Your experience with VOIP

[nmboone]

This sounds like a terrible idea for people in Louisiana like me. When hurricanes come around, the phone line is the only thing that will work. If it even snows like it did earlier this month miraculously, the lights will go out in a lot of areas.

[ljd1971]

I got about 5 months out of my 15 month contract with SR before they went out of business. I reluctantly signed on with their successor Teleblend for $15.95/month for the remainder of my SR contract term. With the money I prepaid, it works out to around $25/month. Despite the SR fiasco, I have been happy with the service. I have a battery backup that powers my modem, router and VOIP converter. I have weathered two minor power outages just fine. Cell phone is my backup.

[biff]

Originally Posted by sweeps

I have a need for 2 home phone lines, and the local phone company is raking me over the coals on price. I'm paying $60/month which gives me unlimited minutes, all features plus voice mail on one line, but no features at all on the second line.

I'm strongly considering switching to VOIP. What are your experiences as far as call quality and service reliability? Any tips or gotchas to pass along? Switching 100% to cell phone -- while tempting -- is not really an option for me. Thanks for your input.

I tried using the Magic Jack and I give it a big thumbs down....Call quality is very choppy, day in and day out...Very inconsistent service, IMO.
Internet speed is not a factor for me as I am DSL, and Vonage works great with no problems!

[biff]

"I highly recommend VoIP, in general, and Vonage, in particular."


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[Hot dog]

Does vonage just work with your regular phone lines so you can still have as many phones as phone lines in your house or can you just have one hooked to your computer? Someone was talking bout needing cable jacks?

[poundwise]

Originally Posted by Hot dog

Does vonage just work with your regular phone lines so you can still have as many phones as phone lines in your house...

Yes. wikiHow

However, many people just use cordless phone systems that have multiple handsets. Similar to, and including, this one from Panasonic.

I only have a single basic cordless phone (vtech, 2.4GHz) hooked directly to my Vonage box. The handset works throughout the house and outside.

[livingcheapguide]

I have used Vonage for two years now and have been very happy with it. It has been very reliable. I have never had any issues with it at all.

I use skype also but usually just to communicate online with others who have skype. I use it as more of an IM system than a phone system.

I have seen a lot about Magicjack lately. They even featured it on one of the shopping channels. The overall price is very inviting as the deal they were offering was a 39 dollar price for the jack and a years service included.

My biggest concern with MagicJack would be customer service. Have seen a lot of reviews online and there are a lot of bad ones. There are also some good ones.

At the price, it might be worth a shot though. I'll keep watching the reviews.

Scott

[Hot dog]

Has anyone tried Phone Power it seems to have pretty good reviews and a really good price.

[carlsguide]

I vote magicjack.

[ScottON]

I'd say go for it, don't use it personally but I've heard good things

[atorrin]

I have never had any luck with Skype as far as call quality, but Vonage has worked really well. Right now I have a Vonage line that goes strictly to voicemail which I can pick up over email. It's great!

[Exile]

As I stated in an earlier post, I have enjoyed using Skype, but I just received a notice that an upgrade is available. However, this will require tinkering with my firewall. And even though Skype provides step by step instructions for completing this procedure, I'm not looking forward to this task because of Murphy's law.

[MomEsq]

We had bundled our services with the cable company, and that was not a good experience for us. I swtiched to Vonage and love it. Not only is it reliable and cheap, but I love the services that come with the mid-tier plan -I think it's $24.99. For example, our voice mail messages are sent to my e-mail account. I check in once a day and can call anyone back that I need to right away. On the one occassion we had technical trouble (right after we set up), the Vonage technical support was helpful, quick and courteous -even after 8 p.m.!