Anyone have or have had vonage.

Posted by: robricc

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 04/01/2005 18:47

Recently I cut-off my house from the public telephone network and wired the whole thing with Vonage on the $14.99/month plan. The voice sounds fine and I was able to get my Series2 DirecTivos to make their daily call over Vonage. The Series 1 units wouldn't do it though, not even when throttled-down to 19.2k. I had to hook them up with TurboNet to make the daily call over ethernet. Overall, I am very happy. $16 (tax inc.) per month for 500 minutes + all calling features is much better than $50+ per month for 0 minutes and caller ID.

Posted by: phi144

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 04/01/2005 18:57

I didn't think of my Tivos. Both are wireless at the moment but I was planning of going back to the phone line for one of them. What do I need to think about before doing that? I have Series2 Tivos.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 04/01/2005 19:04

Pardon me, but I don't really know how this voip stuff works. Would I be able to connect via dialup modem over it? Every third week of my job I'm on call, and during that time I have a laptop on me that I can use for remote access to my company network. Sadly, I have to do this over dialup, so it's going to suck that I'll need to pay for a landline service that I'll never use, just because there's a chance I may need to connect from this laptop to a toll free number.

Posted by: robricc

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 04/01/2005 19:27

Quote:
I didn't think of my Tivos. Both are wireless at the moment but I was planning of going back to the phone line for one of them. What do I need to think about before doing that? I have Series2 Tivos.

This worked for me and others. I don't think it's guaranteed to work, but there is something with this dial-in number that is VoIP-friendly. Before taking your house off of POTS service, change your dial-in number to 212-920-3005 (Manhattan North). That should be it. No other * or ,# codes are needed with that number and has worked every single time for me. The old number in New City, NY I used to call didn't work and neither does the toll-free number tivo calls to get dial-in numbers for your specified area code. The ~monthly call to DirecTV should work since it's always placed at only 9600bps. I don't know if this call was made yet though, so I'm not 100% on that. If that call doesn't go through you will have to order PPV from directv.com.

Quote:
Pardon me, but I don't really know how this voip stuff works. Would I be able to connect via dialup modem over it?

Probably as long as you can lower the modem's speed. 14.4k should work everytime if you dial *99 before the number. It will definitely work if you pay an $10 per month for a fax line with Vonage. If it doesn't you can yell at them. 14.4k should be the highest speed you can hope to accomplish though.

Posted by: SonicSnoop

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 04/01/2005 19:42

I purchased the linksys box for VoIP for Vonage at bestBuy. No setup costs for the account and I think I got a free month as well. The quality I had to knock down using their bandwidth saver to the middle option cause I would get calls randomly drop but after lowering it I have had no problems. Now the calls sound like a very good cell phone call. and I get caller id information (name and number) for just about everyone think i have had only one that was hidden cause someone did the whole *something code to block it. Over all I like it and will stay with it. Oh and I have comcast cable internet. I also have been on the phone while 2 computers are playing internet games and had file transfers going at same time. I would highly suggest using it.

Posted by: cushman

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 04/01/2005 19:56

I have AT&T CallVantage, which is almost the same as Vonage. I had a few problems at the beginning with packet loss - turns out my cable modem was a bad model. It can be difficult to work a problem with two companies (VoIP provider and ISP) but if you keep on top of things it turns out ok. Some cable companies are bundling voice deals in with internet service, Time Warner and AT&T have this deal in my area. Just compare prices and features, I especially like the web-based controls for my phone service. I can get my voicemail e-mailed to me, or have all my calls forwarded to my mobile, etc.

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 04/01/2005 21:59

I was just researching this today, but this thread didn't come up in a "+voice +over" search...

Has anyone heard anything about www.lingo.com ? They seems a bit cheaper - $19.99 unlimited (+tax) and have the same features... They say that includes unlimted calls to US, Canada and Western Europe.

Quote:
Western European subscription includes calls from Lingo subscriber to the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Luxembourg, Vatican City, Norway, Portugal, and Spain. Calls to mobile phones, premium and special service numbers in these areas are not included. US includes AK, HI, PR, USVI and calls to cellular phones.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 04/01/2005 23:24

BroadvoxDirect $19.99 Unlimited usage for all North Americsan exchanges, with all calling features (plus a second number in the same or different area code) and no tax. At least no tax for me because I'm in Canada and they're out of a specific state. Very well-prices long distance for the rest of the world too.

