 Review by scots 
Posted: 1.8 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 1404 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Raleigh,Wake,NC
 $14 per month (24 month contract)
 about 2 days
 "Fast delivery of equipment, good price, easy setup, great features, call quality."
 "Dish Network receiver can't "phone home"."
 "Not regretting the switch so far."
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(ratings above consensus)
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I was with Vonage for 4 years with no problems and recently decided to take the plunge and switch to ViaTalk. My reasons for switching were that ViaTalk has more features and a better price. I managed to slide in on their 2 years for $199 deal, which I see has disappeared from their site a couple days after I signed up.
I placed my order for service on a Thursday around lunch time and received my equipment on Saturday. I didn't request the faster processing or shipping, so I'd say that's pretty good turnaround on getting the order together and getting it to me. I took everything out of the box, plugged it in, and it was working instantly. I'd say it was less than 5 minutes from the time I opened the box to the time I had dialtone. I then went in and assigned the box a static IP address, which is normally what I do with anything that's "permanently" connected to my network. No problems with that either. I've only found two issues so far.
The first (and worst in my book) issue I have so far is that my Dish Network ViP 622 DVR/receiver will not connect over ViaTalk. It worked with no problems at all on my Vonage line with no special settings or anything. I went out and purchased a DSL filter and put it in between my Dish box and ViaTalk. Someone on here suggested that a DSL filter fixed the problem for them. The DSL filter had no effect whatsoever, so I guess I'll be returning that. Even if Dish does start charging me the extra $$ per month for not being connected to a phone line I'll still come out cheaper per month than when I had Vonage, so I guess it's not all that big of a deal. I'd still rather not give Dish any more $$ than I have to though.
The second issue I've found is with voicemail. Once I get in there I press 0 to go to mailbox options. In the mailbox options it says to press 4 to change my password, but when I press 4 it wants me to record my temporary greeting. It does this every time. I ended up going to the web site to change my password, which worked fine. Also, at the main menu it tells me to press 3 for advanced options. When I press 3 all it does is say "Press * to return to the main menu." I don't know if there's something wrong, or if there are no advanced options. If there are no advanced options, then I'm not sure why I have an option to go to them.
There are too many features, so I won't talk about all of them. I'll just mention a couple of my favorites. I'm really happy to have Anonymous Call Rejection again. It appears to have more options than what people on here were telling me. You can do "Blocked", which plays the message "The party you are trying to reach does not accept unidentified calls. Goodbye." and then hangs up on the caller. Next is "Voicemail" which sends the call directly to voicemail. Next is "Busy" which just plays a busy signal. The final is "Authenticate" which stops auto-dialers from getting through because it requires the entry of a 3-digit code. "Authenticate" will still let real people through though without you knowing who it is because it doesn't unblock their number or make them identify themselves in any way. I have mine set on "Blocked", and anyone who calls me with their number blocked will just have to unblock and call back.
I'm also liking the "Stopcalling" option in the Custom Call Routing feature. Custom Call Routing allows you to put a phone number on a list and then select what you want to happen with calls received from that number. The "Stopcalling" option plays the message "This number is blacklisted. Please stop calling. You are not welcome here." and then disconnects. This will come in handy for telemarketers that don't have their number blocked and the occasional collection agency that calls my roommate (if they manage to get the new number).
I haven't talked on it a whole lot yet, but the call quality seems really good so far. On my end people sound just as good as a land line. I spoke with my mom last night (long distance from here in NC to her AT&T land line in OH). I asked her how I sounded (better, worse, or about the same), and she said that I sounded clearer than usual. So I guess that's good!
Overall I'm very pleased so far. The voicemail issues aren't that big of a deal to me, especially since I can change my password on the web site. The only thing I'd really like to get fixed is my Dish box dialing in.
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