OT: Any Happy VOIP Users?

[PovertyRow]

I am tired of ATT prices. They seem to go up a couple of bucks a month lately. So am looking into VOIP (Voice Over Internet) phones. I know VOnage is the biggie but reviews consistently seem to belie the hype.

 

Any folks using VOIP they are happy with and can you share a bit?

 

(note to Mods) - Please give this a day or two here before moving the to the WC? I have much more confidence here. Thenkee.

 

PS - why I am still Total Newbie?

[s-man]

note to Mods) - Please give this a day or two here before moving the to the WC? I have much more confidence here. Thenkee

[Subliminal]

note to Mods) - Please give this a day or two here before moving the to the WC? I have much more confidence here. Thenkee

 

Do you use your phone to talk to fellow comic collectors?

Case closed

[PovertyRow]

note to Mods) - Please give this a day or two here before moving the to the WC? I have much more confidence here. Thenkee

 

Do you use your phone to talk to fellow comic collectors?

Case closed

 

Actually, yes. I use it to talk to comic folks.Including Kenney (Ze-Man), who resides many states away and Borock who lives a country's width away, amoung others who are a bit more local like Brain. I actually thought of including that in my initial post.

 

Yes - this is CCVOIP - Comic Collectors Voice Over Internet phone!

[comicgrinder]

PS - why I am still Total Newbie?

thats a great question

[PovertyRow]

PS - why I am still Total Newbie?

thats a great question

 

Why yes, I ponder this often.

 

hm hm

[comicgrinder]

PS - why I am still Total Newbie?

thats a great question

 

Why yes, I ponder this often.

 

hm hm

they should change this I think.....when do you hit "total newbie" status?

[JazzMan]

I use VOIP - Vonage to be exact - and I am very happy with it. It's reliable, cheap and has all the bells and whistles I ever would want.

[PovertyRow]

I use VOIP - Vonage to be exact - and I am very happy with it. It's reliable, cheap and has all the bells and whistles I ever would want.

 

Thanks Jazz - for how long have you used Vonage? Rather get some rhands on user experience than some internet reviews without knowing the source.

[dopy02]

A good friend of mine had a son stationed in S. Korea until recently. They used Vonage and loved it.

[sterlingcomics]

Another option for you might be the Magic Jack---I've been on the receiving end of VOIP calls and they tend to go smoothly as long as your Internet connection isn't being used at the time the call is made (makes sense). My gut feeling is that the technology isn't quite there yet unless they can enforce a given quality to prevent those annoying glitches while on a call. (which they might have but I haven't looked into it).

 

My local POTS line (plain old telephone service) is only used for my security system and land line for Satellite. We took off all extra services and we now use our cell phone for long distance so that we don't get hit "double" between phone and cell. As soon as I find an alternative for my other services, I'm going to remove my POTS line altogether.

 

I do feel a bit comfortable with POTS just b/c it doesn't get adversely impacted like VOIP during outages.

[WEBHEAD]

I recently converted to OMMA recently. I've had it for the last month with no problems at all, excellent in and out reception, comes with voice mail and caller id. You get a fixed phone number initally that you can change if you move. Local and Long Distance calls are free and calls outside can be "purchased" most at 2 cents per minute. So what's the catch. The inital cost out lay which is around $249.00 but you can recoup your $$ by the end of the year. Takes 20 minutes to set up, does not interfer with your wireless. You conect your modem to the "hub" and your router to the hub. I use a wireless phone which has 6 remote phones for calls. Uses the same principle as Vonage does to get your calls routed, without the monthly fee.

 

http://www.ooma.com/

 

check it out.

 

WEBHEAD

[jordanscott]

My company made me use ATT's VOIP for a bit and I discovered a nasty little grey area for support.

 

ATT would not do anything to help resolve problems beyond their box and my ISP at the time (Comcast) refused to offer any support for anything once they learned I was using a VOIP service that was not theirs.

 

Both sides would offer no support that would converge with the other and neither were willing to talk to the other to try and get my problems fixed.

 

So after a month of using this for my business line and not getting any calls (made for a quiet month actually) I canceled the service.

 

I'm sure mine is an extreme example but I'd bet the grey area would exist between any VOIP provider and the ISP if they are not the same company.

 

As a footnote, it turns out there was a physical problem with my cable modem that would not show up when my ISP would do remote tests. Once I nagged them into giving me a new modem the problem was resolved and I suspect the VOIP would have worked just fine.

