Best Voice over IP Service

[carolinarider09]

I spoke with the Security Monitoring Company today.  We have been using them for 10 or more years.  I am pleased with their service and responses.

Turns out they do not recommend using a VOIP system for communications with them (in place of the current landline twisted pair that is going away).  They said that there two many instances of dropped calls, mishandled "tones'.  So, I asked if they had an alternative and they did.

While the alternative is similar to the VOIP systems in how it connects, the system they recommended is useful for security systems that have not only access monitoring but also video monitoring and other monitoring activities.   And of course it connects via the net.

This will add some additional costs to the transition away from AT&T but they will all be recouped within the first six months of the transition. 

I am lucky in that my internet connection is provided by a company associated with the local Electric CoOp.  I think the CoOp was running fiber to all their substations and got this company to work with them to install fiber for their customers.   I lucked out. 

We shall see how this all works out.   It's almost fun.

[carolinarider09]

One tidbit that has sort of bothered me but I never had a need to figure it out.  That is the way a telephone line has its individual connections identified.  The common phone cable used in the past with phones that had ringers (you know the old style) had four wire cords. 

My system has that as well (Security system) but the rest of the house only uses two wires. 

They are "Tip" and "Ring".   I always thought that the "Ring" meant just that "powering" ringer.  Not so.

It appears the names came from the beginning phone connectors that used what I called "Phone" plugs.  These were 1/4" things and were used by headsets back in the day and stereo also. 

But phones used them as well it seems.   And that is where the identifier names came from.   "Tip" was identified as the "tip" of the phone plug.  This is usually the "signal".   The "Ring" was the part next down or the "ring" part of the phone plug.

The chart, today, identifies "Tip" as Plus and "Ring" and negative.  So just in case you wondered...

Did get some parts over the last two days that will allow me to reconstruct the phone extensions in the house. 

[carolinarider09]

Today my new phones came in.  I have some phones (wireless) but I wanted to keep them connected to my AT&T Landline while I tested the new VOIP system (which should be in this afternoon).

In doing so, I had to retire (not destroy but "retire") my 20 plus year old landline phone.  Still operational but the new VOIP system will only handle one of these types of phones (at least that is what the pictures showed).  So, it will be held in storage as a memory of the past. 

[carolinarider09]

Update February 5, 2023

According to the USPS the 1-VOIP "box" will be arriving tomorrow.  According to their website it's a "plug and play" device.  So, I just have to plug it into a power source, then the network switch and it's ready to go.

So I can test it with my OnQ board  I wired one of the telephone outputs from my current OnQ device to the input of the new OnQ device.  This was to make sure I got the wires right.  Not really sure if "Tip" and "Ring" as actually different connections but....  It worked. 

The picture below shows the new device on the bottom.   I will  wire the VOIP box's output to the input of the new OnQ device to makes sure it will all work.  Then I will start transferring the wires once the security system interface gets here and it is tested and verified workable. 

[carolinarider09]

The 1-VOIP device arrived today.  It came with a power supply (micro USB cable with AC plug in adapter) and a network cable.   The instructions were simple.  Connect the cables to the appropriate connections and then connect the phone and then power it up, wait five minutes. 

Did that, no issues works as expected dialing in and dialing out.  It is identified as a "local" number so local calls do not require a "1". 

First picture is the black box.


Second shows the black box and phone.  And yes it is working through the OnQ system.   



Security black box will/should arrive on Wednesday and I should get it all up and running a few days later.  After a week or so of testing, we will then drop AT&T's phone service.   

Just in case you were wondering, when we built the house we had to get AT&T internet (twisted pair and slow) and AT&T telephone service.   Within the first months of operation, we had an event where the phone lines apparently were energize way beyond normal voltage causing some melting of "things". 

The picture below is of the AT&T box where the wires came into the house of internet and phone.  I think they were on the same set to twisted pairs... 

The black marks are the melting points.

[scooperhsd]

You should check that about not needing to dial 1+ Areacode + [7digit number]. 1-Voip is in OK and I specifically asked them about this ( since I am a LONG time Callcentric customer).

[carolinarider09]

The 1-VOIP number is listed in the town in which I live.  So, I did verify I did not need to dial a "1" before calling my home phone from the 1-VOIP device, just had to dial the 10 digit number.

If I wanted to call my cell phone from the 1-VOIP device I would to use a "1" before the area code since my cell phone's number is listed in some other city.  I did verify this both ways.

