Replacing phone with VOIP

[Kroeran]

I have been using this for long distance (2 cents/minute worldwide) and for vacation home phone in combo with pay as you go virgin cellphone.

Amazon.com: USB Phone Adapter for Skype, MSN, Yahoo, USB VOIP Interface connects your home phone to network: Electronics

go to amazon and search usb telbox if above link does not work...for best prices.

particularly if you are already skype savy and have a spouse that does not want to use a headset.

just plug regular phone into box after loading some software.

I will probably try ooma and magic jack to compare at some point. Above was a $25 investment.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I received a google number, too. I find it awesome with too many features to keep track of. For me, it will be ideal when I travel, ringing whatever sequence of phones I choose. It has custom greetings for any individual or group you want, it does voice-to-text on messages (so you can check VM in a quiet or private setting.

I also finally got a MagicJack and it is working well. Only downsides: you have to use area codes even for local calls, and it disconnects when you computer sleeps. I plan only to use it for outgoing calls as part of my consulting gig (thru the google number to give that as caller ID). If I'm sitting at my desk, the google number will ring the MagicJack for me (avoiding cell phone use) and give the google number (not the magicJack) to the caller on their caller ID.

Oh... and I am something of a gadget/computer geek. But it is pretty handy for me.

 

[Sue J]

We just got a Magicjack using their 30 day free trial offer. Everything installed fine but after picking a new number I couldn't get a dial tone. They said to wait an hour or two. Still didn't work so I searched online and realized it may be something Magicjack needed to do. So I used their Live Chat and they needed to refresh the number from their end. It all works now.

I asked if this could be used with more than one phone, like the kitchen and the living room. She said that we could use a splitter. Instead, I hooked it up to the house wiring and it works on all the phones. We will disconnect a couple of the extensions, we really only need two.

We'll give this a try and decide before the 30 day trial is up if it's a keeper. The issue is that we've had Vonage for over a year. While it works great, we pay $17.99 for the basic with 500 minutes and we typically use less than 100 minutes. With fees and taxes the monthly bill is over $24. We both have prepaid cell phones that are very economical and we really just use them for checking in while away from home. Maybe once a month DH or I will have an extended conversation with family for 30-60 minutes. That's what we use the home phone for. Family calls and if I have to make a call where I may be on hold for a while, like a customer service number. Outside of family, our few calls are usually doctors calling to confirm appts and people trying to get us to buy something or donate money.

While I'm happy with Vonage it's a $24/month cost vs. Magicjack at $20/year. But darn it, I'm attached to my old phone number!! We've had this number since 1983! We can easily email family with the updated number and notify all our doctors, etc.

I talked to DH about ooma and he wanted to try the 30 day Magicjack offer first.

Hate to lose my old number. But it's just not worth $288 a year.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I went to MagicJack as a second home number (DW ties up the other one with her business calls). After 3 months, it seems to be OK. Only problem is that when my computer sleeps it loses the connection most of the time and I have to restart MagicJack. I turned off the auto-sleep on my laptop to fix it. Voice quality is a little less than traditional land line. Can't beat the price.

 

[Sue J]

I don't like to leave my computer on all day if I'm not using it. I usually turn it off overnight, too. What I'm planning on doing for the magicjack is setting up an older, extra computer in the basement, running an ethernet cable and phone line to it and leaving that one on all the time just for the phone. My son says we can get it set up and then remote into it if it needs any attention.

 

[mexmeme]

We have vonage and when the power is off or the internet is down, one of our cell phones are set up to ring and we can answer that call. We have had vonage and no land line for nearly 7 years and absolutely no problems at all. When we moved to Mexico for a year, all calls came in perfectly and out as well. Highly recommend vonage and dumping land lines.

 

[WM]

We just got an ooma a few weeks ago and it's worked great so far. I'm in the process of waiting for my number to be ported. I went with ooma so I don't have to leave the computer on all the time, and also because the reviews of magicjack were a little too mixed to trust it for my primary phone.

 

[tryan]

Actually had my first problem with ooma. All calls out resulted in a busy signal. All calls in went to voice mail - even thou the light was "blue".

EMAILed and called ooma support ... no response. Then the problem mysteriously disappeared.

Customer support is not the ooma strength; but for $200...

 

[ERD50]

Actually had my first problem with ooma. All calls out resulted in a busy signal. All calls in went to voice mail - even thou the light was "blue".

EMAILed and called ooma support ... no response. Then the problem mysteriously disappeared.

Customer support is not the ooma strength; but for $200...

Every once in a while, you might have to just re-boot your router/modem or the ooma box. They can glitch out on occasion.

With my old CallVantage VOIP, it seemed to happen mostly on Sunday evenings. I don't know if it was some maintenance that my ISP did on Sunday evenings, (maybe that is when they reset their DHCP?) or not.

Otherwise, I might not see any problem for months at a time. But an occasional reboot seems to be par for the course, IME. I'm on T-Mobile@Home now.


-ERD50

 

[tryan]

Yeah, I think you nailed it ... interesting that the ooma voice would tell me - sometimes - that "your call cannot be completed at this time". I assumed I got that message because I had internet; perhaps - in hindsite - the message originates in the router/scout. And I never had internet?

But wait - I was playing music via Pandora (so I must have had internet?!) ... hmmm. Good thing I get cell phone service!

 

[ERD50]

Yeah, I think you nailed it ... interesting that the ooma voice would tell me - sometimes - that "your call cannot be completed at this time". I assumed I got that message because I had internet; perhaps - in hindsite - the message originates in the router/scout. And I never had internet?

