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[lexbubble]

So whats the deal with everywhere you turn on the internet there is a Vonage advertisement? You know, the Voip stuff interested me but there is something about that and the woohoo commercial that make me want to puke.

Anyways - anyone have voip? I got some flyer for sunrocket and thought it looked tempting. I'm kinda bored, might as well try something new out...especially for the price they are offering.

 

[Marty Chinn]

See the fatal flaw in VoIP is that you need broadband Internet. Well for me to have broadband Internet, I need DSL. For me to have DSL, I need a phone line anyway so now I'm paying for a phone line and I'm paying for VoIP. It just doesn't make sense for me.

 

[Oni Jazar]

Heh. Same here. It's a damn shame. And who wants cable when you can have DirectTV?

 

[SteveMeister]

I have Vonage (with cable internet service). It works great, is pretty much indistinguishable from a land line, and is much cheaper than a land line, especially considering I'd have cable internet service anyway.

 

[tedtropy]

I have Vonage (with cable internet service). It works great, is pretty much indistinguishable from a land line, and is much cheaper than a land line, especially considering I'd have cable internet service anyway.

Say that when your 911 service is out after your house is ambushed by freedom-hating terrorists from above!

 

[pxleyes]

Can anyone actually explain to me the fuss over services like Vonage. Broadband phone service just doesn't click with me. So, what is so great about?

 

[tedtropy]

Heh. Same here. It's a damn shame. And who wants cable when you can have DirectTV?

I've had Time Warner Cable, Dish Network TV, and DirecTV, and especially ever since I got my DirecTiVo I definitely much prefer DirecTV. The current Time Warner DVR is, for lack of subtly, a piece of crap compared to it. That said, I hate some of their business practices and I especially hate their hard-on for contracts. Oh well, some shit you just have to deal with.

 

[tedtropy]

Can anyone actually explain to me the fuss over services like Vonage. Broadband phone service just doesn't click with me. So, what is so great about?

If you have cable broadband, the primary appeal of VOIP services is the money you save, especially if you make alot of long-distance calls. The voice quality will be similar, if not better in some instances. There are some quirky issues that occasionally come up with 911 access, as VOIP does not access the system the same way a traditional land-line does, but from what I understand a bill was recently passed forcing VOIP services to offer guaranteed 911 functionality by a certain date.

 

[SteveMeister]

Can anyone actually explain to me the fuss over services like Vonage. Broadband phone service just doesn't click with me. So, what is so great about?

$24.99 per month including unlimited long distance calls within the US and Canada as compared to around 3 times that price for a comparable land line with all the features Vonage includes for free, not even counting long distance charges you'd have to pay. (You can pay $14.99 per month without the long distance thing.) Plus, you can see a log of all incoming & outgoing calls (including caller ID) and access your voice mail online. You can also do cool things like add virtual phone numbers in any area code which ring at your home, so that friends & loved ones in other areas can make local calls to your virtual number(s) and avoid paying long distance. You can bring your VOIP router with you when you travel & hook it up to any broadband connection, and then make and receive calls as if you were at home. Lots of very cool features. Go to vonage.com to read more about it.

As far as 911 goes, as long as you register your address it works just fine. Vonage reminds you to do this so often now that you'd have to be an imbecile to forget. Beyond that, more and more local phone companies are tying it in with their local E911 services. And even if you DO forget to register your address, 911 still works -- it just goes to a regional dispatch center and you have to give your address to them, and they forward you to the local 911 center. Vonage is bending over backwards to get any issues they've had in the past with this resolved.

Oh, and I can't get DirecTV at my home -- trees block my line of sight to the satellites. But to be honest, my cable company has been improving steadily since I moved into the place, and now I have dual tuner high-definition DVR boxes that work just fine. No complaints on cable service now.

 

[HokieJoe]

I've had Vonage for about 1.5 yrs. It's off the chain.

 

[pxleyes]

$24.99 per month including unlimited long distance calls within the US and Canada as compared to around 3 times that price for a comparable land line with all the features Vonage includes for free, not even counting long distance charges you'd have to pay. (You can pay $14.99 per month without the long distance thing.) Plus, you can see a log of all incoming & outgoing calls (including caller ID) and access your voice mail online. You can also do cool things like add virtual phone numbers in any area code which ring at your home, so that friends & loved ones in other areas can make local calls to your virtual number(s) and avoid paying long distance. You can bring your VOIP router with you when you travel & hook it up to any broadband connection, and then make and receive calls as if you were at home. Lots of very cool features. Go to vonage.com to read more about it.

As far as 911 goes, as long as you register your address it works just fine. Vonage reminds you to do this so often now that you'd have to be an imbecile to forget. Beyond that, more and more local phone companies are tying it in with their local E911 services. And even if you DO forget to register your address, 911 still works -- it just goes to a regional dispatch center and you have to give your address to them, and they forward you to the local 911 center. Vonage is bending over backwards to get any issues they've had in the past with this resolved.

