VOIP advice

[DaveP]

Hi all,

Just got business broadband from NTL/Telewest.

I was wondering if I could use a voip phone over the broadband connection.

Any advice on voip appreciated ie

Handsets
Configuration
Providers etc

Cheers

Dave

 

[TheRefactornator]

I tried Vonage for a while on Virgin Media's cable broadband, the same backbone as the old Telewest / NTL infrastructure; a bad experience to be honest. Over the 6 months or so I experienced various problems including dropped conversations, no dial tone, permanently engaged, no ring when being rung. It was on a 4mbit connection so I suppose it could be better on a quicker connection but 4mbit should have been fine..

The good news is they give you a free VOIP adaptor that works with any standard handset, the free bundled services are aplenty and there is a nice web control panel for the account for £7.99 a month...it just doesn't amount to much if the service just doesn't work.

In the end I dumped it and negotiated Virgin Media's talk unlimited for £6.95 a month which was a decent retainer deal and works well..as long as you don't call a mobile..ever.

 

[DaveP]

thanks for the info, whats Virgin Media's talk unlimited ??

 

[SteveV]

you can get skype phones for the house that wirelessly connect to your router. They look pretty good and don't need the pc turned on. They look just like a cordless phone.

Has anyone tried those

 

[chef]

the Philips voip841 DECT/Skype phone has generally got the best reviews i've seen so far..

connects direct to your router, automatically downloads all skype contacts and can also be used as a standard handset..

 

[voodooflux]

the Philips voip841 DECT/Skype phone has generally got the best reviews i've seen so far..

connects direct to your router, automatically downloads all skype contacts and can also be used as a standard handset..

I have one of those - a very nice piece of kit (even better as I got it free from Skype after they mucked my order around). Extra handsets can be tricky to find though.

 

[TheRefactornator]

thanks for the info, whats Virgin Media's talk unlimited ??

Here you go:
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=10258

It's usually £7.95 + £11 line rental, but you can do better than that via the customer retainer dept if they think you could be switching to Sky.

One thing to keep in mind with Virgin / Telewest kit and voip is that depending on the cable modem they've provided (are there are quite a few different ones) it will be running a specific docsis version. Some voip providers require docsis v3.0, the latest cable modems do run this and mine did too, but vonage was still cack for me. The problems tended to be worse when the ISP did their "traffic shaping" aka speed truncating on their unlimited uncapped internet service at busy times in the evening.

It's a bit off topic but I remember they got a bollocking quite recently from OFCOM for selling internet as an uncapped service when their fair use policy clearly states shaping methods are in use to reduce network abuse.