Announcement

**SitFlyer** · 28 March 2004, 22:17

A good forum for this is http://www.dslreports.com/forum/voip

**Jon P. Inghram** · 28 March 2004, 22:31

Had already looked there, wanted to get a "closer to home" opinion.

**Jammrock** · 29 March 2004, 07:57

I have been using VoIP for aboot 9 months or so. I've got Time Warner cable modem, with Earthlink ISP. Originally I used Earthlink's Unlimited Voice service, which later became a relabeled Vonage service. The first VoIP box I got was a Cisco ATA-866 ... or something of the like.

At first the service did not work well. Kept getting dropped calls, break-up communication, etc. I fixed this by enableing QoS on my Linksys router so the VoIP box would have Highest priority on the network. Zero problems.

Then the port blew up.

Earthlin sent me a replacement box from Motorola, who runs Vonage. The Motorola box sucked big hairy donkey balls. No QoS, so it did not take priority on the network. I had to forward like 5 sets of port ranges to it to get it working. And so if I needed to reset my router for any reason, which I do since I tinker with crap a lot, the IP would change and I would have to go back and change the forwarded ports to the new IP. Didn't like it.

Then I heard about Packet8.net

There were four big bonuses with switching to them: 1) they were $15 a month cheaper, 2) I got rid of the crappy Motorola box!, 3) I got a local number (my old area code used to be in Utah ... long story), 4) I got rid of that crappy Motorola box! Packet8 has been ... so, so. They have their own proprietary box. The biggest bonus of the Packet8 VoIP box is that you can program in a static IP!!!! This is a HUGE bonus, and I wish the others would do that as well *coughTell-Cisco-engineers-for-me-Helevitiacough* as even if I have to reset my router I don't have to reforward all my ports, because the IP never changes.

Anyway, I'm having some problems with my box. I spoke with my neighbor over the weekend and he uses the service too, also off cable inet, and he hasn't had any problems. I'm going to reflash the firmware tonight, and if it still has problems I'm going to request a new VoIP router box thing, as I'm pretty sure that's the problem.

Overall ... if you're good at networking and don't mind the quirks of getting all the netowrk setting tweaked to the point that it will work all the time, and enjoy the huge cost saving, the VoIP is for you. Otherwise, I would stay away from VoIP for now. It has a ways to go before it will become mainstream, but for geeky people it's all good.

Jammrock

**Helevitia** · 29 March 2004, 09:15

Personally, I have no experience with end-user/mainstream VoIP. I suspect the weakest link is your internet connection followed by your path to wherever the call is going. Since the internet changes dynamically all the time, you never know when your call might suddenly drop, lose voice quality, etc...

On the other hand, VoIP is becoming huge in the corporate world and I know we make calls across the ocean all the time. I think Jammrock said it best with his last paragraph.

Dave

**Jammrock** · 29 March 2004, 09:57

Packet8 says they only need 17 kbps per caller (88 kbps max for 3-way calling). So a normal high speed connection should have more than enough bandwidth under normal strain. That was one of the beauties of the Cisco box. The Cisco VoIP box had QoS, and so did my Linksys router. Both enabled and it worked like a champ. I could be bit torrenting like mad and the calls would never waver, simply because VoIP had the #1 priority on the network.

If the Cisco box has a web front I could setup a Static IP for the VoIP box, it would have been perfect. At least in my senario.

Jammrock

**GT98** · 29 March 2004, 11:18

My Cable company offers VoIP and I'll get it when I have the $$$ for it since my Cell is somewhat crappy where I live and I drop calls all the time

Announcement

Anyone using Vonage or any other VoIP service?

Anyone using Vonage or any other VoIP service?

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