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

[astrosfan90]

So my mother's in town and has been making calls on my SR line. She's not had any complaints so far, and seems to be slowly agreeing to the idea that just because it sounds complicated, it doesn't mean it is.

 

[imported_fatman]

Originally posted by: laketrout
I don't believe Taipai City exists. Its not listed on the sunrocket international calling.... I was going to call and ask someone for you.

huh? My wife calls Taipei several times a week, SR's rate is 3 cents a minute, am I missing something here?

 

[imported_fatman]

Originally posted by: RideFree

Originally posted by: fatman
Didn't he say Shanghai? Why is Taipei?

You can google Taipai. . .
Taipai City is the capital of that part of the world formerly known as Formosa, currently ROC as opposed to the mainland which the CIA estimates has as many as 800 missles trained on the Republic of China (ROC).

don't need to use google, my wife is from Taipei city. mainland China is PRC (People's Republic of China), Taiwan is ROC (Republic of China). Shanghai is in China and Taipei is in Taiwan. Forget about those confusing history and politics, here is a true statement: People lives in Taiwan now is not paying any tax to China.

 

[UltraWide]

Did SR do something to the Gizmos? I can't seem to get the logon page anymore. I have it connected behind my router... It used to work before...

 

[gibster]

Originally posted by: UltraWide
Did SR do something to the Gizmos? I can't seem to get the logon page anymore. I have it connected behind my router... It used to work before...

The seem to keep resetting the "connect from WAN" setting that they inadvertently enabled a while ago. They must have gotten some flak for that, now they disable it every time they can :thumbsdown:
I changed the setting a couple of times (got in with my laptop through the LAN side), and it works until the next day, when they reset it... :disgust:
It needs to be off for people with the gizmo in front of the router, but for everyone who has them behind the router, they should not touch it. The problem is they do not know the situation, and I'm not sure if there is a fix, until they just stop touching this setting...

 

[georgepa]

ultrawide-

I think SR fixed it. If you look a few pages back some complained about WAN access (because of security issues.)

Happy Turkey Day, everybody.

 

[georgepa]

gibster-

Have you tried turning AUTOUPDATES off? I'll PM you with the method on how to get there. That way you can make changes and it won't be touched until you decide to let SR.

 

[DoozerM]

Hi all. I just signed up for SunRocket. Couldn't resist the 3 months free... I've read this entire thread (with some protest from my wife due to time spent doing it), and hope my experience with it will pass the wife test. Stay tuned....

 

[gibster]

Originally posted by: georgepa
gibster-

Have you tried turning AUTOUPDATES off? I'll PM you with the method on how to get there. That way you can make changes and it won't be touched until you decide to let SR.

I thought about it, but then I will not get new firmware, if any. I usually do not have to mess with the gizmo's settings at all, so as long as I know I can still get to it when it is behind my router, that's good enough.

 

[georgepa]

gibster-

New firmware comes in rarely. If it does you may be best served to wait until the bugs are taken out of it. At least the latest firmware 4.57 had some issues at first (now resolved.) Then you can still open the pipe whenever you feel like it to let new firmware come in. It was a suggestion because you seem to lose your WAN settings constantly and you seem to value that type of access.


DoozerM-

Good luck. From the absence of recent complaints on this and other sites it appears your timing is excellent. As for your wife, it all depends on what she thinks as important and what she is willing to do, in case. VOIP can't be as reliable as regular landline. Aside from possible growing problems of a rapidly rising provider you also have the deal that when your internet is out, so is your broadband phone. The same applies to electricity in your home. If your wife gets steamed when there is any complication at all you may want to keep a stripped down $20 phone line "just in case." My wife loves the savings and is glad to be rid of Verizon headaches. She knows to use the cell or another VOIP backup I have set up if there is a problem with the SR service. She also enjoys the advanced features not available with a landline provider at any price. Plus, of course the bonus gifts I throw in every once in a while, courtesy of SR referrals.

Test the service and see how you and your wife like it. You can make unlimited phone calls for 31 days, including international, and if you don't like it you can just cancel without owing a penny. The 3 month add-on deal brings your effective monthly rate down to $13.26 ($10.26 if you use all of the $3 int'l call credit per month,) probably very nice savings from your previous provider.

Once you get the adapter there are some tweaks you can apply that can add value to your SR experience. For instance, if you would like to screen your messages as voicemail is being left (and perhaps intercept and still take the call before the caller hangs up) you can download the so-called "Voice message screener" and install it on any computer with internet access (even at work, away from the SR phone at home.) Be sure to call SR to tell them you want to activate the voice message screener on BOTH lines, and you will see a link to a downloadable version of it appear in your Sunrocket portal. There are other tweaks related to improving fax and other things, but they are best done via PM.

