Want to revamp my entire phone setup-need advice

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: May 01, 2009 Posts: 5

Hi ,

I was wondering if someone can offer some advice on how to consolidate the various phones I have in my home/home office:

*My personal phone number is part of the Optimum Online (Cablevision) pkg. which includes cable TV and Internet.

*My home office has:

2 Vonage lines, one for Voice and the other a dedicated fax line which is not used 99% of the time. I understand that it's possible to get an Internet fax service which would send me an incoming fax via email and I am hoping I can "port" that fax number to the Internet fax service or at least be able to have it forwarded there. I don't want to change the fax number as it's been on all my business literature for years.

The Business Voice line on the Vonage system "carries" an "800" number which I pay for through AT&T. I would like to get rid of AT&T and "port" the "800" number to Vonage if possible. The "800" number spells out a phrase (1-800-321-STIM) which is an "identifier" for my business so I would definitely like to keep it.

*I travel frequently and understand that there is a way that someone could call my business (or personal number for that matter) phone number here in the USA and it would ring in the Caribbean for example and the caller would not know where I am. This is not conventional "call forwarding" as I understand it, and neither the caller nor myself have to pay any extra charges to have the call sent to the Caribbean (or anywhere for that mattter).

I find this whole telephonic issue very confusing and would appreciate any assistance in changing my phone set-up which will allow me to save monies as well as to provide consistent and reliable phone service.

Also, can the Magic Jack™ (http://www.magicjack.com/1/index.asp) be of help in this regard? I have heard many good things about it.

Any comments or feedback will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Sy

Posts: 656 · Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 5:22 pm Post subject:

Can't really help you much with the setup but can offer a few suggestions and have input as to what you can or cannot do with Vonage.

1) It is up to the e-fax service whether or not you can port your fax number to them. It makes no difference to Vonage since your not really porting a number to or from Vonage anyway. It ports to and from a partner carrier.

2) You cannot use call forwarding on a dedicated fax line since dedicated fax lines do not come with calling features such as call forwarding or Voice Mail.

3) If you got an e-fax service and they would not port a number in, you could have your dedicated fax line converted into a softphone line. This is done by canceling the fax line, adding the softphone line, and swapping your fax number over to the softphone. The purpose of this is to give you the same calling features like Call Forwarding for $9.99 a month and the ability to keep your fax number. You would also have 500 outbound minutes which is the same as your fax line.

4) Vonage does not port in toll free numbers so you would have to keep it with AT&T.

5) When traveling you could take your Vonage adapter with you so that you have your phone number wherever you go as long as you will have a broadband connection and the SIP / RTP protocols are not being restricted by a hotel or business firewall. You could use call forwarding or simul-ring and the caller would have no idea where you picked up the call.

6) If you travel with a laptop, you could go with the Vonage PRO rate plan which you would then have your device at home with the Vonage phone number and a softphone client called Companion that you could use on your laptop providing you with the same phone number as you have at home. This way you could place and answer calls using your home number from the laptop and no one would know where you are. This would require you to be changed from a Business to Residential account since this rate plan has not yet been offered on Business accounts.

* Outside of 5 and 6, there are no other options available to receive calls in a remote location using Vonage. I believe you may have heard something about Virtual numbers or V-Access which just allows people in other areas of the US, Canada, UK, Spain, France, or Mexico to call your Vonage number with no charge to them since Vonage may have local access numbers to their local calling area. The countries listed are the only ones Vonage has numbers in.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: May 01, 2009 Posts: 5

Thanks a lot for your prompt and comprehensive reply. It's greatly appreciated.

re:2) You cannot use call forwarding on a dedicated fax line since dedicated fax lines do not come with calling features such as call forwarding or Voice Mail.

Maybe it's a matter of terminology but when I go out of town I set my Vonage system to "call forward" my Vonage line that I use for faxes and the faxes are forwarded to my associate on Long Island. As I said, I have 2 Vonage phone numbers one for voice the other for fax.

If you are a Vonage employee is there a phone number I could call to help me get the changes I want done? I was on a Vonage "chat" session a few weeks ago but it was too difficult to communicate the various ways to handle this. The woman did mention the Vonage Companion set up.

Thanks again

Posts: 656 · Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 5:54 pm Post subject:

OK so in Vonage terms you have 2 Voice lines. A Vonage Dedicated fax line is free with Business accounts, $9.99 on Residential accounts and is just a Fax line. It does not have the ability to configure features. So if you configure Call Forwarding on it, it is a Voice line that you just call your Dedicated fax line.

You would need to call 1-866-243-4357 which is that main support line. If the lower level techs are not understanding what you want to accomplish, please demand to be transferred to Advanced Operations who will be able to guide you through this process and get you set up for exactly what will meet your needs.

If you can wait until Monday, you can PM me your Acct # and I can look into getting this taken care of for you.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 28, 2009 Posts: 2

I have a home office with 2 Verizon lines I am looking to bring over to Vonage to save me some $$. Things are tighter than ever, and while I normally always kept a copper line around, I simply do not see a value in paying $110 a month for 2 lines here in my home office. I already have a Vonage line, which I have had for the last 5 years for outgoing calls, and it runs thru a Avaya Partner ACS system here in my home office. I did all the wiring and it works like a charm. I also have a $9.95 fax line through Vonage, and I am hoping to keep that.

My question is, can I set up Call Hunt on a residential account, bring over my existing 2 Verizon numbers (essentially replacing my current Vonage number and a fax) and what are my best fax options seeing as how my current devices only has ports for 2 lines. Also, would it pay to move it over to a business account or should I keep it residential to save $$??

Thoughts?

Posts: 227 · Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:05 pm Post subject: Re: Similar situation

ajfitzer wrote:

I have a home office with 2 Verizon lines I am looking to bring over to Vonage... My question is, can I set up Call Hunt on a residential account ... Also, would it pay to move it over to a business account or should I keep it residential to save $$??
Thoughts?

Yes, if you have two Vonage residential voice lines on the same account, then you may enable hunting between them. If they are on different accounts, you cannot use call hunting, but you can accomplish almost the same thing by using call-forward-on-busy from the first line to the second.

Using lines billed at the residence rate for business purposes will work, technically. (No telephone system of which I am aware can filter voice calls by content!) It may be a violation of the terms of service for residence accounts, but I'll leave that to the Vonage reps on this forum.