Forums | MacLife

I have the $14.99/mo version.
I use less than 500 minutes a month.

Service is excellent - it really is.
The commercials are funny too - the ones on TV anyway (the internet ads are annoying).

Never had a problem. They sent me the router - I just plugged it in and it worked - I might have had to activate it on their website.

Disconnected house phone wiring from phone company - plugged phone jack into vonage - voila - all phones in the house on vonage.

It's nice to get voicemail in my e-mail too (they send it as a wav file).

I am getting it in a few weeks. I was also curious about the possible hidden fees and taxes and such so I asked around a lot and the taxes were only a few bucks on top of the base fee.

I love that I can add a fax number and a 1-800 number plus the blast feature is a big plus as I can get call to my business line on my cell if I am out!!

I'm running the basic 500 for $14.99 and have no complaints.

I can't vouch for customer service, as I haven't had to call them. It was a very simple setup, just plugged in and went.

no complaints here. I'm a happy customer.

Thanks everyone! I placed the order.

wellfleation wrote:

I just cancelled the order. After doing some research which I should have done prior it appears my phone quality may suffer greatly due to being on a DSL connection regarding the necessary upload speeds. If I'm using a P2P, for example, this would cause issues which I'm not wiling to deal with in terms of drop-outs. I also learned that once you port your number they own it. So if I do have issues I will not be able to get my original number back which would suck balls.

You have to be able to give the phone 90Kb upload.

I have DSL but my plan is a 6mbit down / 768kbit up so that is plenty of overhead.

There is a page on the vonage site that lets you test your speed to see if your upload and download are adequate

i love vonage.  it is certainly cheaper than getting a second cell, that's for sure.  the only issues that i have had was playing around with the bandwith.  you can set it to 3 different levels... if you don't use enough bandwith it can cause dropouts, etc.  if you use too much, then your internet service is slow.  it is true that your phone reception and clarity is bad if you have p2p programs running while on the phone.  the only issue that i have: is once in awhile, i'll hear a beep like someone one has hit the keypad accidently.   its sporadic, it doesn't happen all the time.  All this is when I am talking to someone at my home (home is where vonage is at).  I could be at work, or on my cell, I'll still hear that noise every so often.  It's wierd.

But, besides that, A+++++.  The price that i pay each month including taxes is 27.42. No additional fees applied.

Thanks.

To tell you the truth, I also got a little paranoid after looking over a review feedback forum with lots of horror stories about bad echos, general reception, and super poor India based support staff (I've. Now I realize that people with a poor experience are the most motivated to report, but still. This needs to be 100% reliable as my wife works 60% of the time from home.

Oh, and I've been on the phone with these idiots off and on for an 1 1/2 hours now, been disconnected, been transfered only to be given another number to call. When I finally did get in touch with the right person to verify my account was cancelled I was told that it never was even though I got a cancellation number. I was told it was not a cancellation number even though the agent last night assured me it was twice when I asked as I'm always cautious like that!

So the dam package was sent DHL ground and now I'm going to have to refuse it when it arrives, and until they get the package back, my account wont be credited. That and I'm praying that my authorization to port my number was actually cancelled or I'm SCREWED as once the number is ported they own it and you can't get it back. (I got a verification number but who knows!)

If this is any indication of "their service", I'm very happy I'm not going to be a customer!

Last edited by wellfleation (2006-02-20 9:39 am)

I've had vonage for a year with no problem. In response to your issue of needing upload and your fear of having poor quality during P2p etc, don't worry about it. The vonage router works in a cool way - you can set IT to have priority, so that if any other computer on your network is uploading and you get a call, vonage will take as much as it needs, THEN give it to your computer.

I called customer service once, - they were really nice and wwere american. The only issue I have is that the DHCP on my linksys router just died....so i'll need to get that replaced. Don't know why, but it has worked well.

wellfleation wrote:

To tell you the truth, I also got a little paranoid after looking over a review feedback forum with lots of horror stories about bad echos, general reception, and super poor India based support staff

The support staff probably is in India.
The echoes I have not experienced - I'm guessing that is an equipment problem (either the users phone, or the Vonage router).

Your voice gets encoded from analog to digital inside the router - and then sent as bits to their network. Incoming calls get sent as bits to your router, where they are decoded.

Any "echo" or "bad reception" happens between the phone and the router - since everything else is digital. It should be easy to troubleshoot - try a different phone. If it happens with a different phone, then your telephony router (that does the encoding/decoding) is bad.

As far as "general reception" is concerned - if your bandwidth isn't consistent that could be a problem. I recommend plugging the vonage router directly into the internet - not into another switch/router. The vonage router will reserve the bandwidth needed for telephony. But if it isn't the directly connected device - it obviously can't do that.

I go

--- cable modem --- vonage
                     | |---- 10 port switch
                     | |---- 5 port switch
                     | |---- wireless router
                     |
                     |----home phone wiring

That way the vonage router is able to reserve the bandwidth needed for telephony.

And, of course, after reading further I see this has been mentioned. Oh well, repetition is the key to learning!

HelloNewman wrote:

Actually, you can do DSL without a landline.

Depends upon your location.

I also have charter cable.
Fortunately - my service has been extremely reliable.