Any Vonage Voip users? is so this is COOL!

not something you'd do much of, but i do use it off and on to send a quick fax straight from the computer.

for the end user, once things are installed there really is very little difference between voip and good ole ma bell, except the price and maybe you'll miss that dance they do everytime you try to tell them you have noise on the line and could they please fix it.
 
Anyone on here had experience with Voip in Ontario Canada ?

If the Telco's up here get involved it will likely be overpriced but I am kinda searching for info now to sort out the good and the bad.

My calling would be all within my area code.

I think I can get Vonage in 905 area code but not in my exchange yet.

Any hints and tips would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Neil
 
No modem or Fax on Packet8
That's what is holding up the decision now. I like the P8 prices and they have a (relatively) close number available. But no fax and they can only handle a single line. Vonage has fax and can handle 2 lines, but they don't have any numbers near me. In fact, most of their numbers in the state are "sold out". I dropped and email to P8 support to check on the status of fax and if they will be offering any other adapters.
 
jlehnert,

does your area use a seperate area code for cell phones?

My city was sold out of 410 numbers but there were 443 numbers available. 443 is typically used for cell phones around here but vonage is offering them as Lan line numbers.
 
Looking at the Vonage availability page, there are NO 703 (Northern VA) numbers available, and the closest 804 is Richmond. There are also some numbers on the western side of the state. Since I initially want to use it for the business, I'd prefer to have a number within 70 miles of me. ;)
 
FYI

I got two responses back from Packet8. The first indicated there were no plans to carry an adaptor that would support 2 lines. The second was a canned response saying that the adaptor could handle 3 phones, and not to hook the adaptor directly to the house wiring. No answer at all about fax support.

Now, I guess I have to decide the relative importance of fax/2-line support vs numbers that will be a local call to people calling me.
 
how much bandwidth does an active VoIP call take? If I am downloading a file and my wife is on a VoIP call - does the phone quality step down and how much longer does my file take to download?

256kup / 720 down DSL service currently. 1.5meg down upgrade available for another $10 per month.
 
jlehnert: You can always get 2 P8 numbers and run 2 DTA's for 2 lines.

DavidL: I think P8 is taking about 24K of my bandwidth. I've never had any sound quality issues when I'm running heavy web traffic. I have 700K both ways from my ISP.
 
Bruce L: I was looking at having a dedicated fax line, so the 2 DTAs would not help. I think I'm going to give up on the fax entirely and jsut worry about the voice line.

DavilL: According to the Vonage website, they use 90 Kbps per conversation. I assume that usage is at the highest quality setting.
 
A couple of quick things...
I have been able to send and receive faxes on my standard Vonage lines... I hear it is hit or miss, but it has worked every time for me. The difference between the dedicated fax line on Vonage is that it is just optimized for FAX/Data instead of voice. The second port on the PAP2 adapter is designed for fax with Vonage.

I am running QOS with my LinkSys WRT54G router, this allows me to give my Vonage line higher priority over everything else on my network, this allows for better quality voice conversations.

You can also adjust the voice quality with Vonage from their website, the 90kbs is the highest setting.
 
i was thinking the same thing electron. Perhaps you guys should invest in a scaner instead of a second phone line. Then use the internet to fax your documents and receive faxes. I know of a few companies that have their faxes automatically sent to their email. Im not sure how it works but when you send them a fax they get it in their inbox instead of the fax machine. This could cut down on paper cost and ink cost for many of you also.
 
Bruce L said:
No modem or Fax on Packet8. Most VOIP does not but it is possable.
I've been with packet 8 for 6-8 months. LOVE IT.


They don't admit it yet. The last firmware update made it posible to get modem data sent over their lines. My alarm monitor is working. As for sending a fax I haven't tried but even when I had non-VoIP I didn't use the fax more than once to twice a year. It is all email now. I had no reason before to have any of the caller ID stuff. I was to cheep to pay the extra $7.00 to the phone company. If I was interested in talking I answered the phone otherwise I didn't.

Someone mentioned that there were a few things to get use to. The bigest one my wife complains about is there is a slight delay. If you pick up the phone and very quickly say your Hello, it sometimes does not go through. As for me it is not a problem - I'm always looking for an excuss to slow down. This delay becomes more obvious when your talking VoIP to VoIP.
 
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