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 Review by cmullen8 
UPDATED: 127 days ago
member for 5.4 years, 591 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Silver Spring,Montgomery,MD
 $22 per month (24 month contract)
 about 3 days
 "Calls sound good, great value."
 "Took some tweaking to my BYOD to get working."
 "Happy with results, did not have to wait for an adapter to ship."
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Was looking to replace Packet8 after my annual commitment ran out. Found Viatalk thru DSLreports.com site. I likes the annual agreement with free 2nd year, and liked the idea of a BYOD arrangement. The adapter from Viatalk is "free" but you get the shipping and activation fees waived with BYOD. Ordered on line, very easy.
It took me a couple of days of fiddling around with it to get my adapter settings tweaked, but I had to unlock an old sunrocket adapter and then get all the settings entered in correctly. Not bad considering it was my first time working with SIP settings. (Of course I got some help from the boards here.)
Conclusion, so far so good!
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Review by mogulman
UPDATED: 138 days ago
member for 7.2 years, 1798 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Parker,Douglas,CO
$13 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
"Tech Support US Based, Good. Ticket Tracking System. Web interface. Inexpensive. Pretty reliable VoIP service"
"Still some flakiness with Proxy Servers. PAP2 devices come pre-configured with generic settings (Dialplan, etc)"
"Good Telephone service for the money. Lots of features. Mostly Reliable. Not for a newbie."
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Update 7/2009
Haven't updated in a while so I thought I'd give it a go. I had some intermittent issues with Voicemail waiting indicators about 2 months ago. Otherwise, call quality and features have been good for me for the last 6+ months. Voicemail waiting indicator problem hasn't resurfaced either.
When the problem was happening with VMWI, I believe it was something with VT or with my ISP. I was never able to nail it down. I changed a bunch of settings and talked to tech support and magically things got fixed. Hopefully the issue won't come back. Either way it wasn't a major issue.
Features/quality for price is still great for Viatalk for me and my family. I still wish the service was more of a plug and play without needing to call support. If this was the case it would be more suited for non-techie people.
Update: 3/26/08
VT is still really good. I got moved to their new control panel. It is pretty nice after getting used to it. There are a couple of features I wish they would bring over from the old one.
Reliability has still been pretty good for me over the last few months. The main issue people seem to have is with certain servers, and then having to be switched to different servers. I haven't experienced this though.
I believe VT is still not the best for non-technical users.
I think if VT did the following:
-Increased their reliability/handling of Proxy Servers
-Made it easier for people to join with hardware that is pre-configured for what users want most (VMWI, Better Dialplan).
-Maybe provide an ATA that can sit in front of a home router...
-Made some minor tweaks to their control panel
They would be able to get more novice users onboard without as much problems.
Update: 2/11/08
Viatalk Customer Service has improved greatly. I've had great response lately. As good or better then any services I have (Internet, Phone, etc). Call quality is still very good. VT has made a very good effort at improving their image and quality. My service current 2 year term is expiring in April. I've signed up for an additional year.
Updated: 1/22/08
Service has been pretty reliable for me for that last 6 months. Support has been good too. My contract will be running out in about 3 months. I'm trying to decide if I want to renew or not.
The only issue is that now Viatalk is adding about $3.50 per line/month for fees. So this brings their price up a little higher. I really need to either pay a single yearly fee or pay monthly. I can't pay both. I'm considering trying other providers like Voicepulse.
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I've had Viatalk service for approximately a year. I had Vonage server for a few years before that. I have 2 lines with Viatalk.
When I first signed up for Viatalk the sign-up process was pretty easy. I signed up on the web. I got my account information and devices within a few weeks of signing up. I understand that this period is normally quicker, but I signed up when there was a big promotion going on, so they were extremely busy.
I received 2 Linksys PAP2 devices for my phone lines. One for each line. The service didn't work immediately with me just hooking up the devices. On Vonage, the devices worked out-of-the-box. I called Viatalk tech support and they helped me through some configuration changes and I was up and running. This took less then an hour. During my number porting, one line ported quickly and easily. The other line was stuck for a little while. I had to make numerous calls to Vonage to get the port to be finalized. Vonage hadn't completely released my line from their system so my 911 service was messed up on that line. This was a Vonage problem and not Viatalk.
For the first 3-4 months I had phone service with Viatalk, the service was a little flaky. I would say I ran about 85% of the time without any issues. The issues that I did have were not severe, most of the time. I did have a couple of times where call forwarding wasn't working correctly. I also lost some calls. To be honest, I was almost ready to ditch the service, except the price and tech support at Viatalk was really good. All the tech support people have been really good at Viatalk.
