Review by vent 
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 1.1 years, 5 visits, last login: 1 year ago
 Garner,Wake,NC
 $15 per month
 about 1 days
 "CHEEEEEEEEEEP, good call quailty, LOTS O features"
 "need to know alot about viop to be happy"
 "If you KNOW tech this ones for you, if not pay the extra $ and go POTS"
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(ratings match consensus)
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I am amazed at how many people are angry at viatalk. Most fourm posts are people that have a little to no VIOP technical knowledge. They expect to plug the ATA device in to their inet, and boom cheep phone. Not the case with viatalk…THAT’S WHY ITS CHEAP!
I admittedly had calling issues (incoming not getting through) walkie talkie like phone quality and other sometimes frustrating issues. I’ve read people’s crabbing about ‘hidden’ 911 charges and taxes, but these arguments are shallow at best. If you want inexpensive service from viatalk its worth the minor headaches. I have been a subscriber for about 1 year, and outside of the SunRocket migration The quality is very good, features are very good, and reliability has been good enough (yes, there is a service outage from time to time) but my phone service with TWC and bell south was $48/month with taxes. My viatalk service is $15/month (all ‘hidden fees’) yes, I paid for a year up front…but so what. 3:1 cost savings makes a strong argument. So, how do you ensure you are happy with your service like I am? Good question. This is your to do list before you order:
1) Reduce your jitter and call quality issues: Get a GOOD ‘QOS’ (Quality of Service) router (read toms hardware.com). QOS allows you to make sure your phone packets ALWAYS go first. That way when your kids play video games or download movies your phone always sounds good. Do your research on toms hw: Make sure you read the ratings on simultaneous connection limitations/degradation. Linksys boasts this, they DO NOT deliver. DLINK is your friend. You’re looking for a ‘steam engine’ technology that ‘dynamically fragments’ packets. That way all your larger packets are cut into smaller ones (like your voice packets). With out this, larger packets will take longer to leave the router making your QOS worthless…then your friends complain that you are breaking up.
2) AFTER you get your router and setup QOS settings Test your upload speed at »www.myvoipmcs.com/features.html. Run this test several times at different times of the day. Ensure your inet connection can provide good upload, and low jitter. If not call you ISP and get it fixed
3) If you have you own SIP device make sure you understand it! Many BYODers never got their innomedia to really work because it’s not a good fit…but you can make it work. I got an sunrocket ac-211 for almost nothing and it worked PERFECTLLY once I found the right guide. IF you don’t want to scour user fourms, then pay the extra $ and get the default adapter.
So worse case you buy a $100-130 router (newegg.com, mwave.com, circutcity.com) and pay $40 to via talk for their ata. And buy a $200 2 year contract and you end up paying almost $400 up front. BUT you get a great router, and your phone service is still 3:1 cheaper than most any provider atth eend of the contract.
Admittedly support stinks. You are paying for capacity ONLY. You MUST understand VOIP to be happy at via talk. But you work out your config bugs once and enjoy the savings for YEARS to come.
Being lazy costs money, just do your homework
Thank you Via Talk.
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