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

[TekDemon]

We can't even do that with regular telephone services in NYC anymore...it's 10 digits for everyone from now on...

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: laketrout

Originally posted by: ttown
The "find me" feature is cool, if you have a cell and/or work#'s you'd like incoming calls forwarded to. If your home phone rings X times, it moves on to your next number... then the next...

Voice-mail notification is cool, if you have email or text-message device (pager/cell-phone) you can be told remotely that you have voice-mail.

Call logging is cool -- if you ever want to remember/document when a call took place.

The second phone-number is cool -- if you have a fax, or to only give out the number to specific people. It might be SUPER cool if you have the second number "located" (via area-code) near someone(s) long-distance, who could then call YOU for free.

"Find Me" - I was wondering about this. Does this then count against your minutes on your cell phone? You know what I mean, is it bascially your house calling your cell, so it is now local or would it be long distance if the caller was long distance?

"Second Phone number" - You can do that? NOW THATS awesome. Anybody actually have that set up?

The find-me thing would be as if the caller called your cell, afaik. It definately counts against the minutes, but I don't really know about long-distance charges (since my cell is 'free long distance' (which is really: 'no extra charge for long-distance'), I can't tell). I'm 99.99% sure it's as-if the caller called your cell.

The second phone number is called a "signature" number -- and everyone got one when they signed up, no extra charge. I've only heard stories about people choosing a signature-number outside of their local area-code. You can't do it in the web sign-up page, so you'd have to call customer-service to have them pick one. To them, a phone-number is a phone-number, so there's really no extra cost -- other than them taking 2 minutes to pick a different number. They don't offer service (yet) in the area I'd be interested in doing this in, so I haven't done it.
Additional numbers cost a bit extra/mo for vonage customers.... not sure about other voip providers.

trevinomThe service works with faxs, so I'm sure it would work with regular modems.

The only thing that's taking me a while to get used to is the 10-digit dialing for local calls. It's starting to become natural though.....

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: trevinom
With this service, can I still use my laptops 56k modem to dial into work? I scanned through this whole thread and was unable to find an answer to this question.

Thanks in advance.

Quick, someone with a laptop check this out. (Some of us no longer even have DUN.)
Two schools of thought...
1. It may be the cleanest 56K connection, yet - or
2. It could be that it does not work as the modem uses analog to create the handshake event.

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: RideFree

Originally posted by: trevinom
With this service, can I still use my laptops 56k modem to dial into work? I scanned through this whole thread and was unable to find an answer to this question.

Thanks in advance.

Quick, someone with a laptop check this out. (Some of us no longer even have DUN.)
Two schools of thought...
1. It may be the cleanest 56K connection, yet - or
2. It could be that it does not work as the modem uses analog to create the handshake event.

Confirmed to work!

But..... I was unable to connect at 56k (tried 2 times). So I dropped the connect rate down, and it connected OK at 48K. Man, dial-up is slow! It may be that 48k was pushing the abilities... surfing around, I went to hotmail.com and got a "page could not load" (whatever) message. Hit REFRESH, and it loaded ok. I surfed around for a couple minutes with no other problems.
It may be that at 48K, the slowness was due to network noise (tcp/ip retransmissions) or maybe because I'm used to cable. It seems like I tried 56k on a normal line not too long ago and it seemed significantly faster than my test just now at 48k.

I'd say it's safe to assume you can get something workable, but maybe not 'optimal'. A quick call in to work to fix something is probably do-able.... telecommuting long-term may be very aggravating.

hth

 

[RideFree]

ttown,
Thanks for the report.
I guess we are all spoiled by high-speed connections and no longer realize what 48k even feels like.
My first modem was 300baud and it was sooo slooow but, back then, lots of files were a whopping 10K. A really big one was 50k.
Years later, I paid $1000 at CrapUSA for a USR HST that would do 18,600??? I think.

 

[ttown]

Woot! got notice today that my number has finally been transferred.
Along with the notice, SR says to reset the modem later today.

