[ale] Recommendations for cheap phone service?

[scott]

I have both Skype and BusinessCOMCAST.

First BusinessCOMCAST.  it works well.  They dont block ports.  And
for ~$5 you can have a static IP instead of DHCP that changes every
few days.  In my home I was having bandwidth issues at certain times
of day with normal comcast.  Without switching any cabling my yard, or
anything, just switching the cable modem (business class requires a
special modem that they rent you as part of the plan's month fee) and
switching my IP address (think different subnet/vlan).  Then with that
switch out I have not had one bandwidth issue.  Well not inside of
comcast.  You will run into bandwidth issues on various places of the
net just because.

I have Skype.  It works vey well.  You can use one of many things to
do the skype calls on.
* PC's speakers/built in mic. - not recommended due to quality of the
speakers/built in mic
* get a decent headset/mic combo - ~20$ to TONs of $$.  Going to
BestBuy/Fryes/MicroCenter there are tons of options.  If you purchase
via web you can do better on the costs.  And a decent USB headset with
mic will do you most excellent.
* You can get Skype phones - physical phones like you normally would
for you house except these work with Skype only.  They have a normal
handset, handset with speakerphone, cordless phones, phone that
connects via USB to your laptop and uses your laptop as the
power/connector to Skype, standalone speakerphones, etc.  They start
(if my bad memory is correct) about $25ish and goes up to hundreds.
Depending on make/model.  Fryes has some of the models on their shelf.
 You can shop SKype's store directly.  Or I would purchase via web and
you can find deals on them.

Many options and most of the options have suboptions that takes the
cost from fairly cheap to way too expensive for my likings...

Scott


On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 11:27 AM, Chris Fowler
<cfowler at outpostsentinel.com> wrote:
> www.aretta.com
>
> They can get a virtual PBX and all they need at their office are SIP
> phones.  Beware though that VOIP requires bandwidth and if they have DSL
> they may not be able to make as many calls at once as they would like.
>
>
>
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