Anyway... about 4 months into my service they added redundant servers into their system. This helped greatly with the uptime/quality of my service. They also added options and fixed some options on their site. For the last 8 months my service has been really great. I've had maybe 5 times over the last 8 months where I have had any type of downtime. They have all been for less then a few minutes.
Viatalk has listened to its users and added features. They have also modified existing features and made them better. There are tons of features with Viatalk service. The price is right. They also give you complete access (username/password) to your phone devices if you want it. I'm a geek so I enjoy looking at that stuff. Vonage would never give users access to their devices.
I'd say the best things about Viatalk right now:
1. Value
2. Tech Support - and the ability to track any tickets that you create
3. Call Quality/Reliability
4 Features
Things that could be improved on Viatalk (not much):
1. PAP2 devices are still provisioned and sent to users with pretty generic settings. Viatalk should come up with a better pre-set profile on their devices so users don't have to tweek as much. This includes timezone settings, Dialplans, and Ringer settings.
2. Some parts of the web-interface could use some improvement. Maybe a little extra speed in the web-interface and voicemail
My whole household uses the Viatalk service and my wife (non-geek) has been pretty happy with the service.
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 Review by tcp1
UPDATED: 161 days ago
member for 9.6 years, 431 visits, last login: 133 days ago
Herndon,Fairfax,VA
$18 per month (12 month contract)
"LOTS of features, GREAT prices, non-outsourced support"
"Hold times a little long right now, website is a big clunky"
"Was good once, but not too thrilled as of late."
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6/17/09
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I just want to update that ViaTalk did respond and resolve my problems. I won't be using them for service at my home anymore - as we've moved and have FIOS, but will be continuing to use them at the condo that I use for work when in the NoVA/DC area.
It seems what happens - and what has happened occasionally with ViaTalk - is that "something" will change without notice, thereby degrading the service. You then have to call in and get it fixed (which usually will happen), but it's not always an immediate resolution and you have to work with them.
I will admit the hold times I experienced could be partly my fault - my schedule is crazy, and I tend to call at the worst times.
I still believe the service has gone downhill since I initially ordered it, but their tech support DID make things right and they did respond offering help to my last review. I have therefore increased my ratings accordingly.
I am still unhappy with all the added fees - but I'm experiencing the same thing with XM Radio, FIOS, Comcast, and Globalstar. Seems to be the thing to do these days.
4/20/09
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Two years with ViaTalk, and boy have things changed. I wish I hadn't renewed.
ViaTalk has been constantly bumping up the "unfees" that made VOIP so appealing in the first place. I do not understand why these phone companies keep thinking that they're fooling us with this garbage; you are simply raising rates - please don't pretend that your hands are tied and that it's beyond your control.
ViaTalk used to be pretty reliable - but now, the outages are common, and I get drop-outs with EVERY PHONE CALL.
I have 16/2 comcast service that I'm running ViaTalk under, and the AP has a direct connection from the cable modem - still, constant drop outs.
People complain of echoes all the time now - way more than they ever did (almost never) previously.
Hold times are still long, and features don't always work as described.
I will be switching once this term is up, which will unfortunately be after another 6 months or so with viatalk.
5/16/08
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It's been a year now, and I'm still pretty satisfied with ViaTalk. Yes, you still have to hold a while to get in touch with them - but it's NOTHING compared to the horror that was Vonage. I'm moving, and I'll take them with me.
Service has been pretty solid - I'd say 98% uptime. There have been a couple outages over the past year, and few lasted more than a couple hours. I'd say Vonage had slightly more uptime - but at least ViaTalk acknowledges their outages and lets you know they're working on them.
That, and the amount of services/features you get with VT is way beyond that of Vonage. I've found the new second line feature pretty useful, even though it's still one incoming number (but it's free, so..)
One thing VT offers again, that I have to reiterate, is one thing Vonage could never get right - and that's ACR/Call blocking. It's saved me from tons of annoying calls that I had no choice but to let through with Vonage.
3/27/07
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Just ordered Viatalk's $199/2yr unlimited package (which just went up to $229 on the website as of today). Total came to $238 with fees - still about a third what I'm paying for Vonage!
My order was processed in a day, and I got my softphone working within an hour. There's a bit of a delay right now - but I'm not sure how much of that is due to the softphone and how much is ViaTalk.
I'm not anticipating fun porting out of Vonage and dealing with the cancellation thereof, but that's got nothing to do with ViaTalk.
