Phone Services -- What do you think.

[QueOnda]

Hello All,

Currently, I'm using Vonage. I've been with Vonage for maybe 5 years or so. Just heard of something called Ooma.
Sounds pretty cool. Wondering if anyone here has it or heard of it.

You have to buy the hardware and Priced it out and in 1 year will pay for itself if I go the Ooma route than staying with Vonage. I was just bite in the A$$ b4 when I invested in some hardware and the company went out of business.

What else are people using. Love to save money!!! I'm going to be (been wanting) to do the home automation and don't want to get into something else if the home automation would be better with a different service.

Give me your thoughts and experiences.

[sainswor99]

I used Vonage for 6 months, and eventually had to switch back to a land line becasue of broadband outages (we had small kids at home that sometimes beat us to the house, and if the phone doesn't work, that's not good).

Anyway, ooma sounds promising; they even say they offer a landline alternative, which could address my number one concern above. If you go with it, let me know how that works.

[Dreameriz]

i have been using MAGICJACK for about 6 months with no problems i love it only pay 20 a year

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by Dreameriz

i have been using MAGICJACK for about 6 months with no problems i love it only pay 20 a year

Me too. I've been using several magicjacks for about 8 months and I canceled my hard line a couple of months ago. I have a cell in case the the internet is down and I have to call the ISP. I've already saved a couple of years worth of MJ service. I do have one workstation that MJ doesn't like the USB ports on but other than that it's been fine. I'm considering building some thin clients just to run MJ on, so I can add more lines. I'm not sure HA will like MJ much though...

[GKusnick]

I've never used VOIP, but the thing I'd be most concerned about is 911 service. Landline phone providers know where your circuit ends and can direct emergency responders to that location automatically. VOIP providers have no idea where you're physically located unless you tell them. If you move and take your VOIP device with you, the burden is on you to update your user profile so the provider knows which dispatch center to notify and where to send the responders. If your power goes down or your router goes belly up, will you even be able to dial 911?

No amount of money saved is worth it if the firemen and EMTs can't find you or show up at the wrong address in the wrong city.

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

I've never used VOIP, but the thing I'd be most concerned about is 911 service. Landline phone providers know where your circuit ends and can direct emergency responders to that location automatically. VOIP providers have no idea where you're physically located unless you tell them. If you move and take your VOIP device with you, the burden is on you to update your user profile so the provider knows which dispatch center to notify and where to send the responders. If your power goes down or your router goes belly up, will you even be able to dial 911?

No amount of money saved is worth it if the firemen and EMTs can't find you or show up at the wrong address in the wrong city.

My E911 is setup and it was easy. If people are that worried about 911, they should remember to change the address if they move the phone. The MJ has a 911 section on the main app that displays the current 911 address. That said I wouldn't recommend VOIP without a cellphone as a backup. Some people cut the landlines for pure cellular too. I prefer a combination, MJ for home and cellular for out and about.

[kevine]

Originally Posted by S_M_E

My E911 is setup and it was easy. If people are that worried about 911, they should remember to change the address if they move the phone. The MJ has a 911 section on the main app that displays the current 911 address. That said I wouldn't recommend VOIP without a cellphone as a backup. Some people cut the landlines for pure cellular too. I prefer a combination, MJ for home and cellular for out and about.

Yes. Most VOIP have an E911 setup so that it goes directly to the correct dispatch location as if you had a hard line. Mobile phones are even worse though. 911 calls from them go to a central dispatch location and have to be routed to the proper dispatch center. And you need a good 1st contact dispatcher to get that quickly. There is a lot of misconception out there (expecially due to TV) that if you call from a mobile phone, they know exactly where you are if you dial 911. Dispatch centers have to go through carriers to get this information causing a delay. Not all dispatchers are Cloe O'Brien. Had to through that in there.

[S_M_E]

If I'm home. I'll use the E911 system. If I'm out or my internet is down for whatever reason I'll use the cell. Even landlines aren't bulletproof, they go down sometimes too.

I'm not paying for a hardline just for 911 service, between E911 and my cellular, I'm not worried.

[bcjenkins]

I am using MJ too for a second line. I plugged it in to a box in the basement and patched it into the home wiring. You can kick off a MJ session in RDP and close the window leaving it active.

