Any ideas for internet phone? Magic Jack?

Vanity | 1-20-2009 | Frantzie

[Frantzie]

Sorry to post a vanity but I am looking at VOIP for the small office. I was going to go with Packet 8 where you buy the phone at Office Depot. $24.95 a month and you can add more lines at $4.95 a month.

I do not like the people behind Vonage - the Citrons. The family got fined heavily by the SEC in their last venture with their online brokerage.

A relative has magic Jack for $40. $20 for the jack, $20 for the first year. $20 a year after that. It is for the office.

I also need to switch my router. I bought a D-Link DIR-615 was QoS enhancement to improve the response for the VOIP. I am worried about trying to switch over the old Netopia router to the D-Link.

Any suggestions?

[StolarStorm]

SIP Advantage

[ThomasThomas]

http://www.ooma.com/

OOMA

This is what my manager uses. The device cost $350 but you do not need a computer running to make it work. There are no fees for basic service after buying the box. He really likes it and it sounds great when I talk to him. I think he said that he could keep his local phone number. They also have business upgrades.

[Frantzie]

20 lines with Magic Jack? Thanks.

[Frantzie]

No fees for a local phone number? I am using it for loacal calls with a local number and will probably add an 800.

thanks.

[tallyhoe]

I have cell phones and land line! When the power went out last year I still had my land line! No cell phones worked and no cable so no voip worked!

[arealconservativeforachange]

Don’t use Comcast, you have to pay for long distance.
Oddly enough Vonage uses their lines, if you have Comcast, but Vonage does not charge for long distance.
Comcast are arrogant thieves.
I know because I have them for TV & Internet.

[stylin19a]

Magic Jack is now offering 5 years for 59 bucks and change.

pros:
price
has 911
I can send faxes (haven't tested receiving faxes yet)
voice mail
call waiting
caller id

I like it.

drawbacks:
can't port your old phone number
can't control number of rings(4) before voice-mail

for the money...it's great.
voice-mail is a wave file sent as an email attachment.
I control it by hooking it up to an answering machine that I set to 3 rings.

[oyez]

I wouldn't trust my phone service to Comcast.

We had a huge wind storm a couple of years back. Internet and cell phones were useless, but the old AT&T land line worked fine.

[WildcatClan]

I went from thinking MJ was the biggest ripoff of 2008 to thinking it was one of the best buys I have ever made. I paid $99 for 5 years of phone service. The difference was that my USB port was not supplying enough power. I bought an AC powered 4-port USB hub and have not had one problem since.

[Frantzie]

Thanks for a detailed analysis plus pros/cons.

Thanks to all the other responses too. Great info. I appreciate it.

[shadowcat]

I have been using SKYPE for over 2 years and I love it. I bought a linksys portable cordless for home use and I use my laptop for travel.
Unlimited long distance for US with voicemail is about $60.00 per year. (u get to select ur own phone #)

I have used my laptop with a headset from airports with no problem and when I travel to China is is $.021 per minute.

[stylin19a]

that's a great tip.
It's in Majic jack's FAQ and instructions.
When all else failed, I RTFM.

[dvan]

My personal selection was Magic Jack. It is faster than a regular phone, has a great addressbook and VoiceMail.

I have been robbed by AT&T the past two months with excessive bills for Internet ($70 a month) Go figure how they can charge double also continuing to charge for an office phone i had disconnected two months ago.

[ccmay]

Make sure you check out the Asterix open-source PBX system, especially the PBX in a Flash" bundle.

If you have even a modest amount of computer savvy, you will never again need to pay inflated prices for PBX capabilities.

[dvan]

My personal selection was Magic Jack. It is faster than a regular phone, has a great addressbook and VoiceMail.

I have been robbed by AT&T the past two months with excessive bills for Internet ($70 a month) Go figure how they can charge double also continuing to charge for an office phone i had disconnected two months ago.

[markomalley]

Asterisk for a VOIP PBX. Open source...use whatever VOIP instruments (or soft phones on your PCs) that you’d like. You can make it as big an implementation or as small as you need.

Vyatta for an open source router. If you get the right sized processor, it will run as well as a Cisco 7XXX series router.

No reason to pay good money for the stuff if you don’t have to (’tho buy a maintenance contract for both to help defray the development costs — and also to answer questions when first setting up)

[JSteff]

No.... 20+ lines.

[Hazwaste]

Skype is excellent, and can also be used outside of the office, anywhere where a fast Internet connection is available. You can use either a computer or an 802.11 Skype phone.

BTW, I’m not associated with Skype, other than as a customer for the past 2 years. I’ve got their subscription for unlimited calls to anywhere in the US and Canada, along with a Skype-In number so landline phones can reach me. Around $70 per year for the whole thing.

[Peace Is Coming]

bttt for Magic Jack information:)))

[GeronL]

cool. my BIL has fast cable internet with a wifi system. Pretty cool, but they don’t use Skype because they just get 2 phones from Metro PCS