The OFFICIAL VOIP internet telephone thread

[gibster]

Originally posted by: bulletpr00f
SkyPe beats them both on all dimensions, price and quality!

If you don't care about emergency calls and transferring your current #, here is the trick as anandtech exclusive .. enjoy and i hope it will help you dump the useless and non-sense expensive vonage account

1. Get SkyPe unlimited linky
2. Get SkyPe In linky
3. Get SkyPe - PSTN adapter. You can get it from ebay, ebay linky or from best buy, best buy linky

Your setup cost ~ $50 and yearly recurring cost is ~$90.

P.S. You get skype pro which gives lot more stuff with 30 euros off from skypein. Eventually it comes to same yearly price (~ 90) but you end up with lot more toys.

You connect your desktop to device I mentioned on 3 and bada bing bada bang, you can make and receive skype calls via usual PSTN phones! Some devices even provide 1-800 dial in number type of capability where you call home via ur cell and then dial a certain key combination with password where a line is given through skype. Pretty sweet!

One small detail - you have to have a PC system running 24/7 for this to work.

Does a device exist that could be hooked up to the home LAN, and give you a Skype phone line, to which you could hook up regular phones?
I see these USB devices, and proprietary hardware Skype phones, but neither is particularly interesting to me, as they are too limiting.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: Tinkerman

Well sunrocket went down.. it seems like the teleblend is offering a $12.95 a month deal which comes out $155.40 a year and you can use your existing hardware...
the 8x8 have a 199/yr deal...
It seems like teleblend would be the thrifty call..experiences anyone?
The cheapest I see the nuvio is $40 /month ouch..
RideFree. is SERO a wireless service?[/q]Sho is.
I just ported my house line over to a new 755P on SERO (had this # for 20 years).
And made app to port my second S/R # (for the fax) over to JOILUCK CLUB!

Costs a little more but is still miles and smiles cheaper and less worrisome than QWURST and it's ilk.

 

[RideFree]

Imho,
This fiasco is nothing less than the S/R robber barrons making off with the stagecoach full of bullion and probably each going out and starting another (RocketSun) at the other end of the line...I mean RainBow

 

[RideFree]

PS I recommend that you get everything in writing from here on out. E-mail works for me.
PS I recommend that you get everything in writing from here on out. E-mail works for me.
PS I recommend that you get everything in writing from here on out. E-mail works for me.

I can not state it enough.
Burn me once shame on you. Burn me twice and it'll hurt twice as bad.

 

[stockjock]

OK...got my Viatalk setup yesterday. Very simple to install and worked right out of the box. Now, to wait for the porting of my number over from SR. So far I have to give VT thumbs up!

 

[woodscomp]

Been using Viatalk for a year, just added a second line this year for a dedicated fax. I have to say that for $199 for my two year plan it is a great bargain. Some days all my calls are forwarded straight to Internet voicemail but 99% of the time the calls do come through to the phone.

I view it this way, before Viatalk I was paying Qwest $40 a month for local phone service, and if i called outside of my area I was charged for long distance. Now for under $9 a month I can call anywhere I want for as long as I want. So if a few calls never make it to the house no big deal. Call quality is not always the greatest depending on the Internet traffic that day but hey, it is what it is. Cheap phone service.

I figured that after 5 months of Viatalk I am saving $40 a month that I would have paid to the local phone co. And after 7 months I have saved what I could be paying for for my broadband providers phone service.

I am crossing my fingers that VT stays in business for a very long time. Or at least till my kids are out of the house.

 

[oogabooga]

for the skype out you don't HAVE to have a computer on 24 hours a day, right?

I'd be fine with just the outgoing capabilities since I have a landline. I just don't have long distance which normally isn't an issue since I have my cell phone. But I have bad reception due to some funky construction and thick walls, so I need a way to call people. I'm thinking SkypeOut might be good. I'll probably try it out for 3 months first

Any recommendations on that adapter? I can't find a skype phone that isn't really expensive. Worth paying more for retail, or go OEM on ebay?

 

[Easygoing]

I also had Sunrocket and got their email. I felt I actually did better by going to Vonage. They gave me two months free, free equipment and free activation. Thats as good or better than what the other guys are offering. They have been very helpful and seem to have excellent customer service. I felt I have a better chance of them being around for awhile. I am very happy with them. Now to try and get some of my Sunrocket money back. I prepaid for a year.

 

[woodscomp]

Originally posted by: Easygoing
I also had Sunrocket and got their email. I felt I actually did better by going to Vonage. They gave me two months free, free equipment and free activation. Thats as good or better than what the other guys are offering. They have been very helpful and seem to have excellent customer service. I felt I have a better chance of them being around for awhile. I am very happy with them. Now to try and get some of my Sunrocket money back. I prepaid for a year.

