very basic tech questions

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 20, 2008 Posts: 5

Hello:

I'm confused about a few things after placing the Vonage order this evening...

I just ordered the service,I have verizon DSL for ISP as well as verizon for my home phone {for now}

1} will I need to do anything to the phoneline in the main phone-box ? we live in an apt. complex and that could cause concern with everyone's lines going to that 1 box !

2}we have several wall jacks throughout the apt. ,will all of them work with the new Vonage service ? {we have a combination of cordless and corded phones }

3} Vonage is handling the swap of providers,were keeping the same phone number we had for years,do we need to do anything at all to the DSL service ?, or will Vanage handle all that as well ?

I opted for the V-Portal phone adapter,will that 1 adapter allow us to use all our phones / Walljacks ?

thanks,
Bill

Posts: 323 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 323

Here are your answers.

1. You will not need to do anything with the phoneline in the main phone-box if you don't want to use your wall jacks.

2. No your wall jacks will not work unless you mess with the main phone box. If you are in an apt. I would suggest against that.

3. You do need to do something to keep your DSL service. First of all I would call your phone company to see if they offer dry-loop DSL (which means DSL without a phone number) You will also need to find out from them what you need to do to retain DSL Service, otherwise your DSL will probably be canceled.

4. The choice of Vonage Device does not impact the ability to your all of your phone/walljacks. There is a separate thread here for hard wiring that you should take a look at, although being in an apt. I don't know what options you will have.

Hope this helps. At least it will allow you to ask some more questions.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 20, 2008 Posts: 5

Thanks Butterman !,

rewiring the apt. is kinda out ofthe question,but I'll look into a pro-install, I'm guessing they would know what needs to be done in the
phonebox in the basement ? , getting all the phones to work is a must, Kitchen {wall mount} is heavily used and is 1 of those speciial
"old type" phones.

I'll call my DSL about the dry-loop service in the morning.

thanks for getting back to me !!

Posts: 433 · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:39 am Post subject:

When you indicate "old style" phone. It is tone and not rotary, correct?

Rotary does not work with Vonage, I have been told.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 20, 2008 Posts: 5

it's a touch-tone, but one of those old-time looking phones....with the bells and crank ,a large oak phone.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 20, 2008 Posts: 5

I don't fully understand the dry-loop service ?
I know it's having DSL without the phone service, but Verizon told me this is no easy thing to do and it may be costly ??and the billing dept is closed for the weekend....

can you guy's break down what Verizon would need to do for me to get what I'm looking to do ? {all wall jacks active for Vonage in my apt.}
if this is going to cost mega bucks,I could always get rid of the 2 phones that need to be plugged into a jack and just max out my wireless phone setup to 6 total ?

I was told on Friday my DSL would go up from $29.99 to $39.99 a month,and I'm assuming that they meant "Dry-Loop" service ?
a $10.00 increase is no big deal really.

again,sorry about all these questions.
thanks,
Bill

Posts: 433 · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:08 pm Post subject:

According to the Vonage website, you should just let Vonage handle all of the transfer issues even whey you have DSL from verizon. http://www.vonage.com/help.php?keyword=DSLandTransferBasics

If you mess around with Verizon and they cancel your phone service and just leave you with DSL before Vonage can get your number transfered, you will have a lot of problems transferring your number. I'm sure the price of your DSL will increase by the $10 you stated. Most phone companies do this to try and get you to keep the phone service.

I would really recommend that you just use your wireless system and sacrifice the two other jacks. Wiring issues can be pretty complicated if you have no idea what you are doing. It's also really hard to speculate how exactly your apt. and the complex is wired and therefore it makes it a little tough to give you advice. Also, most likely you don't have access to all of the things you need to check out to get this done.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 20, 2008 Posts: 5

tglea:

Thanks for the advice,
thats what I'm going to do !
I just got these cordless phones and I'll simply add 2 more.

but with the dry-loop thing.....Vonage told me to call verizon and order dry-loop service asap ? being the weekend ,I couldn't do anything,but now it's getting confusing again ??

we must keep our current #,we had it for a very very long time.

thanks !!

Posts: 433 · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:04 pm Post subject:

Hopefully someone with experience in your situation can comment on exactly what to do. I don't have first hand experience doing this so I'm only trying to steer you in the right direction. I do know that the biggest no no when transferring a number is to call your current phone company and cancel your service. You have to let Vonage initiate that process. So, to me it would seem like calling Verizon to order only the naked dsl would in fact cancel your phone service. Unless, Vonage has already initiated the process and now it is ok to call to switch your service to dsl only. Maybe that should be something to clarify with Vonage customer support. Can you log into your Vonage online account? It tells you what steps have been accomplished as far as a number transfer goes. They sort of give you an outline of what they have done and if they have gotten the response from Verizon.