[NOTE - If it's significantly less that those figures, you either have a problem with your line or PC, someone else is using your bandwidth (see above) or another PC on your network is accessing the Internet at the same time.]
Funny you should mention this Dave as just this morning as I sallied out the house, terraced straight on to large pavement, there was a BT guy pulling cables and ropes from the opened manhole. Apparently there had been a blockage which is now fixed.
We constantly have problems with the telephone lines as the telephone pole is condemmned which means to BT engineers that they shouldn't go up it, not so terribly long along it was all party lines which still tends to mean that in one person in the street has a problem, so does the neighbour.
I am at work so will print out this thread and have a look at your helpful advice when I get home, thanks again to you both.
The company behind JustDialSaver Lite (apart of the OneTel group) also do their own VoIP. I've never used them so can't comment on them or even if they are cheap, etc (I did notice they do charge a monthly fee though).
I have VOIPBuster and Skype installed on both PCs. We have ADSL (500kb connection) and a wireless network.
There seems lots of questions around but not any answers regarding using a voip phone with VOIPBuster. Ideally I'd like to use VOIPBuster even when my pcs are off. Even more ideally I'd like to plug a normal phone into the router to do this. I know there are adapters out there. The great thing about this would be that I could use a cordless phone to do the talking. Special wireless voip phones cost like £200 which is stupid. Has anyone got any answers?
VOIPBuster, Skype and all the others like that are software applications. That means that they need a PC/Mac or other operating system to be present before they will work, so you wouldn't be able to use them if the PC was switched off.
You don't mention what router you have... presumably we are talking home use here, so you are most likely talking about sub £100 ADSL routers and the like. Only the very newest routers out there are likely to have the capability to have VOIP directly from the router; the Vigor2900VG Voice-over-IP Router, and the new NetGear TA612V VoIP Router being prime examples. If you have an older router it almost certainly wont have VOIP built in, and the manufacturers aren't likely to provide updated firmware for this as it means fewer sales of their new products.
If you do have to change your router, be very careful to check exactly how the VOIP features work. The Netgear router mentioned above has limited configuration capabilities, and requires the sipgate service to work. This may not be what you want or already have. Also check that you can route normal calls as well as VOIP calls through the router as well because not all allow this.
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
Its not the cheapest as you indicate, however, the ability to plug a conventional telephone handset into a router justifies the cost. Family members with no idea how to use a computer can now make calls over broadband. I think that’s a great thing. Also, with Vonage, the pc does not need to be on like it does to use Skype. Both Skype and Vonage do have their uses; I’m not sure which one I’ll stick with in the long run. It’s all good competition!
Replies
Funny you should mention this Dave as just this morning as I sallied out the house, terraced straight on to large pavement, there was a BT guy pulling cables and ropes from the opened manhole. Apparently there had been a blockage which is now fixed.
We constantly have problems with the telephone lines as the telephone pole is condemmned which means to BT engineers that they shouldn't go up it, not so terribly long along it was all party lines which still tends to mean that in one person in the street has a problem, so does the neighbour.
I am at work so will print out this thread and have a look at your helpful advice when I get home, thanks again to you both.
To go to link in Freebies
Further information here.
I have VOIPBuster and Skype installed on both PCs. We have ADSL (500kb connection) and a wireless network.
There seems lots of questions around but not any answers regarding using a voip phone with VOIPBuster. Ideally I'd like to use VOIPBuster even when my pcs are off. Even more ideally I'd like to plug a normal phone into the router to do this. I know there are adapters out there. The great thing about this would be that I could use a cordless phone to do the talking. Special wireless voip phones cost like £200 which is stupid. Has anyone got any answers?
Thanks.
VOIPBuster, Skype and all the others like that are software applications. That means that they need a PC/Mac or other operating system to be present before they will work, so you wouldn't be able to use them if the PC was switched off.
You don't mention what router you have... presumably we are talking home use here, so you are most likely talking about sub £100 ADSL routers and the like. Only the very newest routers out there are likely to have the capability to have VOIP directly from the router; the Vigor2900VG Voice-over-IP Router, and the new NetGear TA612V VoIP Router being prime examples. If you have an older router it almost certainly wont have VOIP built in, and the manufacturers aren't likely to provide updated firmware for this as it means fewer sales of their new products.
If you do have to change your router, be very careful to check exactly how the VOIP features work. The Netgear router mentioned above has limited configuration capabilities, and requires the sipgate service to work. This may not be what you want or already have. Also check that you can route normal calls as well as VOIP calls through the router as well because not all allow this.
I also see that China, Russia, Taiwan, Israel, Italy, Hungary, Poland are also no longer free when they were before.
They are still free (at the moment) to 19 other countries.
So now free (at the moment) to 16 other countries.
Its great and very easy to install.
For £9.99 a month, I get unlimited calls to everything except 07,0845,09 and so on.
Check it out at www.vonage.com
Its an expensive way of getting unlimited calls to 01/02 numbers is it not? Intl calls are not that cheap either.
The correct site is https://www.vonage.co.uk (.com is the USA site,)