Vonage...the good , bad and ugly..Let me hear it all!G

[jme829]

We're looking at switching our phone service (AGAIN) and I was reading about Vonage.

WE had comcast triple play but it got expensive after our trial so we switched to Direct TV/Att (for phone and internet).

While the internet and DTV are fine the phone keeps getting extra charges and our "$10" a month plan has been hitting closer to $50-75.

We use our cell phones almost exclusively, however, we want a local number for the local friends to call. (our cell phones are Verizon, Ohio #'s, our home service is ATT ,Wisconsin #).

I was looking at Vonage and the plan I found has all the bells and whistles plus unlimited local and long distance for $25 ish a month. (our ATT is super basic and we're still getting hit month after month with misc. crap).

Does vonage work? Is the sound clear? Is it easy to set up?

Any input is appreciated (even if you have suggestions other than Vonage)!

 

[bicker]

This is as far as I got considering Vonage:

http://www.adt.com/for_your_home/products_services/security_systems/voip/

Neither Vonage nor ADT was willing to commit to taking responsibility for Vonage working with ADT service as reliably as a standard landline works. Vonage is very explicit:

IMPORTANT: Vonage does not support the use of a telephone based monitored alarm system, and recommends against using a telephone based monitored alarm system with Vonage.

Since we value the protection an alarm system provides for our family, Vonage won't work for us.

 

[jme829]

This is as far as I got considering Vonage:

http://www.adt.com/for_your_home/products_services/security_systems/voip/

Neither Vonage nor ADT was willing to commit to taking responsibility for Vonage working with ADT service as reliably as a standard landline works. Vonage is very explicit:

We don't have a security system so I guess thats not an issue for us. But thanks for the info. We just want it for basic home phone service.

 

[bean]

We have Vonage and love it. Reception is good and sounds like a regular phone. Very very rarely it's dropped a call. But we've had it for 3 years and really no complaints. I call good friends in England for free which is very nice. Well worth the $25 in my opinion.

 

[tiggger1]

we have it and love it. The only time we have issues is if we loose power. They are very good with replacing the box for free if that fails.. ( it has only failed twice, once after having it for 5 years and recently when we got struck my lightening.

 

[disneyfans95]

Quick comment.

When Cablevisions triple play ended in July for us, we called them and told them we were going to disconnect and go to Fios.

After 10 mins with them, they ended up cutting the increase so we are only paying $10 more then the introductory rate for the triple play.

So try calling your cable provider first!

 

[of the seas]

We just switched to Vonage and so far so good!

 

[jme829]

Quick comment.

When Cablevisions triple play ended in July for us, we called them and told them we were going to disconnect and go to Fios.

After 10 mins with them, they ended up cutting the increase so we are only paying $10 more then the introductory rate for the triple play.

So try calling your cable provider first!

Yeah, we tried that before we cancelled comcast..they didn't seem to care , which made the decision that much easier..lol...ATT is also not seeming to care if we cancel, plus we had several issues with them when we first switched over that took a good 3 months to resolve, so if I can find something better, then I have no problems switching again. Thanks for all the info!

 

[creativeamanda]

You cannot use Vonage with satellite internet. I spent 8 hours in customer service with hughesnet and Vonage for a Vonage customer service rep to tell me (after, mind you, I couldn't cancel) that VOnage is not reliable with satellite internet. There are other providers (other than satellite) that Vonage does not work with. Problems for us included a lag time between talking and hearing, an echo, delays in communications.

It was not until I contacted the Better Business Bureau that Vonage allowed me to cancel my service and refund my money for the first 4 months.

 

[love2disney]

I use vonage and its amazing to me. Free calls all over the world. Get a friend to refer you so you get amonth free and they get a month free too. I also like the simulring feature they have where my cell phone rings simultaneously if my vonage phone rings.

No problems with calls at all.

 

[N&B'smom]

Yes, we HAD Vonage and HATED it. I would call people and they would say hello but I wouldn't hear it. Instead I would hear the sound of them hanging up on me because I didn't respond. Got rid of it after a couple months of that, SOOOOOOOOOO happy not to be dealing with that anymore.

 

[creativeamanda]

Yes, we HAD Vonage and HATED it. I would call people and they would say hello but I wouldn't hear it. Instead I would hear the sound of them hanging up on me because I didn't respond. Got rid of it after a couple months of that, SOOOOOOOOOO happy not to be dealing with that anymore.

This was what was happening to me.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

This is as far as I got considering Vonage:

http://www.adt.com/for_your_home/products_services/security_systems/voip/

Neither Vonage nor ADT was willing to commit to taking responsibility for Vonage working with ADT service as reliably as a standard landline works. Vonage is very explicit:
Since we value the protection an alarm system provides for our family, Vonage won't work for us.

