Re: VOIP - What Works? What Doesn't?

["Bob La Londe" <none@xxxxxxxx>]

"Bob La Londe" <none@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ceJbr.12665$532.5650@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Robert Macy" <robert.a.macy@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:c5b5ea37-6eac-4a90-a9cf-351628b64106@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> On Mar 23, 6:13 pm, "Bob La Londe" <n...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> I've been playing with voice over IP telephone service for the last
>>> couple
>>> days.  I've had a plain old Magic Jack plugged into a USB port on my
>>> desk
>>> computer for a while now (2 years maybe).  I use it as a spare line, and
>>> for
>>> the tackle and mold making sideline business.  It works pretty decent.
>>> Sometimes its a little tinny sounding, but as long as my Internet works
>>> it
>>> seems to work.  Since I upgraded my internet service a while back it has
>>> worked much better.
>>>
>>> Well, I decided to check out 8x8.  They are a service claiming to
>>> provide
>>> professional grade VOIP services.  I know of businesses much larger than
>>> mine who are using them.  So far I am not impressed.  They setup my
>>> account
>>> wrong, and they couldn't fix it.  They had to send me another piece of
>>> VOIP
>>> equipment to get it to work the way they set it up.  Its so I can send
>>> faxes
>>> using an ordinary analog fax machine over their VOIP service.  It
>>> doesn't
>>> work.  (I haven't had an actual fax machine hooked up in years for my
>>> business, but I need to test everything.)
>>>
>>> They claimed to make some adjustments to their compression codecs, and
>>> it
>>> supposedly tested in both directions, but I never received a test fax.
>>> When
>>> I tested further just to make sure hardware was good I plugged both the
>>> fax
>>> machine and the fax modem into a plain old telephone service (POTS)
>>> line.
>>> Both pieces of equipment worked fine on POTS.  Then on a lark I decided
>>> to
>>> plug the fax modem into the Magic Jack.  I don't figure there was a
>>> snowball's chance in heck of that working, but amazingly it did.  Then
>>> back
>>> to the VOIP port from 8x8.  No joy.  Call goes through, I can hear the
>>> fax
>>> tones, but it fails every time.
>>>
>>> Sadly I must conclude that 8x8 is not quite were they need to be just
>>> yet
>>> for me to recommend them to my customers.  If they want a cheap phone
>>> line
>>> for occasional use I think a Magic Jack would be a better choice.
>>>
>>> I've got three 8x8 VOIP adaptors sitting in my communications room right
>>> now.  All different models.
>>
>> I was told would be very dissatisfied with VOIP *if* your link is
>> satellite. Reason is that satellite links tend to 'lump' the packets
>> into very noticeable delays for speech.
>
> Satellite also has huge ping times compared to other services.  It doesn't
> work really well for internet access to security video either for the same
> reason.

A push to talk walkie talkie type voice service like Yahoo Messenger had a
decade ago would work ok though.