Vonage connection through wireless internet connection?

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 10, 2007 Posts: 5

I spoke with a new small company here in Indianapolis offering wireless internet service with T-1 speed to small biz and residential custromers. The tech I spoke with, says they install a small antenna outside the building/residence to receive the internet signal from "pipes,"(whatever that is) instead of from a tower. Something about their system works on the principle of receiving a signal from a path of least resistance. This all sounds very new to me, and I am not technical enough to understand what he was telling me. Is there such a system, and if so, will Vonage work with this type of connection?

The salesman offered to come to my residence to do a trial hook up to my Vonage connection to see if it works. I may take him up on his offer, if this hook up sounds plausible. Anyone any thoughts?

Posts: 293 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 293

I would think why not try it. The only real issue I can think of right now would be regarding latency. Typically, wireless internet can be higher but it may not be a factor.

My parents run a wireless connection that I've experimented somewhat on. It has worked sometimes very well and other times not quite so well. However part of that had to do with some correctable issues on the ISP end, that I do think have been resolved.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 10

I would not recommend it at all. First, do some research on Vonage on the internet and see what others say about the service first. It is not just like having a regular land line phone, and if you have no tech skills, especially if you try it wirelessly, you may wish you never signed up.
I used to be a level 2 tech there. All the time I would get calls about poor sound quality, ESPECIALLY if people used a satellite or setup like you are thinking of. Vonage is only as good as the ISP you have, which is why cable company's have been messing with their customers settings so Vonage and other people who do not use cable phone service with them have bad connections.

Anyway, as I said, I would not recommend this connection to use Vonage with. Do a search on Vonage used with satellites and you will see. Plus, I heard that Vonage was not supposed to sell to people with wireless connections, but a lot of sales people lie and you would not believe how many times someone told me that the salesman told them that they can use it with a dial-up connection!!! I had calls from people also who were connected exactly like you are thinking of.

One last thing, the wireless salesman may come out and try Vonage for you and it may work, but.... who is to say that the company is not going to crank up its signal so it works fine, and then when you order it and all others near you have it too, that the signal quality will drop and sound will be poor. And the quality will also be affected by how many routers and such that you have on your computer and what you have on, are running, or are doing on your computer at the time of a call. Also, you will need to know how or be walked through settings with your computer and the vonage router frequently, and if you are not a tech person, this will also annoy you whenever you need to reset your system due to a pwer outage or something. Bottom line, Vonage, or any wireless VOIP DO NOT MIX WELL! Good luck!

Posts: 429 · Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:43 pm Post subject:

ex wrote:

Anyway, as I said, I would not recommend this connection to use Vonage with. Do a search on Vonage used with satellites and you will see. Plus, I heard that Vonage was not supposed to sell to people with wireless connections, but a lot of sales people lie and you would not believe how many times someone told me that the salesman told them that they can use it with a dial-up connection!!! I had calls from people also who were connected exactly like you are thinking of.

You can't compare satellite connections with line of sight wireless services. That's not an accurate comparison. While the service he is talking about may well have a bit higher latency than cable or DSL, it's not nearly as bad as satellite. I would recommend getting your service and then running a few tests to see what it looks like. You can always try vonage and send it back before the trial period is over. Although, I've heard that can be a pain sometimes.

EDIT: Sorry it looks like I missed the point in your first post that you are already a vonage customer. What service are you using now with Vonage?