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Review by only1j 
member for 9.2 years, 9 visits, last login: 5.6 years ago
lodged 9.2 years ago
 Arlington,Tarrant,TX
 $20 per month about 12 days "good cheap service, fairly good service features" "crappy web site, no data over line, not as cool as vonage" "good inexpensive service."
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While the web site lacks many things, they do offer many good features like caller id, call waiting, voice mail, etc. all for 1 low price, with unlimited long distance to all 50 states and canada. The caller Id appears to be number only, but according to the packet8 web site the latest firmware update provides the name along with the number. I would like to see options like voicemails automatically being sent to an email rather than listening to it, then saving it, then going back and forwarding to email.. seems kinda impractical. I would really like to see them work out a way to have the ability to send data over the line, such as an alarm system or fax machine requires. overall good service.
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Review by askalthea
member for 9.2 years, 10 visits, last login: 4.7 years ago
lodged 9.2 years ago
- Morris Plains,Morris,NJ
- $19 per month
- about 16 days
- "So much cheaper than POTS, OK support, very clear, equipment, pro rate 1st month"
- "Do not adequately report outages, Wish they had voicemail web interface like Vonage"
- "Jury is still out...but am sticking with it."
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Ordered Packet8, based on reviews here, in the beginning of March. Receipt of DTA box took almost 2 weeks, but they pro-rated the charges once I activated the account, so that was cool.
Tech support via e-mail has been fine. I haven't yet had to use phone support, so can't comment.
Set up was a breeze (just plug it in), with the DTA 310 sitting behind my Linksys firewall, dynamic IP, and playing nicely with all my security software (Zone Alarm). None of the problems reported with the Vonage Motorola adapter. But....
Packet 8's network got slammed today. Network went down for about an hour and was not reported on their website. While clarity has been great, when their network bounces both ends of the conversation are impacted. People on the other end hear the drop outs and report that I sound as if I were calling from overseas. I hear the dropouts, too, and it sounds like a bad mobile connection. Zero static, though.
If the phone is not pulling a dial tone when I start up my network (yes, I shut down at night - the house does not need to glow 24/7), I simply unplug and re-initialize the DTA. That fixes it for the day.
I put in a Uniden PowerMax 5.8 GHzm model # Tru 8885 wireless phone system and it works beautifully. It is so much clearer than my copper lines; it's unbelievable. I live in a brick house with solid plaster walls and the Uniden system works just fine. Great price at local Costco, base + 3 handsets, $179.99 (and Uniden uses true 5.8 GHz, not like ATT's 2.4/5.8 GHz modulate phones).
So, hmmm, while the jury is still out, I'm keeping the Packet8 service and dropping Verizon altogether, because...
1) I just don't yak, yak, yak on the phone
2) I have mobile service that provides 911, should I ever need it
3) After stringing me along for almost 7 years re: DSL, I get to vote against Verizon with my wallet - buh, bye
4) I believe with competition and time reliability will get much, much better. In the meantime, I've reduced my monthly base price phone bill by $60.00/month.
-althea
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Review by arctec
member for 9.6 years, 388 visits, last login: 159 days ago
lodged 9.2 years ago
- Tempe,Maricopa,AZ
- $20 per month
- about 7 days
- "Extremely good price/performance ratio"
- "Lack of features"
- "Get it"
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I've been using Packet8 since early summer 2003. It took one week from order to installation.
Packet8 has been a very reliable and worthwhile service. There were a few times in the past where we had issues but recently, all has gone smoothly.
Packet8 needs a better way to inform us of updates. One of my friends who purchased P8 was ready to cancel it after two months until I gave him the newest firmware revision.
It would be nice if we could associate additional phone numbers (local to friends and family) and use fax/modems with their service.
Overall, I believe that I will stay with Packet8 for quite a while. Its a great service that is well worth every penny we pay per month.
