Anybody here use VOIP? (1 Viewer)

staphory

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My mom has DSL with VOIP from AT&T. It has really crappy internet speed (1.2 Mbps down/128kbps up) and includes AT&T provided VOIP that doesn’t always work.
Her power utility now offer fiber (100M/100M) but I would need to set up some sort of VOIP system for her. If she went back to a regular land line phone AT&T will charge her $95/month.
Anybody got any suggestions?
 
I do at the office. I don't really know how it works, but it's great.

We run 2 businesses out of one office. The main business has 2 voice lines and a fax. The side deal has one line of its own and shares the fax.

It used to be 180 per month with some outfit called blueline, but just changed a couple days ago and now it's 100 per month.

The old phones were awesome. the new ones seem even better and easier to use.

We get emails when we get voicemails. The phones can be forwarded to cell or wahtever you want. If you unplug the phone you can take it anywhere and plug into the net and it works.


We do, however, have a very fast internet set.
 
My mom has DSL with VOIP from AT&T. It has really crappy internet speed (1.2 Mbps down/128kbps up) and includes AT&T provided VOIP that doesn’t always work.
Her power utility now offer fiber (100M/100M) but I would need to set up some sort of VOIP system for her. If she went back to a regular land line phone AT&T will charge her $95/month.
Anybody got any suggestions?
Man, sounds like your mom has ADSL which is really old. I’m assuming she lives rural? Do you mind telling me which model of gateway she has? It’ll be like 5268AC, NVG589, NVG599, or BGW210. It can be an older model as well maybe Pace or 2Wire. I’m curious if it’s my companies software then I may want to see if we can debug what’s going on.

For other VoIP options we used Ooma and it was good. But it’ll depend on the homes internet so if that’s crappy then it may not be better.
 
Man, sounds like your mom has ADSL which is really old. I’m assuming she lives rural? Do you mind telling me which model of gateway she has? It’ll be like 5268AC, NVG589, NVG599, or BGW210. It can be an older model as well maybe Pace or 2Wire. I’m curious if it’s my companies software then I may want to see if we can debug what’s going on.

For other VoIP options we used Ooma and it was good. But it’ll depend on the homes internet so if that’s crappy then it may not be better.
Her gateway is a Pace 5031 NV.
Yes she’s rural. AT&T has gone out of their way to convince rural customers that they are using fiber but they are not. It’s just plain old copper and the switch she is connected to is just over two miles away. The copper lines are really old.
I want to switch her away from what she has now to the true fiber service that the electric co-op offers but they don’t offer VOIP. I’d have to be her tech support for that and I’m not up to speed on that.
 
The 5031 is old. We haven‘t released new software for it in years because ATT wanted to focus on newer, faster gateways. What I can tell you is ATT doesn’t offer that speed on fiber. And it’s so low that’s it’s old ADSL so who knows how old the DSLAM card is that shes connected to 2 miles away.
If the VoIP service has issues, I’d first check the phone. If that’s not an issue then checking consistent connectivity. Maybe the connection is flaky. If that’s the case then any other VoIP service will have issues. If you call ATT saying you suspect connectivity issues, they’ll remotely use the gateways web page and run a ping test. The test may come back with no packet loss. But that’s a short test and may miss intermittent issues. It may need to be a longer ping test. I may be able to help with that.
 
I don’t suppose doing away with a landline is an option?
 
The 5031 is old. We haven‘t released new software for it in years because ATT wanted to focus on newer, faster gateways. What I can tell you is ATT doesn’t offer that speed on fiber. And it’s so low that’s it’s old ADSL so who knows how old the DSLAM card is that shes connected to 2 miles away.
If the VoIP service has issues, I’d first check the phone. If that’s not an issue then checking consistent connectivity. Maybe the connection is flaky. If that’s the case then any other VoIP service will have issues. If you call ATT saying you suspect connectivity issues, they’ll remotely use the gateways web page and run a ping test. The test may come back with no packet loss. But that’s a short test and may miss intermittent issues. It may need to be a longer ping test. I may be able to help with that.
Thanks!
 
I don’t suppose doing away with a landline is an option?
No. Cell service is spotty. Her cell phone shows one bar and if the weather is bad she won’t have anything sometimes.
It’s weird, she is scared to live in a town because there are too many people around. She scared to live out in the country because there’s not many people around.
 
No. Cell service is spotty. Her cell phone shows one bar and if the weather is bad she won’t have anything sometimes.
It’s weird, she is scared to live in a town because there are too many people around. She scared to live out in the country because there’s not many people around.

If she has reliable internet, have her look into wi-fi calling. We get 1 bar (on a good day) where we live. But, our phones have the ability for wi-fi calling, so we can use our internet connection to use our cell phones. That allowed us to get rid of our land line.
 

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