OT: IP phone service

[eddief]

Sorry to divert energy from all the important surveys currently coming up on the board, but have been considering IP phone service (Vonage) and was wondering who has it and if it works better than Silca floor pumps?

[Kevin]

I have been using it at the office for about 4 years. The provider is Lightpath, a division of Cablevision. It has been extremely reliable and much cheaper than getting a traditional phone package for a hundred lines.

Kevin

[kestrel]

I have one friend that has it in his residence. Seems fine except I believe he has more service glitches than before. I was talking to him last night and the line just went dead. He called me back in a minute and said it does that sometimes. He still says it's worth is for the flat rate charge rather than the long distance bills he's been getting.

[Mikej]

Especially when it rings. riiiiiiinnnggg, riiiiiinnnnggg. Just thinkin' about that phone ticks me off, and its not even ringing, you know what I'm sayin?

[Dekonick]

Oohhh - be careful!

You need a reliable internet provider that will gurantee both upstream and downstream bandwith - alot of cable providers give great downstream but crappy upstream bandwith.

I tried it two years ago and switched back (but kept the DSL as it was faster than cable back then - the gurantee of 756kbps upstream and 3megabit down sold me - for DSL it is all about how close you are to the switch. I get 6 megabit down, 725 +/- up and didn't have a great phone connection if anything else was using bandwith while I talked)

Perhaps it is better now... If you have a T3 go for it...

OT my Broncos just did not perform as I wanted and the Steelers were playing like champions. I am going to drink a glass of wine to help numb the pain. :crap:

[znfdl]

I have been using Vonage with Cox Communications as my cable provider. The sound quality is not as nice a land line, but at less than half the cost of Verizon, it is quite worth it.

[jwb96]

Our residential Vonage service has been great but had some initial problems when we put it in my girlfriend's office. It seems to be working fine now, and in both places we're paying less than half of traditional phone line charges. Some of the voicemail and other options/features are kind of cool. And we just love the idea of not being forced to use Verizon.

Back to my point: simple residential installation was great, but when we got more complicated with business and multiple lines and phones, it got a little trickier. The equipment that Vonage offers isn't maximized - it can do some funky stuff to the bandwidth your PC sees depending on where you put the adapter in your network. vonage-forum.com can be a big help and is worth checking out before you sign up. You can do a few tests on your line too, to make sure you'll be okay.

[BarryG]

Eddie, I'm using Verizon FIOS (5/2) broadband and switched my phone service to Verizon VoiceWing VOIP, and was able to keep the same phone number. I'm saving $25+ per month in phone service charges. I find that in general, the caller's audio quality is actually BETTER with VOIP than my old Verizon analog lines. Occasionally I am told that there is an echo on my audio and occasionally there's a sense of words getting clipped off, like only one side can talk at once (simplex). But generally speaking, I'm very happy. The Web interface is fantastic - I get emails whenever a voicemail is left and I can listen to it over the Web. There's also a complete call log of incoming/outgoing calls. Caller ID is included.

The one downside is my info won't be automatically provided to the 911 service provider. This is highly dependent on your VOIP provider and where you live. If that's important to you (it isn't to me), research it carefully before subscribing.

[JohnS]

I'd keep a landline. The money you save isn't worth it in an emergency. Remember when the whole Northeast/Midwest went dark in July, 2002? Those of us with landlines still had contact with the outside world. Those who depended on cells/IP/portables were SOL.

[jdoiv]

I have Vonage set up for my office (only need two lines and a fax line) and it works reasonably well. It is much much much cheeper than what I was paying Bellsouth, but I do occasionally have issues and have to reboot the router and modem. I've considered installing it at home, but for the reasons JohnS just mentioned, haven't. I don't like the idea of losing service if the power goes out. Quality is less than what I had on a land line, but not by much. The cost savings certainly warrant the little bit of loss of quality in my view.
John

[spiderlake]

I've had Vonage for 2+ years with broadband cable modem. Occassional glitch but the quality is very good. I have had a couple of issues with my DirecTivo being able to dial out. If you are in this boat then just google vonage and tivo - tons of information on how to get around it. Of course, dialing out doesn't really matter with directivo since it pulls down listings via satellite. You may also experience some problems with faxing (although you can purchase a dedicated fax line for 9.99) or dialing out via a modem.

On a side note, a good friend of mine moved to France last year and bought vonage before he left. He has a local number here in Grand Rapids that his friends and family can use to call him and it works great with his DSL connection.

So, in a nutshell, Vonage has worked out very well for me despite some of its minor limitations.