vmctec
join:2008-05-01
Richmond Hill, ON
3 edits | reply to voicenetwork
Re: more details To voicenetwork:
Sorry, did not check this thread in a while.
With regards to the money - I have DID with unlimited incoming for $1/mnth, termination is $.01/min in Canada and $.015 in the US.
I use an IAX2 trunk (up to 10 simultaneous calls) with my Asterisk.
Set up my boss's cottage with them - he's on the same money scheme, but he uses Grandstream GXP-2000 (a SIP phone) connecting to them directly. And the Boss is happy as well:)
Their site does look "simple" but I could care less as I look at it once a month to download my raw CDRs  .
Oh yeah, and I did a test once - me and my wifey were on two different calls at the same time as I was receiving a fax. |
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 nekoAll Hail CanadaPremium
join:2006-08-11
Canada
 ·TekSavvy DSL
| reply to hockeynomad
Re: Alternate VOIP companies I have been using Callcentric for a while now: BYOD/PAYG.
Inexpensive to get set up with them, they also have no contract.
At first the most local number to me was in Hamilton, however, I have noticed they now offer numbers in St Catharines.
Call quality (Incoming/Outgoing) has been great; running it with an unlocked PAP2-NA. They support Asterix/Trixbox too.
Web site is fantastic. Professional, easy to use, loads of features - Call forwarding, number blocking(great for telemarketers), auto block of anonymous callers, etc.
Someone in this thread mentioned no one can match Vonage features? As far as I know, you can't block numbers with Vonage. There are some other features you get with Callcentric (and other VOIP companies) that Vonage don't currently have as well.
$5 a month (that's including cost for DID) for my phone is the best deal I have found so far. They have great international rates.
There are some good providers mentioned in this thread, not any one VOIP company is the best. You just need to find one that suits your requirements. For me that's Callcentric.
Until someone else can offer me a St Catharines number, for approximately $5 a month with DID cost included, with PAYG/BYOD, I am sticking with them.
YMMV
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...virtue gives you heraldry. |
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| reply to vmctec
Re: more details Hi vmctec,
But which VOIP company is this?
to emoci: I have a 905 Streetsville (Mississauga) number.
Only a few can port this number, les.net and VOIP.ms are two. |
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vmctec
join:2008-05-01
Richmond Hill, ON | said by hockeynomad:Hi vmctec, But which VOIP company is this? voicenetwork.ca |
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| reply to hockeynomad
never go porting numbers until you've tested out a provider. And from what others here have been saying, many of them using SIP are noticing throttling affecting their voip. Another reason why testing is vital.
said by hockeynomad:Hi vmctec, But which VOIP company is this? to emoci: I have a 905 Streetsville (Mississauga) number. Only a few can port this number, les.net and VOIP.ms are two. |
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| reply to hockeynomad
Re: Alternate VOIP companies yes any downloading affect my voice quality. 
I presently use Unitz with TS.
What is SIP? That is your connection?
Well its why I haven't switched as some VOIPs require your own tweaking. |
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vmctec
join:2008-05-01
Richmond Hill, ON
1 edit | said by hockeynomad:yes any downloading affect my voice quality. What is SIP? That is your connection? Well its why I haven't switched as some VOIPs require your own tweaking. SIP is one of the VOIP protocols. All PAPs and VOIP phones use SIP, including Vonage, Les, voicenetwork and every other VOIP provider.
IAX2 is another VOIP protocol and it was designed for Inter-Asterisk-Exchnage, or trunking between two asterisk servers.
The bottom line is, IAX2 is way better for NATed connections.
With respect to the tweaking, the only tweaking I had to do is to set up traffic shaping on my firewall. This also takes care of downloads affecting your voice quality.
Oh, and my connection is Teksavvy DSL, 5 meg profile.
Hope that helps |
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| OK, well les.net does use Asterisk so I gather they can assist in the setting up.
My DSL is TS and my profile is only 2.1 MB.
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vmctec
join:2008-05-01
Richmond Hill, ON | said by hockeynomad:OK, well les.net does use Asterisk so I gather they can assist in the setting up. My DSL is TS and my profile is only 2.1 MB. Well I think I saw a VOIP speed test on this site. It will tell you how many simultaneous calls you qualify for. |
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1 edit | reply to hockeynomad
les.net is definitely a good choice except that their support shuts down at 6 EST and none on weekend. Bizarre.