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: DoozerM
Hi all. I just signed up for SunRocket. Couldn't resist the 3 months free... I've read this entire thread (with some protest from my wife due to time spent doing it), and hope my experience with it will pass the wife test. Stay tuned....

Nice, congrats! I myself think I've convinced my mother to sign up for it since she's been out here chatting on it on and off all week.

 

[DoozerM]

I'm looking forward to getting it. A couple of tests that have to pass muster (In case we ever decide to drop our Verizon POTS).... Alarm System (Brinks) which I know is supported over VOIP according to them and FAX. Then of course is the voice quality test (= wife talking to her mom LD for over an hour+). From what I have been reading here, I should not have too much of a problem due to bandwidth, since I've got Verizon FIOS (5 MB Down, 1.4 MB Up) and don't do much uploading. I also plan on putting the Gizmo behind my router (DI-624).

 

[georgepa]

doozerm, you obviously did your homework.

FIOS is great for VOIP. The router is adequate (the DI-624 comes w. the FIOS service.)

As for fax, what fax machine are you using?

 

[astrosfan90]

Yeah, with your connection I don't think bandwidth shoudl be a problem. When did you officially put the order in?

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: DoozerM
Hi all. I just signed up for SunRocket. Couldn't resist the 3 months free... I've read this entire thread (with some protest from my wife due to time spent doing it), and hope my experience with it will pass the wife test. Stay tuned....

A dedicated and brave man.
Just got home from the Turkeydays in Cody.
Hiya kids, Hiya! "Plunk your Magic Twanger, Froggy!"

 

[DoozerM]

georgepa, I am using an all in one... HP OfficeJet K80xi

astrosfan90, I put the order in on 11/25... So I suppose 5-10 business days till I get a Gizmo?? (That's what the email said)

RideFree, I should add that my wife is pregnant, so you have no idea the grief I get on this whole "project" of mine...

 

[dchakrab]

Just an update to say that it's been a while now since my headaches with their tech-support, and I haven't had many problems once the service was up and running (which took a LONG time...my pain is fully documented here now: Sunrocket Headaches.

Other than the occasionally garbled connection, which I blame more to the wireless internet connection I'm currently sitting downstream of (router -> (wireless) computer -> ethernet -> gizmo -> cordless phone).

I assumed voicemail would work like Lingo, where they sent me an attachment of my messages...Sunrocket appears to only send me a notification that I have messages, instead of sending me the actual message. Any way I can change this?

Any way I can use a softphone with Sunrocket? That would add much more functionality to the service...wonder why they don't have an option for it?

Dave.

 

[georgepa]

dchakrab-

SR's voicemail notification is the best in the biz. No other service comes even close, IMO. You can be notified via email, any phone number (i.e. cell,) pager, SMS, IM (AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ.) If you choose voicemail notification via phone as one of the notifier options a very nifty and elegant thing is that when you pick up your phone (in my case I am notified via cell everytime a message comes in) you can hit # and be transported immediately to your voicemail box. No need to wait until you get home and no need to actually call your home number, then hit * when your message comes up, etc.

To send all voicemails (either of the two phone numbers) to email just click on VIEW MESSAGES for one of your numbers, then click OPTIONS. Under VOICEMAIL FORWARDING you can enter your email address and all voicemails will be sent to your email box as well. In the OPTIONS area you can also enter a phone number that you primarily use to check your voicemails (say, your cell) and you won't need the pin number when calling from that phone.

BTW, have you tried the voice message screener? You seem to be at a computer a lot, so it may make sense to download the message screener so you may intercept calls that have gone to voicemail.


doozerM-

That All-In-One should work fine for faxing. It is best to apply a fix to your gizmo settings. Let me know when you get your gizmo and I'll PM you with the appropriate changes.

 

[georgepa]

doozerM-

We have a 5 month old girl. Aside from SR my wife has a cell handy and I have also set her up with a second phone on an unlocked gizmo and a free incoming service called STANAPHONE. It gives me a NY area phone number to call my home in case SR is out. I charged it with $5 in phone money, so in case something does happen my wife can also make outgoing calls on that phone at a little over 2 cts. a minute. There is no time frame when those $5 are to be used up, so I hope it lasts me a long time.

Of course, if there is an internet outage or power outage the cell will have to do.

 

[dchakrab]

Haven't tried the voice message screener...it didn't show up in my downloads (nothing shows up in my downloads). Where do i find it?

I went through the steps you described, and it only sends me an email notification that I have voicemail, and the number it came from...not the actual message. Lingo used to attach my messages as audio files, which is what I was hoping for here as well.

I'd love to unlock this Gizmo and get it set up with a second service...I looked at Stanaphone, actually, and was also thinking about just using FWD.

Dave.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: DoozerM
RideFree, I should add that my wife is pregnant, so you have no idea the grief I get on this whole "project" of mine...

