Any suggestions on a reliable voip service?

Any good ones out there? Please don't include Vonage. Thanks.

Reply to
zcarenow
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Reply to
Pat Coghlan

Thus spaketh Pat Coghlan:

I get perfect sound, crystal clear, as good and better than a top-notch landline.

People comment how clear the sound is.

Reply to
{{{{{Welcome}}}}}

I believe you, but that shouldn't be. True end-to-end voip between a pair of voip phones will be much cleaner than any POTS conversation. After all the phone is doing the ulaw encoding in the phone a mere 3 or so feet away from the phone's microphone. You don't have 14kft of wires to pick up stray signals before the ulaw conversion is done at the telco.

For the best sound you do need to check that whatever service you are using is using ulaw encoding. If they are sending compressed data, you are going to get lower quality than pots.

-wolfgang

Reply to
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht

I'm talking about noise when calling to the PSTN from a VoIP phone.

The remote (PSTN) party's compla> Pat Coghlan writes:

Reply to
Pat Coghlan

I agree with WSR. I use ATT CallVantage.

Reply to
Rick Merrill

Me, too. :>)

Lena

Reply to
Lena

I've had good luck with

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(they really changed their name but that link should still work)
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Good luck!

Reply to
Jonathan Roberts

Thus spaketh Jonathan Roberts:

I use one of their sister services VoIP Stunt, has more free countries, countries that I do from time to time call.

Reply to
{{{{{Welcome}}}}}

Any of these hardware independent? Basically, do i have to use specifically their equipment or can i get any router with phone ports.

Reply to
zcarenow

It could be the ATA device. My provider sent me a free Linksys PAP2 POS. I got around to hooking it up one day, and the line was all hiss and noise. My normal gear worked fine, so I basicly chucked the PAP2 out the door.

Reply to
Doug McIntyre

They all support bring your own device. I suggest trying them out one by one with a softphone until you find one you like (unless you already have the hardware).

Reply to
Jonathan Roberts

Thus spaketh snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com:

I use VoIP Stunt on a PAP2 ATA, VoIP Stunt and their sister services don't sell/provide hardware, they get you to download their softphone and list the SIP details required for using your own hardware, be it ATA, VoIP Phone or router with VoIP ports, or you a SIP softphone of your own choice.

Reply to
{{{{{Welcome}}}}}

My PAP2 is faultless, along with other people I know with the device, it's an excellent piece of kit.

Reply to
{{{{{Welcome}}}}}

Indeed. I had a call from a friend in Arizona yesterday (I'm in the UK) on my FWD number (routed from my US IPKall number) and she made a point of asking me if I'd changed anything as the call quality was even better than usual. It's always been at least as good as the PSTN, in fact nobody has ever made any adverse comments on call quality on any of my several VoIP accounts (with three different providers).

Ivor

Reply to
Ivor Jones

So you are able to make regular calls with your regular phone with clear sounds? I am thinking about using my LINKSYS RTP router(same one from Vonage) which has 2 phone ports. How did u set yours up? Thanks.

Reply to
zcarenow

Sure, the company you use to get into the phone system can have a bad SIP->PSTN gateway (either badly designed, badly setup or just broken). Also, many VOIP companies buy their connectivity from some upstream. It may well be that even after you switched you were still on the same equipment. There could also be a problem at your end. Cordless phones are notoriously bad. Some put out so much noise that any compression the ATA does, has the compressor allocate most of the available bandwidth to moving the noise. This doesn't happen with POTS because POTS typically is uncompressed straight encoding called ulaw. This is another good reason why you want any compression on the SIP line. My feeling is it should be set up for straight ulaw.

That doesn't damn the whole SIP idea. It is just that they can't do a good job of it. SIP when set up correctly is much cleaner than POTS. There is less chance for noise to enter the system and the signal is digitized much closer to the handset. The digitization method can (and in my opinion should be) the same as POTS - straight ulaw.

There are some companies that allow you to bring and set up your own equipment. Some have really decent prices (no monthlies if you just want outgoing calls and 2cents/minute.) You can buy as expensive or cheap a voip phone as you want. I have pay by the minute accounts with both

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and
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. Both are coming up on two years now and I'm still very happy with both. (Anyone that knows any other pay by the minute services please post! I'm always interested to hear of alternatives.)

-wolfgang

Reply to
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht

Thus spaketh snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com:

I have standard corded and a couple of DECT cordless phones connected to the PAP2, I can call regular phones without any problem, the calls are crystal clear, you wouldn't know I wasn't using a regular phone most the times, the only times someone says anything is when they say how clear the call is.

I don't have a regular landline, I have broadband, no phone line, and use VoIP for all my calls, except my mobile for a few calls here and there.

It was just a case of entering the SIP details onto the PAP2, and then setting up a dial plan, so I don't need to dial the full number for local calls etc.

Reply to
{{{{{Welcome}}}}}

I've been happy with voxee & voipjet for PAYGO.

Reply to
Jonathan Roberts

I also suspect the SIP->PSTN gateway as being the weak link in the chain. I think Allstream is the 3rd party here in Ontario, Canada.

In my case, I compared a call to the same destination with Vonage and Bell (my office voicemail). When I stopped talking, I could hear hiss and a high pitched carrier-like sound coming from the other end with Vonage. I heard dead air with my Bell landline.

-Pat

Wolfgang S. Rupprecht wrote:

Reply to
Pat Coghlan

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