I don’t fully get it. They advertise these rates like $25 per month for unlimited calling, but they say that in order to get Vonage you need to have DSL or a cable modem, provided by your phone company.
But, if I get DSL through my phone company, don’t I also need to get their phone service? So, I’m going to wind up with DSL from one provider, and phone service with another provider?
Also, with Vonage, they give you this Vonage phone adapter. Well, does that adapter somehow run all the phones in the house? For example, if we had the modem/Vonage phone adapter/PC upstairs, can I still receive calls on the downstairs phone?
This whole thing seems like a huge hassle, but maybe I’m missing something.
Anyone already using Vonage or something similar? Anything else you can add?
If you don’t make a ton of long distance calls, and/or are happy with your local phone provider then Vonage isn’t really for you.
Vonage has alot of nice features that are great for people like me. I can get Vonage hook it up to my cable modem, and have a local phone number in Las Vegas for my family and friends to call me. I can call them without international phone rates. Also I can have another number added for Chico, CA and my mother-in-law can call for free also.
Another nice feature is that when I leave on the weekends to see my wife I take the Vonage box with me, and plug it into her cable modem, and my phone number(s) goes with me.
A cell phone has pretty much the same features. Except for being able to setup local phone numbers from around the country into one phone.
The big plus for me as stated above is that I can get a US phone number here in Korea, and make phone calls without international rates. 6 cents a minute adds up.
Phone lines are wired in parallel. Therefore it is easy to have the adaptor run all of the phones in the house. All you have to do is run a phone wire from the adaptor to a phone wall jack, and disconnect the outside line from the inside wiring at the junction box that’s probably outside.
We had a wireless phone with multiple handsets, so it was even easier than that. We simply plugged the base unit into the adaptor and distributed the handsets throughout the house.
I’m not sure how it works with DSL, but I use it through my cable service. It took a couple hours one Saturday afternoon to route my phone lines to the Vonage router, and it’s been effortless ever since.
We never even made that many long distance calls, but our regular phone bill was usually about $25-30/mo, with maybe another $10/mo for LD. We have the 500 minutes per month plan for $14.99, so with all charges, our monthly bill is $17.84, half of what it used to be. Definitely worth it, in my opinion.
For our phones, we have a base station with two remote handsets, and the base station is wired to the Vonage router. We also have a hardwired phone, also plugged directly into the router. The only downside is if the power goes out, the router will go out too. To eliminate this, I picked up a UPS and plugged the cable modem and Vonage modem into it.
If I’m going to be away from the house and am expecting a call, I just log onto my account and set up call forwarding to my cellphone.
Like the other posters, we have ours running off a cable internet line, provided by the same folks who send us our cable TV. We did buy a new phone - a one base, two handset model - when I realized that our extensions wouldn’t work without rewiring. (I’m in an apartment, and rewiring is a no-no.)
We don’t make a lot of long distance calls, but with the 14.99 package and switiching our internet to cable from DSL, we’re saving about half on cable tv/internet/phone.
My only complaint is that when my computer’s been running without a shut down for a few days and my husband’s been downloading a lot of music and viewing a lot of comics - you know, when the computer gets boggy and slow - it seems to affect the Vonage. People on the other end of the call report that I’m breaking up and they can’t understand me. So I restart the computer and call them back, and it fixes the problem. I don’t like that, but I blame us for having an older and overstuffed computer.
I’m not sure why you would be having this problem. The phone transmission bypasses your computer, so one has nothing to do with the other. I suppose if you were on the phone while there was a lot of traffic on your incoming cable line at the same time, that might affect the service, but a slow computer should have no bearing on the quality of your calls. Strange.
People who use Vonage (or another VOIP service) with DSL are sometimes unhappy (depends on the reliability and speed of your connection). People with cable like it better.
With a caveat. If there is no internet connection available, the system can automatically route calls to another phone number. Most people choose their cell phone, obviously.
