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

[georgepa]

project 86-

The WAN and LAN light are yellow, not green, from what I can see.

 

[Robor]

AS far as what UPS (Battery Backup) to get: APC -- Don't go cheap and get a CyberPower or Tripplite or whatever other brand. In my experience you'll throw away more offbrand UPS's for the cost of one quality APC.

I'm *still* waiting on my Gizmo by the way. This is after signing back up for the service on Monday and being promised overnight shipping. Some things never change (sigh)...

 

[georgepa]

Robor-

It'll all be worth it. At least you'll be chatting with us here as "one of us," which definitely is worth $199 per year all by itself.


Just saw this APC/Conext 325VA battery backup advertised at CompUSA for $24.95.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=305197&pfp=SEARCH

Anyone know if these Conext units (manufactured by APC?) are any good?

 

[MeanMeosh]

has there been any confirmed usage from other countries? i know one guy posted about using it in canada. anyone else?

(i'm already a member and am considering getting a subscription for my parents in india)

 

[astrosfan90]

Mean, I'm pretty sure someone posted here at some point about using their Gizmo from abroad. I can't remember who and when though.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: Project86
OK my stuff finally arrived and I'm up and running...the lights for LAN and WAN are showing yellow instead of green. What does that mean?

Similar to yellow snow.

...
OK yellow snow... do I need to do something to fix this then? I used testyourvoip.com and it rated me a 4.2 which seems pretty good. Clarity (at least on my end) is not an issue. But this evening I was calling a friend and the call got dropped 3 times in a 15 minute period... There's got to be something I'm doing wrong here!

"The WAN and LAN light are yellow, not green, from what I can see." [quoted from Georgepa]
Sorry, I did not mean to do anything but make light of something that I did not think was critical.
George's may be yellow but mine are green and since I'm not aware of any dual colored nature of the LEDs, I figured your's were OK.
Besides, you had stated that you were up and running just fine from what I could tell.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: astrosfan90 & MeanMeosh
(i'm already a member and am considering getting a subscription for my parents in india)
Mean, I'm pretty sure someone posted here at some point about using their Gizmo from abroad. I can't remember who and when though.

Pretty sure it was ttown. He made the attempt from China, however not successfully. But then his time was very limited and he did not have time to "play" with it.
Since then I have read that China is blocking VoIP but may be considering it's own system (they'll not have to ask the judge if it is OK to eavesdrop (BTW, I?m all for eavesdropping on terrorists, no matter where they reside and you shouldn?t need a court order to do it)).

I?ll bet that it will work OK from India as long as your folks have DSL or Cable or whatever form of HIS is prevalent in India.
You have a 30 day free trial and it only costs 19 a month after that ? if you?re not on the yearly plan.

Don?t forget the power requirements for the Gizmo & the phones.
Let us know how it goes - - - lots of us are wanting to know these answers.

 

[MeanMeosh]

Originally posted by: RideFree

Originally posted by: astrosfan90 & MeanMeosh
(i'm already a member and am considering getting a subscription for my parents in india)
Mean, I'm pretty sure someone posted here at some point about using their Gizmo from abroad. I can't remember who and when though.

Pretty sure it was ttown. He made the attempt from China, however not successfully. But then his time was very limited and he did not have time to "play" with it.
Since then I have read that China is blocking VoIP but may be considering it's own system (they'll not have to ask the judge if it is OK to eavesdrop (BTW, I?m all for eavesdropping on terrorists, no matter where they reside and you shouldn?t need a court order to do it)).

I?ll bet that it will work OK from India as long as your folks have DSL or Cable or whatever form of HIS is prevalent in India.
You have a 30 day free trial and it only costs 19 a month after that ? if you?re not on the yearly plan.

Don?t forget the power requirements for the Gizmo & the phones.
Let us know how it goes - - - lots of us are wanting to know these answers.

i sent over my gizmo with my dad earlier today (decided to just send them mine for testing since i'm not using mine much at the moment). will keep the thread updated once he attempts the connection. sent him over a sturdy 220V->110V adapter as well, along with the gizmo and an old-school corded phone.

