[Shotimes] Re: OT Vonage

[Mike Wojton]

I've done some poking around. It seems the 911 issue is a little scary. They
say you have to give them your address when you call. What if you can't?
They supposedly have some enhanced 911 service available in some areas. I
found a few people who said they signed up for it, were told it was working,
but when they called 911 to check found out it wasn't. Kinda scary
considering I just went over the 911 thing with my 6 year old last night.
 It also seems like there can be an issue with your landline service also.
If you tie into your wiring in your house, you can burn up the router Vonage
gives you. You need to disconnect your house wiring from the incoming
service. Now you can't have a backup plan. Other than a cell phone, of
course. The way around this is to get a system that just has a base unit and
several satellite phones that don't need to be plugged into the wall jacks.
 IMO I think there are too many issues yet. It's a relatively new thing that
is just exploding on the scene and everybody and their brother is switching
to it to save money. Maybe I'll wait and see if there's any fallout first.
  --
Mike Wojton
Dover, PA

-'95 White MTX
'96 Brake Upgrade
Eibachs (front)

"Avoid the clap." - Jimmy Dugan


 On 10/13/05, Jack Dalzotto <dalzotto@mosaiccomputers.com> wrote:
>
> I have Vonage. I really like it. Quality of service in my opinion
> depends alot on how stable your broadband connection is. I have a rock
> solid ADSL line, it will keep sync for months at a time. Friends and
> family say they can notice a slight difference in how we sound, once in
> awhile I notice a slight lag. Also, if I'm doing heavy downloading I
> notice the Vonage gets a little choppy. Now, the router they give you
> supposedly gives the phone service priority over other network
> traffic... I don't use their router as a router though, I have a
> standalone server that handles my network traffic, so I can't comment on
> how well it does.
>
> My main reason for getting it was my wife has several long distance
> friends she talks to, we frequently had $120 long distance bills. She
> can talk to them as long as she wants now.
>
> The voicemail feature is pretty cool, you can set it up to email your
> VM's to you, and you can play it back on your computer.
>
> What else... oh, you can set it up so if for whatever reason your Vonage
> connection goes down it will forward incoming calls to an alternate
> number.
>
> For me, on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd give it a 9!
>
> Jack
>
>
> Mike Wojton wrote:
>
> >Does anybody use this phone service? Does anybody know any downsides? It
> >sounds almost too good to be true, compared to our unlimited long
> distance
> >plan through Verizon. Almost half the price. Any hidden costs?
> >
> >--
> >Mike Wojton
> >Dover, PA
> >
> >-'95 White MTX
> >'96 Brake Upgrade
> >Eibachs (front)
> >
> >"Avoid the clap." - Jimmy Dugan