The biggest thing to be careful about is QoS (Quality of Service) management on your network. If you follow their instructions and connect the ATA to your modem and the rest of your network behind it, there shouldn't be a problem. It handles QoS and doesn't do Double-NAT (I was worried about this at first and went with a different configuration). If you connect the ATA after your broadband router then you really have to make sure you have QoS on your router. Otherwise other traffic over the router *WILL* interfere with the voice packets.

Bruno

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 00:19

Well I have had it since posting this thread and it works fine. The complaint I had about the caller ID has been fixed and now they show the name and number.

I have it set on the highest quality setting and I have road runner for my ISP. I currently have the unlimited plan but I probably could get by with the 14.99 one. Time warner sent me an ad for their VoIP service and they want 40 dollars a month for unlimited calling good freaking lord who would pay that.

For the series one tivo there is a hack you can to to make it connect via the serial port connected to a pc.

Posted by: robricc

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 00:29

Quote:
Has anyone heard anything about www.lingo.com ? They seems a bit cheaper - $19.99 unlimited (+tax) and have the same features... They say that includes unlimted calls to US, Canada and Western Europe.

I first heard about lingo in this thread. Most poor experiences seem to be with customer service.

My housemate has Packet8 and likes it. He had that before I moved to Vonage, so I considered signing up with them. Unfortunately, I was totally unable to get any Tivo to dial over thier service. It's unfortunate because for only $20 you get unlimited calling from them (US and Canada).

Posted by: tonyc

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 05:04

After doing some research, I found that VoicePulse is the best thing going right now, at least for my needs. I found this table useful in comparing the services, though the metrics towards the end overstate the case for how much better it is than Vonage. In terms of pure value, I think VoicePulse has the edge, especially when you look at all the features they throw in. They sent me a Sipura SPA-2000 ATA at no charge, though I think I have to return it to them if I don't keep it for like a year or something, and it's "locked" to their service (though the 2nd port is free for some other service.)

Caller ID shows up name and number (which you can customize if you don't like what the phone company is sending) and it displays fine on my Caller ID phone and DirecTV receiver. Faxes and modems tend not to work over VoIP, but some people have had success after dropping fax/modem baud rates and tweaking codecs of the VoIP connection.

FWIW, my service has been good so far, but I would only use VoIP as your only phone if you're confident in your ISP. If your broadband connection is flaky or inconsistent, your voice service will be also.

Posted by: rmitz

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 05:49

With vonage's settings adjusted to the highest speed, I connected at over 40Kb/s on a modem. From the middle east to the US. So, I'd say it works fairly well.

I'm extremely happy with the quality otherwise, btw.

Posted by: ashmoore

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 12:54

The scary part about TimeWarner pricing is that the 40 bucks doesn't even include voicemail ! They want to charge you another 5 bucks for that.

I too have vonage and have not had any problems.
Two friends have tried lingo.
The first tried it a while ago and had all sorts of problems and cancelled.
The second tried it in October and still has it now. But he is like me and frequently calls England so the free western europe pricing is unbeatable.

Posted by: Cybjorg

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 14:02

Quote:
With vonage's settings adjusted to the highest speed, I connected at over 40Kb/s on a modem. From the middle east to the US.

I'd be interested in that. I was wondering about making calls from the Middle East.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 16:18

A lot of people don't even pick up on that. The "phone line" is portable. Your number exists anywhere you connect the ATA (the phone adapter). If you know you need to make a lot of regular calls to a specific place, get multiple subscriptions and then send one of the ATAs to that place. Calls between customers of the same VOIP service are typically free, so you can get that second subscription on the lowest plan too. Get it with your current local area code and you can even call it from an outside line without long distance charges.

Take it with you to the hotel and plug it into their broadband. Now when someone calls you at home, you still get the call. Doesn't costt them anything extra and it costs you only the broadband connection fee at the hotel (which you'd already be using to surf for porn, etc.

)

Bruno

Posted by: rmitz

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 18:11

Well, it's just a connection to a server over the internet, essentially, so anywhere in the world is fine. however, you do need to make sure your provider isn't filtering it (typically they do here) or you can VPN back to somewhere in the US first...

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 19:16

I just got an interesting article emailed to me. I've attached it to not make this post insanely long.

Posted by: Ezekiel

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 20:42

Stupid *%$#*& <INSERT BROWSER OF CHOICE HERE> (firefox) not wrapping text....good article once I got it into Ultraedit.

-Zeke

edit: yeah yeah....

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 21:15

No no, IE does it too

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 05/01/2005 21:37

Quote:

The scary part about TimeWarner pricing is that the 40 bucks doesn't even include voicemail ! They want to charge you another 5 bucks for that.