 

[GTFan]

My renewal deal gets better. After calling Sales on Monday to say that phones were not received (and getting 50 rewards points credited), I received an email out of the blue from Sunrocket Billing yesterday saying that they had ordered the phones and that they would be sent in 2-3 days. What a wacky system, but I guess it's working out in my favor this time, basically half-price service for a year. Still no sign of either a monthly or annual charge on my CC yet.

 

[georgepa]

GTFan-

Are you saying you got 50 points and a 2-phone system?

I received two 2-phone systems with my 3-month renewal. I see them going pretty good on ebay for around $40 "Buy it now" price, so I am debating if I should do that or just sell them to clients locally?

My card has not been charged yet. Maybe they pull a "RideFree" on us and some of us won't get charged at all? Definitely wacky, you would think they want their money as quickly as possible.

MeanMeosh-

I saw users' post from different countries. It usually works. Broadband internet is broadband internet anywhere in the world. The only issue I have seen is that some countries have ISPs that require a little tweaking (i.e. some ISPs in Israel require PPoE to be activated.)

 

[Robor]

When I re-subscribed last Monday I tried to do so using my old login info and it said my Email address was already in use. I then called Sunrocket and went through the process over the phone. I got the 15 months for $200 deal with overnight shipping on my Gizmo but no Uniden 2.4Ghz phones. It took about 30 minutes because she was getting the same error I was when trying to use my Email. Eventually she was able to get it working - or that's what she told me. When I tried to log in I got a page saying my account would be activate shortly. I was never able to log in that day so I sent an Email. They replied the next day saying it would be activated shortly. That day went by and I still couldn't log in. I sent another Email and they replied saying they were putting an engineer on the problem. I was able to log in the following day. All this time my Gizmo had not arrived and in each Email I mentioned that I was still waiting. In the last Email they said it was ready to ship but couldn't provide a tracking number.

I contacted Sunrocket via Email a few days ago asking about my Gizmo and if I would get the 2.4Ghz phones because I obviously didn't get overnight shipping. I got a reply saying my package didn't qualify. No biggie - I was likely going to sell them anyway as I've got 5.8's already. So I get home from work yesterday and see a package from Sunrocket. Yes! They finally delivered my Gizmo. I open the box and guess what's in there. Yep - a set of Uniden 2.4Ghz phones. Oh well, I guess I'll be listing them on Ebay.

Still waiting on my Gizmo though...

 

[laketrout]

Originally posted by: RideFree
Pretty sure it was ttown. He made the attempt from China, however not successfully. But then his time was very limited and he did not have time to "play" with it.

That was I, not ttown. I was on a university system and didn't have time to fiddle too much, but the lights appeared to come up correctly. So I would presume it WOULD work. I would think India would be a little more willing to allow the traffic. I remember reading about people using Vonage there...

 

[georgepa]

robor-

woohoo. First confirmed case I've read of a renewal getting 15 months AND 2 free phones when renewing. Got it all configured?

 

[GTFan]

Originally posted by: georgepa
GTFan-

Are you saying you got 50 points and a 2-phone system?

Yep, that's what I'm saying, crazy huh? I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, which will probably be incorrect billing on my CC. They're so messed up.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: georgepa
robor-

woohoo. First confirmed case I've read of a renewal getting 15 months AND 2 free phones when renewing. Got it all configured?

Thanks! Not configured yet though. I'm still waiting on my Gizmo to arrive. If it's not there today after work I'm going to call and ask them what's up. The funny thing is, after going like 2 weeks without a 'home phone' I don't really miss it all that much. I'm sure my cell bill will be a little higher though.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: laketrout

Originally posted by: RideFree
Pretty sure it was ttown. He made the attempt from China, however not successfully. But then his time was very limited and he did not have time to "play" with it.

That was I, not ttown....

laketrout,
Thanks for straightening that all out.
(I was going to make one of my little jokes here but the mods have been a little heavy-handed, lately. Definitely, changes happening behind the sceens of A/T.)

 

[laketrout]

I always appreciate your jokes

 

[TotalEclipse]

I can't even get the 15 months for $199, tried twice.

