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

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: jono8

Originally posted by: lnguyen

Originally posted by: flyswatter
Not a bad deal. Since everytime I call my next door neighbor across the street it's long distance. (that's how my phone system was routed)

next door != across the street in my mind anyway. But I must say, that's retarded. But I guess someone has to live on the dividing line for long distance.

I always thought that calls were charged based on teh distance from your house and a certain number of miles = local, a certain number more = zone A/B/C etc., then there's long distance outside of that. I guess you learn something new everyday.

good point. hrm. heh

 

[RideFree]

For nearly everything you wanted to know about interoperability of WiFi with VOIP (and some free router info) go toTomshardware.com.

This fresh article (while not actually about VOIP on WiFi) may answer some of the questions about Gizmo before or after router and other networking things that go bump in the night.

 

[neocor]

Originally posted by: lnguyen

Originally posted by: flyswatter
Not a bad deal. Since everytime I call my next door neighbor across the street it's long distance. (that's how my phone system was routed)

next door != across the street in my mind anyway. But I must say, that's retarded. But I guess someone has to live on the dividing line for long distance.

In NJ everybody lives in the dividing line of Long distance.
I guess Nj is the only state which has the smalles local coverage area.
I call to a friend living across the street in another apartment complex is long distance.

 

[dabuddha]

Just signed up today with the 2 free phones. As soon as it's good and stable, good bye vonage

 

[Wolfsraider]

new mailing lists SRAC6B good till 3/5/2005 for same price and phones

 

[GTFan]

I just got my SunRocket kit today with the free phones and have to second teddy's most excellent review so far. All calls sound great and incoming calls worked from the start. I have the gizmo behind the router and plan to keep it there until I see probs. Am on comcast's 4M/384K service and can only hope that they improve their record as of late - I think any probs I have with SunRocket calls will most likely be comcast's fault.

In any event with two cell phones for backup, this is an easy way to get a lot of features for not a lot of money. I went with the yearly bill plan and hope that this nice start with SR continues.

So, does anyone want to buy a Belkin Message Manager VOIP router (see www.everywhere.net for details)? These are unlocked and can be configured for access to any service. With the latest firmware it's been pretty stable but so far I'm liking SR better, but to be honest, I've only tried the Belkin with the cheapo stanaphone.com and sipphone.com services.

 

[RNEMTP]

I also joined the SunRocket bandwagon. I am very happy with the ease of the setup, the call quality is excellent both ways. I am in front of my Lynksys router and have not noticed any quality issues with the calls. All incoming calls are named anonymous, but the numbers are valid and visible. The uniden phones are nice for the price, FREE. Cancelled the land line service, saving me some cash for my other toys.

I disconnected the main line from the box outisde and now all my phones in the house use the VoIP.

Thanks to all of you for the great advice posted here because it has helped me understand and set up my service.

 

[RideFree]

Now, all we need is to be able to implement a FAR video phone over SR!
I can see it coming...

 

[dundevil]

Originally posted by: girishkr
Just signed up for the service, thanks for all the reviews. Does anyone know if I can use this service with fax machine.

I have used it for both incoming and outgoing faxes. Works OK but often slower than when using a land line.

I sent an overseas fax today. The fax machine confirmed that it was received bur it does not show up on the SR telephone call log.

Do NOT use fax with the Uniden wirless phones that came with the deal. It screws up fax reception. Uniden CS told me this and I confirmed it.

I am generally satisfied with the SR package, but I wish

1. That they would get port #2 to work

2. Get the distinctive ring to work on the Siganture line.

I have NOT upgraded the software.

Dundevil

 

[sussig]

how did u get the fax to work?

fax only works for me on cerntain #s, not all #s

what firmware u got? and what did you mean by dont use fax with uniden phone which it screws up fax reception?

please help as im been trying all week to get fax to work

 

[jono8]

anyone know how I could check whether my phone plugs are connected to a landline? I live in an apartment builiding, and I'm assuming management will not let me into the central box area.

