Anyone having trouble registering their ATA with Sipgate today.
Both my lines are offline at the minute!
No, had no problems today here.
It's PAC not PAC Code, it's MAC not MAC Code, it's PIN not PIN Number, it's ATM not ATM Machine, it's LCD not LCD Display, it's DVD not DVD disc... It's no one not noone, It's a lot not alot, It's got not gotten... Panini is the plural of panino - there is no S!!
(OK my English isn't great, the sciences, maths & IT are my strong points!)
Okay, I'm after a bit of advice here...
I'm thinking of ditching BT and switching to Virgin for my broadband - the reason being I know I can get cable broadband from Virgin, whereas ADSL has always been a bit ropey (currently managing an alleged 1056kbps on a 1.5Mb connection but it drops as low as 384kbps on a regular basis)
The reason I'm posting here is I was wondering whether using the broadband for VoIP would mean I didn't need to fork out for a Virgin phone line. We probably spend less than £10 a month on top of our BT line rental, most of which is on daytime and evening landline calls - but my wife does use the landline number for incoming calls as she's self-employed, so we can't really just lose it.
Looking at the Vonage website, simply because it's easy to understand, they'd give us the thing we need to plug our current phone handset into the router in return for signing up, and £6pm would cover almost all of our calls - and we wouldn't have to fork out extra for caller display (which is a must). But I get the impression from reading this thread that there might be better (ie. more cost-effective) ways of doing it.
What I'd like to know is:
1. is VoIP a realistic replacement for a landline in terms of receiving incoming calls? Have others managed this successfully?
2. are there alternative provider/s to Vonage that will 'port' the number from BT, or other ways of making this work?
3. I'll get a cable modem from Virgin, which I will plug into my existing wireless ADSL router (ignoring the ADSL bit) to maintain my home network. I already have a DECT phone. If I go with another provider than Vonage, what extra kit will I need?
4. Once it's all set up, will it behave sufficiently similarly to our current landline that my wife/incoming callers won't notice the difference? Are there any limitations I should be aware of?
5. Will caller display still work (regardless of provider) - and will our outgoing calls still 'publish' our caller id as our current number?
1) Yes, VoIP is a realistic alternative in terms of incoming and outgoing calls - We were VoIP only for 3 years.
2) yes, there are several VoIP providers out there that will port numbers in.
3) You need an ATA (analogue telephone adapter - such as a Linksys PAP2 ATA or Linksys SPA range - ensure the PAP2 if you bought that one isn't a previously locked to Vonage on).
4) With the Linksys range of ATAs once set-up you would not know any difference at all, it would behave and sound exactly like your regular landline, they allow you a REN of 5 on each line, so you could add in extenstions if wanted.
5) Caller ID will work, Caller ID is part of the VoIP spec, so it works and there is never a charge for it. Also unlike BT etc it doesn't mask out international calls at 'International' it actually shows you the international number, as for sending out the CLID just like when you route calls via BT via cheap calls providers, it may sometimes not send your ID (though not happen often - but as this happens when using BT and low cost providers - it's no different). You also get as part of VoIP and your ATA 3-way calling, call divert, anonymous caller reject and more for no charge
You may find however with Virgin media, it is actually cheaper to have a phone line with their broadband, than it is to have broadband only.
The only reason we're not VoIP only any more is Virgin Media offered us a retention deal for life as long as we stayed, which included having a phone line installed for free, free extension socket fitted, free line rental, free evening and weekend calls, free caller display, as well as discount on the TV and broadband - so was crazy not to take the offer. So now use VM for the free calls and us VoIP for others. With some of the VoIP providers, you can program the ATA to send out the CLID of a number you have access to, for example your VM phone line, so when you call out on the VoIP line it appears as if you are calling from your VM line.
It's PAC not PAC Code, it's MAC not MAC Code, it's PIN not PIN Number, it's ATM not ATM Machine, it's LCD not LCD Display, it's DVD not DVD disc... It's no one not noone, It's a lot not alot, It's got not gotten... Panini is the plural of panino - there is no S!!
(OK my English isn't great, the sciences, maths & IT are my strong points!)
