Vonage Talk Alpha

Posts: 1327 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1327

Vonage is supposed to be working on this error. I also sent you a PM.

Posts: 17 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 19, 2007 Posts: 17

I had tried vtalk a while back but I couldn't get the software to run on my machine let alone call anyone. Tried it last night and had no problems at all. I'm on the basic plan and called my son and then daughter on their cell phones and then called my office and a couple of other numbers, all went through fine. These calls didn't appear on my phone log and therefore I didn't get charged. I'm sure once the software goes gold that might change. Anyways, a co worker is with another Voip provider and he says that most Voip providers have a software product like v talk that enables you to login to your acct and then call anywhere in the world. Anyway, call quality was at times rough, but I have a home network with a couple of computers so the "qos" may have to be tweeked with my router settings in order to priortize these voice packets. So far so good!

Posts: 1327 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1327

Hey great to hear that this is available for basic Vonage customers also.

If you are close to your 500 minutes you can make calls using this. I found the call quality the same or better than using the phone. A good quality headset w/mic or usb phone is the key to good calls, same goes with your regular phone.

Posts: 42 · Full Forum Member Joined: Aug 12, 2007 Posts: 42

rutter wrote:

Anyways, a co worker is with another Voip provider and he says that most Voip providers have a software product like v talk that enables you to login to your acct and then call anywhere in the world.

That statement is bogus. Maybe his does, but I have either tried or at least looked in to all of the major and mid major providers and not one of them offered that ability. I would be interested in knowing who he uses, but his statement is false.

Most, but not all, have a softphone option but that is additional money and has it's own usage allotment. The V-Talk thing is totally different from softphone though.

Posts: 17 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 19, 2007 Posts: 17

dualsub06 wrote:

rutter wrote:

Anyways, a co worker is with another Voip provider and he says that most Voip providers have a software product like v talk that enables you to login to your acct and then call anywhere in the world.

That statement is bogus. Maybe his does, but I have either tried or at least looked in to all of the major and mid major providers and not one of them offered that ability. I would be interested in knowing who he uses, but his statement is false.

Most, but not all, have a softphone option but that is additional money and has it's own usage allotment. The V-Talk thing is totally different from softphone though.

I just started three weeks of holidays so I won't be able to ask him until I get back. One thought, if I was interested in finding a vtalk type of product with Vonage I wouldn't have found it. Vonage has no link that I know of to tell prospective customers that you can do this. It may well be that others are the same way.

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

Vonage has been going through an interesting progression:

1. Softphone, like an extra phone, max 500 minutes, $9.99/month in addition to a main account. Must have main account with analog adapter. Works with any softphone (some recommendations) on any operating system, Mac, Windoze, Linux, or other.

2. V-Phone, on any plan, could be main phone or an extra phone, all the same arrangements as an analog adapter, USB dongle with Vonage Talk softphone preloaded. Windoze only.

3. Early Vonage Talk softphone released in a FREE downloadable version. This version allowed a free signup, and then calls to any Vonage number. Only a Windoze version available at the moment, but the code is apparently going into Sourceforge under the GNU license, and other systems may eventually be supported.

4. Paired Vonage Talk. The most recent development is that it is now possible to "pair" the Vonage Talk softphone with an EXISTING account, either your good old analog adapter account or a V-Phone account. This now allows calls to be placed according to the plan of the account to which it is paired, and the minutes come out of that account's plan (which may be unlimited).

The fourth development is what was just released. The interesting thing about this is that since the software is supposed to be OpenSource (which means reverse engineering allowed), this really is the final "release of SIP credentials" that we've been waiting for, because with freely available copies of the Vonage Talk software, it is now possible to incorporate the Vonage registration process into any SIP client.

rutter wrote:

... most Voip providers have a software product like v talk that enables you to login to your acct and then call anywhere in the world.

dualsub06 wrote:

That statement is bogus. ... Most, but not all, have a softphone option but that is additional money and has it's own usage allotment. The V-Talk thing is totally different from softphone though.

rutter is correct that most Voip providers allow you to log into your account with some sort of softphone and call anywhere in the world. HOWEVER, the restriction is that you can almost always only get UNLIMITED plans from providers who lock you to an analog telephone adapter. With a very small number of notable exceptions (can't mention names in this forum), any BYOD (bring your own device) accounts and almost all softphone accounts are not unlimited.