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VOIP, vonage

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bandit390

Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2004
vonage.com

Anyone have this service or know about it?

Sounds to good to be true. $24.99 a month, unlimited time anywhere in the US/Canada, with no contracts.
 
It works great.

All said and done my bill comes in at $30 a month. That is after taxes and everything.

It is crystal clear and really is what it is cracked up to be.
 
My dad really wants to get it. Is it worth it? And what about bandwith and everything...how much does it take up?
 
I was an early adopter.

I've had Vonage since October of 2003.

I WILL NEVER HAVE A CONVENTIONAL LANDLINE AGAIN!!!

I've used it with three different providers. Comcast (1.5mb/256k), Charter (265k/128k), and Wave (3.0mb/512). The only one I had issues with was the Charter 256k connection due to bandwidth issues; talking on the phone and surfing at the same time could be annoying (chopping due to packets fighting). On my current 3.0mb pipe, I've never had a problem, Even with heavy downloading (Talked to my mom while I had a Linux distro downloading @450k/sec. Had to kill time somehow...)

Their customer service rocks! When I first got it, I was having trouble trying to get MCI to hand over my phone #. MCI sat on it for two months and wouldn't release it, tried telling me it was Vonage's fault. A three way call with Vonage customer service to MCI helped me to tell MCI where to stick it. Had my number in a matter of hours.

Overall I couldn't be happier. It's cheap (I chuckle out-loud at phone commercials now.), reliable, and neither I or the people I'm talking to can tell it's VOIP.

If you want, PM me. I'll give you a call.
 
it sounds promising, but my main concern is bandwidth usage. And i'd also like to know if there are other things you can do with it. Like record the voice data with the computer while talking on the phone.
 
Why the bandwidth concern? Do you have a cap?

Unless you have a cap or a tiny pipe, it should't be an issue. If I had to guess, I'd say around 200k each way.

I dunno about recording voice data. It's kind of a legal grey area. Vonage isn't going to provide software for this purpose. But they do have THIS. It's handy. Load it up on a thumb drive and you have a portable phone.
 
well I don't wanna be downloading and then recieve a call to find out that the call is going to sound horrible because of my download. But I guess it isn't really a problem.

I was also wondering about the recording thing because I used to have a analog telephone card that I was able to program. But then the drivers for it was way outdated and it just wasn't worth spending anymore time on it. And since VOIP was digital and goes through broadband, i was just wondering if there was a easy way to do it now.

Also recording could come useful if you don't have a pen and pad around for taking messages. :p
 
The only downside that I can find with it is that when the power goes out, so does the phone, unlike a land line (with a corded phone, of course).

Other than that, it's awesome.

In Michigan, you can record phone calls as long as one party knows it's happening (ie you can record your own calls).
Since you still use a normal phone for it, just use one of those handset/suction cup thingies from radio shack plugged into your sound input, or tap off from a headset cord for the same thing. A two into one connector would let you just use patch cables.
 
My parents got VOIP and it works great. Its not the Vonage one its the AT&T one if not mistaken. There recommened specs was like 8KB up/down for using the phone. You really don't have to worry when downloading something but if your uploadign something it might be an issue depending on how well the computer adjusts to the bandwidth usage on it.

Some cool features include..

1) If someone calls and leaves a message you can have it e-mailed to you so you can listen to it.
2) Instant phone call records online.
3) Forward your phone if you are out and waiting for some important phone call to your cell if you wanted too. (pretty cool feature I say)
4) Have nearly any phone number you want, and you can add additional phone numbers to the same line if you talk to lots of people out of your area code. This saves them money by calling your line without the stupid long distance charges.

Theres lots of nifty litte features you can get with them. Besides a stripped down basic phone line is what $15-20 at least, and thats not including any phone calls. VOIP is the way to go :)
 
Yeah, AT&T uses D-Link equipment, so it's pretty good stuff and looks just like my wireless router.
Dunno what Vonnage uses.
 
Got a LinkSys one at my parents place. Looks almost identical to LinkSys router too. Except that the router is wireless.
 
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