But first... time to experiment
Kinda weird... calls to both my original SR number AND my newly transferred number make the gizmo ring. That's hugely convenient, and what I'd expect as a customer.... But I'm also very curious how that can happen at a technical level. My guess is that SR must be redirecting calls from my 'pending transferred' number to my 'registered' SR number. When I reset my gizmo, my original SR number will no longer be getting activity so they'll know they can recycle it.

I'll monitor what happens to the gizmo during my next "reboot" and report back if anything cool happens for anyone that's interested.

 

[hbcsc153]

Hello!

I have signed up for Sunrocket and am waiting for the "Stuff" to arrive. I see members mentioning 911 and E911. What is the difference between the two? Does anyone get regular 911 using Sunrocket or others like Vonage?

Regards,

Emil

 

[ImSeeker]

Originally posted by: ttown
Woot! got notice today that my number has finally been transferred.
Along with the notice, SR says to reset the modem later today.

But first... time to experiment
Kinda weird... calls to both my original SR number AND my newly transferred number make the gizmo ring. That's hugely convenient, and what I'd expect as a customer.... But I'm also very curious how that can happen at a technical level. My guess is that SR must be redirecting calls from my 'pending transferred' number to my 'registered' SR number. When I reset my gizmo, my original SR number will no longer be getting activity so they'll know they can recycle it.

I'll monitor what happens to the gizmo during my next "reboot" and report back if anything cool happens for anyone that's interested.

I had 3 numbers working for almost 2 weeks before the original SR (temporary) number disappeared.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: hbcsc153
Hello!

I have signed up for Sunrocket and am waiting for the "Stuff" to arrive. I see members mentioning 911 and E911. What is the difference between the two? Does anyone get regular 911 using Sunrocket or others like Vonage?

Regards,

Emil

I think that with E911 they make the trip to your house with the antidote to the "Cialis Problem " - You know, the 4 hour problem.

Seriously, welcome to the A/T forums and note that I had to look up the Answer to your question, myself.

 

[hbcsc153]

Hello RideFree!

Please excuse the ignorance about 911, as I have never had to use it, but know the importance of having it available as I have a newborn and a 2 year old in the home. Does the 911 service that Sunrocket offer (whether 911 or E911) behave the same way has regular phone service (in my case Verizon)? Is there any extra steps (other than one having to give location info if it is 911) if one has the service through Sunrocket or any other VOIP provider?

Regards,

Emil

 

[fitzov]

I've been using the service for a few weeks now and it's great but for one exception: every week or so the gizmo goes out and I wake up the next morning to find out I have no phone service. I call tech support and we go through a process of disconnecting this and that and shutting down the computer, etc. and the service comes back on. It may have something to do with my ISP, but I don't know.

 

[rich123]

Disconnected POTS wires at service entrance, then plugged phone1 wire from gizmo into nearest phone jack - Now all phones in house are on SunRocket.

Panasonic Showstopper (Same as ReplayTV 3060) modem connects OK (I put three commas as dial-up prefix) but the connection is unreliable. Tried changing baud rate from "default", but then it fails to connect at all (can do this with secret menu accessible by hitting "zones" button at the same screen where you have the dialup-prefix option).

Heard about the backwards connected "DSL filter", but have not tried that yet.

Application Code Version: SIP version 4.50 US (APP 27 )
Downloader Code Version: 4.50 US (LDR 27 )
CPU Hw Version: 20

Anyone with pointers on how to get the Showstopper connection up to snuff?

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: hbcsc153
Hello RideFree!

Please excuse the ignorance about 911, as I have never had to use it, but know the importance of having it available as I have a newborn and a 2 year old in the home. Does the 911 service that Sunrocket offer (whether 911 or E911) behave the same way has regular phone service (in my case Verizon)? Is there any extra steps (other than one having to give location info if it is 911) if one has the service through Sunrocket or any other VOIP provider?

Regards,

Emil

You're no more ignorant about 911 than I am, however, some in this thread have...
1st called the non-emergency PH# for their police or local gendarme and
2nd asked permission to try out the 911 service from their new internet phone...

It looked to me like the main difference between 911 and E911 was that E911 mostly had to do with mobile or cell phones.

