Question about VOIPs

We switched our home phone to Vonage a year ago. Obviously the big advantage is price. Downside is, if you lose your internet for any reason, you lose your phone. But how often does that happen? After a year of using it I can't say that there is any big problem--it's basically the same as before, only cheaper. One issue that comes up with VOIP is 911 service. I don't know about other services, but Vonage has it setup so all you have to do is fill out an extra registration page to enable 911 service. I believe the reason for this is because the internet lines can't determine your location. One little difference with VOIP is a slight echo when we dial. Some people experience it when they're talking, but I've never had the problem. Occasionally there will be momentary "drops", almost like with a cell phone. But, again, this isn't at any level of frequency where I would call it an issue.

When we signed up, we were tired of $75 phone bills. It felt like a leap of faith to switch since nobody we knew used it, but we're glad we did it. Also, Vonage handles all of the switching for you, so all you have to do is sign up, fax a release and wait for your router box (it's small) to show up.

 

People still use phones wired to their house ?

How many on here have dropped home land lines in lieu of using a cell 24/7 ?

 

I have too many dead zones in my house, and a lot of people I know say the same thing. Otherwise I would.

 

1. I have dead zones in my house, all of my basement.

2. The first thing to quit working after the last earthquake we had (and probably any other catastrophy) was cell phone service due to the flood of calls. The cell companies just shut them off. Meanwhile, my landline was still working with perfect sound.

3. My landline also acts as a fence; messages only for incoming calls. Everyone else calls me on my cell if they want to speak to me direct.

 

I have, and my faxes are electronic now ( j2.com ). I DO keep one $12/mo land line in each house, on a corded unpowered phone, just for emergencies. I sure as hell don't trust either cell or consumer voip (and the modem, internet company, router, UPS, PG&E etc.) for when I get my hand stuck in the garbage disposal.

 

I signed up with Packet8 for VoIP today.

I'm going to switch my business line (office at home) over to them. http://www.packet8.net If you call their toll free number on the site, they will throw in a free broadband phone adaptor, a month of free service, etc.. etc. It's an even better deal than using their online signup.

This will still leave me with two land lines (home phone line and a dedicated fax line) if the internet goes down for any reason.

I'm really sick of expensive business line phone bills and I don't want to use a cell phone at home to talk to my clients.

I've spoken with several friends who use Packet8 and they are very pleased with everything.

Guess I'll find out how I like it soon...

 

I use VOIP for business and love it. While it's not plug and play, it was worth the effort. We had to change out various routers and switches to get everything to work correctly. Plus the telephone company took weeks to release my telephone numbers to the VOIP company.

I have a 'hosted PBX' service, so that when callers dial the office number, they hear the recording, then dial by extension. I also have software on my laptop that is a clone of my desktop phone, so that I can make calls anywhere with an internet connection.

It took two months to sort everything out and the best part it that it's 1/4 the cost of a land line!

 

We use VoIP for international calls - most of the time it works pretty well. But I noticed that (and this was in the UK) if my roommate did a browser refresh while I was talking on the telephone, the phone would cut out.... Not sure if this happens here in the US; could just be a minor 'tuning' issue.

Good Points:
- Cheap. For making long distance calls the savings can be substantial.
Bad Points:
- Not necessarily reliable (IMHO).
- I've heard that if you try to hook up Vonage with Comcast cable, that Comcast will block it.

 

I have been using VONAGE for my home office line for about 6 months now and it has worked flawlessly. No one can tell it is an internet phone. I will say that I added a Hawking Technology signal filter / booster which significantly improved the sound quality.
I migrated my existing office number over to Vonage with no problems.
I also do alot of international calling and again no issues with placign or receiving call.
Couple of very nice features such as getting an email when you have a voice message and the ability of the system to simultaneously ring my cell phone so that I can answer a call to my office number anytime anywhere.

 

This happens to you a lot does it?

Dunno if it's available there, but we have skype here, which is especially brilliant as it's completely free. Of course the local ISP, AKA the Phone Company, AKA the Government, block it, but Mrs Dubai is a computer wiz. She better be, it's her job, kinda sorta but not really....

 

I can't speak to the general case, but I've had vonage running now for about 2 weeks on a comcast residential cable internet connection in los angeles.

it all set up quick enough, but i haven't used it enough yet to form a solid opinion.

perhaps if i were a heavy user, then comcast would have shut me down.

Cheers!