Flu Pandemic and Vonage

Posts: 168 · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:11 pm Post subject:

NateHoy wrote:

It's not like someone touches you and you shout "My God! I've got the flu! Call 911! Call 9..." and fall over unconscious with 5 minutes to live. (grin)

It's obvious to me that you've never read Stephen King's "The Stand." Smile

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 13

you're forgetting something. if you have no POTS line and the power goes out, you have no phone, and it doesn't have to be because of the flu, power goes out pretty much anytime. unless you have generators or battery supply, you're out of touch.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:04 pm Post subject:

fish628 wrote:

you're forgetting something. if you have no POTS line and the power goes out, you have no phone, and it doesn't have to be because of the flu, power goes out pretty much anytime. unless you have generators or battery supply, you're out of touch.

Having taken a Cat 3 & Cat 4 hurricane at my place, power goes out first, then POTS... The phone lines in that area run underground to the CO, so you can't say it was taken out by the storm. In this case, the POTS lines were taken out because the local telco (Sprint) doesn't know which COs are important and doesn't have backup generators... So, even though I have full backup and was relaxing, watching CNN via satellite, air conditioning running, and a cool glass of wine in hand, I had no POTS service. I DID have Vonage service, however. All Voip takes is a connection to the 'net. You can get Vonage to work over dial-up modem speeds if you know what you're doing. To have your POTS line work requires quite a bit more infrastructure and there's far less redundancy of the public switched telephone system than there is in the internet.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:18 pm Post subject:

fish628 wrote:

unless you have generators or battery supply, you're out of touch.

Or, since my Vonage adapter and my Cable modem both take 12VDC at under 1A each, an automobile that is running (like my Jetta Diesel, that can idle for a LONG time on a tank of fuel if needed). Wink

Of course, since I'm in a semi-remote area, chances are if power goes, Cable and POTS go with it. However, there's also a Wireless ISP in the area, with backup generators and redundant (wired and wireless) links out to the Internet at large, that could accept a signal from my (also 12V) WRT54G router if the router is running in client mode.

If the wires to my POTS line are down, assuming I had one, I have no backup connection.

In reality, though, I would use my cell (if it works) in the event of some kind of major infrastructure failure of that type. But if, as in the scenario pointed out, things have degenerated to the point where the power grid can't be maintained, I don't expect anyone would make a big deal about my house burning down even if I could call out. Wink

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:24 pm Post subject:

NateHoy wrote:

Or, since my Vonage adapter and my Cable modem both take 12VDC at under 1A each, an automobile that is running (like my Jetta Diesel, that can idle for a LONG time on a tank of fuel if needed). Wink

Just curious....how long will a diesel Jetta run @ idle? and any idea how many amps the alternator puts out @ idle?

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:53 pm Post subject:

To be honest, I'm not sure. The idle in a Diesel takes exceptionally little fuel, and as a result you don't bother "warming up" Diesel engines - they are too efficient to warm up by sitting there at idle.

I know I can drive more than 600 miles on a tank. That's ten hours of driving, and at speed. I expect I could get at least 20 hours of idle, plus it wouldn't have to be on all the time.

PS: I can't tell which fits my car, but the 2002 Jetta TDI takes one of two alternators, a 90A and a 120A. More than enough to run a couple of 12V@1A devices, and charge the battery very fast. So I'd probably have to idle about one hour out of every 10, and still have battery power to run it continuously. Wink