Mondak

Anyone else out there have a service like this? Anything to stay away from? Anything good to report?

I have two land lines into my house (one home and one office although there is really no difference other than what I use them for) and I would like to convert them to VOIP. My primary reasons being

- My home phone from SBC is a ripoff. I get no good deal on Long Distance and local, I have only call waiting and caller ID and it is almost $70 a month. We almost never use it.

- This one is unique to me, but the copper in my neighborhood is REALLY old. I have a very static-y signal whenever there is any change in the weather. There have been 45 repair attempts (approx. hyperbole) and most end with a clear signal that day just to have the problem come back.

- I do like my business phone service which is from Trinsic and it is less money with unlimited long distance, call forwarding, voice mail and it is less money than my home phone. The static problem is the most troubling on this one though since I sometimes need to pretend I am a "real company" and not just some guy working out of my house.

So what other services have people tried? Any help or insight would be appreciated.

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All truth passes through three stages:
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Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER (1788-1860)

maleficent

there's a thread in here already on this - i just can't find it..

I've had Vonage for about 7 months in New Hampshire.. and will be getting it in Chicago..

the downside to it - is it's only as good as your internet connection.. my connection used to get flakey sometimes and the phone would suffer - i'd get static, disconnects, etc etc...

But for 24.99 i could call anywhere in north america (not that i have anyone to call) and they expanded it to the uk and to asia as well...

If you get a voice mail 0 you get emailed with the voicemail and you can listen to the voicemail as a wave file... kinda cool actuall.

You don't have to get the area code for the area you live in - if you have family in another area code.. you can get a phone number for their area and for them to call you - it's a local call.. you can have multiple phone numbers onn one account..

I'd go for the trial version first and see how your internet connection holds up...

(also - snce it needs power to work - if you have power outages regularly -then it kinda sucks...

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kurty[B]

I used to work customer support for a company that provided such a service. The main thing I would remind you is that it is not a dedicated line. There is no promise of service. So, if your internet connection goes down, or your power goes out you WILL NOT be able to make 911 or other emergency calls. I can't tell you how many awful stories and angry customers I would hear from who neglected to read the fine print when they signed up for this service.

It's certainly a great service, but keep those things in mind. If you do not have a cell phone, or a hard line as a back-up service in case of power outage you do not have a phone line. In your case I would certainly replace at least one of the lines.

Cynthetiq

I don't like the lack of promise of service. The Plain Old Telephone Services Lines (POTS) have their own power source and supply. They were available during the NE black out...

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Deltona Couple

I currently have VOIP thru my cable company. They have great customer service, INCREDIBLE rates, and NO problems in the 2 years I have had it for signal quality. As it is true that when the power goes out, you will lose service, I have a battery backup for mine, and it gives me over 8 hours of active service during power outages. I would look to see what different service providers give you. And shop around.

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ironman

i used to use packet8, great service, great prices and excellent customer support. I use their service for over a year, $15 a month for unlimited call to the US and Canada. But now i use Skype, calls in the US are for free, like 2cents each minute to call Europe etc... I have their skype in service, they assign you a phone number where people can call you from any phone and you can get the phone call in your computer, pda, voip phone, etc..., or forward the call to your cell phone for free. The skype in service costs 30 a year.

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smarm

I've had Vonage for probably about a year now... no local service anymore. I have a cable modem, instead of DSL, so I was able to get rid of local service completely.

After I had the service for a while it started dropping out and having voice distortions during conversations. It was pretty frustrating to figure out, but it eventually turned out to be a Cable problem. Time Warner eventually came out and replaced the "splitter" outside and it is great now.

I bought a UPS that I only plug my Cable Modem and the Vonage black box doohickey into so power outages don't affect the service (until the battery runs out in the UPS).

Overall I think it is great, and saves me $75 or more a month over what I was paying with local service and long distance from AT&T.

sjb

I use VoIP for almost everything (buy wholesale minutes and run my own asterisk server). It's nice, it's flexible, it's the best phone related thing to ever happen in my opinion, but you do need to know about the limitations. Previous posts have covered most of those.. The only thing I notice on a day-to-day basis is that quality suffers during big data transfers. So don't expect to be having a nice clean business conversation while downloading lots of big files...

sashime76

We ditched SBC/ATT about 1 year ago and signed up with SunRocket. The first Gizmo (device you hook up to the cable modem and phone) wasn't the greatest but the current one has been working great (over 5 months).

We were averaging $100 a month with SBC, called Canada, Far East countries regularly. With SunRocket, all US/Canada calls are included. We get $3 free international calls a month. At 3 cents a minute, $3, isn't too bad.

We haven't had a chance to use emergency 911 but it IS provided. We have prepaid cellphones in case of extended power outtage. By the way, it's easy to convert all your house phone jacks to use with the VOIP. Be sure to disconnect the line to your phone company at the outside junction box first!

host

Using Vonage here....since July, 2003, w/ cable internet and a UPS for internet router and voip box. It felt great to disconnect bellsouth POT wires from street at the NIC box on the side of my house, placing a note in the box that read, "Attention: Telephone co. repair, do not connect these wires because electricl current from telco system may damage electronic devices connected to internal telephone wiring in this house !"

bellsouth service used to go out....sometimes for 3 days...at least twice per year, due to squirrels or moisture damage in buried wiring from the main road to the end or our cul de sac. No outages with vonage, except during cable outages or longer power failures....it helps to have a cell phone as a backup, just as it did when overpriced and under featured bellsouth service was interrupted.

Features: portability of existing phone number to vonage....bellsouth delayed the transfer, but, after 5 weeks of using temporarily assigned vonage number, the transfer did complete.

ability to assign, on your vonage internet account, the data upload of the "packets" that your conversations are converted to....30kb per sec., 60kb, or, 90kb....where I have it set. This setting eliminates "lag".