[Serk]

I sure hope POTS don't make a comeback... Since we've moved into our house (Built in 1997, we moved in in 2007) I've used most of the previously existing CAT-3 wiring as pulls to replace with CAT-5E and more recently CAT-6!

I used to maintain a VOIP phone, went to a single station higher end cordless phone set with multiple satellite units around the house.

Now we don't even have that, just our cell phones and the Internet. (Funny how things turn around, we used to run Internet over our phones, now we run out phones over the Internet.) My house is a semi-dead spot for AT&T cellular, so they sent me a micro cell tower, plugs into my Internet and accepts AT&T cell phones and reroutes the calls (Voice and data) over my Internet connection...

[carolinarider09]

I guess I get a little paranoid which is why I kept the "telephone" for so long.  AT&T's political speak and the $65 a month phone bill for landline local service drove us over the edge.

We are lucky in that the internet service we have is fiber optic supplied via the Newberry Electric CoOp's power lines.

I was keeping the old school system because it was old school and rarely failed.  But.....   

Soon, everting will be tied to the fiberoptic net.   We do have cellphones so there is redundancy there.

When I built the house (12 years ago) I wired ever where with CAT-5 and also the standard four conductor phone wiring (I think that is CAT-3 but back then it was "phone wire".).

Ran HDMI cables from the bookcase to the TV between the two and the TV behind its wall in the bedroom.  The best HDMI cables I could find.   Ran the power to the walls behind the TVs as well.   Couple of years ago, heard a loud "pop" and the TV in the great room died.  Had to run a new power cable on the wall.  Not real obvious but..   When I get the next TV I will find out what happened.   

[carolinarider09]

Wednesday the last "piece" of hardware came in.  It's a black box (well it's really white) that takes the place of the twisted pair telephone line for communicating with the alarm monitoring service. 

It uses the internet as well.  It appears to be almost "plug and play".  Will find out in a few days when I speak the the Tech at the monitoring company. 

The blackbox is meant to allow interfacing with older security monitoring systems without a lot of hassle and also appears to allow for easy upgrades as needed.   

As soon as it has been connected and verified and tested for a week or so. I shall send a "letter" to AT&T dropping the twisted pair phone line. 

Will let you know how it works out in the install. 

[carolinarider09]

The hardware that interfaces the alarm system to the network has been installed and, working over the phone with my alarm monitoring company, the gentlemen who knew what he was doing and me got the system up and running.

Besides some changes to the security system settings (last one was "dial tone detect") the system was verified to be communicating with the alarm monitoring company.   

This is the last step in dumping AT&T.  I will not dump them until we have had a week or so of operations under the new system.  This will include some testing to verify operation. 

In case you are wondering it's called Bat-Connect.   A small computer designed to do a lot of stuff if programmed properly (not by me but by the Alarm Company). 

It will allow the expansion of my current monitoring system if I so desire and.... maybe more. 

My last post in this thread will be when I "DUMP AT&T". 

I still have to transfer some phone connections from one On-Que board to the new one with the VOIP connection.  I do test it daily for dial-tone. I make a call to my cell on occasion, to verify voice ops.  I have not received a "marketing" or "call from a foreign nation, wanting to sell me a subscription to Spectrum or someone wanting to help me get more Social Security funds on the network phone. 

[carolinarider09]

On Wednesday, I was notified that the process of porting my current AT&T phone number to my new VOIP system will take place between 9 and 5 CST next Wednesday. 

As soon as that is accomplished  and phone number forwarding tested, I will drop AT&T.   

Funny thing (and it is one of the reasons I still had twisted pari telecommunications from AT&T) on Wednesday we had a brief period of network failure.  Lasted about 10 minutes. 

In the three or so years we have had this particular network service we have lost service twice (this being the second time). 

[carolinarider09]

Number was ported satisfactorily this afternoon (I checked it several times during the day).   Calling my old number rings on the new phones.

Old phones (I have one of those phones that allows you to have one or two "extensions" connected to the main phone) showed "no line".  No dial tone when phone turned on.  I did not check but I assume the line was disconnected from the main switching system.  I did not check for line voltage but might tomorrow.

Connected the wire from the phone that was connected to AT&T to the VOIP box (it has two jacks to support two phones).  That took some effort because I failed to flag the wires in the distribution box.

The OnQue distribution system is not, at this time, in the system.  I had some initial issues with it so I have bypassed it.   

So, right now all phones work as intended.  Next step connect AT&T and drop service.  Might have been already dropped when I ported the number but I do not trust them....