Vonage Making VoIP For Dummies?
from the easy-as-possible dept
For years, VoIP systems were slow to catch on for two very big reasons: (1) the quality really wasn't that great and (2) they were a pain to set up. The quality issue has pretty much gone away, and Vonage should get some credit for creating a popular solution that solves the second problem. Setting up a Vonage line is painfully easy, and makes many people think it's just an alternative phone line - rather than having them think about the fact that it's actually VoIP. Now, they're going one step further. They've teamed up with TI to build a single chip that will basically include Vonage's software features - making it much easier for companies to build hardware that will act as a Vonage phone. While, on the face of it, this may seem like a boring technology partnership, Om Malik points out that this is another step in the "Vonage Everywhere strategy, where they expand the possibilities of where and how you use the Vonage system. This is, indeed, big news. In fact, one of my issues with Vonage was that, in making it seem exactly like a standard phone system, they were actually losing some of the advantages that VoIP provided them. This partnership suggests that the "looks like a phone, acts like a phone" strategy got them out into the market, but they know they now need to take that and expand it beyond what traditional phones can do.
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Vonage phone
This agreement makes it easier to make VOIP boxes.
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Vonage - NOT
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Re: Vonage - NOT
What firewall are you running? I am using a netgear router/firewall w/ 802.11g - a Toshiba cable modem and literally spent 5 minutes and i was up and running. You do have the Vonage box sitting outside of the firewall don't you? I have set up three of these boxes in three diff. network environments, cable, dsl, with.without a router and have yet to run into any real problems. The only issue so far is Tivo cannot dial out as Vonage said it could. The dedicated fax line - hookup is supposed to fix that. We'll see!
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vonage customer service
I think the way they get customers without informing them of all the things they have to deal with AFTER they take your credit card number is horrible. their service is dishonest and awful.
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Vonage Works Great
took it out of the box and had instant service. I never transfered my phone number.
The one thing that isn't possible for me, is to have a local number.
vonage offers vaccess numbers which are local numbers for family and friends to call me with out long distance charges. You can take the adapter with you on the road and make call for free from hotel rooms.
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