They offer toll free, incoming numbers, with 100 incoming minutes per month including, for $5 per month each. I was fortunate to get an "800" number, 3 years ago....now I see that only "866" and "877" numbers are available, but it's still a nice convenience for friends and family who call you, and if you have a business. I was also fortunate to obtain an area code "212" incoming number from vonage....anyone in that area code can call us and it is considered by vonage as a "no billing" local call, to our number.

....so, monthy service from vonage for the 3 tel. numbers, 500 min. unlimited outgoing domestic calling, 100 minutes incoming 800 number calls, unlimited incoming minutes on the other 2 tel. numbers, and "e-911" service, is $32.00 per month, incl. taxes. Extra outgoing minutes are 5 cents each, and unlimited outgoing calling would raise our monthly bill to about $41.00, if we chose to upgrade.

negatives: since you can take the vonage voip box an use it anywhere in the world where there is broadband service, to make our receive calls from your own tel. #, 911 emergency calls are a problem, since the nearest 911 system, except the one you've assigned via the vonage online account interface, when you were at home, won't receive your 911 call, when you are "on the road". If you transfer somewhere for a few days or more, with your voip box, you can change your local 911 location via your vonage account interface.

You have to decide if this trade-off is worth the "perk" of always having your land line local phone with you, when you travel.

....some folks say that they are unable to send faxes via regular vonage accounts.....there is an additional charge of $9.95 per month for a fax devoted line assignment, I haven't needed it.

The call quality is now indistinguishable from POT service, although that wasn't always the case....in the beginning, probably before my cable service upgraded max. upload speed rates, there was a short lag between what either party on a call said, and when the other party heard it....like on a two way radio conversation. Using the 90kb setting also diminished that, and now, I cannot discern any difference....no static, although, once in a great while, calls do not ring to my phone....they end up answered by the vonage voice mail greeting, and can be retrieved at your account interface on their website.

you also have the option to forward all incoming calls to another number....you can change it on your account interface on the web...so you can take all of your calls on your cell phone number, and you can assign a number for calls to be forwarded to if the vonage network goes down....I haven't seen that happen for more than 2 years now.

The downside is that, all three of my incoming numbers must be forwarded to the same number, and all incoming calls from all three numbers end up going to the same vonage voice mail box if they don't go through to my phone. They cannot be seperated.....caller ID does work, incoming and outgoing, and all outgoing calls show caller ID as my original number, transferred more than 3 years ago, from bellsouth.

another new reason to consider vonage or one of it's competitors is this new option, offered by sprint cellular in areas with "evdo"....a router that receives it's signal from a laptop "card" and seems fast enough to use as your broadband service. You can use it for your vonage service and take it "on the road" with you, if you travel where there is sprint "evdo", or have access to any broadband while you travel, and take your voip box (interface), along with you. sprint is the only company that permits unlimited data download with a cellular router, at a reasonable price. Verizon specifically does not:
Bottomline:
It's almost 2007....I'm keeping my vonage service because I know of no other source for a coveted incoming area code 212 tel. number that provides unbilled incoming calls from callers in NYC metro area, and an actual "800" toll free number with 100 included incoming minutes, for just $5.00 per month, each.

Since those two features are no long offered to new subscribers by vonage, only NYC manhattan area code "646" and toll free "866" and "877" number prefixes have been available for at least the last two years from vonage, if I were a potential new subscriber, why get a service like this at all, unless you seek the to add the feature of unlimited no charge incoming calls from callers in an area code remote from where you live?

It seems to me that cellular service and the addition of a $30 per year SKYPE tel. number should be enough, especially since cell numbers have become portable. Unless you need to keep your current home tel. number, except for the reasons that I just described, cell service and SKYPE should be enough to meet most people's needs.

....on edit....I forgot to post that I solved the problem of potentially missing voice mail messages that are forwarded to my vonage account voice mail box, by buying an inexpensive Vtech cordless phone with a base that includes a little red light that blinks when there is voice mail in my vonage box. After you go to your vonage online account voice mail page and retrieve your message(s), the little red blinking light, goes out. You can also check for new vonage voice mail messages via a tel. number provided by vonage....

Mondak

Host Awesome and insightful information. I am going to get this done next week and convert all my numbers. I really appreciate everyone's help on this.

M

__________________
All truth passes through three stages:
First it is ridiculed
Second, it is violently opposed and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER (1788-1860)

Brewmaniac

Recently registered for Yahoo mssenger with voice it is free pc-pc and 2 cents a minute pc-phone. It works quite well!

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shalafi

I signed up for Sunrocket about 6 months ago and I've been loving it. The only problems I have had were mentioned before. If your internet is flakey or you are doing large file transfers there can be connection problems. I was lucky and saw a link on .....I think it was slickdeals.net where Sunrocket was offering a discounted rate of $199 for 2 years instead of the normal one year. Now I just need to get around to switching my internet to cable instead of DSL.

wolf

I have VOIP through Verizon. The product is called Voicewing. The initial setup was a little tough because it was a new product at the time for Verizon. Now that I am setup I love it. I have never experienced an issue. I did lose power in my house one day, but I have everything hooked up to my backup battery so it was all set. Worse case, use a cell.

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Mondak

Well - I have been hooked up for two weeks and it went very well. Easy to hook up and no problems. I went with some UPS gear to handle power outages as I thought that was a good idea you all gave me.

I want to thank you all and especially thank <b>Host</b> again. Very thorough and useful. Hopefully I can return the favor to you someday.

__________________
All truth passes through three stages:
First it is ridiculed
Second, it is violently opposed and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER (1788-1860)