VOIP SunRocket Internet Phone Service $199 for 15months = $13.27/month

[RideFree]

PS (Phone System)

S/R has not been down in Denver for some time.
I used it several times this 6-8AM (MST) both in and out...no problems.
Gmail, however, has been flakey this AM.

 

[jimmyjam]

I finally jumped on this deal on Saturday and am now hoping I didn't do the wrong thing. I'll do like Surr and try it out for a couple of weeks before I transfer my home phone # over. Speaking of, does anyone have a link to info about porting over my home number? The rep said it would be emailed to me and I haven't seen anything so far.

 

[RideFree]

Link is also on SR's site for the elimation of POTS.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I don't use Sunrocket Voicemail. I let the phone ring through to my answering machine so anyone in the house can check messages. Anyhow, it appears I've missed a ton of calls today since Sunrocket's been down. I really hope they get it fixed for their sake. I'm about to send their crappy equipment back and cancel the deal. They haven't been able to offer quality comparitive with Packet8 and their customer service is just as bad.

How often do they have downtime like this? And do they normally at least give you an estimate on when it's going to be back up? Thanks,-

 

[FAS284]

wow.. and i'm thinking of getting sunrocket but these outages make me uneasy. packet8 has given no problems so far but it is more though.

 

[dchakrab]

Mine was fine last night, and was fine again this afternoon (about 2pm, central) too (Chicago, IL).

Doesn't seem like a total outtage...just a very large one, since a few of us seem to have escaped relatively unscathed.

------------------
Dave A. Chakrabarti

Sunrocket Review

Nirman - My dealings with a dishonest Varanasi, India nonprofit organization that ended up stealing my computer equipment when I volunteered for them for over 3 years.

 

[Surr]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
I don't use Sunrocket Voicemail. I let the phone ring through to my answering machine so anyone in the house can check messages. Anyhow, it appears I've missed a ton of calls today since Sunrocket's been down. I really hope they get it fixed for their sake. I'm about to send their crappy equipment back and cancel the deal. They haven't been able to offer quality comparitive with Packet8 and their customer service is just as bad.

How often do they have downtime like this? And do they normally at least give you an estimate on when it's going to be back up? Thanks,-

FYI.. I use their voicemail, and it was down too. When I tried to call my number I got a fast busy signal.

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: RideFree

Gmail, however, has been flakey this AM.

Gmail seems to be flakey for me at least once a week. Drives me crazy!!

I didn't notice any problems with my SunRocket this weekend. My guess is that it was localized or something.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: Surr
FYI.. I use their voicemail, and it was down too. When I tried to call my number I got a fast busy signal.

Surr, FYI when I tried your number, one of your neighbors was on the line.
What do you suppose will happen when we all have SR?

 

[georgepa]

My wife had trouble calling out and called me on her cell yesterday. Then 20 minutes later she called me from the SR phone. If it was longer before that we missed it early in the morning.

Gmail is still in beta, but it does have its quirks. Love it, though, so I hang with it. The "conversations" bundling is cool.

BTW, Canada tech support is a reality today. The sales guys are in Canada, and they've been trained with tech support issues. So, when you call for tech support go with SALES or ask to be connected to the sales department. Some have complained about the Phillipino tech people, so if that is an issue you could talk to Canadian CS if you wish.

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: georgepa

BTW, Canada tech support is a reality today. The sales guys are in Canada, and they've been trained with tech support issues. So, when you call for tech support go with SALES or ask to be connected to the sales department. Some have complained about the Phillipino tech people, so if that is an issue you could talk to Canadian CS if you wish.

Nice, glad to hear SR has that up and running.

I can't help but think that they'll answer the calls with "Thanks for calling SunRocket, eh."

 

[RideFree]

For me, it's always been "oot" although I've also heard upper New York (state) people use the northern version of "out".
I think it's probably because of the strong Scottish influence in Canada and the strong Canadian influence in NY. Of course, eh is pretty Canadian.

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: RideFree
For me, it's always been "oot" although I've also heard upper New York (state) people use the northern version of "out".
I think it's probably because of the strong Scottish influence in Canada and the strong Canadian influence in NY. Of course, eh is pretty Canadian.

Yeah, I went to college upstate, I know exactly what you mean.

Just a random comment, but I might be visiting my father in Moscow sometime later this spring. Was thinking about bringing my gizmo out with me and seeing if I can get it to work. Might convince him to sign up and stop making me call him all the time.

 

[RideFree]

My wife had her degree from Buffalo State (I'd tease her about BS).
Absolutely take the Gizmo to your Dad's place!
If it works really well, talk him into giving you the two hun and you can get another one when you get back to the States. Besides that, you'll have two new phones and can probably figure out a way to refer yourself & catch the reward points. I know I did.

Edited: Besides that, your Pa would be among the coolest in Moscow - what with a 1-716 area code -eh. Besides that, every call he made would be at the S/R rate.

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: RideFree
My wife had her degree from Buffalo State (I'd tease her about BS).
Absolutely take the Gizmo to your Dad's place!
If it works really well, talk him into giving you the two hun and you can get another one when you get back to the States. Besides that, you'll have two new phones and can probably figure out a way to refer yourself & catch the reward points. I know I did.

Edited: Besides that, your Pa would be among the coolest in Moscow - what with a 1-716 area code -eh. Besides that, every call he made would be at the S/R rate.

Always thinkin, RideFree, always thinkin.

I'll definitely give it a shot. Have to make sure he has some sort of broadband connection over there, which I'd imagine he does.

