[Shotimes] Re: OT Vonage

[Jack Dalzotto]

I agree with the 911 issue, I signed up and never heard back from Vonage 
that it was activated. 

The way Vonage tells you to hook up the service is to disconnect your 
land line and run everything through Vonage.  That isn't necessary at all. 

What I do, since I had to keep my land line anyway to support my DSL 
service, I kept that portion hooked up as is.  I have a cordless phone 
hooked up to the land line that we use mostly for incomming calls since 
people still have our regular phone number.  Everyone in the family 
knows this is the phone to use to call 911, not the Vonage.

For the Vonage I have a dual handset cordless phone hooked directly to 
the Vonage router. 

Again for me, it works well.  I use it to eliminate the long distance 
charges from my wife calling her friends.  She likes it because she can 
talk as long as she wants to.  We do know the limitations of it as far 
as 911 goes, since we were keeping our land line it wasn't an issue.

I haven't had a problem with being billed additional charges.  I've had 
service for about 8 months and we typically use 3000-4000+ minutes per 
month.  My bill is just over $27 per month, which is their $24.95 
service plus the taxes.

I guess if it came down to using Vonage as my only phone service I might 
think twice, due to the 911 issue.  My primary reason for getting it was 
to eliminate the big long distance bills, for the price I can't beat 
it.  I'm 100% satisfied with the service in that respect.

Jack


Mike Wojton wrote:

>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
>>>      
>>>
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