On Mon, 2006-06-19 at 08:09 -0600, Michael Moore wrote: > We're moving in two weeks, and I'm considering switching to using just > a SIP phone for our home phone. Has anyone else done this?
We have all VoIP at out house. It's made up of 2 hard phones upstairs - 1 down, an Asterisk server, 2 VoIP providers (SIP and IAX) and 1 DID. > What were the pros and cons? PROS: Flexible - This comes mostly from running Asterisk (most home VoIP setups don't give you this). If work calls me, they press "2" to ring my office downstairs and not bother my wife and family. I have separate voicemail for me and the family. I can call from phone to phone - this saves on yelling across the house and trips up and down the stairs. I can transfer calls. I can call my server and enter a code to then place outbound calls from my house. I can set the outbound CallerID (works sometimes). This list could go on forever, but you get the idea. Oh yeah - BOCK TELEMARKETERS! Service - Because I don't have a physical line going into my house, I can make (and take) more then one call at a time. A lot of this will depend on the VSP (VoIP Service Provider) you choose. They may limit you just to sell "additional lines". Cost - I'm only paying $12 total a month - TOTAL. 1 Number, unlimited lines in and out of the house, unlimited free instate calls. CONS: BV - My particular VSP is junk. This is not really a VoIP thing, but a Broadvoice thing. I stick with them cause they let me use Asterisk and the price and features are right. If they are *not* working then I use Nufone to dial out (press "9" before dialing). That doesn't help with inbound. 911 - How are they supposed to know where you are? How do they know that you're not at a hotel in Seattle placing a call using Asterisk at your house and sending it to your VSP? Where does the firetruck show up? I just make sure that all the phones have our address written on them and route "911" calls to the local number for our city's dispatch. It's the same operator but you will have to tell him|her your address. Gabe -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
