Re: [SLUG] voip overview, please

From: Chuck Hast (wchast@gmail.com)
Date: Fri Jan 28 2005 - 08:58:33 EST


On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 10:02:02 -0500, Eric A. Hicks
<lugmail@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> I was wondering if someone could give me an overview of voip in a plain
> english, non-sales pitch type of way....
>
> I'm sick of paying Verizon $30 a month, I would love to try something
> like Asterisk, but don't know if Asterisk is right for my simple
> needs/implementation. Let me say that I was one of the original Dialpad
> users, and I used the heck out of it... I loved it! It allowed me to
> call my fiance who was at school several times a day without paying long
> distance. I would like to have that capablility again, and I hear the
> sound quality is much better these days!
>
> Is Asterisk good for a simple home installation? I just want outbound
> calling. I don't want to buy a bunch of hardware. I have a couple of
> PCs I can dedicate. Sorry if I'm showing my ignorance, but did I read
> somewhere that I can use analog phone equipment??
>
I pay 24.95/mo for Vonage nation wide +Canada unlimited. I also get
VM, call conference call waiting, follow me and I forget what else as
part of the package, that is why I tossed Verizon and the fact that
the wireing out here (I live in Palm River) is still (according to a Verizon
guy who came out to check for dial tone problems) is still paper.

My Vonage service has been MUCH better than Verizon, I use RR as
the cable connection, it stayed up all through the storms but those who
had POTs lost it during at least two of them here in my area.

Back when I had Verizon, a hard rain storm would cause the line
to look like the phone was off hook so you would many times pick
up the phone to find that there was not dial tone. That is why the
Verizon guy made the trip out here in the first place, and that is
when I found out about the old cable. Now they are putting in fiber
all over the place but here, I suspect that we will have paper in the
cable well into the next century the way things go here.

I hope the do get the fibre into this area so we can have more high
speed choices, we need some competition, but in terms of service
my internet connection has always been much better of the cable
than the phone service.

-- 
Chuck Hast 
To paraphrase my flight instructor;
"the only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask resulting in my going
out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of torn
and twisted metal."
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