But whenever I call for prospective information, I get someone immediately. Asked why support hours stop at 6 PM CST, its because call volume is does not warrant it. The technical support guy said he fields an average 5 phone calls over 9 hours. Maybe this means their VOIP is excellent? |
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4 edits | reply to hockeynomad
Anyone check VOIP.ms www.voip.ms
And they have been doing VOIP only since 2007.
They have good rates and good web interface, but like les.net their support hours are limited.
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| reply to hockeynomad
Just to add a positive note about voicenetwork.ca
I signed up in 2007 as well .. $1/mth for the 647 number.
They don't have anymore Toronto $1/mth deals, but they do offer some others every now and then (Montreal was the last one I saw.) But even at $6 / mth and current usage chages, I would probably still sign up if I had to do it all over again and got the same service I've been getting for the last 8 months.
The quality is fine for my use, which is not all that great, maybe an hour a month ... the wife uses it to call her family in Thailand and it's much better quality than our average Phone card service (and at $0.02 per minute, it's as inexpensive as it gets.)
I tried using Asterix when I was with Rogers, but the quality was suffering, so I went direct to PC with a soft-phone and the quality greatly improved (my fault, as the Asterix was running on a heavy usage Linux, running MythTV, multiple VNC virtual desktops, and a few other things.)
Recently they've supposedly done an upgrade, and I've moved to teksavvy premium, got a new router loaded with the latest DD-WRT bin, and I'm building a new Linux box. so maybe I'll try asterix again sometime and see if it works better. |
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| reply to hockeynomad
I'm not too familiar with Asterisk, so that's probably why I haven't yet made any switch over.
Voicenetwork.ca is portable for me but again their tech support shuts down at 5 EST on weekdays.
Maybe they are as Les.net the problems is so few it doesn't warrant it.
VOIP.ms is switching over soon to 24/7 tech support. So is that a mark of problems? you can't win. |
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| reply to hockeynomad
I was just wondering from those who mentioned that they used Unlimitel with PAP2T with good success... How did you set it up?
I did the basic config and specified a stun server. How ever i still get choppy out going voice once in a while (while incoming is fine)
I googled arround a bit and some people say to forward parts 163xx - 164xx and 5060-5061 UDP to the pap2t. That doesn't seem to help either. QOS is enabled on the router based on the adapter's MAC address.
Any thought, or if someone can post exactly what needs to be configured from a default config that would be awesome.
Thanks |
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1 edit | reply to ibean
Any way you can test Link2VOIP.
Just temporarily change to their's
sip:18668035151@vgw1.link2voip.com:5060
and check how many secs to ping?
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update, I called a different VOIP, les.net
and their support told me
in Dos, Ping their DID and I got 67 to 72 ms. Average? |
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1 edit | reply to hockeynomad
OK I narrowed it down to les.net and VOIP.ms.
Voip.ms has a servor in montreal, so is a shorter geographical distance a better choice as les.net's servor is in Winnipeg?
Though their tracert (les.net) does appear a little better.
The fact that their tech support at les.net only handles 5 calls per day, as their lonely Maytag type tech support told me translates to me they run a smooth VOIP. |
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| reply to hockeynomad
bump* |
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| reply to hockeynomad
If you are tired of Teksavvy and yourself in the middle of many VOIP issues with Unitz, please be advised that porting from Unitz is a lengthy process.
Mine took two months and TS informed me it could take up to 6 months which is bizzare.
But a direct communication with the source is worth it. |
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| reply to hockeynomad
Since I don't talk alot, I went for the A La Carte plan from Unlimitel. I'm with them since December 2007 and I still have over $22 in my account balance over the $50 it originaly had. So, it means it cost me an average of $6/month + the $15/year fee for Voxalot (I use it for the voicemail and free calls).
I don't have a cellphone and pity my sister when she gets big phone bills. She likes to use my phone when her minutes are nearly depleted. XD
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SHARPSHARK |
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| FWIW for those of you who need a traditional landline of business use, I use a few Primus business lines for my company.
Pretty much the same features as their residential $19.95 Talk Broadband service, includes an 800 number, and all Canada/US LD calls at 3 cents (same charges on incoming 800 calls). This pkg. costs me $32/month + LD charges with a business billing name.
They also include local access numbers across Canada so you can call in and make LD calls from your cell at the same 3 cents/min, thus avoiding the higher LD charges from the cell carriers (you'd still pay roaming fees though).
I know it isn't the very best deal going but it's a huge savings vs. Bell business landlines and I've never had a problem with the Primus service in the 5 years I've used them. At least with a POTS line I know I'll have service if a blackout lasts past the run-time of a battery UPS. |
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