International travel softphone versus v-phone

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 28, 2010 Posts: 1

I will be going to Mexico for a week. I would like to be able to call back to the US using my existing Vonage home account. I will be using my laptop and the resort's high speed wireless. I can't figure out if the v-phone is better or if the softphone is better. I travel internationally every few years, so this is not a regular thing.

Posts: 32 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Mar 17, 2006 Posts: 32

Unfortunately not a timely response but I've had both a V-Phone & a Vonage Softphone and there are pros & cons to both.

The V-Phone 'should' be the better option hands down but the hardware is too unreliable ... I had 6 fail & after the 6 months warranty is up they charge you $50 for a replacement, it got so bad I bough a spare one in case of failure when I was away, so I would have to be without a phone if/when one failed. The only other negative on the V-Phone was that it only had parcial support for USB handsets (you could use it to talk but needed to place the call & answer the call via the Vonage Talk software), Those are the only negatives for the V-Phone, unfortunately the failure rate was so high that its a killer (& I actually bought a couple of used Vonage/Starcom F1000 WiFi handsets off eBay that I now travel with, while they are not perfect, I'll know they'll work.

On the plus side for the V-Phone are -
- you only need 1 Vonage line **
- it supports all of the Vonage call plans
- if you also have a Vonage box at home you can use the web based 'move a number' feature to use a 'real' phone at home & the V-Phone when traveling
- the 'bandwidth saver' option works with it, so you can allocate bandwidth to improve quality

As for the softphone ... here in Canada -
- we don't have the Vonage Companion option & the standalone V-Talk Softphone application has been discontinues, so we have to pay for the Vonage Softphone as a seperate line to our 'regular' Vonage line (can't just have the softphone or link a softphone to your existing #)
- SoftPhone is only available in the 500 min/mo plan, no unlimited option
- the bandwidth saver wasn't available, so unreliable quality
- you are tied to your PC, if it locks up no phone

But there were a couple of pluses, primarily being that it didn't break link the V-phone did & that there was good support (via both the SJLabs & XTen SoftPhone option & Vonage) for USB handsets (could dial & answer calls via the handset directly).

From my perspective -
- I used the VonageSoft phone for 18 months as it was a much cheaper alternative to using a cel phone when traveling, but eventually I tired of the limitations
- I then used the V-Phone for 18 months, it was a significant improvement but the failure rate was too high
- I'm now at ~15 months with the Vonage/Starcom F1000 WiFi handsets & its not perfect either (some quirky features, limited WiFi security options & not always the best quality)

Now if I'm away for long periods I bring a Vonage box & telephone handset, while bulky its the most reliable ... the limitations on the other options eventually make them undesirable.

Hope this helps ...

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 11, 2007 Posts: 9

Can a Vonage user use third party softphones?

I'm using X-Lite on my Onesuite VoIP service which I mainly use for international calls.

I like its features so I wonder if Vonage can be use on third party softphones.

Posts: 32 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Mar 17, 2006 Posts: 32

If you have subscribed to the Vonage SoftPhone then yes, as Vonage would have provided the SIP information necessary to use most applications (when I'd subscribed to it I started with the X-Lite but quickly changed to the SJ Labs one but after about a year went back to X-Lite as they had upgraded many of the features that I'd liked in the SJ Labs version).

But if your using "Vonage PC Companion", as part of the Vonage Pro suite then I think it links directly to your Vonage account, so I don't think it provides the SIP information you'll need to use an alternate softphone.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 11, 2007 Posts: 9

Thanks for clarification.

Yeah X-Lite is better than SJlabs as SJphones are outdated and the latest version (2.5 years) is very old.

Glad to know I have options aside from Onesuite on my X-Lite. Though with the X-Lite, users can only add one SIP account and you need to remove the current SIP if you want to use another Voip account.

Found a solution just last week though by using PBXes.org, people should try it if they have more than 1 SIP account. I register my SIP accounts in PBXes.org and use my PBXes SIP settings on my X-Lite.

Thus it doesn't matter whether people are calling my Vonage or Onesuite Voip number, I'll get it both on X-Lite, same thing when calling out, I can choose which Voip account I will use.