Any Vonage Voip users? is so this is COOL!

[sbessel]

I have been a BroadVoice VOIP user for ~6 months, and have nothing but troubles. When it worked I loved it, rich feature set and great, I mean truly great pricing. But over the last few days I really needed my service and it was down too much.

So I tried Vonage... Great voice quality, even better than Broadvoice. Pricing is alright, and features are about 1/2 of BroadVoice, cheap and quick startup as I picked up the adapter locally.

But I just found the COOLEST thing. They have a small windows app Called Click-2-Call, it allows Outlook integration with just a single click will dial an Outlook contact. This in itself is cool...

But I found (I have no idea how) that they also have other methods. Web, Java, PHP and other... the easiest being web based.

Here is a simple URL that will make an outbound call from your local phone:
https://secure.click2callu.com/tpcc/makecal...number=toNumber



For details see here: https://secure.click2callu.com/


I plan on integrating this into HS within the next few minutes, as I already have a VR telephone phone book dialing script that I use all the time. I just hate the delay waiting on the digits to be dialed.

I am so excited, I think I actually wet myself...


Scott

 

[DavidL]

I know Krumpy is using Vonage. Very good quality sound from this end. He seems to be happy with it. I will be looking at it soon. My Internet connection is with my phone company (centurytel.net) so got to make sure I can kill the phone and leave the DSL. The DSL goes down probably once a month for a few minutes to an hour. So, gotta keep the cell phone around.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

What do you guys do about "Caller ID"?

 

[sbessel]

CallerID?

No issues here...

Are there supposed to be issues?

 

[sbessel]

I know Krumpy is using Vonage. Very good quality sound from this end. He seems to be happy with it. I will be looking at it soon. My Internet connection is with my phone company (centurytel.net) so got to make sure I can kill the phone and leave the DSL. The DSL goes down probably once a month for a few minutes to an hour. So, gotta keep the cell phone around.

first, what is a 'Krumpy' ?

Second, You need a phone for DSL, as it rides on your phone service. VOIP works better on broadband, can you get broadband from your cable company?

Vonage even has a disclaimer about people trying to transfer their DSL phone number over...

I finished my VR script, and it is 100x faster than the touch tone hs.linedial method... way2cool

Scott

(and I am still wet)

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Scott:

I thought I read past posts where users were not able go get caller ID when using broadband solutions for their phone. How do you get Caller ID information into Homeseer? You can't use a NetCallerID device correct?

Also, "Krumpy" is a user over at Homeseer land who wrote the MLHSPlugin (Main Lobby Plugin) and is very active on their forums as well. He uses Vonage since he makes a lot of long distance calls.

He is also a good friend of DavidL's. I also spoke to Krumpy on a couple of occasions and the sound was very good!

Regards,

BSR

 

[sbessel]

I run my VOIP, both BroadVoice and Vonage with my Way2Call and a NetCallerID without any issues. I get caller ID whenever sent... of course only on the NetCallerID, the Way2Call still sucks at CallerID.

The only issues I had with Broadvoice is it sent Broadvoice as the name with my number, many times people thought I was a sales person and would ignore my calls... I am not yet sure what Vonage sends for my name. But I do know I have always sent the correct numbers.

If you have a broadband connection VOIP is really worth it... I especially love all the extra fetures...

Scott

 

[jlehnert]

BSR,

Are you sure you are not thinking about E911? VoIP phones do not go though the local phone co. and thus the name/address information is not in the database provided to the local 911 call center. Some of the VoIP providers have now created a workaround to this, including Vonage.

Also, I believe Martin is a Vonage user.

 

[Rupp]

Guys,
What is the advantage of these VoIP setups? Is it just for long distance. Most people I know use cell phones for all of their long distance calls.

 

[Skibum]

$$$$

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

VoIP phones do not go though the local phone co. and thus the name/address information is not in the database provided to the local 911 call center.

Yes, that is why I thought there was a problem getting caller ID information using Vonage. I "though" I remembered reading some posts over Homeseer Forums where users were having a problem, but if Scott isn't having a problem, guess I was mistaken.

I still don't see how he gets caller ID via Vonage, but I must be missing something trying to understanding that.

I was also thinking, wonder if there is some sort of trial period where I could try out Vonage on my cable modem just to see how good it works (you know WAF Factor!). I would still keep my regular phone line during this trial period.

How much are the phones? Can you use regular phones? Do they provide some sort of interface box between your phones and cable modem connection?

 

[Skibum]

Once you are past your VOIP adapter, it is exactly the same as a regular phone with respect to caller id.
VOIP is only the transport mechanism, and has nothing to do with the featureset provided.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Once you are past your VOIP adapter, it is exactly the same as a regular phone with respect to caller id.
VOIP is only the transport mechanism, and has nothing to do with the featureset provided.

Well, that's great news. Sounds like if I were to go over to something like Vonage, I wouldn't have to change a thing with my CallerID/Homeseer/NetCallerID Box setups.

 

[sbessel]

I have found that Vonage does send inconsistnt numbers. I.E. sometimes it has a leading '1' - But this was easily fixed by a phone=right(phone,10) command. Otherwise no issues.

 

[jlehnert]

Well, that's great news. Sounds like if I were to go over to something like Vonage, I wouldn't have to change a thing with my CallerID/Homeseer/NetCallerID Box setups.

Whoa Hombre! Not so fast.

Ski is correct in that you can ignore the transport mechanism once past the VoIP adaptor. But......

VoIP adaptors provide only enough juice to support ONLY a single telephone. You can't connect it in to the house wiring and expect it to support phones in the dining, living, kitchen, grandma's, etc rooms. I've heard of a few people who have been able to make it work, but most cannot. Most of the time, if you have more than one phone off-hook, things stop working. Sometimes this happens even when you just have multiple phones hooked into the system. The only way around this would be if you feed the VoIP into a PBX system, as the PBX then provides the juice needed for multiple phones.

How much are the phones?

Uses a regular phone (singular).

Can you use regular phones?

See above

Do they provide some sort of interface box between your phones and cable modem connection

Yes. It's another box that (in the case of Vonage) goes inline between the cable modem and the router. RJ45 in from modem, RJ45 out to router, RJ11 to plug a telephone into. Last time I checked, the adaptor box was free with the service, but that may have changed.

And, no, I don't use VoIP myself. I did do a lot of research for a customer who is making the switch himself. I probably will try it myself also.