Vonage (Voice-over-IP)?

Anyone tried that Vonage, voice-over-ip service for using your phone service over your broadband internet line? Curious to know how well it works if anyone has tried it yet.

I have had Vonage since August of 2003. After a couple of months I had Ma Bell disconnected completely. It was that reliable for me.

A few things to keep in mind with Vonage, or any other VOIP provider for that matter.

One is the reliability of your broadband provider. Your phone service is tied to your broadband connection, so when your cable/internet is out so is your phone. So if your ISP has frequent outages I would have to pass on VOIP.

Power outages. Unlike the telcos, when the power goes out so does your phone sevice with VOIP.

911. It is more or less in beta testing with VOIP. Yet they are making it better all the time. I think as VOIP picks up momentum it will no longer be an issue, but as of right now it is not a pefect system.

Technical problems. With the telcos there is one place to call for all problems. With VOIP, any porblems you may have could be from your ISP or your VOIP provider. Just makes troubleshooting a little more of a pain when/if there is a problem that is not on your end. I have heard many horror stories, but I have personally had none. There have been a couple of outages over the last year and a half that was purely on Vonages end. But the down time has been minimal, less than 24 hours total in that time span that was Vonages fault. I had another outage last summer that was a result of a lighting strike that blew up our node. It was fixed in 2 days.

All in all I have been extremely happy with Vonage and suggest anyone with a reliable broadband connection and just a little tech savvy to go ahead and give it a try. My service has been reliable and I have no regrets. I do recommend having a cell phone as back up though.

We actually have two phone lines here. One is the business line which goes to the animal buildings as well as the house. The other is just going to the house and really is only used when my wife calls her sister up in Delaware. We have talked about just taking out the home line, but I think this may be a better solution entirely. One long winded phone call to her sister would easily cost more then the monthly fee of Vonage. I guess my only concern is physical location. The Comcast cable comes into my den and the home phone is in the bedroom. I don't suppose this service will work across a wireless network, will it?

When you order Vonage they send you a "Phone Adapter" that plugs into your router. The phone adapter is not wireless. But you can run a cordless phone system off the the phone adapter. Just plug the cordless phone base into the router just like you would a phone jack on the wall.

Well, I was at CompUSA yesterday and bought a new router with the Vonage interface integrated into the box. Installation was easy, but when I went to Vonage's website to register the service, I hit a brick wall. They don't have my area code listed as being available. Great...... Yeah this doesn't matter for outgoing calls, but what about incoming? If I get a remote area code number, everyone here local who would call in on that number would have to pay for a long distance call in order to do so.

Or am I overlooking something obvious?

You are not overlooking anythng, you are correct. Contact Vonage and see when your area code will be added.

Hmm, ever heard of the Packet8 VOIP service? It appears they do offer my area code, so perhaps they are an option.

Yep, Packet8 has been around almost as long as Vonage. I have personally never used them though. Here is a link to the VOIP forum over at DSL Reports. http://www.dslreports.com/forum/voip You should be able to get a lot of info there on Packet8 or any other VOIP provider and VOIP in general.

Sammy - thanks much for that link. It was invaluable to me.

I took the Vonage stuff back to CompUSA and then set about trying to figure out what my options were. Packet8 has my area code, but the feedback on dslreports was not good at all. Apparently people are abandoning them right and left for various and sundry reasons. So I scratched that off of my list.

I spent a lot of time checking those forums and came up with a name that nearly everyone seemed pleased with. VoicePulse. Fortunately they had my area code available, and ordering online was a breeze. It's supposed to show up here on Thursday. Hopefully there won't be any glitches and it will be up and running in no time. Then all I will need to do is to figure out if there is anyone I really want to call long distance to talk to!

Sure wish that phone interface box was wireless, though. Seems like that would be the logical way to do it...... But I guess I can route it to my two line cordless phone. But the wife runs the batteries down whenever she calls her sister, so I probably need a wired phone for her to use.

Another option to consider for long distance is Skype.

We have a developer in Bangkok. It costs a mint for a half hour phone call with him, but Skype is free and the clarity is great. Both users must install the software and a USB headset ($20) seems to work best.

It is definitely not a telco killer but is great for regular long distance to family or friends.