It's been a while. Who now has VoIP? (1 Viewer)

[SarahG]

The way I have my SunRocket adaptor set up, I do have the main phone in the same room connected to the adaptor. From my understanding, I think this is a pretty common set up and you must have one phone connected directly to the adaptor. I have an expandable cordless phone system that I got free when I signed up, and it allows me to keep one phone in the kitchen simply plugged into an outlet. We use that one primarily anyway.

 

[Marvin]

When I asked about it, they told me they could give me the same number. They just needed 5 days in advance to switch it over and there may have been a small fee.

I still haven't switched to them yet. I'm still uneasy about the fact that you lose phone service when the power goes out. They sell a backup battery but that lasts only about 8 hours or so. We don't often get power outages that last longer than 8 hours but we occasionally do.

Does Optimum's caller ID service display the name and number of the caller? Would this vary from location to location?

 

[John_Bonner]

Caller ID is included, as is call forwarding, 3 way calling and maybe one or two other features. I don't know if it varies from location to location, works fine here in Northwest NJ.

Yes you will lose phone service if the power goes out however I didn't feel this was a huge deal since my wife and I both have cell phones.

 

[SarahG]

And if you have call forwarding, some providers forward calls to your choice of numbers even when the service is down. So, if someone tries to call while your service is down, the call is forwarded to another number.

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I signed up for Qwest's Oneflex VOIP yesterday. I should have the equipment next week. I'll keep you guys posted on my process.

Paul

 

[SarahG]

I'd like to hear about that. Please do. I think I had read they were coming out with a VoIP service. What's the cost?

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

the Qwest charge is $29.99/month plus you have to get their long distance which is a flat fee of $2/month plus $.05/minute with and max payout of $20/month. So its a good deal long distance wise if you call a lot out of state.

Their adapter is $30. I look to save about $15/month not having to pay all the phone fees and taxes that are associated with the analog line.

I'm really going blind into this. I've heard no one talk about Qwest's VOIP and they are not even advertising it on tv. I had to sign up for it at their website.

Paul

 

[SarahG]

The best thing about voip is the cost savings I've seen from using it. It's great.

I don't know how this deal compares to others right now because there seem to be so many out there, but I got my adaptor for free with my provider. Also, there is just a flat rate for local and long distance with SunRocket and it comes out to about $17/month. Only additional fees are applied if you exceed your international allowance.

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I'm hoping at some point Qwest becomes more competitive with their VOIP pricing. I guess they need someone to be the guinea pig and I'm their man!

Paul

 

[Shane Martin]

I'm using Cox Communications's version which allowed me to bundle my services. I had a few early hiccups but it's fine now.

One negative they have worked around is if the modem loses power, you lose your phone. Not on Cox. Their modem has an 8 hr battery backup on it. I connect the cable from the wall to it and then a phone wire from the wall to it and it takes care of the rest of the phones in my house.

Best of all it works with Tivo and anything else that won't work with Vonage.

 

[SarahG]

Well, let us know how their service ends up. Would be interested to know how it compares to providers like SunRocket, Vonage, etc, considering their lower pricing.

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I have my adapter in hand and have received the email that my account is active. I will be setting it up later today.

The setup seems way to easy. Turn off your gateway and your computer. Plug the gateway to the adapter then the adapter to your computer. Plug your phone cord into the adapter and turn on your gateway, then the adapter, then your computer and its all ready to go. I hope its that easy.

Paul

 

[Chris Souders]

Just be sure you can call 911 and they can tell where you are...

http://www.911voip.org/

Chris

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

well i have it all setup...i will detail my setting up procedure sometime tomorrow. It wasn't too bad, but its not as easy as they say it is.

Qwest help was very patient and helpful as well as I was.

I need to go drink and have a cigar!

Paul

 

[Claude M]

happy packet 8 user here

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I was excited to get this thing out of the box and working. I love new toys.

The directions say its easy, but if you are working outside of their easy parameters, then you may run into a roadblock.