Same is true with a land line if you only have a wireless phone. Also, it should be possible to plug the network adapter and Vonage adapter into a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and make phone calls during power outages. Assuming the broadband connection remains alive, of course.
I’m happy with my Vonage phone, via cable broadband. It’s affordable if you consider the broadband connection to be a necessity (or at least a sunk cost). My main complaint right now is that their web page is rather slow. (I check my voice mail through the web interface.)
It depends. Some phone companies allow you to get DSL without having phone service. This is called “naked DSL”. Not all phone companies do that. If yours doesn’t, Vonage would not be a good deal for you.
One option is to get the cordless phones that have a single base unit and allow multiple phones to connect to the same base unit. You plug the base unit into the Vonage adapter and put the satellite phones throughout the house.
The other option is to plug a phone cord from the Vonage adapter into a phone plug in the wall. This really only works if you have non-DSL. Your phone wiring is like a big loop inside your house. If you plug the Vonage adapter into a phone plug, all your phone plugs in your house will connect to the Vonage adapter. However, this wouldn’t work with DSL since the DSL signal needs the phone wiring.
Sunrocket at one time had a deal where they’d give you a cordless phone base unit with two satellite phones when you signed up. I think you have to call and ask for it. That might be the simplest thing.
I use Skype . By far the best solution IMO. You can call any outside number for a fraction of a penny (I’ve had 20 bucks on it for most of year, regularly making international calls). There is no monthly fee.
Its not quite as seamless in terms in “pretending” to be conventional phone, but it comes pretty damn close. And I’ve not noticed any change since they were brought by E-Bay.
Sprint phone bill with DSL - $150
Basic cable bill - $45
Made the switch…
Cable bill w/broadband - $80
Vonage - $27 ($25 + tax)
Basic savings - $88 month
Free call forwarding (which we use sometimes)
Free voice mail (We love being able to set the timing before it picks up instead of counting rings)
Free call waiting
Free 3-way (which we never use)
Free caller id (I didn’t realise how much they charged for all this crap)
Free everything else
Telling Sprint where to stick their lousy, slow dsl, overpriced services and cryptic bills - priceless
Not having 411 service is really not an issue and we have fire and police programmed in speed dial so questionable 911 service is no big deal. Sometimes there is minor feedback in the line, more of an echo really, but other than that we love it and the $88 per month that goes with it.
My friend who got Vonage a few months ago complained that the voice quality was poor, he had other problems, and tech support was slow and difficult. He finally got angry enough with it to drop the service. Dunno if DSL or cable.
>The phone transmission bypasses your computer, so one has nothing to do with the other.
Well, if the computer is busy eating bandwidth to download comix or to help some hoodlum mess with your system unbeknownst to you, doesn’t it compete with the Vonage box?
It depends on how you setup your system. The Vonage box can go between your router and cable modem, or it can plug into one of the router ports just like any computer.
If the Vonage box sits between the router and cable modem, the Vonage box will limit the bandwidth to the router so that voice quality is maintained.
But if the Vonage box is plugged into one of the router ports, then it can’t do bandwith limiting and will be sharing the connection with all your computers. You will probably notice calls breaking up with this configuration.
We just moved to Vonage and love it. Our basic service and long distance saved us about $30 a month. We’re also moving in a few months so we got an extra number local to the town we’re moving to. It rings through to our current phone number here.
I gak’ed our Internet one night messing with the firewall and only realized when an incoming call auto-forwarded to the mobile.
I also like being able to check my voice mail through a website and track calls in almost real time on the Vonage page.
We only have one telephone in the house so I’m not bothered by the lack of not using the pre-wired cable pairs in the house. We’ve thought about putting a telephone in the bedroom. If we do I’ll just get a extra wireless handset.
Our power never goes out, but if it did I’d guess the network would run for about 60-90 minutes on the UPS. Outside of that we still have the mobiles.
The single BEST thing about Vonage. I’ve not received one telemarketing call. When the phone rings, it’s someone we know. That alone was worth the switch.