A freind of mine just ordered this product and it sounds like he's talking on a ship that is way outside the alpha quadrant falling rapidly into some huge stars gravitational feild. Is there anybody here using this succesfully and if so, do you have any tips on making it sound better. My freind has had no luck at all with gettig tech support on the line and I have prommised to try and help out. Like a doctor treating a disease, it would be real slick to walk in with some useful knowledge to treat this case with...Mucho Gracias. My freind also has trouble using anything remotely technical....Can openers, step on garbage cans, brooms, anything high or low tech!
vonage Voip thingy
- Thread starter Mino
- Start date
pookie_old
Veteran
Internet telephone technology....yikes....it still hasn't advanced beyond the string and tin can stage.
If they're still within the two week money back guarantee time limit, tell them to bail out.
I think your patient needs life support Mino.
If they're still within the two week money back guarantee time limit, tell them to bail out.
I think your patient needs life support Mino.
235 Studios
Veteran
pookie said:
I'm with pookie on this - he should bail out. It is to "new" of a technology for him to be using if he has troubble using a can opener. There are always a lot of bugs when a new technology comes out that the first users get to expierence and the tech support gets to figure out. He should wait until it has developed more, and has a wider base of users. Then he would be able to jump in and get better service and support.
J_Barnes
Veteran
the stuff works fine if you've got a good network. 64k audio calls have been a standard in VTC for over 10 years now with quality that's MUCH higher then a typical phone line.
There are two dirty secrets that are preventing voip from being competitive.
1. the public internet is not designed for time-sensitive packet transmission, thus there are huge problems with QoS when traversing the network cloud from point A to point B. A lot of times, it works fine, but it's all subject to the temporal whims of elusive network gremlins.
2. your broadband connection is not broadband. It's downspeed only and your upstream bandwidth is horrid. Voice communication is both time-sensitive and bidirectional. It doesn't matter if you can pull 5 megs down when you can't push 64k upstream reliably, using VoIP over "cable broadband" is like trying to climb up a greased slide.
If you dump your cable, or aDSL connection and go with ISDN, you’ll have fantastic voice quality. Your downloads will suffer and it will cost you more, but your voip will sound great bbecause you have reliable upward bandwidth.
There are two dirty secrets that are preventing voip from being competitive.
1. the public internet is not designed for time-sensitive packet transmission, thus there are huge problems with QoS when traversing the network cloud from point A to point B. A lot of times, it works fine, but it's all subject to the temporal whims of elusive network gremlins.
2. your broadband connection is not broadband. It's downspeed only and your upstream bandwidth is horrid. Voice communication is both time-sensitive and bidirectional. It doesn't matter if you can pull 5 megs down when you can't push 64k upstream reliably, using VoIP over "cable broadband" is like trying to climb up a greased slide.
If you dump your cable, or aDSL connection and go with ISDN, you’ll have fantastic voice quality. Your downloads will suffer and it will cost you more, but your voip will sound great bbecause you have reliable upward bandwidth.
XCheck
Veteran
Vonage has been around for some time (at least a year or so), but I am very reluctant to sign up - even though my frequent travels means I would greatly benefit from 'always making a local call'.
The problem is not that voice over IP wouldn't work - it's that you are dependent on a third-party service (your ISP) to make it work. If your internet goes down, you are hosed. You can't even call the tech support. If you phone stops working, you don't know if it's because of the phone, the phone service (vonage), or the ISP - well, at least with that, you can check with a computer.
I'd stay away for time being.
The problem is not that voice over IP wouldn't work - it's that you are dependent on a third-party service (your ISP) to make it work. If your internet goes down, you are hosed. You can't even call the tech support. If you phone stops working, you don't know if it's because of the phone, the phone service (vonage), or the ISP - well, at least with that, you can check with a computer.
I'd stay away for time being.
gritsngumbo
Active member
I have Time Warner Cable's version of VOIP -- they call it Digital Phone and it works great!
Half the price of BellSouth and it's much clearer than the land lines. Getting into the voice mail sucks though! Much too complicated.
Half the price of BellSouth and it's much clearer than the land lines. Getting into the voice mail sucks though! Much too complicated.
Thanks everyone, I checked it over, made sure it was connected properly then advised he return it. The problem is really that our phone company, Telus is on a strike that is expected to go on for a few more months yet, so getting a normal landline is a no go. My friend lives in the penthouse and for some reason has dead spots all over the apartment using his cel phone. I don't know but I'm wondering if maybe he's a bit high or off angle of the repeaters being on the 22nd floor but that's pure speculation on my part
rocketscience
Active member
i have it. no major problems. Once in a while I call home and it seems the phone doesnt ring, but I get voicemail. We use our cell phones as a backup. I think if you have cell phones, then vonage is fine, even with the hiccups. I switched bacause I went on vacation to Japan for a month and came back to a $45 phone bill for tha month that I was gone. I now pay $15.