Phone number for your pc - FREE incoming calls!

littleange

flatcat wrote: »

This is a v. long thread (could do with pruning) but in case anyone manages to get to the end of it (or is it just me) I thought I would let you all know that sipgate doesn't appear to be giving out regional numbers anymore.

I am with AOL so I have tried the proxy route and one other ISP with the same effect. Please correct me if anyone has got one recently (i.e. 2007).

I am trying my luck with orbtalk who do give out local numbers but I need voicemail and the only way to get it is to give them a one-off £5 credit.

Are you sure, just had a look and managed to get to the stage where you choose a number and they are still there?

BexTech

Sipgate are still giving out local numbers for free, I have just this second tested this.

If you are an AOL customer you will need to either use a UK proxy service or use another connection, as Sipgate checks to see if you are a UK user, it sees AOL's IP address range as being outside the UK. You could also get someone who isn't on AOL to sign up for you, then send you the details, then you can log in and change the password to the account etc.

BexTech

http://www.voiptalk.org/reallyvoip using this link will give you a local number for free and voicemail.

Though as said above Sipgate do still issue numbers.

flatcat

Thanks BexTech for the extra information.

As I said, it's hard to take in all the information on 25 pages and know which bits are useful but your reply along with littleange_com and smsmasters are helping me get to the crux.

To clarify, are you sure about AOL? I did try with another ISP (not AOL) and they where only giving 0845 numbers. I wanted a local 01749 which orbtalk and voiptalk.org are giving out.
However 2 problems with them :
1.) orbtalk require £5 for registration to get voicemail
2.) voiptalk.org do not give voicemail on their standard tarrif so I would have to upgrade to a minimum of prepay Silver for £2.99 a month.

I think sipgate give out free voicemail with no strings so this sounds like the best option for me so far.

Replies and advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

littleange

We are with ntl on cable and it was working from home, I am now visiting family this week who are with AOL and I can no longer see the regional option

I will set you up an account if you like when I get home, but unfortunately I wont be able to until maybe next wed/thurs if you can wait that long

vinylmusic

I have both Vonage and VoIPtalk and in both cases I find call quality very poor.
Firstly I subscribed to Vonage and got on their unlimited UK calls package. I am using their wifi handset
This may sound a little complicated but I'm on a shared connection in a separate house. In the main house theres the phoneline then a Netgear 4port + wireless modem/router.
I dont have a phone in my house so I ran an ethernet cable directly from the router to my computer.
In order to use the Vonage wifi handset I connected a Fon router to the end of the cable and a belkin wireless adapter on my computer
The internet works fine withth an excellent 54.0Mbps signal but my vonage wifi leaves a lot to be desired. I set my vonage rate to maximum bandwidth gaining little improvement.
Sometimes its ok but a little quiet and other times its impossible to hold a conversation.
I just signed up to voiptalk and tried making calls through them using a USB VOIP phone which I bought from Maplins. I tried making a call to a landline but dont think much of the call quality there either.
I looked on voiptalk's help pages about call quality and they suggest both ends use a usb headset which doesnt help when calling landlines and theres no mention rhere about calling landlines

With both Vonage and Voiptalk I have a UK landline number with the area code of my choosing
I thought about going with Skype but their choice of area codes are very limited and I cant get one anywhere near the area I want which I find very surprising.

I have paid around £70 to Vonage who offer a 30 day no quibble money back guarantee
I've just got a few days left so I'm becoming desperate to find a solution.

If anyone can offer useful advice or an alternative provider I'd be very grateful. Please bear in mind I dont want to pay BT to install another phone line

BexTech

I'd say your problem is you are on a shared connection. Other people are using the bandwidth you require for a clear phone call.

I've been using VoIP for a couple of years now and only the people I tell that I am using VoIP know the difference other than some people commenting on how clear and crisp the 'line' is.

I do however not have a problem with bandwidth and therefore can avoid using highly compressed codecs (though saying that, I haven't had too many issues with some of the other codecs). If you are low on bandwidth then forcing the program / hardware to use a compressed codec may help, though may take the call sound quality down to that of a 900MHZ mobile phone.

vinylmusic

BexTech wrote: »

I'd say your problem is you are on a shared connection. Other people are using the bandwidth you require for a clear phone call.

I've been using VoIP for a couple of years now and only the people I tell that I am using VoIP know the difference other than some people commenting on how clear and crisp the 'line' is.

I do however not have a problem with bandwidth and therefore can avoid using highly compressed codecs (though saying that, I haven't had too many issues with some of the other codecs). If you are low on bandwidth then forcing the program / hardware to use a compressed codec may help, though may take the call sound quality down to that of a 900MHZ mobile phone.

Thanks for the information but could you tell me how to force the hardware to do that?

BexTech

vinylmusic wrote: »

Thanks for the information but could you tell me how to force the hardware to do that?

If you are using hardware such as an ATA or proper VoIP phone then there will be a setting in the configuration area of the device.

If you are using software which is also required for the USB type VoIP phones, as these aren't really phones just an external soundcard in a phone shaped case with speaker and earpiece, then there will usually be a setting in the software for which codecs to use and which to favour first.

flatcat

Today I received my first voicemail and I haven't shelled out for anything yet which is pretty amazing.

The quality seems good and I have the local number I wanted thanks to BexTech (despite AOL) through sipgate.

VOIP sounds like it can get pretty complicated so I will take my time investigating further.

I am officially happy now.