any ideas?

anyone?

im looking for comprable ideas to vonage

i have just gotten to a point where vonage is causing more problem than its worth.

When faced with a similar choice, I decided that VOIP on broadband was *not* the way to go right now, as I'd heard too many bad reports from VOIP users. I needed the phone at home to be as solid as a POTS landline. So I decided to go with the only other technology that was designed from end to end (unlike VOIP) to be a phone system, a cell phone. If the cell phone doesn't work there is only one company to blame: the carrier. There can be no nonsense about quality of the voice, etc.

But to make it like Vonage/VOIP, you need a way to interface the cell phone to the RJ-11/POTS phones in the house. That means essentially two options, discussed on this forum: Dock-n-Talk and Xlink. In the end, I chose Xlink. It was not a problem-free solution in the beginning, but now it is pretty solid and other household members do not complain and do treat the house phone as before when we had a landline. The service, as part of a shared plan, is only costing us about $15/mo (including taxes). Nearly all calls are "free", between the M-M minutes, and 7pm nights and weekends (the house is empty during the day on weekdays...)

So its worked well so far. You can read about DnT and Xlink elsewhere...

I have been using Voicepulse for three years now and have been very satisfied. Our landline number was ported over to them with no regrets. They have excellent technical support and a lot of features that are less common with other voip companies. If they have numbers in your area, I suggest you give them a try. They have a competitive upgrade so mention that you are wanting to move over from Vonage if you call them.

hows your data connection?

Charter cable: 5M down 512K up.

thats pretty good
i know data is a issue

and the place im using it at is pretty good most times of the day but sometimes it get really choppy

i know its not directly related but any idea if there are any attachments that could boost ones broadband speed?

VOIP has a very limited "speed" requirement -- it hardly uses any bandwidth at all, maybe 100-150kbps tops (generally a lot less, perhaps 64-80kpbs (each way))... BUT you need a really solid, consistent connection with decent (low) latency and low dropped packets. That is, you want a high quality, modest bandwidth connection, not an intermittent, spikey, high bandwidth connection. You want *all* latencies well below 150ms. Pretty much exactly the opposite of the needs for websurfing and downloads.

Maybe you are refering to "accelerators" which actually do their job by breaking up big packets into smaller chunks that will have lower latencies, given proper prioritization. They can help VOIP.

BTW, it should be obvious that since VOIP is a 2-way street, it is usually the upstream path that is constraining... i.e. 128kbps upstream that is shared between VOIP and other usable (simultaneous home PC) will be pushing it...

Given the conflict of interest in most big ISPs against delivering data services for downloads, streaming media and VOIP (cable/phone companies want to sell you their own VOIP and TV/video, not provide you with a means to use a 3rd party VOIP provider and media), plus the constant patent infringement attacks on Vonage, etc, (Vonage is on its 3rd big one now (VZW, Sprint and now AT&T) I'm not very sanguine on the future of VOIP over the public data networks...

Have you tried using a broadband booster? I use Hawking's http://www.hawkingtech.com/products...D=80&ProdID=216 with my setup (3 Vonage lines, hosting a SBS server, and up to 5 notebooks connected to internet), and do not have any problems with Vonage in 3 years.

As I understand it, these broadband boosters prioritize the VoIP traffic (and other streaming, low latency traffic like video and games) so that the traffic that needs continuous low latency gets it, and other traffic (web pages, downloads) that can handle and recover from dropped packets or interruptions will absorb any problems. Really is a magic tool.

Hope this helps

HAve you heard of 5linx Global Linx Voip service? I've heard nothing but good things about them and the service. They even have video phones under 200.00 Check them out

I've been on Vonage for over 2 years with no issues. As long as you use the Vonage router as primary in your setup, and then hook your wireless/desktop pc's up to that it will prioritize the data and you shouldn't have any issues.

It sounds to me like it's more of a service issue with the Cable internet, not Vonage. Try calling the Cable company and telling them that your speed keeps dropping out and causing issues with your Vonage service.

The ONLY time i had any issues with my service was when i went to DSL for a few months (figured i'd give it a try since i have Dish Network, and it was about 20 a month cheaper for me to do that). at&t is too cheap to put a remote terminal out in my neighborhood, so my DSL was hitting about 384k down/128k up with around 200 MS latency at times, so when it was acting up, my Vonage would get a little choppy and drop calls.

AT&T Callvantage

You've made some good points. Thank you.

For a couple of reasons, I've given up on Vonage and am definitely going to port out my number. I just haven't decided yet whether to port it to an existing prepaid account or open a new Sprint SERO account.

I have had Lingo for about 3 years now, I have an unlimited worldwide calling plan that i pay 59.99 a month for. I can call anyone, anywhere in the world (not cellphones) and talk as long as i want. I have had almost no problems. I had noise in the adapter once so they sent me a new one. Other than that i've been ok.

primus owns vonage