VOIP

We are now Vonage users. I'm sure you've seen the horrible commercials on TV about Vonage, and how there's already a million users. "Wooo hooo woo hoo hooo."

Vonage is a phone service, but it's used over your internet connection. They are sending us a unique router that has phone jacks on it. We plug our phone into the router, and our router into the internet, then we get phone service. Some of the perks are:

1. Unlimited local and long distance calling
2. All the features you could ever ask for with a phone. ie: Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Voice Mail.
   
3. Access to your voicemail on-line.
4. Change your area code or phone number.

Those are pretty good perks considering it's only 24.99 a month.

There is a downside. Some of the potential problems include, but are not limited to:

1. If the power goes out, no phone.
2. If the internet goes out, no phone.
3. If the power goes out, no 911 access.
4. If you have a slow internet connection, not much bandwidth left for you.

With #4 in mind, we decided that we had to get the best connection possbile that was also available at a reasonable price. Qwest offered DSL (without phone) for 36.99, which was only $3 short of getting fiber optic internet. So we're doing that.

Enough!