Oh, and I can't get DirecTV at my home -- trees block my line of sight to the satellites. But to be honest, my cable company has been improving steadily since I moved into the place, and now I have dual tuner high-definition DVR boxes that work just fine. No complaints on cable service now.

Wow, that is slick. I hope they come up with a feature where you can hook-up your Vonage router anywhere, and it will access your internet access so you dont have to pay the area's internet hourly charges.

 

[border]

How do you hook up phones unless they are right next to the router? Do you have to buy a different router for every phone in the house?

 

[SteveMeister]

How do you hook up phones unless they are right next to the router? Do you have to buy a different router for every phone in the house?

Well, what I did was buy an expandable 5.8GHz cordless phone system. The base station's next to the router, all the extensions are scattered throughout the house. But what a lot of people do is plug the router into a phone outlet. If you make sure to completely disconnect the land line from the house, you'll have your VOIP line available at every outlet in your home. I didn't have phone jacks in all the rooms where I wanted to have a phone, so the cordless expandable was best for my situation.

The only reason you'd need multiple routers is if you needed to have multiple phone lines (which I do).

One really nice feature is that the routers are pre-configured. All you need to do is plug them in to your ethernet and after about 5-10 minutes, it just starts working.

 

[Phoenix]

Wow, that is slick. I hope they come up with a feature where you can hook-up your Vonage router anywhere, and it will access your internet access so you dont have to pay the area's internet hourly charges.

Yeah. Well I've taken my Vonage router to various conferences and the like and connected to the free hotel broadband to avoid paying the obscenely high hotel rates for phone calls (since I'm firmly convinced hotels are jamming cell phone calls since I can hardly ever talk on a cell phone in my hotel room ). I've been a fond fan of VoIP for a while now. Vonage is a good implementation of it and right now I'm planning to have it go toe to toe with Comcast's offering to see if Comcast's network really is better.

There ARE some dark sides to VoIP which should be pointed out though. You average home alarm will not work with VoIP without some special wiring. Your phone jacks can be wired to use a pure VoIP system, but that too will require some 'relatively safe' disconnecting from the normal phone grid. VoIP calls ARE easier to intercept, but to be honest I don't think anyone is trying too hard except for the government and the occasional hacker reference that I've seen.

One of the godly things that VoIP provides to you is the ability to put together a software PBX via Asterisk which runs on Linux and OSX (http://www.asterisk.org/). When coupled with actual VoIP phones and SIP capable mobile phones, even more services are enabled such as the ability to receive and place home calls on WiFi networks/hotspots from PDAs.

Broadband phone is where its at, and its about damn time

 

[Phoenix]

The only reason you'd need multiple routers is if you needed to have multiple phone lines (which I do).

One really nice feature is that the routers are pre-configured. All you need to do is plug them in to your ethernet and after about 5-10 minutes, it just starts working.

You don't even need multiple routers for that anymore. Linksys and Netgear are now shipping routers that support multiple lines. In fact the Linksys even has WiFi on it and is free after rebates if you trade in any other router and sign up for Vonage.

 

[SKluck]

WHOO HOOOOOO WHOO HOO HOOO HOO

Yeah I'm not sure if I trust a rebate company enough to send my old router to them.

Sunrocket has a deal that is only like $200 a year. I've thought about it, but even though they require little bandwidth, I don't want anything to hurt my ping.

 

[DarienA]

See the fatal flaw in VoIP is that you need broadband Internet. Well for me to have broadband Internet, I need DSL. For me to have DSL, I need a phone line anyway so now I'm paying for a phone line and I'm paying for VoIP. It just doesn't make sense for me.

IMO the fatal flaw with VOIP is that your voice data travels unsecured over the internet.. it doesn't take much knowledge with a sniffer to intercept/monitor those types of calls. It is incredible to me that this isn't acknowledged or mentioned by the VOIP home consumer company's, but it's a big reason why larger more secure corps(including gov't agencies) aren't going near it for use in their offices...

 

[SteveMeister]

IMO the fatal flaw with VOIP is that your voice data travels unsecured over the internet.. it doesn't take much knowledge with a sniffer to intercept/monitor those types of calls. It is incredible to me that this isn't acknowledged or mentioned by the VOIP home consumer company's, but it's a big reason why larger more secure corps(including gov't agencies) aren't going near it for use in their offices...

Here's what Vonage has to say about that. Guess you're wrong -- it IS acknowledged and mentioned -- at least by Vonage.

Are Vonage connections encrypted between endpoints on the Internet?

