Travelling with Vonage UK to the USA

Posts: 110 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 30, 2005 Posts: 110

I'm off for two weeks in Florida later this year.

The house I'll be staying at has broadband, so I'm thinking of putting my Linksys RT31P2 in my hand luggage plus a phone and trying my UK number in the States!

My wife'll think I'm mad.

Anyone any experiences? Will I need to reconfigure the router?

If I connect to their router (I see from the pics it's Linksys too) will it work or maybe I should disconnect their router and put mine in place.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 27, 2006 Posts: 1

It should work - I did the same without a problem.

Make sure your power supply will work on their 110V
system!

As long as your USA network has a DHCP server (most do) it should just work without any reconfiguring of the router.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 30, 2005 Posts: 5

Hi,

I do exactly what you are asking to do every other month and it works great.

I did have an issue regarding power adapters at the start. Dispite having an email from Vonage saying it would work and a power adpator that said 110-240v on it the thing still went pop. Vonage in the UK would not ship a replacement box to the US and the US would not ship to the US for a UK account. This wouldn't have annoyed me as much as it did if it wasn't for the fact that I had an from someone at Vonage saying it would.

Anyway all sorted now and works great.

Andrew

Posts: 110 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 30, 2005 Posts: 110

just to be sure, Andrew1973, was it the power adapter that went Pop! or the router?
and do you now use a standard UK power adapter (plus plug adapter (UK square 3 pin to US standard))?

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 30, 2005 Posts: 5

Sod it! I typed you a nice long email and lost the lot when I spell checked it.

In summary I fried the router, I don't know how or why, or if I was unlucky or the power supply just doesn't work despite the email below from Vonage. I did receive this email before trying my router in the US.

When the router fried I went to the store and bought a new one complete with US Power supply and then phoned Vonage to get them to switch my UK details to the US box. Now I'm in the UK I just plug my UK power supply in and away we go.

In short be careful, as you can see below they said it would be fine and it wasn't. If you need it for work consider buying the US power suppy or the Softphone?

Hope this helps, sorry if I confused you,

Andrew
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for contacting Vonage Customer Care!

In response to your e-mail, the power adapter you have will work in the
UK and the US.

We hope this has answered your enquiry. If you have any further
questions please visit our website at www.vonage.co.uk where you will
find answers to most customer enquiries.

Customer Care
Vonage UK
The Broadband Phone Company
www.vonage.co.uk

Posts: 37 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 01, 2006 Posts: 37

Linksys don't have universal power adapters, so the power supply won't work in the US. You'll need to obtain a US power adapter for your router or you'll fry it.
Alternatively you can buy an AC converter when you get to the states, which any electronic gadget store should be able to supply you with (here in Canada I've only seem them in what used to be RadioShack though).
How easy it is to get Linksys to sell you a power adapter is questionable though ... There is a chance you can get away with getting a universal power adapter though ... depending on how much amperage the router needs...

Posts: 57 · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:15 am Post subject:

Since when? My PAP2 Vonage version as supplied in the UK has a universal psu which works in the US (or has done on the numerous time i've taken it there). I accept that the RT31P2 doesn't though and you'd need to pick up a suitable US one from somewhere like Radioshack.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:42 am Post subject:

Ah... the US PAP2/RT31P2's come with 110v-only power adapters... Do remember that we have different wall outlets here for power, so you'll need an adapter at the very least. As far as damaging your equipment, UK/euro voltage is 230vAC, so you won't toast anything by trying to run it over here, but at the same time, it's very hard on electronics to run them at less than optimal voltage. Good chance it just wouldn't work at all stateside b/c it wouldn't be getting enough voltage, very little chance of frying it.

As far as phones go, leave the phone at home and use a US one. Caller Display may/may not work depending on the brand (UK & US have different Caller Display protocols, but some phones handle both), but the voltages & such are close enough for regular phone functions to work fine. FLASH=LINK on US phones.

Posts: 57 · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 11:38 am Post subject:

agreed. The phone is almost a disposable commodity given you can pick one up for just a few $$$ nowadays