Any one using or know much about VOIP(voice over internet protocol)?
We plan to do a few months of traveling in our trailer this winter and wondered about taking on Voip at home with the idea of accessing telephone and mail while away. Anyone doing this, and any comments; success or troubles?
Be glad to hear from you
Thanks very much
David

 

I have Vonage and am pretty happy with it. Quality is better than a cell phone, but breaks up now and then. As long as you have high speed, you should be fine. They say minimum of 128k. AT&T has CallVantage that is comprable, but a little more expensive. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Nick

 

Not sure exactly what you are trying to accomplish but... Will you be able to get high speed internet access when you are away?

It seems like unless you do, you'd be better off with a cell phone.

Stay away from Packet8, truly awful customer service.

When I was out on the road I had a cell phone... I could also do internet over the phone FREE (slow but great for e-mail) using Verizon's quick2net.

In hindsight I would've gotten a Wilson electronics Drill mount mobile antenna.... This will make a HUGE difference in cell reception.

 

I wonder if using satalite for internet connection would give you the VoIP phone connection??? That would be cool!
We are doing some VoIP here at working(county government) to see if its worth the cost..

Rick

 

VOIP over satellite would probably not be that great due to the greater latency from going that distance. That is why they don't recommend it for online gaming.

Nick

 

There is one downfall to the VoIP, especially if you have an emergency call. Say you are four wheelin somewhere and someone gets injured. You call 911 but before you can give them your location the phone dies. The address that number is registered to is you home number. they are going to send help to your home, not where you currently are at.

 

I cancelled Vonage after four months of service. The connection was never near the reliability of my POTS line. My POTS line was 100% reliable, the Vonage was something less. Anything less than 100% is unacceptable to me for a phone line in the house. I'm running a 3M/768K DSL here at the house.

Vonage didn't work well with all of the typical broadband connections in most Hiltons and Marriots. Those networks aren't wired, but are wireless. Most of those phone calls were choppy, and I ended up backing off on the BW settings of the voip to make the best of it. My cell had much better connectivity.

Think of it this way, without having a Verizon POTS line, or cell, I could have never cancelled my Vonage account.

I'm game to try new things, and will try TVIP when it gets here too, but in my opinion VOIP isn't ready for prime time yet.

 

I have used VoIP on a T3 and it was fine..... but that was a T3, and not your typical home internet connection..... I think it has its place, which is corporate applications. It is not ready for the home market yet.... I will stick with nextel (who is merging with sprint and their lack of a network around here) for a while....

 

I had Vonage for 1 month and talking over it was like the old tv show(How are things at your house, OVER ) Ha! it was like talking on a radio,the delay was terrible
you would have to wait 3 to 5 seconds to get your reply (I was on Sattelite high speed ) and it wasn't as good as expected I wouldn't recommend it if you use that type connection .and after all that I lost my old phone number to them and have had 3 differant ones before finally getting the one now ( Ma Bell at her best)
Made a cross country trip last may and cell service was very good ,only two places
we had a little difficulty, luckily we had two providers and it worked out.(Sprint and Cingular)