Vonage employs best of breed security measures. A Vonage customer's account and phone numbers are protected by a unique security key that is used to authenticate phone calls from the customer's account. Therefore, your identity and profile information is secure.

Similar to traditional phone calls, Vonage’s voice packets are not encrypted. However, due to the nature of how data packets are sent over the internet, it is very difficult to reassemble such packets and listen to an actual conversation.

 

[DarienA]

Here's what Vonage has to say about that. Guess you're wrong -- it IS acknowledged and mentioned -- at least by Vonage.

Actually no I'm not, Vonage acknowledges that's great but what they say seems to gloss over the problem.. Vonage can't control how your call is routed, they have no control over what servers your packets pass through, just like each of us using the web and this board. There was a national security conference here in DC a few weeks ago and VOIP security was one of the main topics. In addition there are various news/web articles available from any search using the terms VOIP security. It's a problem that groups are now starting to come together to address. Specifically folks disagree on how difficult it is to reassemble voice call packets. She's not here right now but I'll ask her to get all technical and shit and comment on it later this eve.

She gets to do fun shit like play with "secure" products, hack bluetooth, etc.... grrr

 

[DCX]

Can anyone actually explain to me the fuss over services like Vonage. Broadband phone service just doesn't click with me. So, what is so great about?

For 27 bucks you get unlimited minutes to anywhere in the US. I live in Waterville NY where a call within the same area code only 20 miles away is considered long distance! I grew up in NYC and call there often so you can where instead of paying up the ass in long distance bills, sometimes as much as $200 i saved alot. I'm sure someone will say well, just get a LD carrier that offers a unlimited LD service...ok, i payed 45 for local service with all my features, and paid out 35 for my LD carrier still how much i saved anyway with Vonage? 27-28 for all of that!!

DCX

 

[Phoenix]

IMO the fatal flaw with VOIP is that your voice data travels unsecured over the internet.. it doesn't take much knowledge with a sniffer to intercept/monitor those types of calls. It is incredible to me that this isn't acknowledged or mentioned by the VOIP home consumer company's, but it's a big reason why larger more secure corps(including gov't agencies) aren't going near it for use in their offices...

1) Not all VoIP routes over unsecured internet. Many of the more expensive services like Comcast's run over private nets

2) Putting together the routed call outside of the network it was placed is VERY difficult for even the most determined hacker.

3) It doesn't take ANY knowledge to tap a regular land line (or heaven help you wireless line). You can buy the equipment on eBay is you like.

4) Most corporate PBX systems internally use VOIP technology

 

[border]

My father's office is all VoIP and they are very security conscious (lawfirm).

Well, what I did was buy an expandable 5.8GHz cordless phone system.

Well isn't that going to screw with the wireless network?

this isn't acknowledged or mentioned by the VOIP home consumer company's

Looks like you're wrong to me

 

[Shazapp]

I have the $14.99 Vonage plan (500 minutes...local or long distance...doesn't matter). The nice thing is that incoming calls don't count against your minutes. The sound quality is just as good as, if not better than, a regular line.

The only reason I still have a home phone is because a lot of people refuse to call my cell phone for whatever reason...and I'd rather spend $15 a month for a rarely used phone than $50 a month for SBC's phone line, which included 60 minutes of long distance...not 500.

 

[DCX]

(lawfirm).
Well isn't that going to screw with the wireless network?

Most just about all wireless networks work on the 2.4ghz that's the reason i got myself a 5.8Ghz expandable phone.

DCX

 

[SteveMeister]

Actually no I'm not, Vonage acknowledges that's great but what they say seems to gloss over the problem.. Vonage can't control how your call is routed, they have no control over what servers your packets pass through, just like each of us using the web and this board. There was a national security conference here in DC a few weeks ago and VOIP security was one of the main topics. In addition there are various news/web articles available from any search using the terms VOIP security. It's a problem that groups are now starting to come together to address. Specifically folks disagree on how difficult it is to reassemble voice call packets. She's not here right now but I'll ask her to get all technical and shit and comment on it later this eve.

She gets to do fun shit like play with "secure" products, hack bluetooth, etc.... grrr

But you said that they neither acknowledged nor mentioned security issues -- whether or not Vonage "glosses over" the issues is immaterial. They DO acknowledge and mention them.

 

[Phoenix]

But you said that they neither acknowledged nor mentioned security issues -- whether or not Vonage "glosses over" the issues is immaterial. They DO acknowledge and mention them.

And if they didn't "gloss over" them, the vast majority of people reading that tech-note would be so confused that it wouldn't mean anything to them any way. Hell just trying to explain how packets route from the regular phone to the router through the internet and to another non VoIP phone is like "magic" to the average consumer

 

[DarienA]

1) Not all VoIP routes over unsecured internet. Many of the more expensive services like Comcast's run over private nets

2) Putting together the routed call outside of the network it was placed is VERY difficult for even the most determined hacker.