 

[boggsie]

Originally posted by: jono8
anyone know how I could check whether my phone plugs are connected to a landline? I live in an apartment builiding, and I'm assuming management will not let me into the central box area.

I would imagine that one of those 'phone line testers' would give you an idea. RadioShaq sells them. It is essentially two LED's (green/red) connected to an RJxx that plugs into the wall jack. If it lights green, then the line is connected and polarity is correct. If the red LED comes on, then the line is connected and polarity is incorrect. If it does not illuminate, then there is no power or the testing device is defective.

 

[sussig]

Originally posted by: dundevil

Originally posted by: girishkr
Just signed up for the service, thanks for all the reviews. Does anyone know if I can use this service with fax machine.

I have used it for both incoming and outgoing faxes. Works OK but often slower than when using a land line.

I sent an overseas fax today. The fax machine confirmed that it was received bur it does not show up on the SR telephone call log.

Do NOT use fax with the Uniden wirless phones that came with the deal. It screws up fax reception. Uniden CS told me this and I confirmed it.

I am generally satisfied with the SR package, but I wish

1. That they would get port #2 to work

2. Get the distinctive ring to work on the Siganture line.

I have NOT upgraded the software.

Dundevil

thanks for the respond man

however, im not tryin to receive any fax... im tryin to send fax out

i have a brother mfc 6800 (printer/scanner/fax)

my current network setup
cable modem ---> gizmo ---> router ---> pc
calling quality is great by the way

phone setup
cable modem ---> gizmo ---> mfc 6800 line port ------> mfc 6800 ext port ------> no brand cordless 2.4 ghz phone

fax only works on certain #s, but not all the #s... talked to SR tech and they dont have no idea why... they are aware of the issue and are tryin to come out with a firmware to fix this? man if fax dont work, i'll have to go back to send2fax.com


ps. can you turn on ur pm?

 

[WaltJ]

Ok, so you get two phone numbers. What happens if you're talking on line 1 and someone calls you on line 2. Does the other phone ring? Can someone else pick it up and have a conversation at the same time as you continue your call on line 1?

 

[dundevil]

Originally posted by: WaltJ
Ok, so you get two phone numbers. What happens if you're talking on line 1 and someone calls you on line 2. Does the other phone ring? Can someone else pick it up and have a conversation at the same time as you continue your call on line 1?

The second number is now called a Signature number. It only now has (or is supposed to have) a distictive ring (DR). e.g. 2 or 3 short rings, or chirp, etc. POTS uses this. Sometimes called Ringmaster or similar.

Only one call can be acommodated at a time even though there are two numbers since both numbers are on the same line. Dialing the seocnd number will only cause the DR to ring on the single line. Typical use. teenager's friends call on the second number and he/she will pick up phone because of DR. Parent will not answer

When SR Gizmo port #2 is activated then there will be two separtae lines that can be used independently of each other.

My Gizmo DR currently does not work. SR CSR said (yesterday) that they hoped to have DR fixed by the first week in March. He also said that they were shooting to have the Gizmo port #2 operable "by the end of the first quarter". I forgot to ask him if he meant 2005 or some other year. lol

Dundevil

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: SoulAssassin
I know some people have mentioned better results after moving the gizmo behind their firewall but just got off the phone w Sunrocket to get my firmware upgrade and they strongly mentioned leaving it in front of your router. It's a QoS thing. If it's in the middle it can prioritize the voice traffic as needed over regular traffic. Yes, your d/l's may suffer slightly when on the phone but personally I can live with that as long as it's not affecting traffic when I'm not on the phone.

YMMV, do it however you want.

