Taking my actual HOME vonage line on the road????

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: May 22, 2007 Posts: 3

I looked into the Vphone and Soft phone and I find everything confusing. Maybe they aren't what I'm looking for. I have Vonage at home and I want to make/recieve calls connected to my laptop over a wireless connection where we go on vacation so my home number is ringing on my laptop.

The Vphone looks like I have to pay for ANOTHER number and I'm not sure the soft phone is an actual phone.

If someone can let me know, that would be great.
Mary

Posts: 1225 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1225

You can use Vonage Talk and it is FREE!
Leave your adapter at home and just take your laptop, you will need a built in mic or use a headset with microphone. You can make calls and also receive calls. Every time you start up the application your Vonage number is Simulringed to your computer, so when someone calls your vonage line, you Vonage Talk application will ring when it is running. You can call any North American phone number from anywhere in the world, all you need is an internet connection be it wired or wi-fi.

http://alpha.vonage.com

go to that site and there are other applications that are in alpha mode (which means no tech support over the phone)

you sign in with your Vonage user name and password.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 22, 2008 Posts: 2

ok, so i can use my vonage number on my laptop with just my laptop and a heaset w/ a built in microphone. don't i need software? is it included? does it work with vista? i have a dell vista core duo computer.

if this will work, great. BUT if i leave my laptop in florida, and i go to my house in nashville, where i plan to have a regular phone and a vonage "portal" (is that the right word?) am i going to be able to use the phone? if you need to know more to answer the question, please let me know what other info i need to provide.

i tried vonage before and they were not able to set it up to work what i wanted it to do. now i am trying to get it to do something different, and it sounds like it will work, but then, last time i thought it would also, and so did they. problem is that they were wrong, but i am the one that paid to ship the thing back.

so i would like to verify this is really going to work before i try again. any advice appreciated.

Posts: 1225 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1225

Vonage Talk is free to download now and also to use, not sure what will happen when it comes out of Alpha state.

You can use both VT and your Vonage phone at the same time without any issues, both receiving and calling out.

I am not really sure what you want to do. Are you going to be traveling with the lap top, because you mentioned going from Florida to Nashville. I would leave the Vonage Portal at your residence and when away from home use VT. It does work on Vista, I know some people have issues with it. If you have any problems with VT don't call Vonage because tech support is only on line at the site where you download the program.

If you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 22, 2008 Posts: 2

let me explain exactly what i want to do.

i have a house in Nashville that i visit maybe once a month. i want to have phone service there with free long distance but my regular service is outrageously expensive if i am only using it a few days a month. right now it's really not a big deal if it's difficult to send faxes as i won't have to do that very often. my current service is one line with distinctive ring, which i like if i am there all the time, but it's no big deal while i am just visiting.

being able to get my calls from my laptop in florida would very nice, though. then i would not have to check my answering machine periodically, which i am bad about doing anyway. in nashville i have a wireless set up with comcast cable providing my cable service and a linksys router and wireless um, whatever you call that thing. maybe it's only one thing? i have tivo there also, and the tivo is set up to connect via the cable, not the phone lines with a wireless thing.

so i want to be able to have fairly normal seeming phone service in Nashville, that i can also use with my laptop in Florida mostly, or wherever i travel, really, if i ever get to travel again.

in florida i have brighthouse cable/internet/phone service and a linksys wireless router and signal booster.

is this enough info?

if i want basically regular phone service via vonage in nashville, what do i need to buy? a portal to plug my normal phones into? which linksys version of what i need is good? i have a large house in nashville- 3 levels, so coverage is an issue. right now the modem is in the center of the house and the wi-fi works well all over the house because i am using a wall jack thing to conenct the cable input to the house, which is downstairs to the wireless router upstairs on the main level. i can't rememebr what it's called exactly, but it uses your house's wiring to send the cable signal to another area of the house. i am sure it slows things down somewhat, but my internet and cable are both fine with it hooked up that way.

any advice appreciated,

2martins

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 17, 2006 Posts: 15

Hi:

What I did was buy a V-Phone but no additional Vonage # and activated it via the Vonage website.

I leave the Vonage/Linksys router at home but when I'm traveling I use the 'move a number' option ("Add Ons" menu from the Vonage admin web site, "Move a Number").

This allows me to move my Vonage # between my desk phone in my home office (connected to the Vonage router) and my V-Phone, then when I return home I do the reverse.

Only one device can be active but the $50 for the V-Phone still cheaper that adding $12/mo for a softphone & haveing 2 #'s to manage (I initally had both & when switching to the V-Phone my monthly bill actually went down, the quality of the V-Phone is better than the softphone, the softphone has fewer features & its only 1 number to manage).

There is no additional charge to 'move a number' & it only takes a couple of minutes for the change to occur. BTW - I actually travel with 2 'activated' V-Phones as I during the first 8 months I had a V-Phone I had 4 failures (so I didn't want to be stuck without a 'backup' line). But its now been 10 months since I've had a V-Phone failure.

Hope this helps,

Z