3) It doesn't take ANY knowledge to tap a regular land line (or heaven help you wireless line). You can buy the equipment on eBay is you like.

4) Most corporate PBX systems internally use VOIP technology

I should make it clear that I am speaking about consumer VOIP, not corporate, internal VOIP systems are obviously much easier to make secure. And yes, Vonage acknowledges it... if that's what you want to call it(I should know about making absolute statements).

Phoenix is that Comcast service you are talking about a consumer level service? You mention that it's expensive. Rhonda isn't sure and we're curious about it. Sorry I had to drop off during this conversation, damn power went out again... stupid minimum wage fiber optic digging Verizon employees cut the damn power lines AGAIN... this is the 2nd f'n time in 2 weeks. And again on a HOT ASS day.

I'll definitely admit that I'm still learning about VOIP and definitely could be wrong on some of this and with alot of the different articles out there it's pretty easy to get mixed signals.

 

[Phoenix]

Phoenix is that Comcast service you are talking about a consumer level service? You mention that it's expensive.

Yeah its a consumer service (Comcast CallVantage) and its expensive compared to the other VoIP services ($39.95/month).

I'll definitely admit that I'm still learning about VOIP and definitely could be wrong on some of this and with alot of the different articles out there it's pretty easy to get mixed signals.

VOIP is also an area where if you're 6 months out of date, your information is likely very dated.

 

[Barnimal]

cable and vonage VOIP will be dead once verizon and SBC fully roll out fiber to the home, super high speed DSL and their own VOIP services.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Vonage rocks, had it for over a year now. I get phone, cable internet and basic cable for $70/month. That's what my old phone bill used to be alone, and the services blow traditional phone companies out of the water.

 

[lexbubble]

WHOO HOOOOOO WHOO HOO HOOO HOO

Yeah I'm not sure if I trust a rebate company enough to send my old router to them.

Sunrocket has a deal that is only like $200 a year. I've thought about it, but even though they require little bandwidth, I don't want anything to hurt my ping.

My friend has Sunrocket and it doesn't affect his World Of Warcraft at all even when he is talking international. The price is amazing especially for more features than a regular phone.

 

[gblues]

I'm switching from Qwest DSL to the local cable internet (CableOne). I get 1.5mbps for 29.99/mo for the first year, and I'm signing up for the 14.99 Vonage plan.

Total cost for voice/internet: About $50/mo + tax.
My current Qwest bill: About $91.

Bye bye, Qwest. It's funny that data + voice is half the cost of voice + data.

My only problem is that I live in Idaho, which Vonage apparently doesn't have any rate centers for. My workaround for that is the toll-free number that costs $4.99/mo with 100 minutes. I don't get very many incoming calls as it is, so this will be perfect. In the meantime, my area code is from my old stomping grounds: Beaverton, OR.

Strangely enough, my address won't validate for the 911 service. I expect this is tied to the above problem with the missing coverage of the 208 area code. I tried to e-mail customer service but I got a form letter in response.

Nathan

 

[xsarien]

See the fatal flaw in VoIP is that you need broadband Internet. Well for me to have broadband Internet, I need DSL. For me to have DSL, I need a phone line anyway so now I'm paying for a phone line and I'm paying for VoIP. It just doesn't make sense for me.

Verizon is going to start offering naked DSL lines, if they haven't already done so. That's going to put some pressure on other telcos to follow suit.

 

[lexbubble]

My only problem is that I live in Idaho, which Vonage apparently doesn't have any rate centers for. My workaround for that is the toll-free number that costs $4.99/mo with 100 minutes. I don't get very many incoming calls as it is, so this will be perfect. In the meantime, my area code is from my old stomping grounds: Beaverton, OR.

Strangely enough, my address won't validate for the 911 service. I expect this is tied to the above problem with the missing coverage of the 208 area code. I tried to e-mail customer service but I got a form letter in response.

For $2 more you get unlimited calls with sunrocket. Are they available by you?

Even having voip and DSL with a stripped down telco package can sometimes be cheaper. Its worth doing the math because telco companies are crazy, see the $91 example above. Thats ridiculous.

 

[alejob]

So whats the deal with international phone calls? Do they just charge extra $$ or is it not posible at all?

Qwest sucks.

 

[GhaleonEB]

So whats the deal with international phone calls? Do they just charge extra $$ or is it not posible at all?

Qwest sucks.

International (excluding Canada, which is free) are extra. Vonage's international rates are excellent, however.

http://vonage.com/intrates.php

 

[lexbubble]

International calls vary slightly depending on where you call. Sunrocket gives a free $3.00 of international calls and for instance Australia is 3 cents so that translates to 100 free international minutes. There is a whole list on there page...