Thanks for your help, BexTech. A couple of further questions:
Re. 2 - is there anywhere I can track down these suppliers? Any that are particularly recommended (or that I should avoid?)
and
Re. 3 - so the setup of cable modem -> wireless router -> ATA -> phone is a viable one then? (I don't need to pay Virgin an extra £40 for their wireless router - I can just use the standard cable modem in place of the ADSL 'bit')
Because I'm a 'new' customer to Virgin (the cable at my house hasn't been used since it was ntl) there's no chance of a retention deal, and I'm not planning on paying for their telly, I'm quite happy with the Freeview PVR I've got - I couldn't even persuade them to give me caller display for free by pointing out BT don't charge for it - so that's an extra £1.75 worth avoiding...
At full price, broadband only is £17 from Virgin, whereas broadband + phone is £20 + 1.75 caller ID, and then I'd have to pay for most calls (which are more expensive than BT) - so looking at about £30pm, + £30 to port the BT number...
trogit
PS. a couple more things I've thought of - is it possible to subscribe to and use more than one VoIP provider simultaneously using an ATA (eg. one for incoming and one for outgoing calls might work out more cost-effective)
and is ATA + DECT phone a better combination than a WiFi phone?
I asked this question before, but no-one answered and I think I probably put it in the wrong place - anyway I've moved it now and I'd really like some help please.
I've been reading through and don't really understand it all. I have used Skpe in the past but the quality of the calls was never very good. (I was only using a cheap headset!)
Perhaps someone more technical can help. At the moment I run a small business from home and have 2 lines, home and business. The business line is for phone and fax. In a couple of months I'm moving to Greece but still want to run my business.
What I want is for customers to dial a local number for calls and faxes (preferably the same number as I have now) and I want to either answer the call or divert to my mobile, or answer machine - or receive the fax. I also want friends and family to call us cheaply or for free.
Is that possible? And should I set it up now in the UK or wait until I'm in Greece. I will be using the same PC but the broadband provider will be different.
Any help and ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks
If you need any more details on the set-up let me know.
It's PAC not PAC Code, it's MAC not MAC Code, it's PIN not PIN Number, it's ATM not ATM Machine, it's LCD not LCD Display, it's DVD not DVD disc... It's no one not noone, It's a lot not alot, It's got not gotten... Panini is the plural of panino - there is no S!!
(OK my English isn't great, the sciences, maths & IT are my strong points!)
Because I'm a 'new' customer to Virgin (the cable at my house hasn't been used since it was ntl) there's no chance of a retention deal, and I'm not planning on paying for their telly, I'm quite happy with the Freeview PVR I've got - I couldn't even persuade them to give me caller display for free by pointing out BT don't charge for it - so that's an extra £1.75 worth avoiding...
At full price, broadband only is £17 from Virgin, whereas broadband + phone is £20 + 1.75 caller ID, and then I'd have to pay for most calls (which are more expensive than BT) - so looking at about £30pm, + £30 to port the BT number...
Where on the site are you looking? You can get the m bb + m phone for £15.50 - this offer has been available for a yr or so... have another look on the virginmedia website, also m bb only is £10 for 6 months then £17 for next 6 months. A few months ago it was £10/month for 12 months :-(
Replies
No, had no problems today here.
The must have been working late into the night, replied to me at 9pm - they had DNS server issues.
I'm thinking of ditching BT and switching to Virgin for my broadband - the reason being I know I can get cable broadband from Virgin, whereas ADSL has always been a bit ropey (currently managing an alleged 1056kbps on a 1.5Mb connection but it drops as low as 384kbps on a regular basis)
The reason I'm posting here is I was wondering whether using the broadband for VoIP would mean I didn't need to fork out for a Virgin phone line. We probably spend less than £10 a month on top of our BT line rental, most of which is on daytime and evening landline calls - but my wife does use the landline number for incoming calls as she's self-employed, so we can't really just lose it.
Looking at the Vonage website, simply because it's easy to understand, they'd give us the thing we need to plug our current phone handset into the router in return for signing up, and £6pm would cover almost all of our calls - and we wouldn't have to fork out extra for caller display (which is a must). But I get the impression from reading this thread that there might be better (ie. more cost-effective) ways of doing it.
What I'd like to know is:
1. is VoIP a realistic replacement for a landline in terms of receiving incoming calls? Have others managed this successfully?
2. are there alternative provider/s to Vonage that will 'port' the number from BT, or other ways of making this work?
3. I'll get a cable modem from Virgin, which I will plug into my existing wireless ADSL router (ignoring the ADSL bit) to maintain my home network. I already have a DECT phone. If I go with another provider than Vonage, what extra kit will I need?
