Being that I am fed up with poor customer service, and entirely far too high of phone bills for basic phone service, I have decided with the advice of my cohorts at the CMH to build my own VOIP server for home. Well, actually, it is already built. And it will be online when my last part shows up.
Here's what I did, (Skip this paragraph if you don't wanna hear nerd-speak...)
Build a server (or virtual server is even a better option) from a iso you can get from asterisk@home, now known as Tribox. This will enable you be be your own provider, like as if you were with Vonage. To get your own phone number, you need a SIP provider, the one I am using is from a company called EXGN. They allow you to have a local phone number practically anywhere, unlike Vonage, who as an example, will not give a local extension in Lansing, your phone number would end up with a Howell prefix. By having a local number, all the people that call me who usually don't have to call me long distance, still won't. This is where the only recurring charge happens. They charge about 1.4 cents per minute for outbound traffic, and you only pay about $8 a month for unlimited inbound traffic. What these 2 things give you is a DID, and the ability to send that traffic to any IP you choose, like your own ISP IP address. Now to circumvent the Vonage box you would be stuck buying typically, you need to get a a box just like they would give ya, like the one from Linksys, but without their locked in codes that only work with their system, like the one 1 bought. Once that last part shows up, all that has to happen, is I unplug the main line into the house, make the Linksys box an extension in the server, and forward my calls from the land line to the new DID I got from EXGN. The last step will be link the Linksys to any open phone jack in the house. Instant phone service!... Well, after a few months of tinkering....
Screw you AT&T, screw you TDS Metrocom, and even screw Vonage, but Comcast, lets be really good friends.... Hey if I could be my own ISP, I'd do it, so I have to keep at least 1 ally.
