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VOIP aka "internet phones"?

S

spinjector

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with residential VOIP and/or "internet phones" like that Vonage service. I have a close friend who recently moved to another city, and we are keeping in touch, but the phone bills are starting to stack up.

We have looked into "voice chat" programs, but we are running into problems in that area because I am on a PC and he is on a Mac. Also, I have played with these programs and the sound quality and latency are horrible.

What I have decided to look for is a hardware device that does *not* use a 3rd party "subscription service" to maintain a "connection", as I rarely have the need to make long distance calls to land lines from home.

What I would like to be able to do is just "dial" someone at an IP address and Port number, and have the two devices connect directly over the internet via our cable modems. I would prefer a single self-contained handset type of thing, rather than some kind of box with am RJ11 jack.

Anyone ever heard of this kind of thing?
Any helpful tips or ideas?

Thanks!
 
> Hi all,
>
> I was wondering if anyone has any experience with
> residential VOIP and/or "internet phones" like that Vonage
> service. I have a close friend who recently moved to another
> city, and we are keeping in touch, but the phone bills are
> starting to stack up.

I have Vonage now (using it on a DSL) and it works great! By dropping my cable internet and going on DSL (thanks to SBC/ATT dropping the price), and saying bye bye to SBC's landline, I am saving over $100 a month! and getting more features from Vonage :)

> We have looked into "voice chat" programs, but we are
> running into problems in that area because I am on a PC and
> he is on a Mac. Also, I have played with these programs and
> the sound quality and latency are horrible.

There are some that work great...Echolink and IRLP are used in ham radio linking projects...Echolink can be used for private PC to PC chat...Are both of you on broadband?? NetMeeting on PCs are ok; I use it at work in teleconferences...and with good results...If you have broadband, you could set up your own VoIP using FXS/FXO boxes and not have to worry about a 3rd party system like Vonage..

> What I have decided to look for is a hardware device that
> does *not* use a 3rd party "subscription service" to
> maintain a "connection", as I rarely have the need to make
> long distance calls to land lines from home.
>
> What I would like to be able to do is just "dial" someone at
> an IP address and Port number, and have the two devices
> connect directly over the internet via our cable modems. I
> would prefer a single self-contained handset type of thing,
> rather than some kind of box with am RJ11 jack.

Several are out there...Cisco ATA186s and others can do exactly what you want..problem is you will likely need static IP addresses!
Let me dig in my notes and I'll post the other boxes...(or you can Google
"VoIP FXS FXO" and that will get you lots of info)
 
I have Vonage, I converted my parents to Vonage, I had a friend convert to Vonage, he converted his parents to Vonage...and none of us have ever looked back or had a problem. The station requires a little more sexiness from The Bell so we had to go with a raw SIP provider...I found Telasip to be the cheapest with the best service. Plan calls for Asterisk, some VoIP phones, and lots of cat-5e cable.

If all you want is a freebie VoIP link without passing through actual POTS stuff, then use Skype...you can do exactly what you want by directly "dialing" people.<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
>
> I have Vonage now (using it on a DSL) and it works great! By
> dropping my cable internet and going on DSL (thanks to
> SBC/ATT dropping the price), and saying bye bye to SBC's
> landline, I am saving over $100 a month! and getting more
> features from Vonage :)
>
How are you getting DSL without a landline? SBC will NOT give me DSL without a landline? No carrier, no DSL, no Vonage. Took me 2 months to get everything ported back over and working again. I even rewired the whole house to work with the Vonage line on the outside pair of phone wires.
Yes, this did happen, stop your damn laughing Sam!
 
> I have Vonage, I converted my parents to Vonage, I had a
> friend convert to Vonage, he converted his parents to
> Vonage...and none of us have ever looked back or had a
> problem.

Like any new technology, your mileage may vary. I tried Vonage for a while, but got tired of dropped calls and connections that sounded like my cell phone (or worse). If cell phone type audio is acceptable to you, then VOIP is great.

I have to admit that some friends ofmine have an office VOIP system and it works great, but it is sharing a dedicated T-1 line that is used for multiple purposes. This would lead me to believe that the quality of your Internet connection has a lot to do with your ultimate satisfaction with the technology. Where I am, my only choice for Internet is a wireless ISP. It's good, but not great. I can hardly wait for DSL.

In my searching for an alternative, I found that our local phone company, SBC, had a deal with 400 minutes of long distance for $14.95 and unlimited long distance for $24.99 per month. The deal covers all your phone lines (I have three) so for one monthly charge, we can call as much as we want on any line and never get another huge phone bill. It's a low tech solution, but I like it. You might see if your phone company has a similar deal. I had to ask. They were not voluntering it.
 
> >
> > I have Vonage now (using it on a DSL) and it works great!
> By
> > dropping my cable internet and going on DSL (thanks to
> > SBC/ATT dropping the price), and saying bye bye to SBC's
> > landline, I am saving over $100 a month! and getting more
> > features from Vonage :)
> >
> How are you getting DSL without a landline? SBC will NOT
> give me DSL without a landline? No carrier, no DSL, no
> Vonage. Took me 2 months to get everything ported back over
> and working again. I even rewired the whole house to work
> with the Vonage line on the outside pair of phone wires.
> Yes, this did happen, stop your damn laughing Sam!

Well, almost no landline :) I got Measured Rate for $5.20 a month...25 local outbound calls for free and 8 cents each after that...basic dialtone and touchtone..nothing else...and that gives me DSL for $23 (dialtone included) but I use the dialtone line for FAX only...the Vonage for voice costs me $25..
saved me $50 vs SBC and the normal landline config...

The FCC, in allowing SBC to buy ATT, required higher DSL speeds AND eventually DSL with no dialtone/landline...Im still waiting on that to happen...
 
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