quote:

Originally posted by Ted E.:
I'm confusulated...

My broadband connection to the Internet is DSL, piggybacked on my old-fashioned, traditional phone line.

I'd be delighted to switch to Vonage... but it appears that I'd have to cancel my POTS phone line to switch... which would leave me without DSL... and thus no way of connecting to Vonage. Catch 22.

What am I missing?

--TE

If you whine enough to SBC, they will provide you with a dedicated DSL line that does not piggy-back on a POTS line. When I had DSL in Wheaton they did this, and I requested the same when I had the DSL line out here. There is no real technical requirement that the DSL signal piggy back the voice pair... it's a marking thing fom the phone companies.

quote:

Originally posted by Clamato:
Why not just make all your long distance calls from your cell phone? Aren't they included in all packages these days?

Better yet...make them all from work.

Or is this for local calls?

True, but I can't do unlimited calling across the nation and canada with my cell phone for $24.99 a month. Not that I do a tom of that anyway, but I do mostly intralada calling, so I wouldd get soaked by the phone company, and would still have a minutes limit on my cell.

Plus the stupid cell phone seems to drop calls for no apparent reason.

quote:

Originally posted by Tony Rio:

quote:

Originally posted by Ted E.:
I'm confusulated...

My broadband connection to the Internet is DSL, piggybacked on my old-fashioned, traditional phone line.

I'd be delighted to switch to Vonage... but it appears that I'd have to cancel my POTS phone line to switch... which would leave me without DSL... and thus no way of connecting to Vonage. Catch 22.

What am I missing?

--TE

If you whine enough to SBC, they will provide you with a dedicated DSL line that does not piggy-back on a POTS line. When I had DSL in Wheaton they did this, and I requested the same when I had the DSL line out here. There is no real technical requirement that the DSL signal piggy back the voice pair... it's a marking thing fom the phone companies.

I used to have DSL on a dedicated line, but SBC had me switch to DSL on my phone line when I moved to a higher bit rate at a lower price last fall. I don't think they advertise their dedicated DSL anymore, at least for home users. Speakeasy still advertises dedicated DSL service -- they call it OneLink.

Paul Flynn

Hi All! Frequent reader, less frequent writer. Vonage is good from what I hear. I, however, use Broadvoice and have been for over a year. Some of my friends and business associates have changed over to them as well based on the calls that they make to me. Broadvoice as well as others also allow for you to take your phone with you. So, on some of my excursions I pack up my BV box, and a cheap phone and head to places that have available broadband access. I then have my number with me wherever I go. Also, for an extra 2 bucks a month, I have 800# access that adds to my customers ability to reach me. Coupled with my Nextel Free Incoming service, I have also forwarded my Broadvoice connection to my cell, and that has made things even better. Here is a pretty good place to determine if you can run a VoIP service: Broadband test. There are also a bunch of places to compare c ompanies and rates and if you want some, just let me know. (part of what I do for a living!) Thanks for letting me take the time.

I've got Vonage on my Speakeasy DSL. It's pretty slick. I plugged the linksys Vonage VOIP box into one port of my Linksys router, forwarded the port, did some initial set-up on the telephone via the keypad (changed the VOIP internal IP to a static rather than dynamic via DHCP) -- and voila -- everything works.

No problems or complaints at all with Vonage. I've still got my land-line -- there's no way I'll give that up (I've heard horror stories about vonage taking weeks and weeks to get the landline issue straightened out). So I use my Vonage as my primary long-distance number. I cancelled long-distance on my landline. (Or cancelled the package that allowed me a certain number of long-distance minutes per month. I can still get long-distance -- I just don't pay for it if I don't use it.)

Sound quality on Vonage is fine. I've got a cordless phone (5.8 Ghz) attached to the VOIP box -- and it sounds fine. Of course, if your internet goes down -- so does your VOIP. This is the main reason why I have no interest in cancelling my landline. The landline *always* works. Can't say the same for DSL or cable (although Spekeasy DSL is superb.)

I highly recommend it. If you make $25 worth of long-distance, it'll always pay for itself. There's also a $15 500-minute long-distance plan. Either way, it's works (IMHO) as advertised. Getting voicemail via MP3 in your mailbox is kinda nice -- and the extensive Vonage website makes configuration of the various options pretty simple.

The only tricky part for a non-techie is probably the *placement* of the VOIP box -- especially if you have a network at home via a normal Netgear or D-Link or Linksys router. But the included instructions are pretty good.

Another good website to test for possible VOIP quality from your ISP is provided by Brix Networks.

Test My VOIP

Provides calling points all over the world. Also, gives a snap shot of the current network VOIP quality.

Instead of just measuring bandwidth, it gives a detailed report on the packet loss, latency, and jitter for the codec used.

Test My VOIP - FAQ

Vonage is has the worst customer service ever. We cancled our service because the modem was "defective" so they say but we could never get a dial tone. They said they were going to send us a new modem but we told them not to because we were going to cancel our service. Well they sent it any way. Anyways, I held for almost 40mintues to get someone one the phone to cancel the service. I was told I would be charged $40 to cancel I was upset but said ok. Not only did they charge me $40 but $79.99 for the "defective" modem and $99.94 for the 2nd modem we didn't want. This started back in the begining of february and just today (march 23rd) is when I finally got all my money back. Every time I called I held for at least 30minutes and in some cases for over an hour. Becareful if you need a manager because you get put back in line for another 30min or so. I am extreamly upset with how awful the service is. DO NOT GET VONAGE!!!!