How realiable is voip as a home phone?

mehmeh12

Hi

im thinking of getting a hardware ip phone set up with a vsp like blueface. However if the internet connection goes down then does that mean the phone wont work either?

nava

mehmeh12 wrote: »

Hi

im thinking of getting a hardware ip phone set up with a vsp like blueface. However if the internet connection goes down then does that mean the phone wont work either?

Yes correct if internet goes your phone will go too.

tracker-man

If though, you have a reliable internet connection, how feasible and how practical would an IP phone be as a house phone? I mean, do IP phone service providers often have faults, and can others phone your house without problems?

nava

tracker-man wrote: »

If though, you have a reliable internet connection, how feasible and how practical would an IP phone be as a house phone?

I have an ATA adapter, when I switched over to Blueface I kept using the existing dect phones connected directly to the ATA

tracker-man wrote: »

I mean, do IP phone service providers often have faults, and can others phone your house without problems?

I never had any problems since I ported August last year. Only 1 recall was that they had a problem with 1 of their providers and could not make calls.

For Blueface you could check their forum for previous posts in outages

IrishTonyO

I use Blueface over UPC net connection and have never had a problem, didn't even have to buy a phone as my mobile, a Nokia N95, connects and acts as both my mobile and my house phone.

drBill

I've been using blueface voip for the last year and a half. Originally I used wireless broadband but subsequently installed a landline because this gave me much greater bandwidth, however I have continued to use my blueface number rather than the eircom number associated with my landline. My observations:
- the ATA can be considered as just another phone socket, and your existing phone handset can be plugged into it. (But NOT fax machines.)
- 512 kbps - which is what my original wireless broadband was - is the bare minimum acceptable capacity you'll get by with. Less than that and you'll find call quality poor.
- it helps if you are some way tech savvy, as you may occasionally have to reboot your ATA or router. And there are lots of settings to poke around with if you're feeling adventurous. That said, the ATA I bought from blueface was ready to go straight out of the box.
- I've had occasional outages with blueface, maybe 2 or 3 so far but nothing lengthy and I've their support to be very good. I'd consider the internet connection to be the weaker link. And naturally if the power is down, so is your phone.

tracker-man

Sounds Good, thanks for the replies.

Can I just "think out loud" here and maybe get your opinions on what I am thinking about doing.

The phone I am planning to buy has an in built ATA - http://www.cordless-phones.uk.com/voip-phones/voip-dect-phones/siemens-gigaset-c475ip-twin And after looking at a number of voIP providers I was going to go with www.claritytele.ie

I am BRAND NEW to voIP so I would like to make the most informed decision possible before I pay money and especially before I sign up to a 12 month contract!

This would be my full time house phone so I'm a little reluctant to choosing a Pay as you go Blueface account but still open to the idea.

Any tips would be appreciated

IrishTonyO

tracker-man wrote: »

Sounds Good, thanks for the replies.

Can I just "think out loud" here and maybe get your opinions on what I am thinking about doing.

The phone I am planning to buy has an in built ATA - http://www.cordless-phones.uk.com/voip-phones/voip-dect-phones/siemens-gigaset-c475ip-twin And after looking at a number of voIP providers I was going to go with www.claritytele.ie

I am BRAND NEW to voIP so I would like to make the most informed decision possible before I pay money and especially before I sign up to a 12 month contract!

This would be my full time house phone so I'm a little reluctant to choosing a Pay as you go Blueface account but still open to the idea.

Any tips would be appreciated

With the normal blueface packages there are no contracts, even though I use pay-as-you go, as it works out cheaper for me as not a heavy user of the phone.

tinofapples

Sorry to hijack the thread but I've been wondering over the last few days whether VOIP can be used without an actual Laptop/Desktop.

The reason:
My parents are not PC literate and doubt they will at this stage. 2 of my brother live abroad and parents phonebill is through the roof. I'm just wondering if they get BB back along with their TV channels (NTL - Galway City) can a VOIP phone be connected to the network without the need for a PC ?

If this can be done what kind of expense am I looking at ??

IrishTonyO

tinofapples wrote: »

Sorry to hijack the thread but I've been wondering over the last few days whether VOIP can be used without an actual Laptop/Desktop.