Good lord they are insane. I didn't read it long enough to get to that point.

Posted by: ashmoore

Re: Anyone have of have had vonage. - 06/01/2005 15:57

the last time I visited England, I added the $5 softphone to my laptop. Then all I needed to make US based calls was plug my laptop into any broadband. I even made a call using the wireless lan card in the airport lounge.
Waaay cool.
It sure beats lugging an ATA and telephone around, or worse, PAYING for access

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 08/01/2005 20:19

How do you guys handle hooking up multiple phones to a VoIP service? Do you need an adapter for each phone? I was thinking about waiting until the next house to do this, but if I can install the adapter near my main phone line coming into the house, I'd consider getting it now. My family makes a lot of calls to Italy, so the Lingo plan looks like the way to go (for the 30 day trial anyway).

Posted by: SonicSnoop

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 08/01/2005 20:26

From my understanding if you unhooked the house wiring from the phone box and just ran a cable from the phone adapter to a wall outlet that should allow you to hook up phones thru out the house..

Posted by: cushman

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 08/01/2005 22:32

Quote:
From my understanding if you unhooked the house wiring from the phone box and just ran a cable from the phone adapter to a wall outlet that should allow you to hook up phones thru out the house..

This is what I do, it works fine. The phone adapter probably wouldn't have enough juice to drive a lot of analog bell ringers though, but if you have modern phones with digital ringers you should be ok. I just have two phones hooked up, a desk phone and a multi-handset cordless phone.

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 09/01/2005 01:13

I just use a splitter and it works fine. I only have three phones connected to it.

Posted by: tonyc

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 10/01/2005 01:23

For mine, I use one of those cordless phones that supports multiple headsets. Right now I just have two but I could add another headset if I wanted. Running extra phone line was impractical in my apartment, but if I wanted to, I could have split the ATA output as others are mentioning here.

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

I'm lovin' Lingo! - 02/03/2005 18:56

I've had my Lingo service for a few days now (still using a temporary number) and I'm really impressed with it. Calls are crystal clear. Faxes work great (had to throttle down the start speed of the faxes to 14kps). I've sent faxes to local numbers and an office 3 time zones away. Groovy. No faxing would have been a deal breaker for me.

I plugged the adapter between my cable modem and my router and had a dial tone within a few minutes. You can hook it into your LAN too, but I wanted to let the adapter grab bandwidth whenever it needed it so that my calls wouldn't have dropouts. Even with this setup, my ping on my favorite Desert Combat server went from a 26 to only a 38.

I still can't believe that I can get unlimited local and long distance calls to the US (PR and USVI included) plus Canada and Western Europe (Europe does not include cell phone calls) for $19.99 a month! Even after taxes, it'll be under $25 a month. Sweet. Having the first month free is cool too because I wasn't afraid to try it out first.

If anyone wants to try it out and get an additional $25 credit after 90 days, I set up a little site. Yeah, I'm fishing for referrals because I get $25 too, but I had to Google "lingo referrals" to find some guy I never heard of just so I could get the deal. So at least my page has some info on the service!

The only thing I'm mad about is that I didn't try this earlier. I guess I missed out on the "buggy" phase huh? It's just kinda weird how I personally hate talking on the phone but I can still manage to be excited about this! lol

EDIT: Lingo includes unlimited calls to cell phones in Canada too...

Posted by: mcomb

Re: I'm lovin' Lingo! - 02/03/2005 19:05

Do any of these services have a cheaper metered option? I made three phone calls for a total of about 12 minutes on my home phone line last month (use my cell for everything). I hate giving SBC almost 20 bucks for that. I'd love to replace SBC with a pay as you go or metered VoIP plan.

-Mike

Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: I'm lovin' Lingo! - 02/03/2005 19:07

I just got VoicePulse. I went with them over Vonage and Packet8 et al because they are the only ones who claimed they could port my existing number. They did and it works great. No 911 service at all, but I just put the local police dept. on speed dial. Works for me. Sound is clear and support was great when I called. Talked to a real live person right away and he was able to actually solve my problems within seconds while I was on the line. Pleased so far. Screw BellSouth!

Am using the $15 200 min. long distance and unlimited local account.

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: I'm lovin' Lingo! - 02/03/2005 19:10

Quote:
Do any of these services have a cheaper metered option? I made three phone calls for a total of about 12 minutes on my home phone line last month (use my cell for everything). I hate giving SBC almost 20 bucks for that. I'd love to replace SBC with a pay as you go or metered VoIP plan.

