Quickie Vonage Question

[SuperDave1685]

Hey guys... I'm thinking about switching to Vonage as my main phone... I'm tired of paying ~$45 for long distance and local calling.. They claim I can get unlimited local/long distance for $25 per month... I'm all for saving money:bday: However, I just have a few questions... I notice that they have to send you a special router which you plug your internet into and subsequently your ordinary phone. Any info on how many jacks the router they supply has? Also, how is the voice clarity/quality? I have a 6Mb/384Kb connection with comcast.. is 384Kb upstream going to be enough bandwidth? If I'm playing a game online such as BF2, and my wife is using the phone, will I notice any spike in my latency? Sorry for all the questions, I'm just curious guys. Thanks for any info.

-Dave

[Diggrr]

I don't have Vonage, but I've run into their service when a friend of mine calls. They too have 6M Comcast. I have little idea of the equipment used, but I gather it's only got one jack. There are phones that have two cordless handsets (or more) for one wall plug.

If one of his housmates is downloading, it sounds like an iffy cell phone call. The sound gets distorted.
It dropped the call 7 times. 5 were after the first word was spoken..."hello?". Don't know if they were still downloading at the time.
That $25 a month does not include all the taxes and fees that the other telco's charge, so your bill will be a bit larger than advertised (the dogs).
Make sure it's got a 30 day guarantee so you can shut it off if you don't like it...you can keep your land phone an extra month, can't you? (well you can as long as you aren't moving your present number to Vonage).

And no, I don't work for the phone company anymore :thup:

[schnikies79]

you use that one jack and plug into an available jack in your home, that will distribute the signal to the rest of the jacks.

[gorilly]

i have vonage in the uk

i only have 256k upload and its fine

they send you a router with an additional phone jack (RJ11)

you can have the following set up if you want

internet > modem > vonage router > computers and phone

or

internet> modem > router > computers and vonage router

etc

if you already have a router at your house, just plug the vonage router into a spare port on your existing router

i always used to think it sounded crap, but if you log into the router (or was it the conage control pannel?) you can turn the quailty up to the max and it sounds fine, but it will use more bandwidth.

as for BF2... vonage hardly uses any bandwidth when sitting idle, only when you are on a call.


have you thought about skype out? its much better value for money in the uk than vonage

[Skeith]

I wouldnt trust anything that isnt from a true telecom system with a 10 foot pole. And neither do I want a phone eating bandwidth.

The main reason is phones are supposed to be a security and emergency link durring blackouts etc. They run on a dedicated battery system so they will continue to work without electricity. Any phone that doest require an external power source will work durring a power outage.

Most serives such as vonage dont have this feature. Wich is why I would never touch them. Vonage is quite similar to a feature my cable comany provides. "Shaw digital phone" as they call it. A modem thing plugs into your cable coax and then to your phone. Its retarted. Not to mention whenever the power goes out so does the cable so no emergency service here. Plus its a crappy cable company and the cable randomly goes out anyway. It too is $25. I think the only reason theser services are so cheap is because of the lack of reliability and no emergency features. but thats just my opinion.

[PLOBBY]

I wouldnt trust anything that isnt from a true telecom system with a 10 foot pole. And neither do I want a phone eating bandwidth.

The main reason is phones are supposed to be a security and emergency link durring blackouts etc. They run on a dedicated battery system so they will continue to work without electricity. Any phone that doest require an external power source will work durring a power outage.

Most serives such as vonage dont have this feature. Wich is why I would never touch them. Vonage is quite similar to a feature my cable comany provides. "Shaw digital phone" as they call it. A modem thing plugs into your cable coax and then to your phone. Its retarted. Not to mention whenever the power goes out so does the cable so no emergency service here. Plus its a crappy cable company and the cable randomly goes out anyway. It too is $25. I think the only reason theser services are so cheap is because of the lack of reliability and no emergency features. but thats just my opinion.


Thats what a cell phone is for too?

[Diggrr]

Plugging your Vonage phone cord into a nearby jack will work. It will backfeed all the jacks in the house.

BUT there's another step to doing this.
You must go outside and unplug your NID module, or else your Vonage dialtone will backfeed down the street and all the way back to the Telephone company. It would also let any short on their wire interupt/corrupt/damage your service.

Here's a picture of the most common NID (and yes it's legal for you to open the half that opens with a regular screw).
Unplug the module that has your phone number/jack wires tied to it...that simple.
http://home.wmis.net/~jberg/NIDinside1.JPG

I highlighted all three available modules, that particular picture is of a NID with 3 working phone numbers. You'll have to locate yours and yours alone. You'll get in trouble if you choose wrong, and your neighbor (if in an apartment) will lose their dialtone.

If your NID (network Interface Device btw) is different than the one I pictured, snap a shot of yours and I will talk you through disconnecting it from the Telco...legally.

[SuperDave1685]

Well after Diggrr and Skeith's responses, I think I'm just going to suck it up and stick with my POTS. The emergency deal is a good point. I didn't think about that. Also, I'm a really big gamer and any chance of a spike in latency while playing is a no-go for me. Thanks guys!

[kayson]

My parents are using Vonage for their main line and it works amazingly well. We've never had any dropped calls, and I haven't experienced higher pings at all. As for the bill, the $25 base charge is well worth it for the unlimited long distance. According to my parents, the actual monthly fee is not much more than that. Regarding the router, you don't have to get a new one. I bought a linksys voip box and connected it to my existing router. It cost $50. I got a $100 rebate and a $50 best buy gift card when I bought it. $100 net gain and a free month of service! I'm happy!

[Lotec25]

We have Vonage, And it works great the only time it used bandwidth is if your makeing or receiving a call. On top of that my wife is on the phone all the time and the bandwidth it does take up is not that much. It sounds just as good if not better then regular Phone line. And has a few added features that sold us on it. We move alot i am in the military so all we have to do is unplug the router take it over to the new house hook it up and that is it as long as you have highspeed internet you have a working phone. We even took it with us one time to a hotel, the hotel had highspeed internet hooked the router up pluged the phone in it and we had our own phone.

On vonage you can do the same things you can on a regular phone but it has a few things that i never seen on regular phone. For voicemail we log on to our account and we can play the msg right threw the computer. I dont even have to pick the phone up to dial i use my computer.

The only problem i have seen with it is that you can only run 5 phones off of the router i know that is alot but we have one in each bedroom front room and then a fax machine.

All in all i say get it MUCH cheaper and not one time has it went out on me when i pick up the phone it works. And if the idea of it going out when the power does. go buy a cheap battery back up. Works for me.

And i have an old vonage router. Linksys type if you need a router let me know ill give yea a deal on it.

Lotec