Using a VOIP service at home?

[tom9933]

Hi everyone,

Well the local phone company has once again become a pain and I’m considering jumping ship. Just wondered if anyone had any positive or negative experiences with any of the major VOIP carriers? I originally thought I’d go with Vonage, but after a bit of research think that SunRocket might be a better option. SunRocket not only seems to be very inexpensive, but also seems to have great reviews. BTW here is a nice site that lists several of the major carriers.

http://www.jiwire.com/voip-guide-voip-plans.htm (http://www.jiwire.com/voip-guide-voip-plans.htm)

Also if you are using a Tivo with your VOIP service that would also be helpful to know.

Thanks

[flyfish]

I use Vonage for business and I couldn't be happier. I don't know that I would use it for home use due the 911 and power issues are somehow resolved. I have a TIVO connected to the network as well and have had no problems. I can give you more details if you would like.

[tom9933]

Flyfish,
Thanks for the reply. I’m not as worried about the power or 911 issues since SunRocket supports the E911 standard already and I also will still have a cell phone for backup. I even considered putting my cable modem, router, and VOIP box on a ups but at this point I don’t know that it’s a big enough issue to worry about at this time. Living in the city does have a few advantages http://www.vtctalk.com/images/smilies/smile.gif So is your tivo still making a phone call or is it using a network connection? I know the standalone units can make there call using the network but my directv unit still uses a phone line. If I cant get the tivo to work with SunRocket I may finally have to hack the thing :bandit:
Thanks,

[flyfish]

Tom -
The TIVO is connected to the network - much more flexibility. I am not sure how the TIVO would work with the VOIP line however. We still use modems to connect to our equipment and I consistently run into problems connecting with the VOIP that I do not encounter with a POTS line. My guess is that it is related to the latency over IP that is not there with the POTS line.
I will have to admit that living in the city has it's advantages, but after 20+ yeasr in the rat race known as Washington, DC. I can live with the trade offs.

[trapehzoid]

I know using a home alarm modem over VoIP is a big issue.. so I assume Tivo would be similar. I would check out www.tivocommunity.com for a huge forum to search in about the compatibility of the modem.

[tom9933]

Flyfish
Ah yes DC, I interviewed for a very nice job there, but it was a little too much city for me. The real kicker for me was the condo that sold for around 400k and looked like the first rat trap apartment I lived in after college. One of these days I’m going to move back to the country and buy a hundred acres or so, the only problem is getting a job that will make that practical. Thanks also for the additional info about your Tivo. When I had my standalone I added a network card to it and I agree it was very handy, especially with all the available hacks. Unfortunately when I upgraded last year to the HDTivo I went with a DirecTV unit. The pro is that you get dual tuners but the con is DirecTV is holding up the software updates and hacking it is a bit more difficult.

[tom9933]

Trapehzoid,
Yes I’ve read that as well and there are several posts on the Tivo community forum about getting a Tivo to work with the various VOIP providers. It seems like some people don’t have to change anything and others have to make all sorts of changes. SunRocket doesn’t publicly support a modem or fax on their service, but looking at the posts it seems to work. It seems like one of the biggest issues is that the VOIP box waits for either all 10 digits or a # after the 7th digit. Also people seem to have better luck with numbers that are near the NOC, but I’m wondering if that really relates back to the 10 digit issue. If worst comes to worst I can either setup the Tivo with PPP through my PC or pop the case and do a little hacking. When I got this unit I thought it didn’t make sense to hack it because I thought the next unit would be shipping shortly, but it seems that the next gen unit is at least a year away. So in the long run if it doesn’t work then this will be a good excuse to hack it and get it on the network. I really miss the web interface and extraction capabilities that I had on my series 1.
BTW another good Tivo site is: http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/
Because they are not associated with Tivo directly they tend to talk more about non-supported activities.

[tom9933]

Well I just figured I’d provide a quick update. I ordered SunRocket on the 2nd and received my equipment on the 6th. The box contained the Gizmo (SIP to POTS modem/router) the free cordless phones and a pre-paid shipping label. I must say I was very impressed by all of this. The installation went as expected with no major hiccups. I’ve tried using the Gizmo before my Linksys router and behind the router. When the Gizmo is in front of the router it acts a router and assigned the Linksys a 192.168.251.x address. This caused the codec and a few other things to stop working so I put the unit behind the router. While this is not the preferred configuration it works great for me and I didn’t even have to forward any ports to the unit. I did configure the router to give the Gizmo the highest priority of service using the hardware address and my codec is set to the next setting down. I made several phone calls and even had a few going with the codec running and have seen no problems. I also tried the service with my Tivo and with no configuration changes on the Tivo the Tivo connects about 50% of the time. Now while this is not ideal it’s perfectly acceptable because while the Tivo tries to dial every other day it really only gets upset if it doesn’t get through at least once a month.
So, on the 11th I took the final plunge and told Sun Rocket to transfer my number from SBC. I’ll report back after the number is transferred and let you know how that went. If anyone wants to hear the call quality pm me and I’ll call you for free :)