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 Review by digiblur 
Posted: 6.5 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 3606 visits, last login: 3 days ago
 Baton Rouge,East Baton Rouge,LA
 $20 per month
 about 6 days
 "Unlimited calling to US - No fee for unlisted phone number"
 "No caller ID name yet, only caller ID# & no g711u codec"
 "A good start to get rid of your landline phone company!"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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UPDATE: I finally got around to updating this review after I cancelled long ago. After being intrigued by FreeWorldDialup I purchased a Sipura SPA2000 from Voxilla.com. I received a one month free of VoicePulse VoIP service. Once I activated the VoicePulse service I wish I had switched a long time ago. I dropped Packet8 as soon as I could....
Sorry for the long winded review. If you don't like it move on to the next review. 
I've been a customer of Packet8 since July 2003. I found out about Packet8 right here from this website. I always love to play with new technology and since it was only $20 a month I ran with the idea. Boy I’m glad I did!
I called their tech support to inquire about the product. The phone rang 2-3 times and real human picked up the phone! I was so shocked that I didn't get a menu system; I didn't know what to say. I found out all the details and about the money back guarantee. The only downside I had was they didn't have my local area code available. So I chose the next state over instead.
Within a day or two I noticed my phone number was posted on my account webpage. I dug around a little and found my order invoice that had my tracking number listed. I tracked the package and found out they had shipped my package via UPS a day or two after my order went in. I couldn't wait to play!
On the day or the delivery I opened the box, hooked up the provided Ethernet cable to the switch, plugged in the power supply, and hooked up the cordless phone. I had a dial tone within in a few minutes of opening the package. Awesome! I quickly activated the DTA according to the email they had sent and I was ready to make some phone calls.
At the time I still had my BellSouth landline, so instantly called my landline to play. The first call went through without a hitch. It sure looked weird seeing another state's area code and name on the caller ID display when I was sitting right there. My second phone call was to my mom. Normally it was a long distance phone call to her but not on Packet8. I was instantly impressed with the quality of the call. It felt like I called anyone and everyone I knew and didn't know that day just to test out the service. I was acting like a kid in a candy store!
As time went on every so often I would check Packet8's website to see if my local area code was available. One month later it was available! I called up Packet8 and had them put in an order for my number transfer. Customer support answered the phone quickly and was very polite and helpful. The number transfer did not cost me a dime. Within a week my number was provisioned and I now had a local number. After giving everyone the new number and waiting a week or so for everyone to get used to calling the new number, I moved my two cordless phones to the DTA and only had a wired phone hooked up to the BellSouth landline that I was still paying over $45 a month..and it didn't even have voicemail or any long distance! BellSouth could never get my line right; they made numerous attempts at it but never could get it right. When it rained the caller ID stopped working, and when it really rained hard the line would start buzzing or stop working all together. At this point, the Packet8 line was more reliable than the BellSouth landline.
After a week of strictly using the Packet8 line I was ready to cancel BellSouth. I called up BellSouth and told them I wanted to cancel. I wasn't about to explain to the lady I was going to a VOIP solution, I told her I was going to use my cell phone. She then tried to sell me some Cingular phone service, I then told her she has no way of touching my deal I have with SprintPCS(retention plan + 25% off corp acct discount + unlimited web/internet access). She gave up.
After the BellSouth line died I quickly found out that BellSouth had turned the old line into a "911 only" line. If you try to dial a number it says you can only dial 911 from this line. Cool! Free 911 solution! I moved the deactivated line over to the line2 position for the house. I plugged in the DTA to the house wiring's line 1 position on the inside of the house. Basically the DTA will be "injecting" the dial tone into house wiring so all the cordless phone bases can once again be distributed throughout the house and the hard wired phones will now be on Packet8. By the way, for power backup purposes, I took one of my large battery backups and put the following items on it: cable modem, Packet8 DTA, switch, and cordless phone base station. The few times I’ve had power outages I’ve actually called the power company to report the outage through my Packet8 line. A hard wired "red phone" was also hooked up to the "911 only" line provided free of charge by BellSouth. Thanks BellSouth!
3 months goes by....Everyone in the house still loves the service. Moving time is here! We are moving across town to another house. As things start getting down to the wire I forwarded all the Packet8 line phone calls to my cell phone. Nice! I unhook the DTA and all the other network and PC equipment. A few days later....Cox installs the cable modem in the new house. I hook up the router and the DTA and get it going before I even think about hooking up the PC. (Hmm...I see what's taken priority over one another.) Instantly I have a dial tone and I'm in business again. I think the coolest thing was I didn't have to call the phone company to schedule a move and PAY MOVING FEES!
Current day...Everyone is still loving the Packet8 service. I ended up also hooking up the "911 only" line in the new house as line2 and the Packet8 service as line1. I don't regret ditching BellSouth as my landline service one bit. It has saved me a lot of money in long distance and normal phone line fees. I highly recommend Packet8 to anyone! Another untalked about feature with VOIP is you do not get telemarketer’s calling. I have not had ONE telemarketer call my Packet8 line since July 2003. That’s because your phone number is unlisted, FOR FREE! I love it!
A new wireless Linksys router was put in..a WRT54g. Things have turned out very well with the custom firmware written by Sveasoft. In a nutshell the DTA traffic has priority over all the other traffic in the network. If you are on the phone and an email is being sent with a large attachment, the router will throttle back the email client traffic so the DTA traffic doesn't get "stepped on". Awesome stuff! More on this can be found at:
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