 

[georgepa]

totaleclipse-

What most of us got for renewal is the 13 months for $199 plus the 2 free phones. A couple got more (GTFan, myself, etc.) but that must have been a glitsch/overlap.

Be sure to call SALES (not just member services.) You can tell them by the fact that they are from CANADA (not the Phillipino accent.) You MUST get to the SALES department. Then just find one of the people who helped most of us here. You should probably allot up to 4 phone calls, and should get the phone deal w. the 13 month renewal deal. Robor got very lucky with his deal (renewal for 15 months plus 2 phones) but that's just him, I suppose. Good-luck mojo.

Try it a few times with the SALES people. Let us know if it works for you. I assume eventually they'll stop the double-dipping, hopefully they haven't just done so. Just kind of tell them that others have gotten the deal, so why should you be different? If they ask for someone else who got that deal, just use a phone number from one of us here to show them what they want to see. I don't mind PMing my phone number to you, if that'll help.

 

[TotalEclipse]

Sweet, got 13 months for $199, Happy enough, don't need the phones. First call too.

 

[Jlensbo]

Originally posted by: Robor
When I re-subscribed last Monday I tried to do so using my old login info and it said my Email address was already in use. I then called Sunrocket and went through the process over the phone. I got the 15 months for $200 deal with overnight shipping on my Gizmo but no Uniden 2.4Ghz phones. It took about 30 minutes because she was getting the same error I was when trying to use my Email. Eventually she was able to get it working - or that's what she told me. When I tried to log in I got a page saying my account would be activate shortly. I was never able to log in that day so I sent an Email. They replied the next day saying it would be activated shortly. That day went by and I still couldn't log in. I sent another Email and they replied saying they were putting an engineer on the problem. I was able to log in the following day. All this time my Gizmo had not arrived and in each Email I mentioned that I was still waiting. In the last Email they said it was ready to ship but couldn't provide a tracking number.

I contacted Sunrocket via Email a few days ago asking about my Gizmo and if I would get the 2.4Ghz phones because I obviously didn't get overnight shipping. I got a reply saying my package didn't qualify. No biggie - I was likely going to sell them anyway as I've got 5.8's already. So I get home from work yesterday and see a package from Sunrocket. Yes! They finally delivered my Gizmo. I open the box and guess what's in there. Yep - a set of Uniden 2.4Ghz phones. Oh well, I guess I'll be listing them on Ebay.

Still waiting on my Gizmo though...

But why would they send you another gizmo if you are re-subscribing? By "re-subscribibg" you mean "renewing", don't you?

 

[azoomee]

Ok, things have been fixed by sunrocket on the dead air. No difference on this and Verizon except about $60/month.

Gotta love being able to get notification of voicemail with an email on my blackberry!

 

[RideFree]

"Gotta love being able to get notification of voicemail with an email on my blackberry!"
Right on!
And, being able to listen to the message on the BB.

 

[RideFree]

Quick update in RE: routers
(In particular, the Linksys WRT54G.)
I had recently swapped out my several-year-old BEFSR41 for the v.5 WRT54G and for several days, SunRocket had issues...I mean the "dead air issues".
Because cause (new router) and effect (several days lapse) were not connected (at least not in my head, it seems), I chased the S/R failure through S/R's half-assed tech support, to no avail. After a promise to elevate my problem to the engineering level, I noticed that there was a firmware update for my new router from .4 to .6 (there was no .5).
I installed the firmware update and guess what? It wasn't S/R's fault! Everything is back to working perfectly.

PS It didn't help matters that S/R was apparently going through the "dead air issue" at the same ill-fated time as I chose for an equipment update.
Actually, I did not need an equipment update, however, my son (and family) have recently become new S/R devotees and they do not have a router behind their cable modem?as such, dad is donating to the routerly{sic} challenged.

Which just goes to show, If it ain't broke, don't fix it! I would have been better off to give my son the new router and probably would have except, I worried that he might not be diligent about the wireless aspect of the 54G.

 

[TotalEclipse]

Ridefree There version 5 are pretty crappy. Look for a Version 4 or the new WRT54GL