-Mike

Lingo offers a few plans including a metered one for $7.95 a month or a 500 minute plan (to US, Canada and W. Europe) for $14.95. Link.

We could all call the UK direct for support calls!

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: I'm lovin' Lingo! - 02/03/2005 19:17

If you still have a line from the phone company, even if you're not paying for service, it's a requirement that they provide 911 service from that line. So even if your internet goes out, you could call the police. Just hook up a regular old phone and leave it in the corner somewhere.

Posted by: SonicSnoop

Re: I'm lovin' Lingo! - 03/03/2005 00:29

If anyone is interested in Vonage I can send a referal to them for a free month for both of us when you sign up. Im currently unemployeed so all the help i get with my bills is great.

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: I'm lovin' Lingo! - 03/03/2005 21:46

If anyone wants info on how to do faxing over a VOIP (or at least Lingo), I added a new section based on the trouble shooting I've been doing the last few days. Might save you some of the trouble I went through!

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Help needed testing FAX - 06/03/2005 17:27

Grrr... I'm pulling my hair out here trying to figure out if my fax machine works with Lingo. It works calling most numbers, but I'm not sure if it is failing because of trouble on my end or not. Is there anyone with free long distance faxing that can test out my setup? My paper try is full, so feel free to send at will. Here is my temporary fax number 313 - 879 - 4229. It's temporary, so I don't mind sharing it. Maybe I can test sending too? (Calling long distance is free for me, so I don't care where you're calling from).

If I can't get this to work (maybe I was lucky during the first week?) I'll have to eat my words and switch to Vonage.

Posted by: robricc

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 06/03/2005 23:27

Quote:
I'll have to eat my words and switch to Vonage.

If that happens, I have a referral code for you.

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 06/03/2005 23:33

LOL, get in line!

My email notification has been ringing for the last hour, lol.

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 07/03/2005 12:26

Anyone able to test from their work number perhaps?

Posted by: robricc

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 07/03/2005 12:35

I get "Your call cannot be completed as dialed...". Verizon (former Bell Atlantic) POTS land line with Verizon long distance.

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 07/03/2005 12:39

Man, you really want me to switch to Vonage don't you?

Thank you. Another nail in my little Lingo coffin.

Posted by: robricc

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 07/03/2005 13:09

How long has that number been active?

I tried dialing that number on all the voice and fax lines here (a mix of Verizon and MCI long distance). All don't work.

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 07/03/2005 13:19

It's been up for 6 days... I just double checked the number too. Another buddy told me he is getting a busy signal. What a bunch of crap.

Do you get that often w. Vonage?

Posted by: robricc

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 07/03/2005 13:26

I have never had someone tell me they couldn't reach me with Vonage, but I use it pretty infrequently. I probably only use it to make a call twice per week. Almost everything is on my cell phone.

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 07/03/2005 13:40

Well, I don't know why I'm dragging this out. I'm still under the free 30 day trial.

It won't work in about an hour or so. I'm cancelling. Thanks.

Posted by: SonicSnoop

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 07/03/2005 17:27

Ive never had a problem recieving calls with vonage, though I have had 2 instances where I couldnt call out but people could still call me. both were fixed in like 20min. If you do go vonage I would definitly suggest using the bandwidth saver and knock it down to the middle setting when I was using the highest I had calls sort of drop. I could hear them but they couldnt hear me and hang up. ever since setting to the middle setting I havent had that happen once.

Posted by: phi144

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 10/03/2005 17:00

I decided to finally try this out. Anyone want to refer me?

Posted by: robricc

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 10/03/2005 17:01

send me a PM with your email address

Posted by: robricc

Re: Help needed testing FAX - 10/03/2005 17:02

nevermind. I just sent to the email address in your profile.

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 16/03/2005 14:31

I was wondering if anyone could share how they have their Vonage wired up.

Vonage sent me a Linksys RT31P2 router with built-in adapter for the phones. I plugged this between my cable modem and my Netgear router and all seemed to go well. I didn't use any of the Linksys router features. Basically, I was just using it to hook up my phones and pass the internet onto my Netgear.

Then, I realized my ftp server wasn't working anymore. Yep, the Linksys has built-in firewall.

Try #2. I then tried to hook the Linksys box downstream of my Netgear router. This required disabling its DHCP server and giving it a friendly IP address. This "worked" except that now the Linksys/Vonage box was only getting bandwidth when it was available. Because it was downstream, it couldn't ensure "quality of service" and voices would drop during uploads.

