VONAGE

[Jack]

Okay, Jess's new gig has me thinking of getting VONAGE for home service..

It has nothing to do with idol worshipping or being a Jess fanatic (okay maybe a little..)

I checked it out and the price is better than Verizon (my current service).

Anyone using it?? Any recommendations (positive or negative)??

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http://www.vonage.com/startsavingnow/

[Rack Fu]

I use ATT's VoIP (basically the same thing).

I have no complaints. Obviously, you'll have no phone service if the internet is out. That's about the only con. There are issues with 911 service but they have more or less straightened that out.

It is far less expensive than normal phone service for what you get. It's also not subject to all the taxes that your regular phone bill has. I think that I pay less than $5 per month for taxes. My prior bill with SBC had about $20 in taxes.

There are also a lot of cool web based features available.

[campinfool]

The biggest problem is that it shares the same bandwidth as your internet. So if you try to use the phone while downloading some decent size files the voice quality is terrible.

[Dinsdale]

I use ATT's VoIP (basically the same thing).

Been a few years, but my goodgood bud ran the IT department for a very large company, and he yanked that horrendous POS out of there, once he got approval. Sucker rarely worked, and even more rarely worked properly. Might be different for consumer use.


And if you're not making international calls on a regular basis(sup Dins, who buys a phone card at 7-11 when the need arises...MUCH cheaper), what's the point?

Don't know about you guys, but I have one of those cell phone thingies, and long-distance in the USA is included...just like it is on your plan.

Not understanding Vonage. I'm thinking if I dropped an extra $25 on my celly, I could talk all freaking month cross-country.

[ElTaco]

Actually if you properly configure your router to give VoIP traffic Preference (QOS), you should be OK. Besides VoIP should only use up to 64kbps if you don't use any compression and you can cut that way down with some of the compression. If you have DSL from Verizon or Cable, you shouldn't have any problem surfing the web, downloading and talking on the phone.

In my experiance, VoIP is fairly sweet. You can definately do some neat things with it, especially if you have some geek in you. I will admit that if run it at home it will be a little sluggish at times, but with some fine tuning, you should do just fine.

[Dinsdale]

Actually if you properly configure your router to give VoIP traffic Preference (QOS), you should be OK.

As I said, it's been a few years. And have no idea about home use.

But, what I do know, is dude didn't get top-dog of the IT department at a very large company because he didn't know what he was doing.

The ATT guys couldn't make it work right, either...hence, the switch.

So, with that in mind, I'll never have anything to do with an ATT VoIP setup, although I'm sure they've ironed out some issues in the last couplafew years.

[Rack Fu]

I use ATT's VoIP (basically the same thing).

Been a few years, but my goodgood bud ran the IT department for a very large company, and he yanked that horrendous POS out of there, once he got approval. Sucker rarely worked, and even more rarely worked properly. Might be different for consumer use.


And if you're not making international calls on a regular basis(sup Dins, who buys a phone card at 7-11 when the need arises...MUCH cheaper), what's the point?

Don't know about you guys, but I have one of those cell phone thingies, and long-distance in the USA is included...just like it is on your plan.

Not understanding Vonage. I'm thinking if I dropped an extra $25 on my celly, I could talk all freaking month cross-country.

My cell phone reception in my house is terrible. If I go 50 feet away from my house, it's fine. I have some sort of dead zone in my house.

Both my cell and my wife's cell are business phones. They allow personal calls but the plans are for 500 anytime minutes, nights/weekends free. So, we really do need another line for personal calls.

[Dinsdale]

My cell phone reception in my house is terrible.

I thought that was the Unwritten Rule of cell phones?

Doesn't matter who your provider is, doesn't matter if the tower is in your back yard -- your cell will NEVER get good reception at your house. All of your friend's phones will work just fine, but yours will suck.

[ElTaco]

Actually if you properly configure your router to give VoIP traffic Preference (QOS), you should be OK.

As I said, it's been a few years. And have no idea about home use.
But, what I do know, is dude didn't get top-dog of the IT department at a very large company because he didn't know what he was doing.
The ATT guys couldn't make it work right, either...hence, the switch.
So, with that in mind, I'll never have anything to do with an ATT VoIP setup, although I'm sure they've ironed out some issues in the last couplafew years.

There is a big difference between VoIP at home and VoIP at a large company. At a large company you have to ensure that there is plenty of bandwidth available for all of your phone calls and that your internet backbone is reliable enough. Another way to use VoIP in the enterprise is to just use VoIP for your local phone system, in other words between your PBX and your Phones and maybe as a backup line for your main phone lines, which tend to be multiple T1 lines or T3 lines at large companies. You can also use VoIP between branch offices which can save a lot of money. Anyway, to roll out a VoIP system at that level, you need to sink a lot of money into network equipment that will support VoIP and into internet connections that will support VoIP and your regular data traffic.

At home the requirements aren't nearly as demanding. You want to make sure that your internet connection will handle your traffic. 1 VoIP call will run you about 64kbps if its not using compression, which most voip vendors use. As long as your DSL or Cable company gives you 200kbps upload or more, which most of them do nowdays, you should be in good shape. Obviously if your internet connection is not very reliable now, you will have a lot of problems when you get VoIP.

For business owners who like to play with Linux, I'd suggest looking into Asterisk, which is an open source PBX software built on Linux. There are some precompiled versions out there that you can just download, install and you are good to go. One of the better ones that I've ran into is Trixbox. Once you have Asterisk up and running you can subscribe to VoicePulse, which is a company who has a specific plan for Asterisk users. You get 4 phone lines and a phone number and you just pre-pay for your usage.

I've tested it at work on our T1 lines and it works great.

[Dinsdale]

There is a big difference between VoIP at home and VoIP at a large company. At a large company you have to ensure that there is plenty of bandwidth available for all of your phone calls and that your internet backbone is reliable enough.

As mentioned, it's been a few years, and frankly...it wasn't my problem -- I didn't even work there...but I heard ALLLLL about the IT problems. He is kinda my best bud and stuff. I just heard a buncha bitching. But, the amount of time that's gone by since then, I didn't go into the shakey details from my memory.

But I believe the ATT box just wouldn't freaking work (in that era, anyway...I'm sure it's been adressed) with their router setup(sup old shit), might even have been a Novell issue...something like that.

Another way to use VoIP in the enterprise is to just use VoIP for your local phone system, in other words between your PBX and your Phones and maybe as a backup line for your main phone lines, which tend to be multiple T1 lines or T3 lines at large companies.

It was 2 T1s, and IIRC, this part of it worked fine. It was outside of the local network that it was generally useless.