Hint: Make plenty of trips for pickles and ice cream and snuggle a lot.
We had lots of experience in these matters.

 

[georgepa]

dchakrab-

Quote:

////// I went through the steps you described, and it only sends me an email notification that I have voicemail, and the number it came from...not the actual message. //////

Actually, you couldn't have gone through the steps I described to arrive at the simple email notification function. Here are both procedures:


EMAIL NOTIFICATION: Log into Sunrocket portal --> click VOICEMAIL --> click VIEW MESSAGES --> click NOTIFICATION SETUP --> go to EMAIL NOTIFICATION and enter EMAIL address to receive notification.


EMAIL FORWARDING: Log into Sunrocket portal --> click VOICEMAIL --> click VIEW MESSAGES --> click OPTIONS --> go to "VOICEMAIL FORWARDING - Send a copy of all voicemail messages to this email address." Enter EMAIL address here to start receiving the actual voicemails as .wav files for easy retrieval and storing of messages.


-------------------------------

Voice Message Screener: It will not appear in the download area at first. You have to call SR to activate Voice Message Screener. They will do so on the spot. The moment it is activated the download area will be populated with a downloadable version of the voice message screener. Make the same request for your signature number so you have voice message functionality active for both numbers.

A couple of notes to the Voice Message screener: The version SR has available for download allows for screening and intercept (forwarding of call to a number of your choice before the caller finishes leaving the voicemail.) However, it is a bit sparse in additional features. There is another program available that works with SR as a voice message screener as well. It is Uscreen from Ureach.

Here is the download:

USCREEN VOICE MESSAGE SCREENER

Here is info on the program:

http://www.ureach.com/1300cb8606/help/unothlp2.htm


This software adds some nifty stuff: You can give the caller pre-recorded "answers" such as "I will call you back shortly" or "I am not available." You can also type in whatever you want in a window and send the message (spoken with SAM like computer voice) before the caller finishes leaving a voicemail. That could be anything from "Go away" to "Great try selling me that water softener, but no thanks."



This software is superior to the SR-included version (SR's version comes from the same company, Ureach, but is somewhat stripped down.) However, it has one flaw. SR's screener has a setting to allow instant access to your SR portal with all voicemail messages (without the need to always log-in) so you can check or erase the voicemail you just received on the fly. USCREEN does not have that ability, as it was not specifically written for SR. It works fine with SR, except it does not do the instant jump into the voicemail folder.


For both screeners:

Username is your phone number hyphenated: 813-283-xxxx

Password is the voicemail password you use to check your VM messages.



The Voice message screener can only be opened once on a computer, which means that you can't run two instances of it side by side to cover incoming calls for BOTH numbers. That's where USCREEN comes in handy as well, because it is possible to run VMS and USCREEN side by side, one for each incoming number, on the same computer. Of course, you can have these running on multiple computers simultaneously (at work, on different floors or wings of a house, on a laptop while travelling, etc.) so it can make for a powerful call-screen, intercept and call-manipulate add-on to Sunrocket.

 

[georgepa]

BTW, there is no way to set up 2 services on one gizmo, even though there are 2 voiceports. At least the firmware so far only allows the setting of one service name and IP address, albeit with up to 2 phone numbers on said service.

I had a damaged gizmo (port 1 burned out due to lightning) and SR shipped me a new one. I was able to save the damaged gizmo for port 2 functionality, so that's where I installed STANAPHONE on. You mentioned that you were shipped 2 gizmos, so if you kept the other one around you can set that up with Stanaphone or FWD, otherwise it's a no-go.

 

[DoozerM]

Dear <DoozerM>:

Your SunRocket package has been shipped. You may track the
status of your shipment by clicking on: www.ups.com.


If you have any questions, please contact SunRocket Member
Services at 1-800-786-0132 or send an email to memberservices
@sunrocket.com. Our service hours are 8 a.m. to Midnight (EST),
7 days a week.

Sincerely,

SunRocket Member Services

 

[dchakrab]

Oh, ok...slightly different process to switch on voicemail forwarding...I'll do that now. Thanks!

Incidentally, if the Ureach program (and the other one) can "answer" your phone...does that mean you can use the speakers and a mic to talk to the caller? Wouldn't this mean it would be easy to use one of these (or a similar program) as a soft client for Sunrocket, at least for receiving calls? Or does intercept work only by picking up your actual gizmo-connected phone?

And yes, i do have two gizmos. The second one isn't connected to the internet, and has garlic flavoured holy water sprinkled on it daily to keep the SR vampires away from it. What would you recommend I do with my precious second gizmo?

And how? The unlock procedure I was made aware of didn't work on either gizmo, possibly because mine were set to the older firmware.

Dave.

Dave.