Will Vonage work for me?

Posts: 90 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 90

Dialup? What dinosaur company is Mom working for?

While Vonage works great out of the box (usuallly) for voice, I would hesitate to recommend it for dialup modem, credit card authorization, fax, or other service.

Rather than use a digital service to send analog data, go all digital.

Rather than try to use dialup, use the Internet.

Rather than try to use a fax machine, use a virtual fax like MAXEMAIL (about $15.00 a year - they e-mail the faxes to you as pdf files. Once you try it, you'll toss your fax machine in the DUMPSTER!).

A modem might work, but then again, it might not. Probably not (at least dependably). It really makes no sense in this day and age.

My suggestion: Use the the Vonage as a second line, so you can make phone calls while Ma is hogging the line with her dialup modem.

And charge Ma the $24.99 a month for the Vonage!

If you have a large family (more than 2-3 people) having a second phone line is very, very handy, especially if someone in the house is using a modem like that.

I would suggest buying two-line phones, so you can acess both lines. That way, if the wife or kids are on the phone, you can still dial out or get your calls.

I suspect that Mom's company will switch to on-line within a year or two. At that time, you can think about dumping your landline entirely.

Good Luck!

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 25, 2006 Posts: 5

Thanks for the advice Jim...but this is a company laptop. I can't exactly open it and slap in a new modem.

I know all about US Robotics and what the V.90 standard is.

I guess I'm going to have to pass, unfortunately. I kind of need a guarentee that it's going to work, or no dice. I guess for the kind of technology we're talking about here, that's not possible...but that is the advantage of your average phone service. They guarentee it's going to work like a phone, as phones are supposed to work.

If someone on the forum can't say "Oh yeah..Vonage can do that... You need to buy this wireless router Wk2848320 model...and run a little cable, and then pop these little 5 dollar adapters on the back of your phone and voila.....then it's not quite reliable enough yet.

I'd love to be proven wrong though, if there's anyone else out there.

<noticing the post on the second page>

You're telling me. I immediately tried to get her hooked up on the home network, and some serious windows2000 restrictions and policies starting jumping in my face, and made it clear there was one allowed access point to the internet, the installed modem.

About the analog over digital....that's exactly what I thought. It sounds like a problem. Having two lines though...is maybe an option, but it significantly reduces the savings. We don't make that many long distance calls around here, so it's really the standard monthly charge from the teleco that's the issue.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:24 am Post subject:

JamesRB wrote:

About the analog over digital....that's exactly what I thought. It sounds like a problem. Having two lines though...is maybe an option, but it significantly reduces the savings. We don't make that many long distance calls around here, so it's really the standard monthly charge from the teleco that's the issue.

Well, you can always sign up and try it out, and use the 30 day money back guarantee if it doesn't work out (just keep your landline active until you're sure).

Posts: 182 · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:33 am Post subject:

My laptop's modem works fine - but I can't guarantee that yours will, of course.