Try one of these as they are designed to work over broadband. The Next Alarm provider has been mentioned many times in the VOIP forums I read :

Surely There Are Alarm Companies That Offer Reliable Monitoring Over VOIP?

Yes, there are alarm companies that claim to offer a solution to the VOIP issues. Next Alarm uses an ABN (Alarm Broadband Network) adapter to transmit signals directly over your broadband connection. Essentially, it sends the signal alongside, rather than through your VOIP service. The adapter is $119, and the monitoring rates are comparable to regular land-line monitoring.

Alarm Relay claims to have broadband monitoring over VOIP, although their system will only work with certain major VOIP providers such as Comcast. At the time of this writing, their system is not compatible with Skype. This could change however, and we recommend that you contact them for confirmation. Alarm Relay is generally aimed at the "do it yourself" crowd who plan to install their own alarm, or already have one installed

 

[fireworks fan]

We've had vonage for about 5 years. Features I like-free call forwarding, voicemails forwarded to email, ability to look up past phone calls, super cheap. We've had issues with the service, but my DH is an IT guy, so he handles it in house However, if you are not IT savvy, I would not recommend it.

 

[golfgal]

Add another line to your cell phone package (family plan, $9.99/mo) and use that as your home phone. There are even regular land line phones you can buy that you connect to your cell phone somehow and you can use those around the house. You can have the new phone with a local number. You wouldn't need to add texting or anything special and you can just get a very basic free phone. It also adds another phone to your plan so you can have an additional upgrade if you want.

 

[tiggger1]

my DH is an IT guy, so he handles it in house However, if you are not IT savvy, I would not recommend it.

same here!!! Its great to be married to an IT guy! We have so many computers in the house there is enough for each room ( including the barn, garage and bathrooms.. and that doesn't include laptops!)

 

[creativeamanda]

Add another line to your cell phone package (family plan, $9.99/mo) and use that as your home phone. There are even regular land line phones you can buy that you connect to your cell phone somehow and you can use those around the house. You can have the new phone with a local number. You wouldn't need to add texting or anything special and you can just get a very basic free phone. It also adds another phone to your plan so you can have an additional upgrade if you want.

This is what we did. We have a cheap-o phone for this one and it's our home number.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

There's a reason for the divergence of opinion on this. Any VOIP service, such as Vonage is 100% dependent on your internet connection. If you have a good one it can work very well. If there's a very long lag (such as the poster with satellite would have) it just won't work.
First stop is to test your line, which you can do for free here:
http://myspeed.visualware.com/indexvoip.php
If you can't get a decent score, don't waste your time.

Does your internet go down a lot during storms etc? Remember if your internet goes down your phone does too and that could leave you unable to communicate in an emergency. Copper phone lines are one of the most reliable things we have ever invented.

I have the FIOS version of VOIP and it works pretty well, occasionally choppy or a dropped call but we all mostly use our cells anyway

To the OP- when you said you have ATT for internet did you mean their DSL? If so VOIP over DSL can work but has a higher rate of issues than over a solid cable or FIOS fiber line

 

[MarkBarbieri]

We used Vonage many years ago. It worked flawlessly for voice conversations. It was practically useless when devices (like our old satellite receiver) needed to make a call. I assume that it would also not work for a fax machine.

Our alarm system is wireless, so it isn't an issue. Our current satellite receivers connect over the internet, so they don't need to make phone calls. So there is no reason why we can't use Vonage.

We dropped it because we didn't need it. Our Vonage box was fried by a lightning strike, so we quit using it for a week. We had the phone number forwarded to my wife's cell phone. After that week, we realized that just having cell phones was fine. We didn't really need a house phone.

 

[Chuck S]

I have Vonage, and it works well most of the time. As Alex said, it eally depends upon how realiable you Internet connection happens to be. I have the installation set up as cable modem to Vonage box to Wireless Router. I have a 3 Mb (RoadRunner Basic) internet speed. If I am doing a really heavy download, it will affect Vonage quality, but if I'm just generally surfing the net it is fine.

It does work fine with my HP All-in-one on the rare occasion when I need to send a Fax.

I do occasionally need to unplug and reset the cable modem, Vonage box and WiFi router, but that is likely do more to our somewhat flaky internet connection and rural power cooperative supplier.

I had AT&T CallVantage VoIP prior to Vonage, which I think overall was better quality, but AT&T discontinued VoIP service in favor of U-Verse, which is not available in our area. DSL is also not available.