Now to find tickets.

 

[RideFree]

"Now to find tickets"
This could get you NYC to Paris for $160+tax...

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: RideFree
"Now to find tickets"
This could get you NYC to Paris for $160+tax...

ATHD ftw. Good stuff, this place. I wonder if anyone's sat down and added up all the money they've saved thanks to this place. I've saved a few hundred myself from SR, and that right there could be another few hundred.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: astrosfan90
ATHD ftw. Good stuff, this place. I wonder if anyone's sat down and added up all the money they've saved thanks to this place. I've saved a few hundred myself from SR, and that right there could be another few hundred.

Yeah, I've "saved" myself just about into the poor-house.

 

[Kelemvor]

Originally posted by: georgepa
FrankyJunior-

"Can this service work with a Fax machine on the same line? Maybe I'd have to disable their voice mail and let my answering still function like I do now... "

You can use your signature number as an incoming fax number. Set it to distinctive ring and do the same with the fax machine (most modern fax machines can be programmed to hear certain distinctive rings.) When a regular call comes in on the main number the fax machine stays silent. You can then pick the call up or let it go to voicemail. If a call comes in on that signature number, the distinctive ring will correspond with the fax machine's settings and the fax will pick up.

Hmm, I'd have to check if my fax machine (HP 3330print/fax/etc) supports distinctiev ringing. I've never actually used that before so I'd have to see how to set it up... But I assume it would work.

 

[Kelemvor]

My main concern is bandwidth when I'm torrent'ing or Newsgroup'ing.... I could always get a Linksys WRT54G or something with some opensource firmware but does anyone have experience with that?

I guess if the phone was active (receiving or making a call) I'd want that to have 100% priority. But if it was inactive, I'd want the rest of the network to have all the bandwidth. Can I do that somehow? And does anyone else do that now that can comment on how well it works and if there's any quality problems with the phone when you are doing some huge down/up loading?

 

[georgepa]

Franky-

The WRT54G is a good choice (stay away from v.5 as you have heard by now) for what you are trying to accomplish. A lot depends on your total pipe, of course. If you have FIOS with 15MB d/l you are in better shape than, say, with a 768k d/l account. Up is obviously a concern, because it is too often an afterthought, but for VOIP it is of course vital.

So, if you have decent d/l be sure to either get a QoS capable router like the one you mentioned or go into your SR adapter and set up QoS. Best way: Enable DRL and set it just a smidgen above your actual listed UPLOAD speed.

If you can do so, turn UPLOAD off as a matter of course. I believe Limewire has an option to turn uploading off, just have download enabled. I believe that it does not affect your ability to download with any kind of ratio or restrictions. Sure, it is perhaps against the spirit of P2P, but then again, ethics are hardly a concern when it comes to getting stuff from one of those sites.

Let us know how big your internet pipe is, both up and down, as that has a lot to do with your ability to do "things" outside of chatting on the phone.

 

[imported_troyconrad]

Possibly of interest to some of this thread's readers:

I have just finished a Perl module that is an interface to the "ClickToCall" functionality on the SunRocket web site. This allows you easily initiate phone calls to others though software.

I'm going to use it with a FileMaker contact database so that I can have a "Call" button on each record that will automatically call the selected person.

Another goal was to make it easy to create a web CGI that allows reverse calling. For example, let's say you have a friend that regularly calls you long distance. You call them back when they call to minimize toll charges, but it still costs 25 cents for them to first call you if you answer. You can send them a URL they can bookmark or make a shortcut of that goes to http://yourserver.com/sundial.cgi?their-phone-number. When they go to that link, you SunRocket line will ring. When you pick up, it dials their number.

Some limitations to keep in mind for remote reverse dialing:
- The number you specify will not ring until you first pick up your SunRocket phone.
- When you phone rings your Caller ID will show your number, not the number you are calling.
- If you don't pick up you SunRocket line it will ring about 10 times before stopping and will NOT follow your forwarding preferences.
- You must specify your email address and password in the script, so be sure to properly secure the script source on the server.

The module can be downloaded here.

This is just the Perl module and a command line wrapper. I have not written a web CGI yet but plan to and will add it to the archive when it's done.

Let me know if you have any suggestions or problems here or via email. (My email address is included in the readme file.)

-Troy-

 

[RideFree]

WOW!
Troy, You da man!

Of course, this is way too sophisticated for me to even try out. However, astrosfan90, were you paying attention? You may not even need to take your Gizmo with you when you visit your dad. Just send him this script along with a photo of you and the kids waving

 

[imported_troyconrad]

Originally posted by: RideFree
WOW!
Troy, You da man!

Of course, this is way too sophisticated for me to even try out.

Thanks. If you have access to a *NIX box (Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, etc.) the installation is easy. Windows installation is a bit harder since it doesn't come with Perl or make installed by default

I can write up some better documentation in the next week or so if there's any demand.

 

[imported_troyconrad]

It occurs to me now that I could make this a hosted service so that you wouldn't need to install *anything* or even *have* a web server. There are security and maintenance issues I would need to resolve but it could be done. Basically I would create a secure web form that you visit and supply your SunRocket email address and password to. Public key cryptography would then be used to encapsulate that information into a unique URL you could then give to anyone who you wanted to be able to call you. That way the passwords would not have stored on my server or exposed in the URLs, so it would be very secure (assuming you trust me, anyway.) If there is strong interest in something like this I will try to spend some time on it.

-Troy-