Vonage Anyone?

[Texas Cop]

Thinking of ordering the Vonage for the house, but wanted to talk with someone that uses or has used it. Love it? Hate it? Can you use any phone with it? Multiple phones? Trouble connecting to calls? Trouble with long distance calls? Anything you think I should know pro or con? Help me out, give me your info, and I'll list you as my referal to give you a couple months free, or whatever the deal is now..



drew

 

[dpricenator]

We used a VOIP system at the office for a while. Though it was not Vonage, but the calls were scratchy and had connections problems as well. I wish I could help more. The price seems right.

 

[Trumpetchris]

Woo-ooo, Woo-oo-oo. Woo-ooo, Woo-oo-oo. Woo-oo, Woo-oo, Woo-ooo, Woo-oo-oo.







That's all I know about it.

 

[jmatkins]

Woo-ooo, Woo-oo-oo. Woo-ooo, Woo-oo-oo. Woo-oo, Woo-oo, Woo-ooo, Woo-oo-oo.







That's all I know about it.

:rofl:

 

[smokem94]

In my opinion VOIP's suck!

 

[earnold25]

no vongage for me, but i had sunrocket, which went belly up, and i hopped on to their predecessor for like $12 a month. didn't have any problems with either. i just have crappy DSL, so i do have bandwith issues on occasion if i'm d/l something big and trying to make a phone call.

if you have any specific questions about VOIP in general, i should be able to answer them.

 

[Clinton]

I've been using Vonage about 3 yrs now. Absolutely transparent with no indication that it's not a traditional land line. At $25/mo it's certainly a lot cheaper. The only downsides I've seen are:

Can't use a modem with Vonage. I sometimes need to do so for work which means I have to schlump into the office instead of working from home. This should be an issue for very few people.

For the same reason, your Tivo cannot dial out with Vonage. Mine are DirecTV Tivos and there's no real need for them to dial out. Again, probably not much of an issue because newer Tivos can be easily configured to connect via your home LAN.

Lost internet connection means no phone. If your ISP sucks, it will disrupt your phone service. You can minimize the impact by configuring Vonage to forward incoming calls to your cell phone if your connection is lost.

 

[acaffey]

I've been using Vonage about 3 yrs now. Absolutely transparent with no indication that it's not a traditional land line. At $25/mo it's certainly a lot cheaper. The only downsides I've seen are:

Can't use a modem with Vonage. I sometimes need to do so for work which means I have to schlump into the office instead of working from home. This should be an issue for very few people.

For the same reason, your Tivo cannot dial out with Vonage. Mine are DirecTV Tivos and there's no real need for them to dial out. Again, probably not much of an issue because newer Tivos can be easily configured to connect via your home LAN.

Lost internet connection means no phone. If your ISP sucks, it will disrupt your phone service. You can minimize the impact by configuring Vonage to forward incoming calls to your cell phone if your connection is lost.

I have been with Vonage for about 5 years, and this is almost identical to how my review would read. It works pretty well and is cheaper than most alternatives (only $5 to add a dedicated fax line? Really?).

I will only add that you should probably consider keeping a traditional handset connected for 911 / emergency purposes in the event of a power outage, etc.

 

[Cigar_Jack]

I went with VOIP through Time Warner Cable and I'm really happy with it. My concern would that Vonage is starting to have some financial issues from what I've heard. I expect them to be gobbled up soon by a larger company.

On the other hand I do use Skype for some VOIP stuff. I have a number on it for my website that goes to a voicemail and I can dial out on it and easily record it, great for doing interviews. I think I paid $60 total for SkypeIn and SkyePro for 3 or 4 months. Granted I have to buy credits to make outbound calls or forward to my cell phone. 90% will be inbound though unless I'm doing interviews and the like.

 

[datums]

I've heard mix reviews about Vonage. Depending on how technical you are there are other options. VoicePulse offers $11/month, but you run your own voip (asterisk) server. Using something like TrixBox for the server makes things a lot more pleasant for those not so linux savvy. VOIP is def the future.

 

[Nate]

I've been using Vonage for about 2 years now and it is pretty transparent.

I would have to agree with Clint about the internet, if it's down my calls are forwarded to my cell phone.

But I have to disagree with him about working from home, I work from home all the time and haven't had a problem.

 

[SmokeProper]

i have it.

sometimes sucks sometimes its fine.

like its unique features like can ring on my cell, wifes cell, and home phone all at once, and other stuff.

lately i have to dail a number twice b4 it goes through.

also the reliabilty is like a cell phone. drops calls every so often and sounds isnt as good as landline.

you only have 1 jack, which is on the modem adapter. i bought a new phone with multiple handsets tha only 1 base has to be plugged into the jack. like $80 from target i think.
or you can wire it to ur home for all the jacks but a little more technical.

basicaly i keep it cuz its cheap, since we have cell phones i dont mind how it can often suck.

good luck.

 

[Clinton]

But I have to disagree with him about working from home, I work from home all the time and haven't had a problem.

Note that I said that I cannot use a modem with Vonage (which affects my ability to work from home). Does your work require a modem? If so, please tell me how it works with Vonage.

 

[Clinton]

lately i have to dail a number twice b4 it goes through.

also the reliabilty is like a cell phone. drops calls every so often and sounds isnt as good as landline.

Have you tried adjusting your QOS (quality of service) settings?