OT: Vanage? Comcast?

Belly up...amex is empty!
(and Shirley's lookin like she could use a good bar rush)

Anyone have experience with Vanage phone service?
Also, thinking of finally dumping earthlink & going with the hi-speed cable.
Been researching it & the prices look good, but I need some real user input.

Go with Sunrocket instead of Vonage. $200 for a full year w/free LD to
US and Canada, their e911 service works, and you get a free 2 handset
cordless phone set. You can also get a second number with any area code
you want so you can make your second number local to someone, and the
second incoming number is free.

No, I don't work for them, I'm just a satisfied customer.

LOL, I will look into that, as I would like the 911 service.

Yes you can.

Ya owe me a coupla drinks if I use ya as a referral & I expect ya to buy
them for me at my bar!
WooooHoooo!
Kel

Use both....
Comcast is OK for service and Vonage rocks...

My brother's got Vonage and loves it. Only oddity I've noticed is that
if call him when he's downloading a HUUUGGGGGE file, the call might not
go through, or his voicemail sounds weird.

Just read an article on Slashdot about Comcast & Vonage...

Use both....
Comcast is OK for service and Vonage rocks...

Hahahaha! You posted this 3 times AND emailed it!
I guess I better trust ya!
Actually, Comcast & Vonage are offering a great package deal right now so I
think I'm gonna do it.
Thanks, hun.
Kel

Kelli
'96FXDzebra
BS/SLOB#17

hey Kelli, have a few drinks on me, ok?
I always wondered something about Vanage phone service.
what would happen if you had to unplug your computer during
a thunderstorm ?
would ya have a phone during that time ?

Vonage/SunRocket and a few other VoIP phones use your standard analogue
phone plugged into what looks like a router (in effect, it sorta is).
It doesn't require your computer to be on, nor does it even require you
to have a computer.

I am on high speed road-runner cable.
it seems to be ok but I wonder if DSL wouldn't serve the
same purpose.
believe DSL is a little cheaper.

Thanks for the beer! I have DSL & hate it....lotsa lag-time.
I have heard from lotsa ppl that cable is much faster.
From what I understand, the vonage is tagged into a router, not your
computer, so it wouldnt matter if the puter was on. Would still need
electricity, but I need that now with my landline, as all I have is cordless
phones.
g'day Key!
Kel

DSL is typically slower than cable to the head unit. If the cable
service has enough bandwidth from the head unit to the backbone, it'll
typically be faster to anywhere. I typically get 3.5 Mbps down and
568kbps up on my cable (and I have the slow service), the best I've seen
from DSL in this area is 1.2 Mbps down and 376kbps up.

Can't speak about Vonage. Had Verizon DSL in Boston - worked well vs
dial-up. Move to the 'burbs, and I can't get DSL - copper telephone lines to
old to support it. Went w/ Comcast - much better. Had very few outages (2 -
3) over past four years, plus a few reboots on cable modem. Went to support
for help once or twice, and found them good.

Give voice over IP another 5 years it not as reliable as your old phone
system.
Coasty

I never heard this.
Hmmmmmm...need to web-search.

VOIP service for home use isn't all that bad as long as you don't mind
losing phone service when the power goes out. Oh, and as long as you don't
mind dialing 911 during an emergency and trying to figure out who you are
talking to and where in the world they might be. I suggest reading the fine
print on any of those services to decide if it is right for you.

That is fine, as we have 2 cell phones here also.
The 911 thing does bother me a bit tho, as my 4 yr old can dial it, but has
trouble with our addy.
Thanks for the info.

I take care of a VoIP-enabled PBX on a college campus. I like to
think of VoIP a "computer simulation" of a telephone. If you think of
it that way you're more willing to accept its limitations, because
each of us has had slow downloads (which translates to echoes and
clipped speech) and have had to reboot.

Even your trusty analog telephone eventually gets digitized before
your call gets sent into the SS7 "telephone internet", but that single
pair from it back to the CO's equipment makes it easy to track where
it terminates. When you plug in an IP phone, as long as it
authenticates with your provider's network you'll get dialtone, so
*you're* responsible for letting your provider know the location where
you have it connected if you expect routing to the proper PSAP when
you dial 911.

We put up with mediocre service from VoIP and cell phones in exchange
for their convenience and economy. We'll walk half a block trying to
get another bar on the cell's display. What makes me shake my head is
that if some folks get the slightest crackle from a $20/month
land-line they'll call in a complaint and have a tech climbing a pole
in the rain hunting down a bad splice. Even though we eliminate the
revenue-generating long distance service from a land-line that helps
keep a phone company in business, we still demand uncompromised
reliability from "real" phone service.

Can you translate this into english?

Yeah. A phone's a *phone*. VoIP is an "application".

The wife is talking to her mother right now. The mother has Vonage. I
heard Karen saying "Hello? Hello? I can't hear you!" and hang up.
Her mother called back and they're talking again.

If that's what someone decides is ok for their primary phone service,
cool, save a buck.

hehe.
Kel