[larimar]

Is PG having problems with their servers or performing maintenance --- my PG box has not been able to connect all day and I also cannot connect to myphonegnome.com detailed pages over the internet --- my ISP cable service is working fine --- anyone else having or had similar service problems recently ? Thanks for any feedback / help !!

[kalimark]

Same here. It is a second time within a week there is a major phonegnome outage.

[larimar]

Hi kalimark --- I'm still under the 30 day test --- what has been your previous experiences with PG / outages and how long have you used their services --- any info appreciated --- thanks larimar

[larimar]

Phonegnome Is Back In Service About 8:00 Pm --- But An 8 Hour Outage Is Troubling --- Have Requested Explanation From Their Support ???

[PhoneGnome]

See: View topic - DNS Nameserver Transfer Problem - 03/08/2007 :: PhoneGnome Support ::

[kalimark]

I’m playing with the PG box the second week only and there were two major (several hours each) PG outages within that time. Since I have been using a number of Sipura devices (including SPA3000) for several years now the PG box acts a lot like a SPA-3000.

In my case I just purchased the PG box for my mother, who regularly calls overseas, since at least in theory it should act like SPA3000 without the extra work on her part. The whole key is the simplicity of the PhoneGnome – I was hoping to just plug the box, set up a couple of free and low cost services and the end result would be such that my mom would make the call as easily as she normally would.

My household uses a large number of minutes, including international minutes (into thousands per month) and my mom, who lives in another city, uses a couple of hundred minutes per month also by accessing my unlimited accounts remotely by calling her own dedicated number in my location.

Most of the time it is a very simple set-up for her since she has speed dials on her home and cell phones set up for almost seamless dialing to most of the regular numbers overseas via my location. The problems are usually when she has to occasionally dial a new long international number (not in her speed dial list) manually so, at least in theory, that where the PG box should help.

In practice so far the device works mostly as advertised but I would not use it for my own heavy duty calling. First, in addition to the announcement (whether the call is free, local or internet) there is a slight but noticeable delay each time the call is made and second there is slight but also noticeable loss of quality when the device is plugged in. The quality loss is noticeable even on the “local” line and there is nothing I can do about it since mostly all of the relevant settings are set not by the end user but by the PG people. As far as the slight delay it should not be a problem for my mom – the audio quality loss, on the other hand, might be.

It might be that I am just used to crystal clear quality calls so I have quickly found out that I prefer to make my longer international calls from a phone without the PG device attached and the user on the other end of conversation could also notice a quality loss.

During the two PG outages the device also worked as advertised meaning I could make the calls via my “local” line but keep in mind that during any problems at the PG end you won’t be able to call via any of the other alternative free or low-cost internet providers you can easily set up with PhoneGnome device. This again is a minus for me (may not be a big deal for my mom). I don’t know the track record of PG that well so the two outages within last week might have been just a fluke but again keep in mind that on the PG device you won’t be able to access any of your alternative free or low-cost services except what you have provided on your “local” line till any problems on the PG end are solved. In my testing case I provided the “local” line with unlimited global service from one of the providers I use but for most people attached to a regular PSTN line as their “local” line any PG outage may pose a temporary hardship.

In other words, if you count on internet calling, do not discard your old adapters and keep at least one another regular adapter for backup purposes.

[larimar]

Thank you Kalimark --- really appreciated the details on your Phonegnome experience.

I am very new at VOIP and failed miserably trying to setup an SPA3102 with both Iconnecthere and Sipura --- finally cancelled their service and eBayed the ATA.

The PG setup experience was painless and so far has provided good voice / connection quality until the 8 hr loss of service yesterday --- I plan to stay with PG however for a while.

As a backup --- what ATA device and PAYG service would you suggest --- was considering a simple PAP2T-NA instead of the Router/ ATA combo SPA3102 which was far too complex for me ?

Thanks again! Larimar

[packetvoice]

In general, the service runs fine. They have had outages and yesterday's was the most troubling one. When I send an email to support, they do respond. However, I get the sense that don't readily accept problems on their end.

I noticed the problem yesterday morning. I sent an email to support. I then discovered that it was a DNS problem and I alerted the support person. Evidently, the person had no clue that someone within the company was making a major change that could temporarily affect everyone. I even called my ISP and opened a trouble ticket with them. I finally gave up last night.

Than I read David's post this morning.

It is simply frustrating.

[larimar]

Thank you Packetvoice --- appreciated the sharing of your previous experiences with PG service !
Larimar

[kalimark]

Over the years I have tried all of the Sipura/Linksys adapters out there and many others, and all them are a little overwhelming at first. As of right now I still like Linksys/Sipura devices and actively use (a lot) SPA3000, SPA-2100 and SPA-2000 to provide heavy usage of virtually unlimited global calling for six people in my family plus occasional calling for few more .

Which one you need depends on your needs – always start by reading some of the forums (like this one) where you’ll find incredible amount of info form really knowledgeable people – this allows you to have an idea what the pluses and minuses or limitations of a device are. If you are looking for an adapter to get your feet wet or to play with preferably choose one of the popular devices people use a lot and write a lot about on forums like Voxilla. Also, if you choose one of the popular devices and a provider you have the advantage of having the easy way to configure your device by using the Voxilla Device Configuration Wizards – thanks to Phoneboy and others this is incredible tool that saves you time and allows you to test multiple configurations in a matter of minutes.

For big families or heavy usage the $25 Voicestick Global Plan beats many others simply because you can have simultaneous usage of this particular plan by three people (1. via softphone or in my case via one of the Sipura devices, 2. via their i-2brige feature which I have personally on my Sprint Mobile to give me virtually unlimited Global Cell Phone usage on the least expensive Sprint plan and 3. via their proprietory device which allows still another person to make a remote call at the same time.

In your situation if you’re looking for PAYG service depending on where you call you may want to take a look at Voicestick PAYG plan where you get a local free DID number and the local calls to North America are around 2 cents per minute and to Europe are about 1.5 cents per minute . The service works very well with all the Linksys/Sipura devices I tried it on and in addition to the unlimited plan I use this free service to get another free number for incoming traffic. Another PAYG service which I have used mostly for play and testing devices is VoipCheap – I’m not sure how good is the quality for longer calls but setting an account with them gives you something like 300 free minutes of free calling to most of North America and Europe per week.

I’m using VoiceStick and VoipCheap as examples also because I have used both of their credentials while testing the PhoneGnome device within the last few days and it worked fine there too. Since you are just starting with the PhoneGnome try inputting one of those in the “Low Cost Internet Calling” section under features on your “My PhoneGnome” site – if you input VoipCheap credentials it should be free up to 300 minutes per week – I believe if you exceed the limit of 300 minutes per week you have to prepay and pay their normal rates which are something like 1 cent per minute to most popular places.

Also, you'll most likely need at least one free and pure SIP service (like FWD) that will allow you to make and receive free calls and access other peering services or get free incoming numbers from ipKall for example.