Just installed it, think I like it.

I did have like 3 dropped calls out of the first five. Then I just moved my portable phone a few feet away from my wireless router. Seems to be working okay now, but I'll give it a 7-day trial before informing my job about the change in my phone number.

Anyone else got it? Sman? I know how much you love tech stuff...

I was going to get it, but decided to wait until they get the e911 kinks worked out. I would like to switch and save $$.

CPD.... I am still keeping a limited access regular phoneline because of the 911 issue, and I am still saving $$. The limited access means you have to pay for every call--even local--but I figure it doesn't matter, since the only time I'll use it is for 911 anyway. After I crunched the numbers, I still come out ahead (way ahead) with VOIP.

We went from:

Sprint Package including unlimited long distance, caller ID, voice mail, call waiting, second phone number (for fax), and all the other extras for $85 per month (including taxes).

To:

VOIP including caller ID, voice mail, calling waiting, etc. and 500 minutes long distance for $16.80, plus $14.00 a month for regular limited use landline, plus web-based fax service for $3.20 per month (all including taxes).

OLD TOTAL: $85 per month
NEW TOTAL: $34 per month

It's enough savings to make it worth it, for me, to deal with the hassle of two phones, especially since one will pretty much be just sitting around unless I need to dial 911.

What is voip?

I am using Vonage and have nto had any problems at all. As for E911 it can be a pain if youa re moving but I am registered at the addresss for the phone. NOt perfect but good enough. For unlimited long distance, caller ID, Call Waiting, Voicemail and 2 Numbers I pay $33 with tax.

Tony

Voice Over Internet Protocol. Basically you use some special thingy's (sorry about the high tech language ) hooked up to your internet line and use the internet to make phone calls. You must have a broadband connection (cable internet or DSL) for it to work. The phone call goes out over the internet and then eventually connects to the POTS (plain old telephone system) and completes the call. When people call you the calling route is reversed and ends up coming over your internet line. In the best of circumstances you can't tell the difference between voip equipment and pots equipment.

If your internet goes out or you lose electric service then you won't have telephone service; that is, unless you have a UPS, uninterruptable power supply), which is a battery back up on your router and cable modem and telephones, you won't have phone service.

Another voip, you can also look into:

www.tomatovine.com

I havent used them but have heard a lot of ads for them.

I currently have VOIP through a company called MyPhoneCompany. I pay 24.99 a month. I love all the features for such a low price , but this company does not seem to be very good. I am getting ready to switch to Vonage. I have had several problems. One such is, that no one is on phone but calls go straight to voicemail and phone never rang. It does have a nice feature where all voicemails even if deleted when checked via phone are sent to my email. This comes in handy when you have kids who cant remember messages.Also you can dail *79 and all calls go straight to voicemail and phone does not ring. Great when you dont want to be bothered. Tony ,does Vonage have these features?

Even as a tech geek, VOIP is one of those things I just can't seem to pull the trigger on. I can't bring myself to trust Antietam Cable with being the backbone to my phone service. It's bad enough they already control my tv service and internet access. My local phone service with the few features I need is only around $30/month and we use our cell phones for the infrequent long distance calls.

VOIP is a very cool technology and I hope that it succeeds.

Hey, dirk - do you listen to Howard Stern on Sirius? He runs a tomatovine ad about every hour.

True... although Vonage has a nice feature that, if your cable line is down, they automatically re-route calls to a number of your choice (I have mine being sent to my cell phone). So at least you won't miss calls.

I have Comcast, and, knock on wood, they've been fairly reliable.

So far so good on VOIP, no complaints of quality issues from people on the other end of the line.

Vonage sends you an email and then you log into their site to listen to the voice mails.You can set the number to forward to a different phone if you are off connection. Mine when it is turned off goes to my cell phone.

Tony

Dumb question: I've got a cell phone, I hardly ever get any calls anyway, so why am I paying for a regular phone line and now, considering switching it to VOIP? Is there any reason why I NEED to have anything else beside my cell?

All this technology's costing me an arm and a leg. Maybe I should simplify?

911 is still a problem with cell phones. if your cell tower goes out and you're not close to another one.. you could be out of luck for phone service. Sometimes you can't always get a signal. Your phone may decide one day to quit functioning, and you could be days without phone service until you get a new one. Unless you have more than one phone, and you take the phone with you, anyone left in the house may not have access to a phone. Sometimes you forget to charge the battery.

Just some things off the top of my head. It's really a personal decision as to whether or not to maintain a landline. Perhaps you could consider getting the cheapest landline available and using your cell for all your calling.

Just some thoughts....

Ok, folks, I am canceling my VOIP and going back to good ol' landline. Two main reasons:

1. Call quality: Too many choppy, static-y calls. Also, had a lot of dropped calls, even after various troubleshooting sessions.

2. Interfered with wireless router: Going through the VOIP router made it difficult--a total pain--to network between our desktop and notebook computers.

There you go. I was infatuated with it for a few days, but the cons outweigh the pros, in my case.