Wi-Fi Phone...

Posts: 45 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 07, 2005 Posts: 45

Does that mean you can't put it in a call hunt group then?

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 20, 2006 Posts: 7

Well, using Vonage Simulring feature you can have multiple lines ring simultaneously. Do Vonage actually support hunt groups?

Posts: 45 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 07, 2005 Posts: 45

Yes the feature works really well. You need to set up a virtual number which can then ring the other numbers in the order you specify and then if no answer dump to voicemail mailbox of your choosing.

It completes the loop for me as I have a couple of lines and a softphone. So I publish the virtual number and that's all I have to do. This only works for Vonage number though and it ignores all call forwarding you set on the individual lines.

Its elegant and its better than Simul-Ring thing (except you can't add an external line)

This is why I was interested wifi phone and adding to the call hunt...so one number gets me wherever I am.

I am sure there's a different way to do it.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 20, 2006 Posts: 7

It's here!
I'm working at the moment and no time to play Cry

but later!
The two things I notice are 1) it's much smaller than I would have expected (think Nokia 7230 size) so it won't be a problem having that and a mobile with me. 2) It has one of those horrible 1980's cordless phone batteries - you know the ones with a trailing cable that plugs into the main unit, rather than the "modern" integrated contact type.

Posts: 45 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 07, 2005 Posts: 45

I am waiting on your every word...but the size sounds good. I must admit I thought that it would be much bigger so that's very pleasing.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 20, 2006 Posts: 7

OK, battery is in and on charge - something interesting is that the Vonage customized manual that comes with the phone says "battery is partially charged so that you can get going immediately"...great stuff. It's a Lithium Ion battery so this should be the case (less memory effect than Ni-Cd or Ni-Mh).

The more I look at this device, the more pleased I am with it's size, ok so it has a stubby external antenna, but it's small enough to be unobtrusive.
The build quality is pretty good and it looks like it will take as many knocks as a typical mobile phone.

The screen and audio feedback are functional, the OS for the phone has been written by techies clearly, so not as smooth as your typical cellphone...but hey we're techies right? The keypad is tactile and positive..no missed keypresses here. The sounds it makes have a lot to be desired, again functional but no polyphonics!

I powered up and managed to get on my WEP encrypted network within two minutes, and without reading any of the manual (apart from finding a default security key)...in fact, unless you want to get advanced with it there is no need to read the manual.
If you have ever set up a mobile phone without instructions and have also played around with wireless AP's you won't need any help.

I have made a couple of test calls to friends and they were unaware what kind of phone I was on..I had to tell them I was on wifi - speaker volume could be a little louder my end...but still usable. That may be a problem in a noisy environment. You could always try the headset.

I just went for a walk round the block and "cruised" on two open networks. Connecting was a little slow, but you do get a signal meter that shows your decibels so you can move nearer the AP.

I have been playing with my two Vonage lines and Simulring etc.

What I have now is my main line and its associated voicemail handling all my voicemail. The wifi phone is set in simulring from my main. The downside of this is that if I am out of network on the wifi, I will never know that I missed a call without periodically checking the other. I figured I may have been able to have both voicemails running simultaneously, but this just won't work.

All in all, I'm loving it...over to you...

Dave.

Posts: 45 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 07, 2005 Posts: 45

Thanks for the review...its really sounds good. Just placed my order. Customer service were able to add it to my existing account...so I would get back to them as it would make life really handy.

Just added to the blastme for my virtual number.....so that's my main phone, Softphone and Wi-Fi now added....so one number gets all with the voicemail diverted to the main phone...so one location to check for voice mail.

Most excellent! Lol

Posts: 45 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 07, 2005 Posts: 45

I've had my wi-fi phone for a couple of days now...I am very impressed.

Call quality is excellent and the phone is easy to use. I had it up and running in about 4 mins of opening the box!

The only issue for me is the lack of support for hotspots which require passwords...which is most of the public ones.

Would I buy another....well no not until the public HSpot access is sorted...but other than that an excellent bit of kit!

Well done Vonage!

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

Hi,

I tried the WiFi phone for a couple of days but have decided to send it back. The phone is small and light weight and the quality of the calls was excellent.

I have decided to send mine back because it occassionally drops the WiFi signal which makes it unusable and seems to need to be reset to get it to pick the signal up again; I don't have any issues regarding my wireless laptop so I doubt very much that the wireless base station is at fault.

One feature lacking in the phone that I always think is good is a speaker option, this tends to be standard in many mobile and cordless phones now but was not found in the WIFI one I had.

I think there's excellent potential here for a great product but I think it might be too early yet to be my only phone.

Posts: 45 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 07, 2005 Posts: 45

I don't use mine as my primary phone...so I have not really noticed that...but I have a multiple wifi base station setup in the house....so I suspect that my Wi-fi is very evenly covered.