Firing the phone company

[BigV]

Vonage rocks!

$25 per month, all phone line goodies, call waiting, caller id, 911, voicemail, etc etc etc, no longdistance charges in us/canada. What's not to like? Like the ad on the bus said, all you need is a broadband connection and a strong desire to stick it to the phone company.

I bought the Linksys PAP2 phone adapter in person at best buy, $60 minus $50 rebate, and ordered the Vonage service online. I picked the wrong signup link and they charged my credit card for the whole shebang, new adapter and all. I got on the phone to their customer service people, and they fixed it on about ten minutes. Refunded the wrong charge, led me to the right link for signup. Really smooth and easy.

Well, I got the and plugged in the phone adapter thing to the router, and then the phone to the phone to the phone port on the PAP2. I thought something was wrong because the power light kept flashing for a long time. This is usually not a good sign. After about five minutes, all the lights came on solid. I picked up the phone, got a dial tone and called. Piece of cake.

This is really slick and I would recommend it for anyone who meets the requirements above. In fact, when my boss returns from vacation, I'll suggest it for our jobsites.