The reason:
My parents are not PC literate and doubt they will at this stage. 2 of my brother live abroad and parents phonebill is through the roof. I'm just wondering if they get BB back along with their TV channels (NTL - Galway City) can a VOIP phone be connected to the network without the need for a PC ?

If this can be done what kind of expense am I looking at ??

Yes VOIP does not need a computer you can have a VOIP phone or a lot of mobile phones will also connect.

Some_Person

I'm using Blueface as my home phone with over a year now on wireless broadband, works perfectly.....as long as your broadband connection is....
Ported number from Eircom and a amazingly cheap compared to Eircom etc.

Johnboy1951

For long term and better VOIP you should consider a router with built in VOIP sockets. They will have QoS which gives higher priority to VOIP than data and helps with the call quality. It also means that the only time you would need a PC is to set up the router using a browser.

There is even a router with a built-in dect station, so you could use dect phones without any other base station except the router. (FritzBox I think). I use a Draytek router which has two phone sockets and the ability to register six separate VOIP accounts. The ringing on the phones can be allocated from each VOIP "number" ..... which phone and ring type. It also has a built-in phone book which can use shortened numbers .... I can phone Australia, using my preferred SIP account (of the six) just by pressing three buttons on the phone.

For people abroad, a Blueface account can be set up and they can register that from their location. All calls between VOIP accounts are free of charge. In addition the 076 number supplied can be called from a landline at approx 5 cents per min. So someone abroad is reachable by phone at reasonable cost, even from a landline, or free from a VOIP phone.

I have had a couple of ATA's over time but much prefer the router with built in VOIP capability.

All VOIP accounts will have a SIP URI associated with them ..... like
SIP: 12345@blueface.ie
Blueface accounts will also have an 076 number associated with them .......
076 123 456 8
and to finalise it, you can have a geographic number associated with the account (new or ported from Eircom) like
031 123 456 7

Calls from any SIP URI to another are free.
Calls from Blueface 076 to another Blueface 076 are free
Not sure of the costs to geographic numbe as I don't use it, but suspect that they would be included in an Eircom 'package' whereas the 076 numbers are not.

All very flexible. So many options it can seem confusing at first.

Just my 2 c

mehmeh12

Thank you for all the useful posts

Im thinking of going with blueface-the main reason is that out of all the providers in the sticky on this forum they seem the most well known and reliable. I live at a fixed address in dublin in the republic of ireland-is it safe to assume that if i had problems with my account with them that i would have decent customer service? or would they fob me off as is the case with most customer service reps?

IrishTonyO

mehmeh12 wrote: »

Thank you for all the useful posts

Im thinking of going with blueface-the main reason is that out of all the providers in the sticky on this forum they seem the most well known and reliable. I live at a fixed address in dublin in the republic of ireland-is it safe to assume that if i had problems with my account with them that i would have decent customer service? or would they fob me off as is the case with most customer service reps?

I have found Blueface customer service excellent

nava

IrishTonyO wrote: »

I have found Blueface customer service excellent

Same as me, they also have a forum and someone from there also post here.

drBill

IrishTonyO wrote: »

I have found Blueface customer service excellent

Same here. In fact the best service I've experienced in any sector. Hopefully they don't lose this as they get bigger.

Patrickof

+1, blueface service is excellent and they have a very good customer service / forum setup

pointofnoreturn

tracker-man wrote: »

If though, you have a reliable internet connection, how feasible and how practical would an IP phone be as a house phone? I mean, do IP phone service providers often have faults, and can others phone your house without problems?

I and I have had my parents running completely without a eircom landline for over 4yrs now and with little or no major problems report. But it really depends on good hardware (Decent QoS) and that your ISP has a good infrastructure to provide reliable internet. We have been with a fixed wireless access provider and they helped allot in the earlyer days to make sure our router and there equipment had sufficent capacity to deal with the VoIP streams.
And since most of the VoIP providers now have peering in the INEX means that the voice traffic arrives quicker at the PSTN/GSM network voice quality has improved.

I would carefully pick your ISP and the hardware that is used.

Type 17

VoIP is fine, once you have good ISP and VoIP providers.
My wife has been using Blueface over Smart for her home-based business for around 5 years now, with minimal issues.

She didn't want to use a 'strange' hardware interface, so I got a Linksys ATA and connected a office-style desk-phone to it, with a wireless Plantronics headset and it all works fine.