Main thing is to not use your upstream at its full capacity, that will kill downstream on many async connections such as DSL.
Or use a router that supports packet shaping/priority/QOS. Then you give max priority to the phone packets, and 2nd priority to web browsing, and 3rd to d/ling, etc. One router that you can do this with is linksys wrt54g or wrt54gs with various 3rd party firmware options (since linksys released the firmware open source, people have been adding features). There's a thread on it here in AT hot deals, I list some of the links to get various types. http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=40&threadid=1343138

 

[MrNutz]

Originally posted by: WaltJ
Ok, so you get two phone numbers. What happens if you're talking on line 1 and someone calls you on line 2. Does the other phone ring? Can someone else pick it up and have a conversation at the same time as you continue your call on line 1?

The most beneficial purpose of the signature number (2nd line) is if you have relatives that live outside your local calling area. Then you can have a local number for your local friends. And the signature number can be set up so it has a local number for your family. (Just remember that you can get any area code for you number as long as SR has it available.)

 

[GTFan]

You can also use the second number for free inbound faxes, without needing a machine. Go to k7.net and sign up for a free fax phone number, then configure your k7 account to send the faxes to your email. Finally, go to your SR acct and forward all calls for your second number to the k7 number.

Props to Craig at FW in the SR thread for this idea! I've set this up for mine and it works great.

 

[dabuddha]

I got my gizmo and the free phones today. I plugged the whole deal in and the only thing I'm not sure of is do I plug the ethernet cable into the WAN or LAN port? I have the gizmo sitting behind my router. So it's like this:

modem ------ router ------ gizmo

 

[jono8]

Originally posted by: dabuddha
I got my gizmo and the free phones today. I plugged the whole deal in and the only thing I'm not sure of is do I plug the ethernet cable into the WAN or LAN port? I have the gizmo sitting behind my router. So it's like this:

modem ------ router ------ gizmo

it worked behind the router for me plugging it into the wan port

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: jono8

Originally posted by: dabuddha
I got my gizmo and the free phones today. I plugged the whole deal in and the only thing I'm not sure of is do I plug the ethernet cable into the WAN or LAN port? I have the gizmo sitting behind my router. So it's like this:

modem ------ router ------ gizmo

it worked behind the router for me plugging it into the wan port

Lemme try that out. Also they're telling me it takes 10 business days to get incoming calls? Is this true?


EDIT: Just talked to their "real" tech support. Awesome support. The guy actually knew what he was talking about! So heres how I got my setup working.

modem ----- router ------ gizmo

The gizmo was hooked up from the wan port to one of the open ports on my router. Then I had to enable DHCP on my router. Luckily, I can have DHCP enabled and still use static IPs. (Which is cool unless it's always been that way with all routers ) Once doing that, it connected instantly. The problem I was having is that I only use static IPs on my home network. So I enabled the DHCP server and told my router to only assign 1 ip address which the gizmo takes

The call quality seemed crystal clear. He told me I should have incoming calls working by March 3rd, 2005

So far so good :thumbsup:

 

[ImSeeker]

Day 19

Sunrocket Phone still great, but land line still has not switched over yet.

 

[MrNutz]

dabuddha, glad to hear you are happy with your switch to SR. If you read through this thread, you can learn about the different configurations of the gizmo and the pros/cons of each. But, you should be fine with your current config. (And, yes, routers have always been able to act as a DHCP server and support static IPs. )

So... I guess you're not too worried about Vonage referrals anymore...

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: MrNutz
dabuddha, glad to hear you are happy with your switch to SR. If you read through this thread, you can learn about the different configurations of the gizmo and the pros/cons of each. But, you should be fine with your current config. (And, yes, routers have always been able to act as a DHCP server and support static IPs. )

So... I guess you're not too worried about Vonage referrals anymore...

I'll still take em if anyone needs em
I'm not gonna cancel my vonage service until I can receive incoming calls for at least a week.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Devistater
One router that you can do this with is linksys wrt54g or wrt54gs with various 3rd party firmware options (since linksys released the firmware open source, people have been adding features). There's a thread on it here in AT hot deals, I list some of the links to get various types. http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=40&threadid=1343138

I think that linksys is the only one..... and it's a hack too... not that it matters for me, I have it in front of the router.