[whisp]

VOIP downfalls are it goes down more often then POTS and always has issues with cross talk and noise. It still needs some work on it along with the issue of if you are on phone it decreases your internet bandwidth. Lot of isp's are offering this service now but I personally would not consider VOIP to ADSL2 becomes mainstream then I doubt the bandwidth would have any issue and you would only have to worry about downtimes and crosstalk/noise unless by that time they upgrade the filters and such which would probably be likely with the new ADSL2 server equipment.

[JazzMan]

I use VOIP - Vonage to be exact - and I am very happy with it. It's reliable, cheap and has all the bells and whistles I ever would want.

 

Thanks Jazz - for how long have you used Vonage? Rather get some rhands on user experience than some internet reviews without knowing the source.

 

I've had it almost 4 years. It has some safety features that I like - for example, if my broadband connection goes down it will automatically route all calls to an alternate number, in our case a cell phone, so no call is ever lost. Another is voicemail notification via email - I have it set up to my mobile phone SMS so I get notified when someone leaves a message at home and I can determine if I need to answer immediately or wait for later.

 

The quality is great - you can't tell you're not on the PSTN (sorry, I'm in the industry and these acronyms come out from time to time - Public Switched Telephone Network).

[Mutant Manatee]

I had Vonage for about a year and absolutely hated it. The price was great, and there were lots of features included, but the quality of the calls was terrible. It didn't matter if I placed the call or received it, the quality was often unpredictable. Sometimes it was great, sometimes it was so bad that communication was impossible. (No difference if my computer was online or not.) Sometimes I could hear the other person just fine but they couldn't hear me, or vice-versa. It didn't matter which phone I used in my house, I had the problem on every phone. So often I had to end the phone call and call the person back on my cell phone. My girlfriend at the time also had Vonage, and she had the same problems. Maybe it was a regional problem with Vonage. People in other areas of the country seem to like Vonage just fine.

 

There are also emergency 911 call issues with VOIP to consider. Plenty of info about that online if you Google it.

[sterlingcomics]

There are also emergency 911 call issues with VOIP to consider. Plenty of info about that online if you Google it.

 

Good catch; I remember about that one. In general, I think it's got a bit of maturing to go (either the tech or the network).

[Arcade]

OK. Here is my .

I started off with Sun Rocket. They used a little Linksys box. Never had a lot of problems with these guys until they went out of business and left me holding the bag for the remaining 4 months of my contract. ( I paid for the full year to save money).

 

Next I switched to a company called oddly enough, "VOIP".

Like and insufficiently_thoughtful_person I paid for a full year thinking I would have the same great service as Sun Rocket. Boy was I wrong. My phone did not work for months at a time. The customer service is by message board only, and had tons of people complaining.

 

As soon as my year was up, I could not switch back to AT&T fast enough.

 

Never tried Vonage. Maybe they work as advertised.

[weaselking-migration]

I was considering Magic Jack, as a guy at work has it and had nothing but great things to say. I was hesitant about Magic Jack, sad to say, mainly because they have the infomercials.

 

Supposedly after the new year sometime you can even cancel your home phone and use the same # for Magic Jack (haven't verified that). And apparently 911 access isn't an issue, which was something important for my wife.

 

We pay about $45 a month for the home phone and rarely use it, usually avoiding telemarketers (why the Do Not Call List doesn't work is a different topic for a different day!). The cost savings are tremendous for VOIP services.

 

The common theme is that any of these VOIP services work well for some, not well for others. There is too much variation in the equipment for now and it's a new technology. Regular phones have had over a century to straighten itself out, and the technology and equipment surrounding it are pretty well baked in. The FCC has standards so you can take your phone and it works at your neighbor's house.

 

With VOIP you have different download/upload speeds, different routers, different network topologies in the home, etc. The standards aren't there yet. For example, I think Magic Jack requires some small MJ-branded USB hub or adapter to work. It looks like one you could grab from Best Buy, but it has to be the MJ one.

 

I'd suspect that in 10 years a ton more people will be using it. If the US gets the higher internet speeds that are available in, say, the Asian markets, that adoption rate would come faster.

[JazzMan]

There are also emergency 911 call issues with VOIP to consider. Plenty of info about that online if you Google it.

 

Good catch; I remember about that one. In general, I think it's got a bit of maturing to go (either the tech or the network).

 

I haven't made a 911 call, thankfully, but with Vonage you can set up a fixed location for your e911 service. It's configured through your online portal.