A big reason I went to ViaTalk is due to their CS reputation. I'll say from my first (albeit very brief) experience, I'm content, but not overwhelmed. I waited on hold 22 minutes today, after trying twice last week waiting 30+ plus and giving up. At least they tell you where you are in line, but strangely had that number go UP a few times on my previous call.
I had called to check that my LOA for porting was received.. The guy was clear and concise, but seemed less than thrilled to be on the phone. He got the job done though; maybe he was just having a bad day.
The website and billing system aren't the most intuitive or well laid-out; they user ModernBill for billing, which is a rather cheap COTS e-commerce package that I've seen at a lot of cheap ISPs (ViaTalk is owned by HostRocket) - although I hear they may be switching this out.
So far, so good. Very good, but not fantastic.. However, I'm still waiting on my ATA and the port. It's still early, and their features are killer and their CS/TS at least seems competent and responsive. Thus, they've already beaten Vonage by a mile.
4/16/07
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(UPDATE - from my posted response)
Transfer finally went through last week - without a hitch.
I've had zero problems at all with the service since it's started.. The softphone is great, and I finally have ANONYMOUS CALL REJECTION! Which means the fax and telemarketing calls (that have obviously been ignoring the do-not-call list) have stopped.
The number transfer was painless on ViaTalk's side. Cancelling Vonage was a pain, however -- they just wouldn't take "No, just cancel" for an answer. Not ViaTalk's problem, however.
As for the service as I can tell so far - No problems, no drop-outs or delays. I was a little displeased that the ATA is just that and not a router.. (so now my ATA is behind my router - which does not have QoS - so I anticipated some glitches, but had none - probably because of my cox 15/2.)
So far, I'm very pleased with ViaTalk.
I'll update in a few months once I've used it a bit longer.
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Review by med1234
UPDATED: 162 days ago
member for 7.5 years, 169 visits, last login: 137 days ago
Westmont,Dupage,IL
$8 per month (24 month contract)
about 10 days
"SR Number Ported"
"Call Quality is ok, No Reply To Email, Wait Hours For CS, 911 Does Not work"
"Had To Move From SR Because Contract Ended, Got 199 For 24 Deal"
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6/17/2009: 2 years are up and it is bye bye VT and hello Phone Power. Number ported to PP in 4 days and VT service cancelled via ticket. VT did not even bother to ask why I was cancelling or if they could do anything to keep me.
They keep dumping money to attract new customers and not a second to keep existing ones.
I am a very light user and VT did not work when i needed it so i am not going to miss them.
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My contract at SR was ending and found the VT BOGO sale (this is before SR imploded). After sign there was no confirmation for days, until I called to inquire about my BYOD order. SIP info came the same day, then SR went under and there is no real CS unless you have hours to wait on phone.
When Eric (seems like there a 2-3 CS people at VT) does answer he is rude.
I hadly use my phone so I will keep them until my 24 months are up or they go under.
P.S: Don't expect 911 to work, mine did not. There's also 50/50 chance of calls going thru.
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Review by YngHairyPssy
Posted: 162 days ago
member for 245 days, 10 visits, last login: 78 days ago
Monongahela,Washington,PA
$31 per month (month by month)
about 60 days
"My actual real name shows on my caller Id display to others"
"Wish Viatalk would offer their own Satelite and High Speed Internet plus Phone all combined into 1 package"
"I am very well satisfied ,Always get great phone service and great features"
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I WOULD RECOMMEND VIATALK TO ANYONE FOR PHONE SERVICES
VERIZON AND COMCAST DOES NOT OFFER GREAT PHONE SERVICES
THAT THIS COMPANY OFFERS.. I LIKE THE SERVICE CAUSE THERE IS A WAKE UP CALL , YOU CAN BLOCK UNAVAILABLE CALLERS
YOU CAN BLOCK NUSIANCE CALLERS , AND IT DOES SHOW
EVERYONES CALLER ID INFORMATION THAT SHOWS UP
I HOPE IN THE NEAR FUTURE IT CAN OFFER SATELITE T.V SERVICES PLUS HIGH SPEED INTERNET SERVICES COMBINED WITH PHONE
SERVICES FOR A MUCH LOWER PRICE THAN COMCAST AND OR
VERIZON , VIATALK IS VERY MUCH WELL ADVANCED FOR PEOPLE
I GOT NO COMPLAINTS , I AM VERY GREATFUL FOR
VIATALK I WOULD NOT GO WITH ANYONE ELSE CAUSE
IN THE PAST I HAD : VONAGE , JOIPHONE , VERIZON , COMCAST,
PHONE POWER ,VOIP.COM THEIR SERVICES ALL SUCKED ..
