi-player games in the internet using all of your bandwidth...or your calls will stu- stu- stutter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Edge100 Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Originally posted by doug osborne Vonage automatically forwards your calls to a phone number of your choice if your or their system goes down. I have specified my cell phone number, which is the obvious answer to your question, unless you don't have a cell phone. Good to know. I always wondered about this since it seemed to be the only drawback for me. That having been said, I dont have a cell phone (gasp!), so VoIP might not be for me just yet. Thanks for the info, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hush Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Originally posted by Edge100 What happens if the power goes out? How do you call the power company to tell them?Seriously. I have my Cable modem, router, and wireless base on battery backup. If the power goes out my phone still works. I never tested for how long but I suspect it would last at least a few hours. That's as long as I shut down the computer right away. I've been using Vonage for about a year and it's been pretty good. We occasionally get drop outs in the middle of calls. We're not sure wether its a hardware problem with the phone or an internet congestion problem. I suspect internet congestion as sometimes it corresponds with IM getting knocked off too. Marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fantasticsound Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Don't have Vonage (Hell, we don't have highspeed internet. .) but my company has used a Sysco, VOIP phone system for almost a year and we're loving it. We're on a T1 line, so bandwidth isn't an issue with our 25 or so users. The system itself is housed in a single rackspace, though fairly deep unit. Each "outlet" on the unit is wired to an ethernet jack in each office that daisy chains through the phone to the computer. Haven't had any major issues internally. The sound quality is as good as analog, if not better. If I had to nitpick, my only complaint is a hardware issue with the conference call phone. Unlike the other phone models, it does not have ethernet throughput to connect your computer, and we don't have wireless internet capable of reaching that room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AudioMaverick Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Originally posted by Hush I have my Cable modem, router, and wireless base on battery backup... Marc I have UPS units on just about everything (4 of them - Server, workstations, home theater...). Last Friday, there was a 20 second power drop up here in Big Bear around 10PM. Charter dropped for nearly 7 hours. At least the server logs showed the pop3 connector was down that long. The Vonage idea sounds possible for us with the forward option. I was waiting for Charter to get their phone service going so I could reap the discounts of having 2 of their 3 services. But, we would be S.O.L. with both, if we get another broad band drop. I recently set up Skype (www.Skype.com) to try out quality and bandwidth. It is a great way to test you BB throughput. Of course, you need a headset or decent microphone/headphone setup. Right now, I am using the optical output of my sound card to drive a receiver. Amazingly, I am not getting feedback from the microphones. But, there is an advantage to going analog with weak incoming signals. And, running a pair of NT1000s is pretty cool... VoIP is going to be the near future. I am convinced. But, there needs to be a shake up in the incompatible offerings. Either they go to a standard, or someone becomes it by defacto. I think Vonage is supporting a technology that should be passing (land line), just as FAX doesn't seem to be doing. Once that happens, this should take off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rim Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 For you VoIPers, have you asked your carrier about making emergency (911) calls? Last I read, it hadn't been fully resolved in that you either can't make those calls from VoIP or the police can't tell where you are calling from (unlike a land line). Something to ask about if you're considering going VoIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doug osborne Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Originally posted by rim For you VoIPers, have you asked your carrier about making emergency (911) calls? Last I read, it hadn't been fully resolved in that you either can't make those calls from VoIP or the police can't tell where you are calling from (unlike a land line).Something to ask about if you're considering going VoIP. Could be a problem. It's because the wireless telcos don't want to give up their GPS data, or build the infrastructure necessary to connect that to local lawn forcement. I have my local police number stored in each of my phones, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members daklander Posted January 13, 2006 Author Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Originally posted by rim For you VoIPers, have you asked your carrier about making emergency (911) calls? Last I read, it hadn't been fully resolved in that you either can't make those calls from VoIP or the police can't tell where you are calling from (unlike a land line).Something to ask about if you're considering going VoIP. Vonage sets up 911 for your address upon sign up. If a person moves the address has to be updated.Other VOIPs I don't know about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AudioMaverick Posted January 13, 2006 Members Share Posted January 13, 2006 Emergency calls are NOT supported, by default. And, they have that embrazened on their legal pages! IP addresses are non-geographic... There is no easy way to route an emergency call to a specific call center. Your best bet is to call the general office number and hope there is an option in the menu system to roll you over to somewhere. But, that is not officially supported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Addix Metzatricity Posted January 14, 2006 Members Share Posted January 14, 2006 I use Lingo, and it's been absolutely fantastic! I can use it as a landline to connect my work-laptop to the work-server, it's clear, I've noticed no slowing in my up/download speeds even when I'm on the phone, 911 works (I had to fill out a form to have the information available for them, so I guess they can't trace it), and it costs less than $17/mo. I've got no complaints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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