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 Review by maygb2000
member for 9.4 years, 269 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
lodged 9.2 years ago
- Philippines
- $20 per month
- about 15 days
- "very cheap, voice quality is good,unlimiited calling to US and Canada"
- "audio loss but probably due to my internet connection"
- "very very worth it :P"
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i live inthe philippines and am using my packet8 to call my hubby who is in Canada... at first i was a bit skeptical as to wether it would work for me over here so i emailed their customer support ,who was by the way very helpful, to findout if it would indeed work for me. when i first got my package i was very excited.. plugged it in ,did wat they said in the instructions and Viola! it worked like magic :P i am so so pleased with their service. i get to talk to my hubby for hours on the fone each day without having to worry about sky high bills.. i used to spend over 100 USD to call my hubby for a few minutes each day.now i even get to talk to my cuzins in the US and my brother who isin New zealand thru the fwd inter op. packet8 is really godsent :P i am jzt worried that with the growing number of customers, quality might drop  ... i really hope not .. Long live Packet8 !!! LOLZ
update...
2 days ago i had a problem making calls to Canada so i posted my concerns on this forum and emailed P8 support as well.. P8 support has responded to my email ryt away and has addressed and solved my problem in just two days... :P i am loving both their service and their staff :P
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Review by kinkygal
member for 9.3 years, 485 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
lodged 9.2 years ago
- White Rock,BC
- $20 per month
- about 13 days
- "When it works it is great, low monthly cost , easy to set up"
- "Dropped calls, packet loss, doesnt ring, only functions 80% of the time"
- "Seems better this week, I will give it another week to shape up or sending it back"
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Ordered Packet8 Feb 12, took them 5 days to process and ship the order. DHL took a week to ship to Northern Washington State. Once I had the DTA it took 2 minutes to hook it up and activate it.
It worked fine for a few calls then I experienced packet loss and dropped calls. I am in BC, Canada. Calls to the midwest and florida were clear, calls within Canada to Alberta seemed to be the ones dropped regularly. It dropped at least 8 calls on me in mid call and I couldn't get a dial tone for about 5 or ten minutes after a drop. There was significant one second gaps or "puffs" on the calls last week but this week it seems to have gone away.
After a few days I lost the dial tone completely and an hour on the phone with tech support at P8 and another hour on the phone with my isp (cable company) didnt help. Next morning the dial tone was back but the dta was possessed. Kept flashing the lights - power then link then all 4 lights every 30 seconds.... but I could get dial tone. I could make outgoing calls but it didnt receive incoming calls. The call forward to my cell as a back up did function when the dta was not working however and i recommend setting this feature up.
I tried hooking it up directly to the cable modem and disconnected the firewall but still spotty service. I am using a brand new linksys befw11s4 router.
Ping plotter didnt show anything of concern.
Last night I successfully installed version 12.28 (the DTA was shipped with 12.29 installed) and it seems to be working 100% of the time today. Fingers Crossed! I am hoping this will resolve most of the issues I had been having and tech support seems at a loss as to what is wrong.
I will give it another week or so but if it doesnt prove more reliable I will cancel packet8. I expected glitches but the dropped calls are not acceptible.
Overall Impressions: Sound quality was good on long distance calls. Local callers within my geographic area reported to me that I sounded like it was a bad cell connection. Today the sound quality is great on all calls.
Tech support were helpful and I was not on hold long when I called in.
The price is unbeatable. They have enough features for me but a few like virtual numbers and name display on incoming caller id would be nice. I will update this after another week of usage.
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 Review by digiblur
member for 11 years, 4516 visits, last login: 18 days ago
lodged 9.2 years 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!"
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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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Review by sweetbabylee
member for 9.5 years, 16 visits, last login: 5.1 years ago
lodged 9.2 years ago
- Murrieta,Riverside,CA
- $20 per month
- about 6 days
- "Dial tone with calling features & unlimited calls for $20 month!"
- "Technicial support, good luck! No faxing capabilities."
- "Da Bomb!!"
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I've had Packet8 since December 2003. I must say I was totally skeptical about VoIP because having retired from telecom, I had heard the many nightmares when implementing it for businesses. I am now a believer.
First off, for $20 a month, you cannot expect perfection! There are the occaisional dropped calls and voice drops, but common... we are talking $20.00!! My phone bill without toll was $35.00 and my toll charges were in the mid $100's monthly. I'll take a dropped call any day, but surprisingly they are few and far between!!
