Vonage......is it the best voip

[timecop67]

Thinking about signing up with Cox for broadband access. Is Vonage the best phone over internet service or is there better? I don't call much long distance or internationally.... just want good realiable service and don't want a lot of hidden costs to setting up the service. I also understand if the power goes out then your stuck with no phone service. Is this correct. The power where I live goes out pretty often so maybe a good backup system?

I'd like to get rid of my SBC telephone as they have jacked me around way too much...their customer support and business practices are the worst I've ever encountered in a company.

 

[mgob]

i have had vonage for 6 months now and i'm pretty satisfied with it, the only issue that i have is that i cannot use my own hardware (I'd like to use the asterisk @home systems) but if you just want to plug it in and it to work then yea definatly go with vonage. plus the price is awesome.

 

[tvarad]

I've been using Vonage for the last year in India, first on a 128KBPS line and now on a 256 KBPS line and the quality is near perfect (except, of course, when I am on the web too when I experience voice dropouts due to the low bandwidth). We have regular black-outs (sometimes hourly) & wildly fluctuating voltages and the little PAP2 adapter doesn't fail to sync with the Vonage server within a minute or so when regular power is restored. I also cannot remember anytime that the Vonage service has been down.

I would recommend Vonage for VOIP.

 

[tvarad]

If you are experiencing power outage problems, you could put the DSL/Cable Modem & Router and the Vonage box on a UPS. Just make sure that the UPS capacity is enough to last the duration of the outage. That's assuming your cable or DSL broadband service doesn't go down too during that time (mine doesn't).

 

[tjaisv]

Comcast is rolling out their own VoIP, it's called Digital Voice. The primary difference with this one is that unlike Vonage's or other traditional providers' digital voice solutions Comcast's VoIP doesn't run over the Internet but rather via its own Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) network. (Now Comcast also currently offers something called Digital Phone, which isn't to be confused with Digital Voice, as the former offering is simply regular switched telephone service run over cable, and hence not VoIP.)

Prices are expected to remain competitive with the other providers.

 

[timecop67]

Are most of you using USB2 ports to connect or through an ethernet card? I have two computers.... I run one for a month then switch to the other so I'm thinking USB with 2 ports would be better then I wouldn't have to buy two ethernet cards. Or is there a speed diff?

What is the best modem and or router to get? Have heard that Toshiba isn't bad. And isn't there a surge protector you need or is that built into the router? Have heard there are spikes in the line that cause a lot of modems to fail prematurely.

 

[dphantom]

Anyone know anything about packet8 VOIP? Looks like a pretty good offering with business class service if needed.

Packet8

 

[laketrout]

Packet8 and Lingo seem to be in the same ball game. The service seems to be somewhat reliable but extremely stagnant and dealing with customer service or billing problems is a real pain (including some horrific cancellation stories I have heard. I would recommend Sunrocket from personal expereince, and some others would say Vonage. I am not sure about comcast's VOIP offerings yet. Don't seem to be fully rolled out by any means yet, but curious to see.