Why We Like Vonage – Internet Phone Review

I’ve been seeing (and hearing) these “whoo hoo, whoo–hoo–hoo” ads for a few years (Vonage) and never paid much attention. A few years ago, we ditched the landline in our house and opted for “cell phone only.” I know many people who have done the same. Our phone bill used to be $60 to $70 a month. Since he’s been gone we haven’t missed him much. However, what I have noticed is that when my phone is charging (and it rings), I don’t answer it. I miss a lot of calls. Sometimes I leave it in the car… or my coat… or my pants. There’s something to be said for simply having a phone hanging on the wall in the same place every time you need it.

Now that I have had the experience of “not having a landline phone” for over 2 years, I started thinking about the value of a “home phone”. I will certainly never pay $60-70 a month for that privilege again as now I only pay $105 a month for 3 cell phones with 1500 minutes and unlimited instant messaging. Well, I saw that “whoo-hoo-hoo” ad on TV a few weeks ago and it caught my eye for some reason: “$24.95 a month for unlimited calling…” Really? Unlimited? Can I call anyone, anywhere for free, anywhere in the US 24/7 for free? I went to your website and that’s what it said. And it also said you can get started for just $9.95 (which also seemed to good to be true).

Well, what I mean is that you can get the “necessary equipment” for only $9.99. I never did much research on Vonage before because when it came out it seemed like you needed some special kind of “Internet phone” to make it work. You couldn’t use a regular phone from the store. That couldn’t be further from the truth now. With the little adapter that comes with the service, just plug in a regular landline phone and it works like a copper line and your local baby bell! In fact, this little device is also a caller ID, AND (my personal favorite) it comes with a LAN out jack…meaning that once you plug in your phone and a LAN cable from your router, there’s a port additional ethernet on this device which basically acts as a switch. You can use it to connect a laptop and xbox 360 (or classic), a PC, Mac, you name it! I know, I’ve gone a little crazy on this, but I thought it was great. The only downside to getting this device for $9.99 is the fact that it locks you into a one-year contract with Vonage. Otherwise you have to pay $70 and some dollars for it. I took a chance, thinking I’ve invested thousands in Verizon over the years anyway.

So I ordered this “Internet Phone Adapter” they call it the “Vonage V-Portal” which is essentially an adapter to convert a regular phone for internet use, a Caller ID device and a 1 port router as well. I had to pay shipping, my first month of service, taxes and I think it cost me about $52 to start. UPS delivered the adapter about 4 days later and I was ready to go! We had purchased a 5.8 Ghz cordless phone with 3 bases to use with Vonage. I had them charge 24 hours before plugging everything in. We decided that the best place to call the central telephone unit and the Vonage portal was in our living room. Luckily one of the corners of the room already had a hole in the floor so I had already run a very long 100 foot ethernet cable from the other end of the house in the basement (roof) through the floor to the living room.

When I took the Vonage box out of the box, it had a piece of paper right on it telling me to turn off the router before plugging it in. So I ran downstairs and turned off my cable modem and router. Once I was back upstairs, I plugged the phone into the wall and the Vonage box. I plugged the ethernet into the Vonage box and then plugged the Vonage box into the wall (last thing). The Vonage box lit up like a Christmas tree, a big orange screen with a spinning globe that said “connecting.” Looks like it took about 10 minutes to get an IP address, set up, download a Vonate update, shut down, and restart. Then the screen just showed the date and time and it looked like it was good to go! I got on the phone and called my wife at work, and we talked for about 10 minutes. Not once could I tell the difference between the Vonage Internet Phone and a traditional copper landline phone. We ran several tests where we downloaded all kinds of stuff while using the phone, but it never seemed to degrade call quality. Maybe a different internet connection would yield different results, but we’ve had no issues and the service is just over a month old. Now, I don’t give it much importance, it’s like a normal landline phone for me.

With Vonage you can do something really cool that you could never do with a landline. Vonage is portable and can work with any Internet connection anywhere. The unique thing about this is that you can unplug the Vonage adapter and take it with you along with your phone anywhere there is a broadband connection and LAN cable. Connect it and you can send and receive calls as if you were at home! In fact, when your friends and family call, they won’t know you’re not home! We went away for the weekend and stayed in a motel with free wireless internet. When we got to our room I plugged my Lan cable into the Vonage box, it quickly connected and was ready to go! I made a phone call to try it out, and it worked perfectly. Imagine if you had to visit your parents or other relatives over the weekend. You could take your phone with you as long as they had broadband internet!

Vonage has many different adapters, one of the newer ones is an internet phone on a flash card. Turn your computer or laptop into a mobile phone! Sure, you can use Vonage directly from Vonage.com, just like I did, but check eBay for deals first! You never know – you might be able to get a starter kit for a very reasonable price!