cane corso Posted August 17, 2004 Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 I am considering giving this a shot. It will save me some money, but I am not sure if it will be worth it. My main concerns are voice quality and reliability. Anyone have experience? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted August 17, 2004 Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 A good mate has Vonage & loves it. I'm considering switching myself, but we have a monitored alarm system & DirecTivo that requires to phone home occasionally, and that's stopping me right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cane corso Posted August 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 Originally posted by dogbert@Aug 17 2004, 08:39 AM A good mate has Vonage & loves it. I'm considering switching myself, but we have a monitored alarm system & DirecTivo that requires to phone home occasionally, and that's stopping me right now. I forgot about the DirecTivo. However, if you disconnect it from the phoneline the worst that will happen is some annoying message every few days - but I couldn't handle that. I think there might be some type of workaround for it, I will need to check tivocommunity and see. I am glad you mentioned it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted August 17, 2004 Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 If you have a series 2 DirecTivo you have a better chance of it working, there is a dial string you have to input into the TiVo that tells the Vonage box to "slow down". I just wish DirecTV would get their head out of their asses and give us IP based phone homes....and the home networking option wouldn't be a bad thing either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted August 17, 2004 Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 However, if you disconnect it from the phoneline the worst that will happen is some annoying message every few days - but I couldn't handle that. We went about 200 days without phoning. You get a message twice a day by that point, and it slows down the interface a little. People have got it working with Vonage etc, usually using an external modem hooked upto it - there's a software config that makes the DirecTivo use the external modem instead of its internal one, and certain types of external work good enough with the slow transfer rate of Vonage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted August 17, 2004 Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 And you will only be able to order something like 56 pay per view movies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrJames Posted August 17, 2004 Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 I'll be waiting until Comcast rolls it out in my area before I decide whether or not to switch. Current voip offerings may limit online gaming/internet usage depending on how much bandwidth is being used. Not being able to use the phone while hosting a game on XBL or vice versa for example is not something I want to deal with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cane corso Posted August 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 After researching tivocummunity, I am not sure I want to mess with it (at least not right now). Not being able to use the phone while hosting a game on XBL or vice versa for example is not something I want to deal with. I was curious about that, my DSL is not the greatest so that would be another problem. If Verizon would run their fiber optics (5, 15, and 30 Mb per second) in my neighborhood (I don't think it is going to happen)..... It appears I need to wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlucci Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 After researching tivocummunity' date=' I am not sure I want to mess with it (at least not right now). QUOTE'] Todd, in your research did you hear if ATT CallVantage suffers from the same problem for DirecTV to make the call? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cane corso Posted February 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 Carlos, From what I have heard, ATT CallVantage offers some kind of fax/modem setting that will allow you to make those calls. I think they began offering this in December, but I have no personal experience with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveC Posted February 18, 2005 Report Share Posted February 18, 2005 We currently use vonage in the office and I would rather go back to a landline!!! VOIP is decent but we had to upgrade to the fastest service we could get from our ISP or else the occassional call was dropped and about 1 every couple of weeks we need to reset the vonage boxes because the phones just stop working. When you call customer service thats the only help they'll give you :mad: Believe me everyone is better off using a landline...VOIP is more trouble then its worth..I just wish I was the one making the decisions in the office, we're still using it because we always call internationally so its much cheaper!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnEBGood Posted March 10, 2005 Report Share Posted March 10, 2005 Anyone around here hooked up with VoIP yet? I signed up a little while ago and have been loving it so far. I save $50/month on my phone service now. Anyone hooked up with this yet? I imagine everyone will have it soon enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted March 10, 2005 Report Share Posted March 10, 2005 John, I went ahead and merged your thread with the existing voIP thread. Please feel free to continue discussion here. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted March 10, 2005 Report Share Posted March 10, 2005 A few months ago I went with Vonage, and I've been loving it as well. I ditched my cell (I'm either at work, or at home - no need for one) and ditched the 60+ dollar a month charge with it. Plus I make a ton of calls up north to Canada, and this flat rate of 25$ a month is an absolute steal. I can see if you don't have a lot of bandwidth, that VoIP might not be for you, but it's really f'n awesome for me. Zero complaints so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cathartic Posted March 11, 2005 Report Share Posted March 11, 2005 "Zero complaints so far." --Ruffneck Except for the fact that every time I speak to you on that line, Chris, it sounds like you're on a cell phone with a bad reception. Very choppy. I know you speculated that it was due to some heavy downloading going on at the same time, but the same happened with my Sister as well (who is not nearly as heavy a bandwidth user as you are). Basically, 2 out of 2 people who I know got VOIP phones ended up having crap reception - on the outbound end, at least. Maybe it sounds fine to you, Chris - but to me, it sounds like you're constantly breaking up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnEBGood Posted March 11, 2005 Report Share Posted March 11, 2005 John' date=' I went ahead and merged your thread with the existing voIP thread. Please feel free to continue discussion here. Thanks![/quote'] Thanks. I didn't see the old thread, my fault...I appreciate the merge though. I've been using a company called SunRocket that has a deal where you can sign up for a year and pay a flat fee of $199. I did that and pay a little over $16/month for unlimited local, long distance, and canada. So far, i've been pretty impressed. Do you all think this will be an every household technology soon? I think it's a distinct possibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted March 11, 2005 Report Share Posted March 11, 2005 Except for the fact that every time I speak to you on that line' date=' Chris, it sounds like you're on a cell phone with a bad reception. Very choppy. I know you speculated that it was due to some heavy downloading going on at the same time, but the same happened with my Sister as well (who is not nearly as heavy a bandwidth user as you are). Basically, 2 out of 2 people who I know got VOIP phones ended up having crap reception - on the outbound end, at least. Maybe it sounds fine to you, Chris - but to me, it sounds like you're constantly breaking up.[/quote'] Well, you're the only one who complains about it Adam, everyone else I talk to on it says it sounds jjust as good as a regular telephone line. Besides it's not like you call me that much anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnEBGood Posted March 13, 2005 Report Share Posted March 13, 2005 When i first signed up, I thought I was going to be sacrificing call quality for the cost savings with SunRocket, but I've actually been impressed by the quality of the line as well as the price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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