Try #3. I put the Vonage/Linksys box up front again, directly connected to my modem. I then turned off the DHCP on my Netgear router and used it as a simple switch. Well, this doesn't work because the Netgear wasn't letting the DHCP signals from the Linksys box go through (on the Netgear page, they say this is to be expected.)

Try #4. Just like above, but re-enable DHCP on the Netgear and disable it on the Linksys. For some reason, the internet stopped working with this setup, even with "friendly" IP address. I'm hoping I can get it going, then forward ports 21-22 from the Linksys to the Netgear and then tell the Netgear which PC to forward them to.

It looks like most Vonage users are getting some new Linksys router with a 3rd party firmware that allows for prioritizing the traffic to suit the Vonage box, even if it's behind the router.

Posted by: jmwking

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 16/03/2005 14:40

Can you just use their Linksys box (with a $20 switch if needed), and enable the FTP fowarding you need in it?

It's either that or set a static IP on your Netgear WAN interface in the trusted linksys subnet - which should be different from your current trusted netgear subnet. Then set FTP forwarding from your Linksys to the Netgear, and it should continue from the Netgear to the FTP machine, doubly NAT'ed.

-jk

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 16/03/2005 18:05

Thanks! I was about to order a 70 dollar router that would have taken care of the problem, but instead just bid on a few 8 port switches on eBay. Here I am trying to get one of my routers to act like a switch, and I was trying to buy another router to fix my problem!

I was sure to use the same sub nets.

Posted by: tman

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 16/03/2005 19:13

Why don't you just disable the Linksys firewall and leave it between your Netgear and cable modem?

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 16/03/2005 19:27

I've been trying to figure out how to do that - with no luck. The documentation is pretty light. I've used Netgear for a long time and I'm more used to finding options with it than I am with Linksys.

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 16/03/2005 19:33

I keep reading about you guys putting the VoIP box before the router. Do all the current vonage boxes have a hub or switch built in or are you doing it someother way ? I have the cisco unit and it only has one network connection on it so I don't know how I could put it upstream from my router ?

Posted by: robricc

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 16/03/2005 19:38

I have a Linksys PAP2 for my Vonage access. I assume it's like your Cisco unit. No router or switch built-in. Just one ethernet port that has to be plugged into my existing network.

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 16/03/2005 19:40

When I got Vonage, my box came with a Linksys router that had a built-in ATA.

Here is my setup:

Modem > Linksys/Vonage box (192.168.15.1 + DHCP running) > Netgear (192.168.0.1 + DHCP running) > PC

The above setup works, but the Linksys firewall is active. And because it only lets me port forward or use DMZ in the 192.168.15.x grouping, I can't pass things onto my PCs or the Netgear router.

So, step 1, I turn off DHCP on the Linksys/Vonage box. All works fine.

Step 2, I assign the Linksys/Vonage box an IP of 192.168.0.32 (so all boxes have similar IPs). But now, I can not connect to the Linksys/Vonage box. I don't understand why...

Modem > Linksys/Vonage box (192.168.1.32 + no DHCP) > Netgear (192.168.0.1 + DHCP running) > PC

I can still get on the internet from behind both boxes, but I can not log into the Linksys/Vonage box to set port forwarding or to put my Netgear in the DMZ....

Am I over looking something?

UPDATE: This setup only seems to work for a short time before the internet stops reaching the Netgear box...Then I have to reset the Linksys to factory default to get everything (minus port forwarding) working again.

Posted by: matthew_k

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 16/03/2005 20:46

Set the address of the netgear router to be the DMZ of the linksys router. Then all traffic will be forwarded to the netgear, which using your previous settings should forward it on to the right computer.

Matthew

Posted by: matthew_k

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 16/03/2005 20:49

I read your post again. Plug your PC into the linksys directly, set it's IP to one in its range, and set the settings. Then plug your netgear router into it.

It should let you manage the linksys from beind the netgear, but perhaps something is throwing it off. All your netmasks are 255.255.255.0, right?

Matthew

Posted by: ineedcolor

Re: Anyone have or have had vonage. - 13/05/2005 02:12

I jumped on the bandwagon a few days ago. I went with the Linksys PAP2 so I didn't have to contend with reorganizing my home network setup. I've made a few local test calls and two long calls to Jamaica without an issue.

So far, I'm very impressed with the quality of call clarity and the web dashboard feature. I didn't like having to call Vonage however, their customer service still bites bobo.

I'll give it a few more weeks before I snip the tether to Bell though...

Anyone have or have had vonage.