Any Vonage Voip users? is so this is COOL!

DavidL said:
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.
I had to work real hard to effect the quality. I had two computers downloading sp2 update from Windows before there was any degrading that I could hear. There is a good packet vs. bad packet page on the telephone adapter in that case indicated it was loosing about 1/3 of the packets. I don't remember exactly what my DSL speeds are but your 256/720 sound about right . Absolutely less than 1 meg.
 
jlehnert said:
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.
They are just protecting themselves. Once the phone company disconnected from my house I disconnected their lines in the service box so that there was no chance of a volage source from them and hooked my packet8 telephone adapter into the house wiring. I've had no problems. I'm running 1) two handset 900MHZ unit (one connection to the phone line) and 2) a GE desktop phone. There are another 4 to 6 outlets in the house that have nothing on them.
 
My situation was kinda funny.

When I moved into my house last year I had ordered a new phone number from verizon. It was active only a few hours later. In my basement there was a wall plate that had two phone jacks on it. I figured at that point that I only had one line so i pluged my phone into the first jack and it worked just fine. I never thought to check the second jack.

Well that night i started receiving calls and had to keep telling people they were dialing the wrong number. This went on for a few days before i finally figured out why i was getting so many calls. Somehow the line that i pluged into was connected to a house a few blocks away from me. When i answered the phone me and the owner of the other house said hello at the same time. The person asked for someone and i told them they had the wrong number. But this time the other person that said hello came on and said "No he doest i'm 'so and so'" Til this very day that second line in my house is connected to that other persons first line.

So here is my situation. I went out to my phone box (In the snow) and disconnected that other person line from my house. I then moved my phone line over two the second line and leaving the first line totally disconnected. I then pluged the adapter into the first phone line and now have a VoIP line and a Land line in my house.

I have 3 regular phones all hooked to the PAP2 vonage adapter. I have had all three off the hook at the same time(on purpose) to check the quality of the phones when multiple phones were being used. There was no noticable degrade of the sound quality that i could here. One person on the other line stated that they could here a slight buzz but nothing terrible. And on another phone call someone said that they heard a slight echo only when I talked but again they said it wasnt that bad.

Both the buzz and the echo where said to be there with and without all the phones off the hook. So it seemes that the phones being off the hook were not the problem.
 
Just set Vonage up for my parents. Very quick and easy. So far, they like it, and may very well get rid of their landline (port their number over).

They esp. like how you can route calls to other numbers (in case the inet is down) or they go out of town.

I must say, that I am pretty impressed with Vonage... though I will be sticking to having a cellphone only.
 
I've been using Vonage for well over a year now.

Haven't had an issue with number of phones. I think I have at least 5 hooked up here in the office.

911 - not an issue. You just have to go into your account on the website and specify your address for 911 purposes.

Another cool feature is that you can have it simultaneously ring different numbers including cell phone numbers.
 
What a great site this is! You guys do all the same stuff I do!

I've had Vonage for almost a year now, my device is made by Motorola though. Here's what I did: I went downstairs, cut the two connections to Ring and Tip coming from the phone co, then plugged my Vonage device right into an RJ11 connector on the wall. Now it drives all the internal phones in my house with zero problems. The key is cutting that connection though since a probe from the phone company will burn out your VIOP access device.

I've got the $15 service and a separate business line. I'm thinking of getting a soft phone for the business line so I can carry my number with me when I'm on the road or at a convention. I've also got a virtual number in the 802 area code so my parents can call local and chat as long as they like.

I believe they now have E911 available too. Service has been excellent and I really love the web based VM and billing system.

Land line based service is dead. SBC has a big problem coming at them like a freight train.
 
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