4. Once it's all set up, will it behave sufficiently similarly to our current landline that my wife/incoming callers won't notice the difference? Are there any limitations I should be aware of?
5. Will caller display still work (regardless of provider) - and will our outgoing calls still 'publish' our caller id as our current number?
Think that'll do for now!
TIA,
trogit
2) yes, there are several VoIP providers out there that will port numbers in.
3) You need an ATA (analogue telephone adapter - such as a Linksys PAP2 ATA or Linksys SPA range - ensure the PAP2 if you bought that one isn't a previously locked to Vonage on).
4) With the Linksys range of ATAs once set-up you would not know any difference at all, it would behave and sound exactly like your regular landline, they allow you a REN of 5 on each line, so you could add in extenstions if wanted.
5) Caller ID will work, Caller ID is part of the VoIP spec, so it works and there is never a charge for it. Also unlike BT etc it doesn't mask out international calls at 'International' it actually shows you the international number, as for sending out the CLID just like when you route calls via BT via cheap calls providers, it may sometimes not send your ID (though not happen often - but as this happens when using BT and low cost providers - it's no different). You also get as part of VoIP and your ATA 3-way calling, call divert, anonymous caller reject and more for no charge
You may find however with Virgin media, it is actually cheaper to have a phone line with their broadband, than it is to have broadband only.
The only reason we're not VoIP only any more is Virgin Media offered us a retention deal for life as long as we stayed, which included having a phone line installed for free, free extension socket fitted, free line rental, free evening and weekend calls, free caller display, as well as discount on the TV and broadband - so was crazy not to take the offer. So now use VM for the free calls and us VoIP for others. With some of the VoIP providers, you can program the ATA to send out the CLID of a number you have access to, for example your VM phone line, so when you call out on the VoIP line it appears as if you are calling from your VM line.
Re. 2 - is there anywhere I can track down these suppliers? Any that are particularly recommended (or that I should avoid?)
and
Re. 3 - so the setup of cable modem -> wireless router -> ATA -> phone is a viable one then? (I don't need to pay Virgin an extra £40 for their wireless router - I can just use the standard cable modem in place of the ADSL 'bit')
Because I'm a 'new' customer to Virgin (the cable at my house hasn't been used since it was ntl) there's no chance of a retention deal, and I'm not planning on paying for their telly, I'm quite happy with the Freeview PVR I've got - I couldn't even persuade them to give me caller display for free by pointing out BT don't charge for it - so that's an extra £1.75 worth avoiding...
At full price, broadband only is £17 from Virgin, whereas broadband + phone is £20 + 1.75 caller ID, and then I'd have to pay for most calls (which are more expensive than BT) - so looking at about £30pm, + £30 to port the BT number...
trogit
PS. a couple more things I've thought of - is it possible to subscribe to and use more than one VoIP provider simultaneously using an ATA (eg. one for incoming and one for outgoing calls might work out more cost-effective)
and is ATA + DECT phone a better combination than a WiFi phone?
I've been reading through and don't really understand it all. I have used Skpe in the past but the quality of the calls was never very good. (I was only using a cheap headset!)
Perhaps someone more technical can help. At the moment I run a small business from home and have 2 lines, home and business. The business line is for phone and fax. In a couple of months I'm moving to Greece but still want to run my business.
What I want is for customers to dial a local number for calls and faxes (preferably the same number as I have now) and I want to either answer the call or divert to my mobile, or answer machine - or receive the fax. I also want friends and family to call us cheaply or for free.
Is that possible? And should I set it up now in the UK or wait until I'm in Greece. I will be using the same PC but the broadband provider will be different.
Any help and ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks
I am newbie on PAP2-NA configuration. Please give me a step by step configuration for SMSDISCOUNT voip account.
Is PAP2 work on UAE?
Best Regards,
Prem
http://www.smsdiscount.com/en/sipp.html
Click on: Linksys SPA3102
If you need any more details on the set-up let me know.
Please help me. I am on UAE. Is there any bloking by ISP?, But the software version of SMSDISCOUNT is working perfectly.
Prem
Where on the site are you looking? You can get the m bb + m phone for £15.50 - this offer has been available for a yr or so... have another look on the virginmedia website, also m bb only is £10 for 6 months then £17 for next 6 months. A few months ago it was £10/month for 12 months :-(