I tried Vonage for 6 months and was not as impressed as I have been with VT. Vonage was $23 (if my memory serves me correct) a month and yes I got free hardware with them and a month or two free. Still VT is a cheaper alternative for me. I paid them $230 for two years of service with an adapter to my door a year ago. After 10 months I have more than made up what I was going to be paying Vonage. Oh and the call quality between the two is the same.

 

[TheShiz]

i've been using magicjack for a few days and it seems great. it was $35 for the device and a year of unlimited long distance (only US calling) and plugs into your usb jack so you can hook up a regular phone. works fine with my uniden cordless. only bad thing right now is they don't have many area codes, closest one to me was tennessee (i live in richmond, va)

but that isn't a problem at all thanks to grand central. grand central gives you a phone # for free and they have tons of area codes, (at least they had mine) so I tied my magicjack # to the grand central # and I'm all good, I have a local phone # to give out and I have unlimited long distance, all for $35 for a year!

I really don't know how long they can keep it up, (renewal rate on the magicjack is $20 a year right now, beyond cheap) but I figure with grand central at least I'll be able to keep my #, i can just keep switching cheap VOIP services and using grand central so I never have to worry about losing my phone #.

the magicjack service has been fine, sound quality is fine, and it has been running great for me, you have to have a computer on all the time though, but I leave mine on anyways.

 

[woodscomp]

Competition is good. I would give magicjack a shot if I didn't need the dedicated fax and and could use it through my router instead of a USB port.

 

[Sniper82]

Been a packet8 member for nearly a year now. Its had its issues(all minor) but its worth the $27.xx a month with free long distance. Windstream would charges around $50 for the same stuff.

 

[KKCC]

Is there anyway to port a number to Grand Central?

tnx

 

[vortix]

Originally posted by: KKCC
Is there anyway to port a number to Grand Central?

tnx

Not that I know of. I signed up for Grand Central and did not see any option to allow you to port a number. I would also find this very useful, as I do not want to give everyone I know a new phone #.

To make it even more useful, I would love for Grand Central to have the ability to receive text messages and forward them to mobile phone #s that the user specifies.

 

[RideFree]

What happened to joiluck - joiphone.com?

 

[RideFree]

Just found out...
JOI is being hammered by the flood of refugees from S/R.

 

[bulletpr00f]

Originally posted by: gibster

Originally posted by: bulletpr00f
SkyPe beats them both on all dimensions, price and quality!

If you don't care about emergency calls and transferring your current #, here is the trick as anandtech exclusive .. enjoy and i hope it will help you dump the useless and non-sense expensive vonage account

1. Get SkyPe unlimited linky
2. Get SkyPe In linky
3. Get SkyPe - PSTN adapter. You can get it from ebay, ebay linky or from best buy, best buy linky

Your setup cost ~ $50 and yearly recurring cost is ~$90.

P.S. You get skype pro which gives lot more stuff with 30 euros off from skypein. Eventually it comes to same yearly price (~ 90) but you end up with lot more toys.

You connect your desktop to device I mentioned on 3 and bada bing bada bang, you can make and receive skype calls via usual PSTN phones! Some devices even provide 1-800 dial in number type of capability where you call home via ur cell and then dial a certain key combination with password where a line is given through skype. Pretty sweet!

One small detail - you have to have a PC system running 24/7 for this to work.

Does a device exist that could be hooked up to the home LAN, and give you a Skype phone line, to which you could hook up regular phones?
I see these USB devices, and proprietary hardware Skype phones, but neither is particularly interesting to me, as they are too limiting.

You are right on that you need a computer running 24/7. The device does exist and I've been using it for almost 1.5 years now. I LOVE it! Check out the best buy linky in my original post to see the device.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: bulletpr00f
You are right on that you need a computer running 24/7. The device does exist and I've been using it for almost 1.5 years now. I LOVE it! Check out the best buy linky in my original post to see the device.

There are standalone Skype cordless phones that do NOT require a PC running at all. I have a pair of the Linksys CIT400 and absolutely love them. They cost no more than a typical mid to high-end cordless phone, and best of all, you can run a regular POTS in to them right alongside Skype for the best of both worlds.

There are adapters but they're clunky and you need a PC running 24/7 to service them.

 

[eplebnista]

Originally posted by: TheShiz
i've been using magicjack for a few days and it seems great. it was $35 for the device and a year of unlimited long distance (only US calling) and plugs into your usb jack so you can hook up a regular phone. works fine with my uniden cordless. only bad thing right now is they don't have many area codes, closest one to me was tennessee (i live in richmond, va)

but that isn't a problem at all thanks to grand central. grand central gives you a phone # for free and they have tons of area codes, (at least they had mine) so I tied my magicjack # to the grand central # and I'm all good, I have a local phone # to give out and I have unlimited long distance, all for $35 for a year!

