| MDX189 |
Does anyone have any experience with residential Voice Over IP service? There are a few companies out there now that are offering service at a fraction of the cost of a traditional phone line. To name a few...
vonage (www.vonage.com)
via:talk (www.viatalk.com)
packet8 (www.packet8.net)
I've talked to a few people that have it and like it, but I'm interested in a wider sample of opinion...and this group has no shortage of opinions :)
Any recommendations on a particular provider?
aTdHvAaNnKcSe
MDX189 |
|
|
| crmsnidol |
Excellent question and one I'd like to know as well. With gas prices as high as they are - I'd like to cut some fixed monthly bills where I can and land/cell phone bills are prime targets.
"Thanks in Advance" was clever. |
|
|
| nightguy |
There are a few threads on this if you search voip. I remember seeing some better threads on it though...try using some other search terms.
I have heard good and bad. I have heard they have ironed out some of the 911 issues but I have also heard complaints about trying to download at the same time. The few times my ISP has gone out it has been at very incovenient times, like when the wife decided to stay home from work.
The service would not be good for me. My phone bill is only $27. That's just local, no long distance but I rarely call anybody long distance during the week which means I can use my Verizon cell for free on the weekend. And most of the people I call also have Verizon cell phones so I can just call mobile to mobile for free anytime.
I also have a handful of people I've talked to via AIM. It's awkward at first but works pretty well if you have a freestanding or headset mic. It's mostly a novelty but slick for talking to family overseas. |
|
|
| hammermdx |
| A lot of people I know use Vonage and are quite happy with it. |
|
|
| cardingtr |
I have Packet 8. It's OK, reliable service but there are better out there.
I am planning to move to Voicepulse. I only heard good review on it plus the features are hard to beat.
Go to : VOIP Forum . So far the most active forum I've been. |
|
|
| TheWorm |
Late to the party here, but I've been using Voicepulse for about a year (I think). I've been reasonably happy with it. Occassional/rare no-connects or garbled calls, but CHEAP. It's a secondary line for me. The feature set (autoforward, multiple/simultaneous rings, email voicemails, etc) is great. I'm on the $15/month plan or something like that. Fax usage sucks, though. The fax just doesn't like VOIP.
I'd recommend it for a 2nd line, but not for a primary. Net speed does bog if doing a big download and talking @ the same time; voice quality doesn't change, though...you can set VP to reserve bandwidth to ensure voice quality (mine's set @ high, so when in use it's locking a portion of my bandwidth; releases it when the call's done). |
|
|
| G. COLTON |
I have found no need for anything like that. My land-line phone bill onlu runs $56.00 per month. this provides service to my fax machine, recorder and all kind of other services and many phones in the house.
Does this type of service provide for called ID where I can look at the " phone" and see who has called during the day? This is one feature that I will never again be without. When my wife is out of the house I do not have to answer the phone each time one of her friends calls. When she comes home she just reviews the list displayed on the phone. Does it have the call waiting capability so that I can see who is trying to call when I am already on the phone?
How can you forward a call? Does your computer have to be running to receive a call?
G |
|
|
| MDX189 |
These services offer all of the same features as a traditional voice line...and then some. Caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, voicemail, etc. You can also access your voicemail over the web or get voice messages emailed to you as .wav attachments if you'd like. And all of these features are included for free. And the packages start around $10/month.
No, the computer does not need to be running in order to make/receive calls.
If you'd like to know more, I'd suggest checking out the faq's on one of the provider's websites (listed above).
I recently signed-on with via:talk.
MDX189 |
|
|
| hjjbruce |
quote:
Originally posted by MDX189
These services offer all of the same features as a traditional voice line...and then some. Caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, voicemail, etc. You can also access your voicemail over the web or get voice messages emailed to you as .wav attachments if you'd like. And all of these features are included for free. And the packages start around $10/month.
No, the computer does not need to be running in order to make/receive calls.
If you'd like to know more, I'd suggest checking out the faq's on one of the provider's websites (listed above).
I recently signed-on with via:talk.
MDX189
Just joined the group (hi) and I am glad to see there is a wealth of info here.
My 2 cents: I have had Vonage for about 8 months now. I didnt have a land line at all for over 2 years. For $25/mo. I get what MDX189 said and save a bunch of minutes on my cell plan-enough to drop down to a cheaper package which offsets the Vonage costs-
btw I have Comcast cable modem and havent experienced any outages or d/l problems. |
|
|
| jlpellet@pobox. |
I have Lingo (lingo.com) using a D-Link VIOP/router (I hear their free adapter is low quality). Since my cable connection is fast, VOIP calls (uses about 60K) don't affect d/l's at all. Call quality is between land line and cell. Reliability in there too. Besides depending on the cable link, only problem I've had is getting busy to certain exchanges - looks like their trunk to that area code sometimes are full. Faxes work fine from my testing.
In general, I find it good service. Responsive support via phone or email.
911 is to the local nonemergency # rather than e911 right now. |
|
|
| SuitedPair |
I'm very happy with Vonage. In addition to all the standard phone line features like caller ID, call waiting with ID, voicemail, etc., it has some very neat additional features like:
1) voicemails get sent to my e-mail address as well
2) I can autoforward the calls to any number
3) I can have my phone number ring simultaneously with any other number, like my cell phone.
Also, if the service is ever down for any reason you can have the calls automatically forwarded to any number, like your cellphone.
Finally, the new all-in-one adapters/routers are incredibly skilled at using only the bandwidth needed and should not slow down download spped much at all. |
|
|
|
