Going VoIP

I have been considering going VoIP. It would obviously only work when I am at home – I am not sure I am able to run the client at my day-job workplace. Still – I might be brave enough to place a Skype link to myself on my blog – OrionRobots

I've been using Vonage as my home phone service for several months now. Best move I ever made – costs less, better audio quality, and more functionality.
Be sure to check out the options available to you – there's a wireless Linksys router with a Vonage VoIP endpoint built in available now, for example.
And if no one has already offered, let me know and I think I can refer you to Vonage and get you a free month of service (yeah I'd get a credit too).

Sounds like fun, now if I only got my internet over something besides a DSL connection, it would be worth it… Anyone had any experience faxing over VoIP? Is it even possible?

I have had Vonage for over a year and I love it! Best move I ever made!

I would also recommend looking at AT&T Callvantage VOIP. It's a little more than Vonage, but they have been in business a tad (read 130 years) bit longer than Vonage. You have to get a VOIP adapter, no matter what you do, so what would be the harm in checking them out?

VoIP (Vonage and Skype) has made up at least 90% of our lines for both our home and online and offline businesses for over a year now and we couldn't be more satisfied.
For our radio show we've also used it for some time but make sure you have enough upstream bandwidth, Chris, especially if you are going to be having multiple callers conferenced in. Takes about 70k or so per line to get a good quality Vonage call.

Lingo will save you five bucks a month .. caveman bob

Lingo will save you five bucks a month .. caveman bob

Having had Vonage for over a year (11 months too many) I will never use it again. It's only as good as your ISP, and you simply can't bank on that.
Choppy conversations, echoes–I could go on.
It would be insane to rely only on VOIP of this type for a business.
There may be a good reason that 'Vonage Holdings' also owns the domain, “vonagesucks.com.”
While you may get through to a SALESperson in 2 minutes, JUST TRY to talk to tech support. (In fact, you should always do that before you sign on with a new company.)
Hope you've got 30-45 minutes to spare, or more.
Never again.

We just switched to Vonage at the begininng of January and we love it. I say go for it. It is saving us a bundle each month and worth every penny.
http://suzy1270.sdf-us.org/blog/
Suzanne

Good move with going vonage. I've definately had my issues with them. Their number porting process takes forever and you want to make sure to get a linksys ATA and not a motorola. The motorola units have issues with recognizing touch tones. Anyways, overall I'm happy with it they just need to improve their customer serivce and support.

hi,
i have lingo voip service for over 7 months now its great, have it for 19.99 per month with unlimited service and long distance ( cheaper than vonage) i would have gone with vonage but no area codes for my city, the good think about vonage is that you can take your phone wherever wifi or broadband is available, they sell a portable phone , great with hot spots and laptops, for those that just use it at home go with lingo.

I have been using AT&T CallVantage for a few months now. The service is great. I use it over my cable (5mbit/512kbit). I ask people on the phone all the time “How does this sound? Does it sound like I'm on a cellphone? Does it sound like I'm using some cheap phone?”. They cannot tell the difference between my VoIP and a POTS line.
For the price, you can't beat it. You get all the extra features you normally have to pay for (call waiting, call forwarding, 3 way, conferencing calling, etc). $19.95 for 6 months.
-paul
http://dreambabble.blogspot.com

Chris:
I cannot believe the geekiest person on the planet doesn't have this great technology yet.
I was paying Sprint $80 a month for unlimited LD (yep that $30 unlimited package has strings) so my wife could talk to her mom 30 miles away each night for no extra fee.
I have had Time Warner Cable Broadband since 1999 so I was waiting for their roll out in sleepy eastern NC.
I got tired of waiting and paying back in October. Signed on with VoicePulse after the PC Magazine Rating of Editors Choice. For $25 a month I get lots of features (Mom In Law has her own ringtone to alert the troops when she is calling). Voce mail sent via email. A local number for my mom in law to call rather than the cryptic three rings … two rings … three rings … call me back since you have the unlimited LD.
Two outages. One from fiber backbone cut that lasted for eight hours (hey the cell phone worked during this time) and VoicePulse had an outage a week ago that lasted about two hours.
I did have a router croak and had to figure out that the new 108 mpbs router had conflicts with VoicePulse and an upgrade of the bios cured the problem.
I must admit, I have kept the $22 per month Sprint basic line just in case. I have now wasted almost $100 since that line is never used…
Jump in my friend the water is fine…

What about AT&T being bought out by SBC? Think CallAdvantage is going to be affected?

We went Vonage just about a month ago, and I'll never go back to SBC. More features than I will ever need, as good, if not better audio quality than SBC has ever had. Faxes work with no apparent difference from the POTS line, just plug it in and it works. Power failures an issue?? that's what UPS systems are for plug the router and VoIP adapter into the UPS your PC is on, or get a cheap one, they sure don't use much current on their own.

Its all about SkyRocket.
Vonage does suck; just because it's pne of the first to offer VoIP doesn't mean it is good.
As that one guy said, a VoIP service is only as good as your connection.
In my opinion, if you have DSL, don't go with VoIP. (You won't be able to keep your existing number)
Whereas cable modem users would be able to because the connection isn't running off of a phone line.
The 911 function in ALL VoIP services are said to be horrible too. The best they are offering right now is E911, which means 911 on VoIP basically means that 911 sends the police, firemen, etc. to your house, unless you tell them your exact pinpoint location. That might be a pain in the #ss if you REALLY need help.
Anyways, I'm using SkyRocket on an Earthlink Cable Connection. Must say that I'm fairly happy so far. The Tech Support is far better than Vonage, or ATT CallVantage's for that matter. (and Yes, I've tried Vonage and CallVantage.)
I hear Broadvoice, Lingo, and VoicePulse are good too. Broadvoice has a $10 plan thats pretty good.

For the longest time I am using tringotel VoIP service because they are so much cheaper than any other service, and the shipping charges are absolutely free and I guess tringotel have merged with Sunrocket.