It is my understanding that the service that SR offers is not available if you can not obtain 911 with it.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: fitzov
I've been using the service for a few weeks now and it's great but for one exception: every week or so the gizmo goes out and I wake up the next morning to find out I have no phone service. I call tech support and we go through a process of disconnecting this and that and shutting down the computer, etc. and the service comes back on. It may have something to do with my ISP, but I don't know.

So, who's your ISP?

 

[mm60]

Originally posted by: RideFree

Originally posted by: fitzov
I've been using the service for a few weeks now and it's great but for one exception: every week or so the gizmo goes out and I wake up the next morning to find out I have no phone service. I call tech support and we go through a process of disconnecting this and that and shutting down the computer, etc. and the service comes back on. It may have something to do with my ISP, but I don't know.

So, who's your ISP?

And how are you connected?

 

[RideFree]

"And how are you connected? "

I thought of that too but figured he'd just reply, "Comcast" or something similar...

Edit: Oh, wait! You mean like, through a router, or something like that...
Doh!

 

[fitzov]

Originally posted by: RideFree
"And how are you connected? "

I thought of that too but figured he'd just reply, "Comcast" or something similar...

Edit: Oh, wait! You mean like, through a router, or something like that...
Doh!

Charter Cable (Connecticut)

No router.

 

[RideFree]

Charter is trying to make your live miserable if you have a home network and don't pay extra.

Here, Comcast drops the connection about once a week (almost always Sunday) so as to repopulate the cable modem with a different IP address.
I think if you use their software, this process is seamless as long as you leave the PC powered up 25/7. However, If you use their software, you will lose the ability to network the WWW.

 

[imported_fatman]

Does SunRocket support conference call feature or 3-way calling? the ability to talk to 2 outside line at the same time, not the carp 3-way calling mentioned in the uniden manul, its 3-way calling is communication between "2 handsets" and a outside line...

 

[girishkr]

Originally posted by: fatman

Does SunRocket support conference call feature or 3-way calling? the ability to talk to 2 outside line at the same time, not the carp 3-way calling mentioned in the uniden manul, its 3-way calling is communication between "2 handsets" and a outside line...

Yes SR supports 3 way calling. I use it all the time and no problems so far.

 

[laketrout]

Originally posted by: ttown
The find-me thing would be as if the caller called your cell, afaik. I'm 99.99% sure it's as-if the caller called your cell.

The second phone number is called a "signature" number -- and everyone got one when they signed up, no extra charge.

Additional numbers cost a bit extra/mo for vonage customers.... not sure about other voip providers..

Well regardless of that first one it sounds interesting. One really cool thing about this whole VoIP service is that it appears that there are little tweaks and changes you cna make to it unlike a standard phone. Its like the tech-lovers phone service. So I can't wait to get my SR kit and start playing with it. Anyone find any random benefits or tweaks besides those standard features?

 

[trevinom]

ttown and Ridefree, thank you for all your information. I hadn not gotten a chance to check but I appreciate the time to research my question.


Martin

 

[nerdherd]

Need help, can't get SBC to cooperate. How did you guys get SBC to drop the phone service but keep the internet? Switch to cable? TIA for any help.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: nerdherd
Need help, can't get SBC to cooperate. How did you guys get SBC to drop the phone service but keep the internet? Switch to cable? TIA for any help.

i thought if DSL was on the number, sunrocket couldn't switch the number (basically because you couldn't have internet and no phone service)

 

[ttown]

well... my land-line number got transferred and my gizmo phone rings with any of the 3 numbers (my xfered land-line, my original "household", and my "signature" numbers).

I reset the gizmo per SR's email request -- which I figured would cause my xfered land-line number to become my new household number. But nothing much happened.
Everything on my gizmo (and in my SR account mgmt screen) still indicates my original household number. But it does show my xfered landline as an additional signature number. And calls to that number DO come through.

For the people that have transfered landline numbers (ImSeeker?)... did the xfered number show up as your household number right on schedule? or does it take a while longer past the "official" cut-off date?
It seems odd for them to ask me to reset my modem, when my configuration file (where my caller-id + household phone# is) hasn't changed. I've snooped on the configuration file, and it definately has no indication of my xfered number.

I'm just very nervous about missing a call if things are screwed up.