So how good is it really?

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 02, 2005 Posts: 18

I have been sitting on the fence between Time Warner and Vonage for a while. So here are my questions, How good is Vonage really? Assuming you get it set up perfectly, is it as good as a normal phone? Can I tell the difference or can people tell I am on it?
I already have a cable modem and Linksys router, so do I need to buy anything or does Vonage supply it all to me?

Thanks in advance…

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 6

I've been with Vonage about a month and I'm very impressed. I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for and figured there would be tradeoffs for not having the traditional phone service however, I'm more satisfied with Vonage then with my previous carrier MCI. Here are some pros and cons to consider.

Pros:
*A ton of calling features many of which land line companies charge extra.
*Terrific phone quality.
*Reliable. My service hasn't been unavailable over the past month.
*Nice web interface that includes incoming and outgoing activity.
*I'm saving $50 a month with Vonage.

Cons:
*Tranfsering from another carrier is time consuming. Mine took 2 months which seems about average. Vonage says a minimum of 20 days but expect it to take longer.
*Many may disagree with me on this point but setting up the phone router with a wireless network is confusing. It took me 3 days to configure the phone system with my wireless router. I spent a lot of time on this forum reading postings from others having the same problem. This forum is very helpful.

In summary, I recommend Vonage.

Hope this helps.

Rick.

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 02, 2005 Posts: 18

Rick,

Thanks for your comments

Posts: 433 · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 5:11 am Post subject:

I am not sure of your area, but Vonage is almost 50-percent cheaper than the TW Voip. The only difference I have found is that when you have cable or internet problems, TW makes your repair call alot faster than if you do not use their Voip service.

I guess they do not wish to get "in deep" when someone says that they were unable to dial emergency services because their cable connection (TV or Internet) was not working,

Just a thought.

Posts: 249 · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 9:47 am Post subject: How Good is Vonage

Quote:

How good is Vonage really? Assuming you get it set up perfectly, is it as good as a normal phone? Can I tell the difference or can people tell I am on it?

I have had Vonage since January this year. I was attracted by the 800 number as I am the Secretary of NAFTS, a small but national veterans organization. I have had no problems with it. There is a little latency with it similar to a cell phone.

I ordered it from Vonage, they sent me the telephone cachinkus, I took it out of the box, plugged it in between the modem and router and it started working. No problem there. Nothing to buy except another cheap phone. I like it! ... BUT... I voted no on your poll because my area code is not available when I ordered Vonage and still isn't. For that reason I cannot disconnect my landline. I was aware that other Voip companies did offer my area code but was swayed by the Vonage ads and the fact that the CS told me that my area code, 541, would soon be available.

For the small amount of money for a going in cost try it. You will probably like it. It works.

Posts: 16 · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:01 am Post subject:

I have had Vonage service since December and I love it. People cannot even tell that I don't have a landline. Initially I had some phone quality problems but they were due to my ISP. I switched ISP's and now my phone service is great. Thank you Vonage.

Posts: 42 · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:19 pm Post subject:

For us, no, mostly because of Vonage's lack of 'privacy manager' functionality (or failing that, a BYOD option).

Other problems that have bitten us:
* Mandatory 11 digit dialing (now fixed, thankfully!).
* ANI doesn't match callerid. If we call a 1-800 number where they check the ANI, it comes up as some New-Jersey 973 area code instead of a California 925 number. This has caused problems, my bank gets really paranoid about this for some reason.
* Incoming caller-id names are unreliable and sometimes simply wrong. For example, one of my friends homes is a golf club according to Vonage. When they call real land-lines with regular caller-id, it comes up correctly with their name. Caller-id names are simply missing every now and then - even for people we are in regular contact with and have their name show up normally.
* Outages (vonage-specific, not just the usual internet unreliability)
* We got dropped from the phone book and directory assistance even though we marked 'keep name & number in the book' on the transfer LOA.
* Vonage's lack of a 'privacy manager' type system forced us to look for at other solutions and ultimately at an Asterisk pbx for home. Anonymous call rejection doesn't cut it, even if it was available. This lead to our frustration over the lack of a BYOD plan/option. I'd kill for a SOHO priced/provisioned version of vonage's 'Business Plus' plan.

The only reason we even tried Vonage in the first place was because we were moving and wanted to take our number with us instead of changing it everywhere yet again. In retrospect, that was a mistake. We should have changed numbers, stuck with SBC and I would have saved all that time that I burned playing with Asterisk. There aren't enough hours in the day already and Asterisk is way too much fun - I didn't need the distraction.

Posts: 17 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 28, 2004 Posts: 17

No complaints here. Number 1

Posts: 42 · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 1:30 pm Post subject:

As an addendum to my post.. To be fair, we were reasonably comfortable with the service until we started outgrowing it. It was about then that we realized that there wasn't much room for growth. Vonage caters for the lowest common denominator and that's it. If you need or want more than the basic service that they provide, then you're out of luck. IMHO, Vonage's residential offerings are the most basic of all of the Voip providers.

Posts: 163 · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 3:55 pm Post subject: Re: So how good is it really?

SDShaun wrote:

How good is Vonage really?

I suggest you go through http://www.vonage-forum.com/forum10.html

...and see what is missing.

Biggest problems: unreliable connection, dropped calls, no ACR, poor tech support.