Finally switched to broadband (and VoIP telephony)!

[doctorgonzo]

Well, my wife and I moved on Saturday, and this morning Time Warner swung by and installed Road Runner cable broadband. After years of dialup, this is great. It's nice to finally experience the difference myself after reading everybody's stories here. Put me in the "never want to go back" column.

Along with the cable 'net, we also got Vonage VoIP telelphone service. This was a big factor in deciding to get broadband, since RR+Vonage should cost about as much as POTS+dialup, depending on things like long-distance. Never having to deal with Qwest again, though, is priceless, as they say in the commercials.

So far my experience with Vonage is limited, but I like it a lot. Setting it up this morning took some time twiddling with router settings, but eventually I got it working. Voice quality is better than I expected, no worse than a cell-phone call. I get e-mails when I have new voicemail, and I can listen to it over the 'net. They also have detailed call logs online. All this for about half of what I was paying for POTS.

I will definitely keep everyone posted about my experiences with VoIP.

[ToyotaSupra]

Yes, broadband internet does rock doesn't it?

[Propain]

I actually dont know how ppl can do it. I went to my bro in laws last weekend and he's on "HighSpeedLite 128k's" lol after a few minutes, I just walked away. Congrats and welcome to the modern age doc gonzo.

[Chris in U.K.]

Hi Gonzo,

Like you I'm a late convert - should all happen next Monday if the Post Office can deliver the hardware in time. (we had a fire at the local sorting office a few weeks back and things still aren't back to normal)

I'm looking forard to it!

Chris

[Redo40]

Congrats on the broadband! I know I could never go back to dial-up.

Keep us updated on the Vonage, I'm curious about how good or bad it is.

[Joeberg]

Congrats Dr. G! I've grown impatient to using 56k speeds; hard to imagine I ever waited that long for pages to come up and files to be downloaded :)

[bailey]

RR is great

[sdkfz]

Doctor,

Now you have done it!

It used to be when talking to a real estate agent for a new home you wanted good schools, low crime, a big kitchen etc, now the list is Broadband? OK Hows about the schools......?

[Panama Red]

Even better news for us Comcast Broadband users. On another forum I read a thread which indicates Comcast is increasing their down and up speeds all around the country as a FREE upgrade. Here in west Michigan is scheduled for 12/16. I'm capped at 1600/250 right now and the talk is for speeds to go to 3000/384 after the upgrade. Some folks in other states have already been upgraded. Sure hope this is true cuz I was at 2500 speeds for a while until the system was capped in the last couple months. Either way, it sure beats dial up. Just like adding a turbo and Nitrous to your ride, eh Doc?

[Lord Prism]

Welcome to THICK PIPE city!

[doctorgonzo]

Thick pipe it is. I still have to get used to the fact that I don't have to disconnect anything once I am done browsing, though. :)

Our phone system continues to be great. Haven't had any problems at all, even for international calls. None of the issues that other people have dealt with have hit us so far. If this keeps up, I will heartily recommend it to anybody.

[Alienware_Dude]

Just be sure to run a firewall. :D

[ffish]

Hi, there is a roundup VOIP services at http://www.iphone.shows.it with detailed feature info. You can get helpful information there.

[Chris in U.K.]

Well, the modem did arrive in time, and this comes to you via my brand new b/band connection!

Not sure I like the look of the new frontpage (BT Yahoo) as it looks a bit like AOL 4.........................think I'll reset my homepage to classic Yahoo.

Download speed is about 11 times faster than dialup, so that can't be bad.

Took me a while to figure out how to access my old (dial-up) yahoo mail account, hope I can remember how I did it.......the trouble with this package is that it tries to take over, and gives you a new e-mail account whether you like it or not.

I do like the speed, though.

Happy netting,

Chris

[Doobie]

doctorgonzo I just wanted you to give an update on VoIp since you said you would ;)

Are you satisfied with it.

[colecifer]

Ah yes i remember getting Road runner a couple years ago. It was a whole new internet. I haven't messed with the new VOIP but good luck.

[doctorgonzo]

Yes, I am quite satisfied with it I've had it for about six months now and I have zero complaints. Vonage even lowered the price of their unlimited long distance to $30 per month from $35 per month. I have had no real service problems, and any of the little problems I have had (like Caller ID not working) have quickly been fixed. I definitely see no reason to go back to a land line.