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anyone use vonage / broadvoice - voip

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partsbara

Turbo Monkey
Nov 16, 2001
3,995
0
getting Xtreme !
set up vonage in our house... unfortunately the box shat the bed so i m waiting for another to arrive... anyone here use this voip stuff ?? i m hoping that it ll be a good option as i call overseas pretty often... $25 per month... from what i ve heard, users say the audio quality is pretty decent...

any thoughts
??
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,165
1,261
NC
I use Vonage and it's been awesome. Absolutely flawless, I really have no complaints at all. Voice quality is great, features are great.

The only problem I have with it is when I'm running a Bittorrent download, because a good Bittorrent download consumes SO much of the bandwidth with SO many packets running back and forth that I essentially can't use VoIP.

Some routers have Quality of Service settings that can fix that (it'll give higher priority to the VoIP packets and slow down your Bittorrent download), but I haven't bothered to play with mine since I rarely download much.
 

Transcend

My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
Same experience as BV. If i am playing Xbox LIve it may get choppy and if I am torrenting at 1mb/sec no one can hear me (but I can hear them). My new router has a QOS setting that basically gives voip top priority now, so it works great.
 

DRB

unemployed bum
Oct 24, 2002
15,242
0
Watchin' you. Writing it all down.
partsbara said:
set up vonage in our house... unfortunately the box shat the bed so i m waiting for another to arrive... anyone here use this voip stuff ?? i m hoping that it ll be a good option as i call overseas pretty often... $25 per month... from what i ve heard from users the audio quality is pretty decent...

any thoughts
??
skype works pretty well and its free for skype to skype calls.
 

dante

Unabomber
Feb 13, 2004
8,807
9
looking for classic NE singletrack
Transcend said:
Same experience as BV. If i am playing Xbox LIve it may get choppy and if I am torrenting at 1mb/sec no one can hear me (but I can hear them). My new router has a QOS setting that basically gives voip top priority now, so it works great.
so when you're on the internet, you can't make phone calls. welcome to 10 years ago. :rofl:
 

partsbara

Turbo Monkey
Nov 16, 2001
3,995
0
getting Xtreme !
some good info... thanks.. so i guess the next thing to pick up is a router with a QOS setting...

anyone else have experience with this stuff ??
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,165
1,261
NC
It really, really depends on what you're doing on the internet. Normal internet activity won't disturb it, just high bandwidth downloads that are using up all of your available connection.

The router that comes with the Vonage package does QoS.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,165
1,261
NC
I have a pretty high speed cable connection, so YMMV, but not even normal internet downloads usually bother it since I'm not usually maxing out my 500K/sec connection. Bittorrent is the only thing that I usually find totally destroys my VoIP connection.

I'll get to playing with my QoS settings one of these days and see how it works.

My router appeared to be DOA as well, but I just did a hard reset of the router (plug in the power and hold the reset button for 20 seconds) and that fixed it.
 

Transcend

My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
dante said:
so when you're on the internet, you can't make phone calls. welcome to 10 years ago. :rofl:
Only I normally max out my downstream at 1 megaBYTE per second. That's a hell of a lot of downstream traffic. My up maxes at about 150k, which is pretty weak considering.
 

partsbara

Turbo Monkey
Nov 16, 2001
3,995
0
getting Xtreme !
binary visions said:
My router appeared to be DOA as well, but I just did a hard reset of the router (plug in the power and hold the reset button for 20 seconds) and that fixed it.
glad that worked for ya, i wasn t so lucky... did a 2 min reset on the phone with the vonage tech... new 'reconditioned' box should be here tomorrow or wed...
 

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
43,097
15,181
Portland, OR
I have been with Vonage since I first saw the ad quite a while ago. I went from $60(at least) for basic phone service + $35 for DSL to $35 for cable internet + $25 for Vonage. I have been very happy and the email message service rocks. I also used the call forward service to my wifes cell when we went on vacation and that rocked. I used to have an 800 number, but we never used it.

The only complaint I had was it took them over 2 months to switch my number, but they gave me 3 months credit for it. So it was all good.
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
Get on Skype ya lesbian Serbia Turbonegro fan. I just use the laptop...works out to about 2 yen a minute to Aus/US/Pommyland
 

partsbara

Turbo Monkey
Nov 16, 2001
3,995
0
getting Xtreme !
valve bouncer said:
Get on Skype ya lesbian Serbia Turbonegro fan. I just use the laptop...works out to about 2 yen a minute to Aus/US/Pommyland
wtf is this skype shiat ??? its voip, telephone on the internet yeah ?? do you need an existing telephone line at home with skype ??? any monthly sub fees ??

i don t wanna get a regular phone line if possbile...
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
partsbara said:
wtf is this skype shiat ??? its voip, telephone on the internet yeah ?? do you need an existing telephone line at home with skype ??? any monthly sub fees ??

i don t wanna get a regular phone line if possbile...
Mate as long as you've got a broadband connection you're golden.
www.skype.com
Has ya laptop got a built-in mic? Mine has, I use the battery and a wireless card, voila, 1987 size mobile phone.:rofl: :rofl:
 

partsbara

Turbo Monkey
Nov 16, 2001
3,995
0
getting Xtreme !
valve bouncer said:
Mate as long as you've got a broadband connection you're golden.
www.skype.com
Has ya laptop got a built-in mic? Mine has, I use the battery and a wireless card, voila, 1987 size mobile phone.:rofl: :rofl:
i m on the desk top fella... liz has the lappie...