I have Comcast cable modem service. I received my box in approximately 6 days and was up and running in no time. The only issue was that voice mail did not pickup initially, and after contacting technical support that was repaired quickly. The quality is comparable to cellular service and at first I noticed the difference. But after using the service for the past three months, rarely noticed is the difference in quality.
My subsequent dealings with technical support were not satisfactory. Long, long hold times which eventually led to being dropped into a voice mail box and very poor response times to voice and e-mail (up to a week) help reinforce the need for backup telephone service in the form of a landline or cell phone. Fortunately, the latter issue was a billing question and perhaps that could account for the long response time. Also, remember if you have DirecTV or need to fax from your home, packet8 does not have that data capability so pots is required.
I happen to live in a remote bedroom community in Riverside County and my wife and my family are 60 miles to the south in San Diego County. We opted to get a San Diego telephone number since 90% of our incoming calls are from family down there and there's no charge for us to call locally anyways. We picked out a central office that was centrally located in San Diego so that the family in southern San Diego and the family in lower northern San Diego could call us toll free. It is so cool!!
Anyone who has medium to high phone bills with DSL or cable modem service who does not use this service has got to be rich or crazy (or both)! I am a true believer!
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Review by backhertz
member for 9.3 years, 22 visits, last login: 8.8 years ago
lodged 9.3 years ago
- Mount Holly,Burlington,NJ
- $20 per month
- (month by month)
- about 10 days
- "Price, quick response to e-mail questions, Price"
- "Some echoing"
- "Good value. Simple"
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My only problem was trying to configure a Dell 1184 wireless router to add the ATA with absolutely no luck. I called the Dell wireless tech support. Waited a very long time. Finally a wireless technician comes on line. I'm no networking expert or guru, but the technician hadn't a clue when it came to setting up the router. Anyhow a switch to a new auto-configuring Netgear router which was on sale reduced my install to a couple of minutes. I'm not ready yet to cut the copper umbilical wire to MaBell. The occassional dropouts are similar to my Cingular cellphone. The most attractive 'feature' will be the $500 savings compared to MaBell once the cord is cut.
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 Review by SteveOA
member for 9.8 years, 1179 visits, last login: 4.3 years ago
lodged 9.3 years ago
- Seattle,King,WA
- $20 per month
- about 10 days
- "20 dollars a month for unlimited long distance"
- "I had one time so far with no dial tone but it was cleared up in a minute"
- "very smart buy"
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It took me a week and a half to get from the day it was ordered which isn't that bad, but the deliever guy(shipped through DHL) didn't even knock on my door he just put it on my porch and left so anyone really could have taken it. Hooked it up all the wires and at first it didn't work but then I power cycled it and it has worked fine since. While talking it sounds just like a regular phone, definatly worth the costs.
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Review by kabi24
member for 9.3 years, 21 visits, last login: 6.2 years ago
lodged 9.3 years ago
- Puyallup,Pierce,WA
- $19 per month
- about 5 days
- "cheap service, reliability ok"
- "busy signal dialing out sometimes, voicemail coming up instead of rings"
- "great service to have if you keep a cell phone anyway"
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After a long review of all voip services i landed on packet8. I ordered the service on sunday night online, got the adapter the following friday, up and runingin 5 minutes after switching to dynamic ip on my linksys router.
I got this service at the unlimited package price wich is almost half price compared to vonage, the sound quality is good, when i get packet loss i just hear nothing (rare- about two 1 seconds in an hour and half call to the east coast). i got to choose my area code, unlimited calling, caller id without name, voicemail is ok but i had to disable it because, when people call me they get voicemail instead of the phone ringing,if they try a couple times it will go through so now i'm just going with my answering machine on the phone, it seems ok now. Service is somewhat similar to cell phones, furthermore some cell phone numbers (from t-mobile) appear as ip numbers on my bill.
Calling overseas, i had one lost call when the i just couldn't hear any phone rings at all. lost a minute of international calling there, emailed support service for credit, but didn't get an answer, it's been two weeks.
As long your internet connection is solid you should be fine (i am a cable guy), i had my old phone line disconnected, and used the soft tone for 911 purposes only.
Overall the service is ok so far. I still have to wonder about the customer service and dealing with the increasing number of customers.
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