VOIP OPINION

[trader_4]

Security with regard to what? Someone listening in on your calls? It working when power is out? 911? Reliability? If it's someone listening in, I've never seen it discussed. The traffic goes over the internet, unencrypted, AFAIK, with all the VOIP services. So, it would seem about as secure as any similar internet traffic. If someone wants to listen in, is smart enough, determined enough, they can, just like with a phone call on the old copper system. It's probably more secure than that, because with the old system you could tap in with stuff not much better than an ordinary phone by getting to the wires in the building, going to the street, etc.

[HerHusband]

I have been using 1-VOIP (previously called "VOIP Your Life") since 2007. I pay $20.55 per month, which includes 500 minutes in the US and Canada. We make very few phone calls and have never come anywhere close to 500 minutes in a month. It comes with a variety of call filtering options, voice mail, and virtual phone numbers.

It has worked very well for us. We haven't had any issues except for my own network problem that prevented incoming calls from getting through. I reset my modem, router, and switches and never had the problem again.

I had a different VOIP provider before 2007 (don't remember their name), but they went out of business.

Before we switched to VOIP our local phone company charged almost $100 per month (We're in a rural area). That was with NO long distance, and NO filtering options of any kind. All of our family, and even stores in the closest town were all long distance. Once I could get high speed internet, switching to VOIP was a no brainer.

Because of the terrain here, we can't get reliable cell signals so that route was not an option.

Anthony Watson

[trader_4]

Check out Ooma. $4 a month, hardware costs $120 max, you can find it for half that on Ebay. I've been using it 8 months now, works very well for me. Sound quality is overall very good. Sometimes I do hear a slight echo, but not really bad. I'd say it's not as good as the premier VOIP, eg Vonage or your local cable company, but close enough that for $4, it's a great deal.

[Neill Massello]

Ooma uses encryption.

[clare]

If you use OOMA and pay for the premium package you can filter spam seven ways to sunday - and mabee even more!!