so no fees then valve ?? just the 2 yen a min ?? win win mate !!

on another note - when do ya want a visitor ?? :oink: :cool:
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
partsbara said:
i m on the desk top fella... liz has the lappie...

so no fees then valve ?? just the 2 yen a min ?? win win mate !!

on another note - when do ya want a visitor ?? :oink: :cool:
No mate, free to call other skype users (computer to computer) computer to normal land-line is about 2 cents a minute to most places we call. Download it and we'll have a chat.
 

partsbara

Turbo Monkey
Nov 16, 2001
3,995
0
getting Xtreme !
valve bouncer said:
No mate, free to call other skype users (computer to computer) computer to normal land-line is about 2 cents a minute to most places we call. Download it and we'll have a chat.
steady on a bit there mate... i don t know about this crap yet... so i can use regular phone... just plug it into the computer ??? so whats your monthly bill average if it s 2 yen a min ??

when ya want me to sleep in ya doorway (again) ?? :dead:
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
partsbara said:
steady on a bit there mate... i don t know about this crap yet... so i can use regular phone... just plug it into the computer ??? so whats your monthly bill average if it s 2 yen a min ??

when ya want me to sleep in ya doorway (again) ?? :dead:
I just use the built in mic and speakers on the laptop but have used a headset as well. I believe you can buy a type of phone that plugs into the USB port on ya 'puter.
I put in 1500 yen's worth of credit at the end of March, still got 600 yen left...that includes a few calls to my sisters mobile in London (28 yen a minute).
I'll chat about the best time to visit when I speak to ya mate.
 

fr-rider

Monkey
Aug 14, 2004
111
0
Albuquerque, NM
partsbara said:
steady on a bit there mate... i don t know about this crap yet... so i can use regular phone... just plug it into the computer ??? so whats your monthly bill average if it s 2 yen a min ??

when ya want me to sleep in ya doorway (again) ?? :dead:
My bro who is stationed in Korea has used Vonage for the last 8 months...I talk to him all the time...works great.
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
If you need to buy your own router, Trendnet makes a great one (TEW-611BRP) that does automatic or rules based traffic shaping/QoS, has MIMO wireless technology for great range, WPA2, decent logging, and rock stable full featured firmware (the best I've come across in consumer routers). It goes for $36 after rebate on newegg. The chipset is the same chipset found in the Zytel X-550 and D-Link DI-634M according to Tomshardware guide.

They have good support too as WPA2 would not work on OSX (worked fine on Windows) and they updated the router firmware for me on request as a fix (for some reason they still posted it on their site and its been a month). I guess I'm the only OSX user that uses their router and WPA2-PSK :D
 

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,735
1,819
chez moi
syadasti said:
If you need to buy your own router, Trendnet makes a great one (TEW-611BRP) that does automatic or rules based traffic shaping/QoS, has MIMO wireless technology for great range, WPA2, decent logging, and rock stable full featured firmware (the best I've come across in consumer routers). It goes for $36 after rebate on newegg. The chipset is the same chipset found in the Zytel X-550 and D-Link DI-634M according to Tomshardware guide.

They have good support too as WPA2 would not work on OSX (worked fine on Windows) and they updated the router firmware for me on request as a fix (for some reason they still posted it on their site and its been a month). I guess I'm the only OSX user that uses their router and WPA2-PSK :D
I was just about to say the same thing.

Wait...actually, I have no ****ing IDEA what the **** you just said.
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
MikeD said:
I was just about to say the same thing.

Wait...actually, I have no ****ing IDEA what the **** you just said.
Sorry translation:

Its cheap, it throttles your connections so you can use the VoIP phone or play your games online when jimmy tries to download lots of porn from the Internet at the same time, it has an array of 4 antennae (2 internal, 2 external) so you have great wireless range at higher connection speeds, it supports hardware accelerated military grade encyrpted wireless connections (using AES), it makes decent log files so you can figure out if something isn't working right, it runs forever without crashing or overheating, and it has the same brains as more expensive routers, just in a different colored/shaped plastic box with a different label on it.

Their support is good cause they fix sh*t for you.
 

Changleen

Paranoid Member
Jan 9, 2004
14,733
2,712
Pōneke
Skype is the **** and they're doing free calls to all landlines in the US and Canada right now. I suggest using a dedicated headset though, or you can have issues with echo. From what I've read on here it's considerably cheaper than Vonage, although you don't get a phone, or a number that can be dialled by default, you have to pay for that. You can make Skype to Skype calls for free as well.
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
Changleen said:
Skype is the **** and they're doing free calls to all landlines in the US and Canada right now. I suggest using a dedicated headset though, or you can have issues with echo. From what I've read on here it's considerably cheaper than Vonage, although you don't get a phone, or a number that can be dialled by default, you have to pay for that. You can make Skype to Skype calls for free as well.
Yeah I just use the in-built mic and people say sometimes it's like being in a tin can. Can you get wireless headsets?