We use VOIP through Vonage too. It was awful at first, has improved a lot. I'm still getting the occasional echo, and some occasional crackling. The "Vonage Device" (a router) should be set up 4 feet away from the modem, and no cords should cross from the modem to the router, or from the router to the telephone. It's not quite set up like that here (it's on my to-do list!). If you use bittorrent or other file sharing software, there are usually conflicts and the call quality goes down when the file sharing is actually happening. Thankfully, I can now understand their CSRs and they always follow up quickly on any problems.
Ben: I didn't ask for any of this. I just want to be normal. Gronx: I wanted to be an underwear model. We play the hand we're dealt.
'Touched'
Buffistechnology 3: "Press Some Buttons, See What Happens."
Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!
Deena - Sep 09, 2008 5:08:27 am PDT #7603 of 25501
How are you me? You need to stop that. Only I can be me. ~Kara
Gudanov - Sep 09, 2008 5:19:58 am PDT #7604 of 25501
Coding and Sleeping
Yeah, Vonage will degrade if you are soaking up a lot of bandwidth with other stuff while you use it. The cable VOIP service in our area reserves an amount of bandwidth for VOIP so Internet usage won't degrade the connection. For us, I consider this a plus for Vonage since we have full bandwidth for the Internet the 99% of the time we aren't using VOIP.
Jessica - Sep 09, 2008 5:52:48 am PDT #7605 of 25501
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
Canceling Vonage was a complete nightmare experience for me, so that's something to be aware of if it doesn't work out. (Though it's certainly possible that they've improved both call quality AND customer service in the 2+ years since I dealt with them.)
Typo Boy - Sep 09, 2008 6:24:09 am PDT #7606 of 25501
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
How have people found voice quality on Skype? (Not that you would use it as primary - but in voice only mode to land and cell lines, how do people find it?)
Kevin - Sep 09, 2008 7:59:40 am PDT #7607 of 25501
Never fall in love with somebody you actually love.
skype - great audio quality for me.
I use Connect 360 with my Mac to stream Ahemed TV to my living room TV. It's awesome.
omnis_audis - Sep 09, 2008 8:03:22 am PDT #7608 of 25501
omnis, pursue. That's an order from a shy woman who can use M-16. - Shir
Ahemed TVhuh? what is that?
Pix - Sep 09, 2008 8:33:07 am PDT #7609 of 25501
The status is NOT quo.
Omnis, board policy is that we don't talk directly about television gotten from non-mainstream sources nor link to those sources. Hence "ahem."
Tom Scola - Sep 09, 2008 8:37:44 am PDT #7610 of 25501
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
Apple killed the 160GB iPod.
NoiseDesign - Sep 09, 2008 8:39:35 am PDT #7611 of 25501
Our wings are not tired
I'm not too surprised. I pretty much gave up on an iPod ever shipping that was large enough to hold my current selection of media.
Daisy Jane - Sep 09, 2008 8:44:42 am PDT #7612 of 25501
"This bar smells like kerosene and stripper tears."
I'm curious how the AT&T verse thing goes. I'm debating it here, but it wasn't a huge savings. It was partially to thumb my nose at Time Warner
I think Jon and I are going to do this too. So very sick of TW.