Does anyone have Vonage in FFX on Comcast? How well does it work?

Sounds like a good deal, but the thing which has always made me weary of these kinds of services is that 911 just doesn't work the same with it. I have a traditional land line, I dial 911, they immediately know my location before even answering my call. I make a 911 call with my telephone, GPS coordinates are sent, and they still can find where I am. VOIP 911... just not the case.

If you're interested: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/voip911.html

Even if they manage to figure out the location problem with VOIP 911, there's still one major drawback to it compared to a traditional landline:

Traditional telephone will still work if the power goes out. VOIP won't.

I'd stick with a regular phone.

VOIP 911 Wrote:
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> I make a 911 call with my telephone, GPS
> coordinates are sent, and they still can find
> where I am.

you mean with a cell phone? cell phones dont send GPS coordinates.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

E911 service helps determine your position during 911 call.

I am aware of the 911 problem, but thought VOIP solved that problem by providing direct information to the local 911 service.

Also I have cell phone that works from the house so I could use that if the power or cable went out. In the past year the cable and power have only been out for a total of about 4 hours, so I could probably live with that.

What about the quality of sound?

As for cells and GPS, newer cells have the GPS built in, but most of the time the cell position\lat\long is determined from a rough estimate of signal strength between cell towers.

Gravis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> VOIP 911 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I make a 911 call with my telephone, GPS
> > coordinates are sent, and they still can find
> > where I am.
>
> you mean with a cell phone? cell phones dont send
> GPS coordinates.


Yes, sorry, I meant cell phone. I thought they did now... That or it's something they're attempting to integrate to help mitigate the whole problem of "Someone called 911 on a cell phone. Where the hell are they??"

VOIP 911 Wrote:
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> Yes, sorry, I meant cell phone. I thought they
> did now...

privacy advocates would be all over that. however, it could help out a lot of legal things to prove or disprove your location. of coarse i wouldnt want it tracking how fast i drove my car or stuff like that because sometime i do exceed the limit by 5 or 10 MPH. *gasp!*


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

I forget the name of the service, but there is company that offers tracking of kids\people via cell phone. You have to fill some paper first. I also know of a Heating and A/C company that tracks employees using cell phone locations.

In general, don't be surpirsed if your cell phone gives away your location, plenty of services on the web offer tracking of them. I think you can only be tracked when a cell phone is on however.

Vonage...heh..GOOD LUCK dealing with tech support from India.

I don't know where you guys have been, but without a doubt, you can track a persons location on their cell phone within a block or 2. That's common knowledge and I know from experience

Yeah, in 2000 the FCC ordered all cell-phone carriers to implement a system that transmits latitude and longitude with a cell-phone 911 call. It had several small milestones and allowed lots of time for development, but I think that the mandated system had to be operational by mid-2005. Cell-phone providers can reach this end by either using GPS or triangulating between towers.

VoIP is good in some siutations. But for homes, Why fix something that isn't broke??

I will bring up something that hasn't been brought up (in this thread) about voip.

if you have a home alarm, which uses your land line to call the alarm HQ, I dont think it works with voip.

Doesn't 911 work even if you have no phone service? I've heard this on the internets, so it might be complete horseshit.

Well I just found this site and its a good way to kill time at work.
But back to voip.

sound quality:: Its ok, sometimes you do get an echo, like you can hear yourself..Its about the same quality of a really good cell phone signal

E911: the 'E' stands for "enhanced" this has to do more with the trunk routing system in the telephone company, but this also includes your calling tel# and your address. As far as cell phones, getwithitgravis, is correct. However the cell phone trianglulation is not as percise as the television would have you beleive.
You have to registar your vongage # and address with the police/E911 operator..among other things. The call is also routed though the telephone network differently..


Home Security system: It will work, but from what I understand you need a line conditioner/converter , sort of like the filter you put on for dsl.

Yes and no : 911 will only work on cell phone that have not been turned on. not house phones. since there is no signal/tone going to a phone not turned on.

the real pain in the ass is: getting your number ported over to your new virtual sip identifier/point code in the network. verizon has 30 days to comply with the move order and they usually wait till the last day.

a couple pluses..
1. its really cheap
2. since it is a IP signal and not a voice signial. it is harder for calls to be intercepted, and IP signals, do not fall under the wide stroke of the current domestic wire tapping/ph record scandals..

sounds like crap to me.

Thanks VOIP guy. I was wondering about the switch and the quality. I know you get better ranges of frequencies using VOIP if you go VOIP on both ends since standard phones line use some bandwidth of the freqs to send switching info, but was wondering about the echo, delay stuff.

Your right about the wire tapping. I bet that does throw a little wrench in.

Still 14.99 a month for free long distance and parts of Europe, plus caller id etc. sounds awesome.

Interesting nobody here seems to rave about VOIP.

Thats because I dont think any of them have tried it.....

I think with cell phones (at least with mine), you can disable GPS locating by putting it on a setting labeled "911 Only", so only 911 can get your location. I don't know if all phones have this though.

Lurker, with the heating and A/C company that tracks employees via cell coordinates, that's probably with Nextel.

Nextel GPS

----------------
WHERE'S THE BEEF

Read here

I get a bundle deal with verizon, with whom Ive never had trouble. I get free local and long distance on cell and landline, all the time. Also caller id and call waiting. and free message service on both. 20 bucks a month and 800 phone minutes and no roaming charges and no minutes used when calling another verizon cust. on cell. 911 know where both my cell and landline are at all times. I know my cell phone has gps becase I can get turn by turn directions from it. Anyone can track you when the cell phone is on, but when its off, no worries. Thats within about 100 feet as well.If you have an old phone, its within 2 blocks b/c they have to triangulate between 3 towers.

I recently signed up for Vonage because I decided to drop the monopoly that is Verizon. Now, I know this is after the fact, but do you guys have any experience with Vonage? Any complaints? I hear this VoIP is not a bad thing after all.

edit by Cary:
merged this (previously seperate) thread with the two responses below with the existing vonage thread.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2006 04:04PM by Cary.

blya, uzhe obsuzhdali, chitaj arhiv.

Read this thread from early

http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read.php?2,19089

fventura03 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I will bring up something that hasn't been brought
> up (in this thread) about voip.
>
> if you have a home alarm, which uses your land
> line to call the alarm HQ, I dont think it works
> with voip.

I think if you have a home alarm that implies that you have valuables in said home. Which, implies even further, that you have money to purchase those valuables. Now, Vonage would not make sense to you because I doubt you'd mind paying $65-$100 per month on your regular phone service. Soooo... Vonage would not even be considered. BUT... on the other hand, if you're working 2 jobs barely paying your rent and your Broadband connection, then $14.99 per month seems like an excelent idea.

NO