More adventures in VoIP

Today I signed up for Via Talk.   So far I am quite happy with it.  I used some other VoIP services earlier, but was not too impressed.  But the benefits of VoIP service make it worth trying again. 

Since I had my own hardware (a Sipura 2100) I signed up for the BYOD service.  If you are shopping for an Analog Telephone adapter, I am not a huge fan of the 2100.  It has an integrated router that is a bit tricky to work with.  I pasted the Username and password into the appropriate places in my sipura's configuration page, and the service came up.

Andee has been talking quite a bit with her Sister in Eugene lately.  Our phone bills have started to escalate drastically, and I am quite certain that her sister's have as well.   So when I ordered my service, I got a Eugene telephone number.  Now we can call her and she can call us, and there is no additional charge for either party.  If we choose, we can also get phone numbers in other cities that people tend to call us from, cutting long distance bills.  I subscribed to the unlimited plan, so we can call anywhere in the country and there is only the 22.00 per month fee.  The phone line comes with Caller ID, call waiting, voice mail and a whole bunch of extras that would cost me a fortune if I ordered them through Qwest, my local phone company. 

I am thinking that I will pack up my Sipura and take it with us when we go to Hawaii.  The place we are staying has a High speed internet connection, so I can plug it in, and make and take calls just like at home.

ViaTalk supports E911, which is an important feature to my wife, who is a former 911 operator. 

Simultaneous ringing is also a handy feature.   I can go into the viatalk website and configure it so that whenever somebody calls our VoIP phone number, our home phone rings at the same time.  Today I was talking on the VoIP line, and I heard my call waiting beep.  At the same time I heard our other phone ring.  Andee was able to pick up the incoming call on our VoIP line using our regular phone, and we where both able to continue our conversations without interruption.  If I choose to leave my VoIP gear at home on vacation I can always log onto the website and set the simultaneous ring to the phone that is in place that we are renting.

So far, I am pretty happy with the quality of the calls and the service.  The only complaint I have is that I have not been able to set up any speed dials.  The old service I used had these easily programmable from the website.    I don't see this feature advertised at all on the Viatalk website.  Not a huge deal, as my phone has memory dialing.

If it works well, I may go ahead and port over my land line.   I have always wanted caller ID and other features, but didn't want to shell out the big bucks.   ViaTalk is cheaper than my entire phone bill with Qwest, has more features, and Unlimited long distance.  That deal is hard to beat!