JUST GLAD TO BE WITH VIATALK THEIR SERVICES ARE ALL
GRADE A+ ALL THE WAY
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 Review by Bobkd4dii
UPDATED: 164 days ago
member for 4.9 years, 1289 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Hollywood,Broward,FL
$18 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"Price, BYOD, lots of included features"
"A bit rocky to set up"
"Good once set up"
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I had some problems at first, the audio would have gaps in it as well as callers being unable to hear me. An older linksys WRT54G with Hyperwrt 2.1b1 + Thibor15c 3rd party firmware fixed the problems as it had much better QOS settings. They have a lot of features included in the plans that you would have to pay extra for or are not available from your telco. After the early problems were cured I am quite happy with the service. The audio is good, better than my previous VOIP service at much lower cost. Hopefully, no further problems will occur.
Update, have had few problems with the service, most problems I have had is with my DSL service being unstable which causes the phone service to go out but that is ATT's problem not Via Talk's. Over all, still happy with the service.
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 Review by KC9FOI
UPDATED: 172 days ago
member for 2.4 years, 647 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Cypress,Harris,TX
$14 per month (24 month contract)
about 5 days
"Read my Review"
"None at this time."
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June 6, 2009
I updated my scores to reflect how I feel about this service now. After experiencing a much more reliable service, I feel that my scores had been too high. While this service was not horrible, Future-nine has raised the bar. No extra BS fees/taxes, no rate hikes, and far fewer outages.
With the intermittent issues I had with Via Talk, at this point I would neither steer someone toward or away from them. They have many innovative features, which I liked and miss, but I do not miss the intermittent troubles I seemed to have, though I believe manywere ISP related. All the same, I'm glad I jumped ship.
March 13, 2009
I jumped ship a while back. Fees and unfees scared me away. I moved to Future-Nine. Read that review for more information.
September 16, 2008
Since I switched to ATT U-Verse, VT quality has been superb. I cannot say the same about when I was with Comcast. Constant sync issues with numerous modems, some owned and some supplied by the cable company were difficult to diagnose. Anyway, since that change I found that the ISP really does make the difference. I particularly like the new codec that is available which uses much less bandwidth. Although the sound quality suffers to an extent with no load on my connection, now I can surf the internet, do online gaming, and talk on the phone, on a 1.5 Mb down, 1 Mb up connection. I can't remember the last missed call I had and every call has been completing on the first try. The new Transformers servers seem to be part of that difference. It seems the little VoIP company is starting to grow up.
February 11, 2008
I have been particularly enjoying that through the boards on DSLreports the managment and tech/development department of ViaTalk allow us, the customers to play an active role in shaping and troubleshooting their service. We win because we get a service that fits our needs better and more reliably. They win because they get free help from their customers who aren't all spitting fire. Keep it up!
December 21, 2007
Service is still solid. I have not had any OOS issues in several months. Website always works when I need it and Brendan is still active on the boards. I still highly recommend this service. VT is continuing to do it right.
November 21, 2007
Still smooth sailing and my last ticket with tech support was responded to almost instantly. Finally, I can again say that I would recommend Viatalk to a friend. Especially now, since the second line feature is included at no cost. Since the service has stabilized I have been using it more than before and have had no dropped calls, and only occasional dropped audio. It is still more reliable than a cell phone in that regard. Good Job VT!
UPDATE October 22, 2007
Call quality and relaibility has improved to near 100% for the last few months. I have NOT been experiencing any delayed, garbled or non existent audio, or other problems of the past. I have been using the chicago-1b server. That with the second line feature being added for all existing customers (at no additional charge) has renewed my faith. Good Job VT!!
UPDATE August 16, 2007
Quality wise, all has been well for the last few weeks except a minor hiccup that was resolved within an hour last week. VT has been rock solid. No audio loss either way and rings quick. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
My only current complaint is that my directory listing change that I initiated a few months ago was botched and it shows my fiancee's name?????? I know this was Level 3's fault, but it's still irritating. I re-submitted the ticket for that but it looks like it will be a while til something happens with that.
UPDATE July 24,2007:
Well, tickets are resolved and no known issues at the moment. Calls are completing inbound and outbound. I have had no audio loss at the start of calls and crystal clear audio (for the most part). Good Job VT!