Their OneFlex system is setup to work 'easy' with their new generation of Actiontec DSL routers. If you have one of those, no problem. Within a few minutes you will up and running. But I have a older router, a Cisco 678 and i have it in bridged mode, which means i don't have a dhcp server setup on the router, everything is static. I do have a Linksys wireless gateway behind that.

So i thought i would be able to hook up the IP Adapter behind the Linksys router and then have the ip traffic flow through it to my computer. Nope.

After failing for about 30 minutes I called Qwest help and was helped right away, though the final solution took over an hour, the tech was patient.

Found out that the IP Adapter needed to be right behind the Cisco router. After some more trouble shooting found out I would have to statically assign the IP Adapter a ip address. The ip adapter then has a dhcp server in itself, but didn't really want to have that handing out ips with my linkysys, so i tried to setup the LAN interface of the IP Adapter with a static ip and then have the lynksys recognize that as the gateway. That didn't work, so the way it stands now, i have my cisco router (static), IP Adapter (static, handing out dhcp), Linksys (getting dhcp ip from Ip Adapter and givng out its own ips through dhcp to my wireless and desktop)

It took about 2 hours to finally get it up.

So far my opinion:

Positives
Quality is great
cost saving
Web interface (display of phone numbers called and numbers who called you)

Negatives
Caller ID (only displays number)
Can't really choose your options (your given pretty much everything by default)
checking VM by website doesn't work on laptop or desktop (seems to be a java issue)

Those who have other brands, how would this compare to your setup? I'd be curious

Thanks

Paul

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I'm using SunRocket and so far, so good. I got it set up in about 15 minutes and it's been pretty smooth ever since.
My Caller ID does display both the name and number. So far, I've experienced one minor outage but for the price, I can't complain. I just called one of my friends who happens to be in Belgium at the moment. We talked for about 25 minutes and he couldn't believe how good the call sounded. Best of all was that I didn't have to pay anything for the call.

 

[SarahG]

For the price, it is hard to complain. I've gotten pretty comfortable with the way things are working. I've only done a few international calls, but those have been good too.

 

[Rob Landolfi]

I've had Vonage for 13 months and have been pleased with the service. My local/long-distance bill went from $65 (Verizon unlimited U.S./Canada?) to $27 (unlimited U.S./Canada), taxes included for both bills.

I have my VOIP adapter in my office with my network router, and there's no phone there... I run my phone line from my VOIP adapter to a phone wall jack and it powers all of them throughout the rest of the house. I have three PC's (one wireless) and a ReplayTV in my network, and they all update themselves as needed without my having to do anything manually.

I did have to do a 5-minute tweak to my outside phone junction box to keep my household phone circuitry from being powered by both the Verizon landline and the VOIP adapter, but it was easily accomplished after seeing directions online. This allowed use of my current phones in their original locations instead of having to go out and get a base station with a number of cordless handsets. In our three-level townhouse, I have cordless phones on each level, and a corded phone on the top level (office is on bottom level).

When power is lost, which has been thankfully rare, the VOIP calls roll over to one of our cell phones. VOIP allows for interesting voice mail, virtual number and call forwarding options as well for those who may benefit, but we use just the basic functions.

For my (slightly tech-challenged) parents, they've found that the 500-minute local/long-distance plan for $15 works great for them as all the calls between us (both Vonage customers) are minute-free.

Sound quality is great, though I do notice a decrease in quality on the rare occasion when I'm on the phone with my parents while they're uploading/downloading huge e-mail/FTP files. I think this has more to do with their ISP rather than Vonage. I don't notice the same issues with anyone else that we routinely talk with.

One of my friends has a virtual number in Canada in addition to her U.S. number so that all her northern friends/family can call her locally instead of long distance.

I'm a fan of our service, but have read about dissatisfied customers. It really has worked out great for us.

 

[SarahG]

Again, I'm really jazzed about the low cost too. I'm a penny pincher most of the time, so stuff like this gets me going.

We actually pay a bit less than $17/month for unlimited SunRocket service, not just the 500 minutes. I haven't even really checked how many minutes we use on a monthly basis, but it could be only around 500. Not quite sure. Either way, $15 or $17, you can't beat it.