B

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

I am using MJ too for a second line. I plugged it in to a box in the basement and patched it into the home wiring. You can kick off a MJ session in RDP and close the window leaving it active.

B

My MJs are all active 24/7, with no RDP required, and I tied mine into the house wiring too. It makes it more convenient that way. Before I tied mine into the wiring I used cordless phones with multiple handsets so people don't have to use the house wiring if they don't want to.

[bcjenkins]

Ok, so how do you get the MJ to load up and start taking calls? The software has to be opened unless you run some of the hack utils to put it in service mode etc.

BTW - This is running on a WHS box which does not autologin.

B

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Ok, so how do you get the MJ to load up and start taking calls? The software has to be opened unless you run some of the hack utils to put it in service mode etc.

BTW - This is running on a WHS box which does not autologin.

B

It should autorun, unless you disabled autorun.

Oh, I see, I *do* autologon my WHS and my other MJ boxes...

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Ok, so how do you get the MJ to load up and start taking calls? The software has to be opened unless you run some of the hack utils to put it in service mode etc.

BTW - This is running on a WHS box which does not autologin.

B

I know you refer to it as a hack but I've used AnyService Installer and the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit to run an app as a service. (HDHomerun Manager when that was needed) Follow the instructions and it works very well on WHS. As long as you just need to configure MJ once and then just let it run it should work.

Gerry

[briands]

I looked at the Magik Jack FAQ and answered these, so I thought I'd share what I found here.

Number portability - you can not take your current land line number to MJ YET... supposed to in 2009 for a fee

Caller ID - is supported

My follow up to the caller ID question ... can you use YAC with the MJ directly or do you need to also use a modem to capture from the MJ connector?

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by briands

I looked at the Magik Jack FAQ and answered these, so I thought I'd share what I found here.

Number portability - you can not take your current land line number to MJ YET... supposed to in 2009 for a fee

Caller ID - is supported

My follow up to the caller ID question ... can you use YAC with the MJ directly or do you need to also use a modem to capture from the MJ connector?

I don't use YAC so I have no idea. MJ doesn't have all of the features that some other VOIP providers do but it's 20 dollars per *year*, not 20-30 dollars per month. Since it requires the MJ USB "Connector" if you want it wired to the house, it is different than other devices. There is a hack to bypass the need for the USB dongle and run it directly from your hard drive but then you can't wire to your house, you'd have to use the softphone app exclusively. Also, there are (or were) hacks to extract the SIP credentials that would allow it to be ran from other telephony solutions but that would be a violation of TOS at the very least.

All in all, 20 dollars per year for unlimited local and LD to anywhere in the USA and canada is worth it, imo.

[QueOnda]

For MJ, how is Voicemail handled? Also, do they have a website, so you can log into your account to see who called and such.

Also, how is the sound quality and do you have any dropped or nasty sounding calls?

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by QueOnda

For MJ, how is Voicemail handled? Also, do they have a website, so you can log into your account to see who called and such.

Also, how is the sound quality and do you have any dropped or nasty sounding calls?

If your MJ is unplugged or the computer is off, calls should go directly to VM. When you get a VM MJ will send you an e-mail, with an mp3 attached and it will say the number that called or anonymous if it's blocked. You can also call in using the phone and access your VM that way too. The MJ app is the only call log.

Sound quality is fine if you're not using all of your bandwidth.

[Jason]

I am simple...



I use a Linksys SPA ($10 on ebay...) which gets it's SIP session from Voxalot (free...)

Voxalot connects to two different providers (Voipdiscount and Gizmo5) for the outgoing and incoming calls, respectively.

Voipdiscount gives me 300 minutes free each week, subject to their Fair Use Policy for 120 days, after that it uses my ~$15 deposit, which is used at $.015 / minute.

Gizmo5 is simply forwarding my local Grandcentral # to my voxalot account.

You can't get any cheaper than that...

-Jason

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by Jason

I am simple...

You can't get any cheaper than that...

20.00 per year for unlimited in and out sounds cheaper than that...

[Jason]

Originally Posted by S_M_E

20.00 per year for unlimited in and out sounds cheaper than that...

Your assuming that I use more than $15 in a year for OUTGOING... My cell is used more. With Grandcentral/Gizmo, I have unlimited incoming, a local DID number, and 'RingCentral' style functionality.

In addition, I do not have to have a PC on for my phone to function...