Original review:
I switched to VT after trying MCI Broadband Calling and Packet 8. My primary reason for switching from Packet 8 was the horrible website and the constant price increases. The VT price of 2 years for $199 was excellent and they have loads more features. I installed the VT (PAP2T) adapter and it worked immediately. I also have not had issues with the service light going out as I did with P8. One of the things I like most is that customer service was willing to give out the adapter password so I could update the firmware.
I have had some issues with callers not hearing me or me not hearing callers early in calls. These have been marginally more frequent than with P8, but not much of an issue.
Issues have been frequent lately with inbound calls. Last week it was a large percentage of calls going to the Network Down Call Forwarding number, this week it is calls not ringing on the caller's end and no audio for them for 40 seconds if at all on some calls. I'm still willing to wait it out and see if things improve.
I had few issues for my first few months. I signed up in early March.
I have two tickets open right now. I will update when I get resolution.
Please keep my faith VT!
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Review by jaycc
UPDATED: 172 days ago
member for 9 years, 265 visits, last login: 131 days ago
Edison,Middlesex,NJ
$15 per month (24 month contract)
"Inexpensive"
"Having unreliable service after the 1st month"
"Good price while you are deciding if the service is worthy it"
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I signed up on 5/3 and I got my number ported from Vonage today (5/22/09). The adapter arrived on 5/8. Initially there was a latency problem when making phone calls. I submitted a ticket (their way for technical support). It was taken care within the same day. Also, I was not able to dial international on 5/9. The ticket got it addressed same day.
I used Vonage for two years. I guess VOIP technology is matured enough that we can expect little difference among providers. Cost was the reason I decided to switch. Now I would say VIATALK's feature list is more appealing than Vonage's.
How much did I know about VIATALK? Well, I didn't know anything about its negative past until I signed up. It was too late, right? I am not sorry, so far so good! Or it's even better than Vonage in term of features and cost.
I dont want to say its reliability is good given I've been using its service for two weeks and made not enough calls in or out. However, I am rather impressed by its tech support's quick turn-around.
While I hope its service will continue to be satisfactory going forward. I do think VIATALK deserves my recommendation as a BUY at this point. With the same sound quality, more features, and lower cost, this is the way to go!
I just looked at posts concerning about the charges like tax etc by other VIATALK subscribers. Comparing to my Vonage experiences, the tax, E911 charges, etc are about the same as VONAGE, while you get two years of service as opposed to one at Vonage. My annual plan at Vonage cost over $300 including tax, everything, not to mention additional cost each month, I think it's $0.99 or something per month. Overall, VIATALK is still cheaper, given the same sound quality and more features. Anyway, I re-edited this review to include the last part.
Thanks for your patience.
6/6/2009: This is going to be ugly!
In the last two three weeks, after I posted my previous review, I experienced annoying technical issues with viatalk.com:
1. I got busy signal for no parent reason;
2. Calls were routed incorrectly, ie, calls were connected to wrong number, other than the one I dialed;
3. Calls were missing from the "Call Details", especially those problem calls;
4. Some technicians told me the problems (above) were basically resulted from the other end, viatalk.com did everything correctly;
5. "Free two line" feature was NOT automatic, I had to ask for it, ie, opened a ticket;
However, I did run into technician who has better common sense and was willing to investigate.
Today I got busy signal again and I had to use my cell to complete the calls. About an hour earlier (5:46pm EST), a doctor called and the phone was not ringing, neither my cell (I use calls simutanous ring feature). I have to say their service is NOT reliable.
I will come back to let you know how they are going to respond to the busy signal problem + missing call log problem when they reply.
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Review by gbuffum
UPDATED: 177 days ago
member for 6.1 years, 303 visits, last login: 112 days ago
South Burlington,Chittenden,VT
$16 per month (12 month contract)
"Price"
"Quality at times"
"Great deal"
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Call quality problems dialing in and out over the past week or so. Cannot hear calling party, fast busy signals when dialing out. Not a happy customer at the moment.
The second line feature is great especially if you have multiple folks in the family using the phone simultaneously.
International calling rates are decent, however not as cheap as they were when I first signed up.
If you are a tech savvy person and wish to save some money on your phone bill, then Viatalk is a good candidate for VOIP service.
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Review by SuperHemp
UPDATED: 183 days ago
member for 2.2 years, 598 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Burnt Hills,Saratoga,NY
$12 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
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Been a smooth go with the company. If I had any problems they where resolved real fast. I have both a residential line and business line. They all work great and have no problems recieving or sending faxes.
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