But wait - I was playing music via Pandora (so I must have had internet?!) ... hmmm. Good thing I get cell phone service!

Well, I've had my internet working fine, and still had to reboot the box to get my phone back. And in my case, the phone adapter is what supplies internet to the rest of the house (the phone adapter is also a wireless router- all in one box). So I think it is still very possible for the phone handling software in that box to get hosed up, while the internet handling part is still working fine. And a reboot straightens it out.

I have mine set up to bounce to my cell phone if calls can't get through. It has been pretty reliable, reboots are actually pretty rare and don't concern me much, but I'm not sure I'd want to set my Mom or my MIL/FIL up with VOIP.

-ERD50

 

[HornedToad10]

I use Skype for ~$5/mo after buying the service and a number that people can call you at. I then bought a phone for ~$130 that functions like a standard phone and it has a separate modem that plugs into the router so that it's always on. If I had a local number, the phone I bought lets you choose to use Skype or phone for each call you make.

Pretty handy, and I use it for telecommuting from home 2x a week.

 

[bdk]

Ooma Hub vs. Ooma Telo

I am just about ready to pull the trigger and drop my landline with AT&T and switch to Ooma.

I have been spending the last few days reading up this thread, as well as various Ooma discussion boards. One thing I am still unsure about, is the advantages/disadvantages of an Ooma Hub vs. a Telo.

Aside from the very small fee ($12/yr) one would have to pay with an Ooma Telo, does it really offer superior features, or sound quality? The price for the hardware is about the same for either box, about $200-$220.

My needs are simple:
- basic voicemail, so I do not plan to get on the Premier plan, whether I get the Telo or the Hub.
- I'd like to have several phones throughout the house; one number is fine. It seems like distributing the Ooma dial tone to different jacks can be done with either the Hub or the Telo, but it may be easier with the Hub + Scout configuration (?).

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Texas Proud]

I use Skype for ~$5/mo after buying the service and a number that people can call you at. I then bought a phone for ~$130 that functions like a standard phone and it has a separate modem that plugs into the router so that it's always on. If I had a local number, the phone I bought lets you choose to use Skype or phone for each call you make.

Pretty handy, and I use it for telecommuting from home 2x a week.

My problem is they are selling a $30 phone for $130.... if it was priced correctly I would have one...

 

[calmloki]

Ok, got our number ported and now have our old phone number and (with Premier service) a second number for the fax line. Want to do more testing on the fax line - it was working fine for multi-page documents before, but now we are 100% disconnected from our landline. We were spending ~ $115 for two numbers, 3MBPS DSL, and average long distance charges. Changed to 5MBPS fiberoptic internet service (faster for the same money). That means our old phone bill was about $960/year. We bought an Ooma hub from Costco for $180, bought a Scout on Amazon for $35, bought Premier service from Ooma with two numbers for $120/year, and had our old number ported for $45(?). Projected savings for the first year = $580, second year $840.

I made things difficult for myself - had our DSL filter out at the incoming MaBell line and three homeline pairs hooked up out there - didn't want to drop the MaBell connection, so was pairing up different homeline pairs, being sensitive to tip/ring +- polarity. The Ooma connection was noisy/static-y, but perfect when plugging directly into the Ooma Hub. Went all over the house looking for the crossed connection. This morning disconnected house wiring from MaBell completly and sonufagun - they are the ones with the dirty line!

At present we have the Ooma Hub plugged into the house phonelines, ditto our fax machine, ditto our portable phone base, ditto three other wired phones, ditto TV. Our new second number is set at the Ooma website to do two short rings and our fax picks up that line. Caller ID on the tv (satellite through Dish) works. Phone in the garage rings and works. Old rotary with ringer off in the bedroom works. As it looks now, everything is up and running without the use of the Ooma Scout!?! Clarity is superior to our old landline. Will do more Fax testing tomorrow for multi-page incoming and outgoing documents and then call Qwest to say buh-bye.

Ooma has some nice features - thinking we could cart the Hub with us if we were to snowbird somewhere and have uninterrupted phone service. Have it set up to route calls to a cell in case of network outage. Hoping the community blacklist might be more extensive at blocking calls, like from political "surveys", than the national do not call registry.

Oh - just remembered - number porting was gratis with the premier service. Just saving $$$ hand over fist here!

 

[Sue J]

We're using our Magicjack with it set up on a computer in the basement for a little over a week now. So far, I'm pleased with it. No computer issues, no stability issues, it just works! I think the quality is equal to Vonage. We have a splitter and ran lines to 2 phones, the kitchen and the computer room. One is a corded phone the other is a cordless.

The only thing lacking on the Magicjack is that the Caller ID is number only, no names come up. But I found a 3rd party download that shows the Caller ID with name. There's a free trial and then a $6.95 one time charge to purchase it. So far, so good.

 

[WM]

At present we have the Ooma Hub plugged into the house phonelines, ditto our fax machine, ditto our portable phone base, ditto three other wired phones, ditto TV. Our new second number is set at the Ooma website to do two short rings and our fax picks up that line. Caller ID on the tv (satellite through Dish) works. Phone in the garage rings and works. Old rotary with ringer off in the bedroom works. As it looks now, everything is up and running without the use of the Ooma Scout!?!

Interesting - I've used my fax with no problems (sending, haven't tried receiving) with multi-page docs. But I was carrying it over to plug into the Hub, per the instructions. Maybe I'll try it from the wall. We don't have the second line, though. I almost never need to fax, so it's not much of an issue either way, but that would be nice.