Voip in Toronto

[Mike Kallies]

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 12:26 PM, Abidel Bassie-Cripps
<mrsabidel-FFYn/CNdgSA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Hello everyone!
>
> Just food for thought. :)
>
> Its great that there is VoIP through the computer (soft phone), but it may
> not be as reliable as an ATA box. We have a good AMD64, lots of ram, great
> OS, but even still there may be times, with multitasking that the soft phone
> will have issues with the computers performance and the fact that the
> computer needs to be on 24/7 to receive calls.
>
> All of this topic boils done to the old expression:"6 of one & half a dozen
> of another!" :)
>
> Good luck to anyone looking for alternative phone choices!
>
> Abby

For what I need it for, call quality isn't all that critical.. as long
as it is *reasonable*.

The problem is that my landlord doesn't want us using cell phones for
buzzing people into the building.  He already knows my cell phone
number.  So, rather than giving him the *72 argument, I figured I'd
just give him a cheapo voip number and forward it up anyway.  Worst
case, the voip is down and people have to call my cell direct for me
to walk down to open the door.

CallerID, voicemail and forwarding are great services, but Bell wants
far too much money for all that.  The landline would be handy for
"free" local calls, but to use it as a buzzer in my apartment would
cost me $30/mo for the service after call waiting.  Without call
waiting, it's quite seriously ONLY a $23/mo door opener.  Faced with
that option, I'd rather answer my cell and walk down to open the door.

I don't get unexpected guests, so it's not a big deal to make sure
that the machine is running.  I'll give these "free" guys a try.
Maybe if they're good call quality etc, I'll consider an ATA to use it
as an actual phone some time.

Oh and thanks for everyone's help on this one, I'm sorry it's been a
bit off topic...  Too much Toronto, not enough Linux.  The comments
have been very helpful to me and I don't know another list of gurus in
Toronto who'd know this stuff.

-Mike
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