I really don't know how long they can keep it up, (renewal rate on the magicjack is $20 a year right now, beyond cheap) but I figure with grand central at least I'll be able to keep my #, i can just keep switching cheap VOIP services and using grand central so I never have to worry about losing my phone #.

the magicjack service has been fine, sound quality is fine, and it has been running great for me, you have to have a computer on all the time though, but I leave mine on anyways.

Same experience here for the last couple of weeks that I have used it.:thumbsup:

 

[schdaddy]

Originally posted by: eplebnista

Originally posted by: TheShiz
i've been using magicjack for a few days and it seems great. it was $35 for the device and a year of unlimited long distance (only US calling) and plugs into your usb jack so you can hook up a regular phone. works fine with my uniden cordless. only bad thing right now is they don't have many area codes, closest one to me was tennessee (i live in richmond, va)

but that isn't a problem at all thanks to grand central. grand central gives you a phone # for free and they have tons of area codes, (at least they had mine) so I tied my magicjack # to the grand central # and I'm all good, I have a local phone # to give out and I have unlimited long distance, all for $35 for a year!

I really don't know how long they can keep it up, (renewal rate on the magicjack is $20 a year right now, beyond cheap) but I figure with grand central at least I'll be able to keep my #, i can just keep switching cheap VOIP services and using grand central so I never have to worry about losing my phone #.

the magicjack service has been fine, sound quality is fine, and it has been running great for me, you have to have a computer on all the time though, but I leave mine on anyways.

Same experience here for the last couple of weeks that I have used it.:thumbsup:

OK, I'll give it a try & report back with my experience.

 

[Robor]

This is a definite YMMV but I live in an area with Brighthouse cable/phone/internet and Verizon FIOS available. Normally the digital phone option is $39.95/month from Brighthouse but because I live in an area with Verizon competition they gave it to me for $13/month.

Since this is a VOIP thread I'll give my opinion of ViaTalk. DON'T EVEN CONSIDER THEM. I signed up for a year and got a year free. I had 7 months of service left and I still canceled simply because I got sick of the problems. With outbound calls I swear I got more fast busy signals than successful connections. Their tech support was unresponsive at first then blamed my ISP or my network or the alignment of the planets - anything but their crappy service.

 

[Pabster]

Thanks for the update on ViaTalk, Robor.

I think support is in the crapper with any VOIP provider. It's the first thing that goes to get the price down.

 

[Pulsar]

Nuvio has absolutely top-notch service. I've had to deal with them three or four times and every time I've gotten an englishing-speaking person who fixed my problem within 5 minutes.

 

[stockjock]

Well...I was very excited about moving over to Viatalk...but I have to tell you that I am NOT impressed with them one bit. 1.5 hours hold times to talk to anyone is just outrageous! We've had so many problems with incoming calls like going straight to voicemail or ringing twice and going straight to voicemail and all their tech guys says is...we'll reset your server blah blah blah..I also have unanswered "tickets"in from the middle of July. I wouldn't use them until they get their act together

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: stockjock
Well...I was very excited about moving over to Viatalk...but I have to tell you that I am NOT impressed with them one bit. 1.5 hours hold times to talk to anyone is just outrageous! We've had so many problems with incoming calls like going straight to voicemail or ringing twice and going straight to voicemail and all their tech guys says is...we'll reset your server blah blah blah..I also have unanswered "tickets"in from the middle of July. I wouldn't use them until they get their act together

Wow, 90 minutes on hold for support? I thought mine was bad. My call to cancel my service was 58 minutes on hold. Strange thing is I started 12th in the queue and bounced between 9th and 13th before it slowly got down to 'next in queue'. IIRC there was an option to pay $3/month for 'premier' service - total BS if you ask me.

Here's the problems I experienced with ViaTalk:

1. Fast busy signal when trying to call outbound (pretty much 50/50 in our case)
2. Picking up and the caller can't hear you
3. Picking up and you can't hear the caller
4. Picking up and receiving a dial tone
5. Voicemail alert not being cleared for hours when there are no new messages
6. Long waits on hold for 'support'
7. Having your network or ISP blamed for poor service once you get 'support'

This is on a stable-as-a-rock 10Mb down / 1Mb up cable connection. When I first got ViaTalk in mid 2006 the service was okay - not great but worth the ~ $10/month. Eventually I used the simultaneous ring feature and forwarded calls to my cell so I could answer them there. It got so bad I canceled the service with 7 free months left. I had to do it or my cordless phone was going to meet the tile floor very soon.