traveling with vonage

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: May 29, 2007 Posts: 1

I plan to be traveling; Mostly Netherlands Antillies/St Maarten. Can I use Vonage from any free wi-fi location such as a coffee house. Should I consider another source?

Posts: 38 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 10, 2006 Posts: 38

I think you can pull it off. You'll need a wireless to ethernet bridge. I did it when at Disney's resorts, but before vonage would connect, my laptop (the bridge), had to "log in" to the network via the web browser...

Thing to remember is, free wifi isn't the best for big bandwidth.. my calls would break up time to time, which i expected..

Posts: 164 · Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 4:41 pm Post subject: Re: traveling with vonage

clen2018 wrote:

I plan to be traveling; Mostly Netherlands Antillies/St Maarten. Can I use Vonage from any free wi-fi location such as a coffee house. Should I consider another source?

If you already use Vonage, activate a softphone account. There is a setup charge, but it can be deactivated without charge when you no longer need it. Softphone also has all the features of your main account, including forwarding, simulring, voicemail, etc. Very convenient and easy to reconfigure (forwarding, etc) online from your main dashboard.

If you do not have a Vonage master account, it will be cheaper to use Skype, and merely fund it to $10 for outgoing calls (incoming call capability costs more) at a few cents a minute. If you use a PPC, Axim, etc; Skype has device specific software that cannot be matched. You can also purchase minutes using Yahoo messenge. (and probably other IMs too)

If you are interested, check the softphone forum for tips and advice for use. I recommend a good quality headset or handset; trying to use onboard speakers and mic is problematic, especially in a crowded or noisy setting. (Feedback causes problems) A digital headset (or handset) will bypass your onboard analog sound card which can overload pc resources.

Have a good trip

Posts: 1320 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1320

I was using a Soft phone account, I got it for 2 months free and wasn't charged a set up fee. I used it for 3 months on a limited basis. I would have used it more, but haven't been traveling. I would also suggest using a soft phone account or even buy a V-phone and use that with your home number when you travel. The V-phone is a great idea when you don't have free wi-fi in your room, but can hook it up to a computer in the hotel's business center.

Posts: 153 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 11, 2007 Posts: 153

I just log into the Wi-Fi service with the laptop, plug my Vonage adapter into the ethernet jack on the laptop, and then enable sharing on my laptop (on a Mac this is under the Network tab of the Sharing control panel, but sharing is also available on Windoze). People look sort of strange at me when I use my regular phone on the table at Starbucks, especially when it rings with a normal bell ringer. I just hand them a Vonage referral and take another sip of my coffee.

As has been mentioned, though, some of these places don't have a lot of bandwidth available, and your calls may be a bit choppy. You might use the Vonage Bandwidth reduction feature on your Vonage account's features page before turning on your Vonage adapter, but don't forget to set the bandwidth back to high quality when you get back to a place with good bandwidth.

Posts: 1320 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1320

With your laptop, vonage adapter and phone on the table, do you have any room for you coffee?

Posts: 52 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 22, 2007 Posts: 52

roscopco wrote:

buy a V-phone and use that with your home number when you travel. The V-phone is a great idea when you don't have free wi-fi in your room, but can hook it up to a computer in the hotel's business center.

It is my understanding that you can't purchase a V-phone for use with an existing Vonage number, but that you must pay an additional monthly fee for a new Vonage number to use with the V-phone. Is that no longer the case?

Posts: 153 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 11, 2007 Posts: 153

You must still pay an additional fee for a V-Phone number if you also want your ATA to continue to work. Unlike a softphone, which must always be a second phone number, a V-Phone number can be your only number. Then you'll have no ATA, just the V-Phone.

You CAN switch your main phone number to the V-Phone from your ATA yourself on your Vonage devices page at the web site, starting with vonage.com/activate.

Whether you can ever switch it back remains to be confirmed by someone who does the switcheroo frequently.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 03, 2007 Posts: 2

how did you set up the internet connection sharing. i am trying to do this right now and i am having some difficulty.

Posts: 153 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 11, 2007 Posts: 153

On Mac OS X:
1. connect to the wireless network as usual
2. plug the Vonage adapter into the ethernet port, and power it up.
3. open the sharing control panel, internet tab.
4. share airport connection with users on ethernet.

Important: if the Vonage adapter is powered off, the ethernet connection will recycle, and the DHCP service that the Vonage adapter needs will shut down. You'll have to disable and reenable sharing. Also, remember to disable sharing when you're done. Occasionally, a reboot can be required.

One other thing. The ethernet network for sharing insists on running as network 192.168.2.x. Most of the time when you connect to a wireless network, it will be something else, but if the wireless network is 192.168.2.x you're s.o.l. with sharing unless you manually configure it. That's a bit too complex for the ordinary user.