VOIP (Pronounced like "flop")

FLASH
After a lot of nail-biting, I finally tried the "new-fangled" internet phone service ... VOIP. Since Jacquie and I are actually in the phone business - as a competitor - I thought I'd give it a test run, with the somewhat harbored hope that it would be a big flop ... to rhyme with VOIP. To my great surprise, it works great.

I bought a little box from "Best Buys" and after I get back the hoped for mail-in rebate (Oh, I hate those!) my net cost will be around 15-bucks. I set up an account on the internet ($14.95/mo) in about ten minutes. Easy. Next, I unpacked the little box (with the cool looking flashing blue lights!), plugged in the power, plugged in a regular house phone and plugged in a network cable from the box to my router. The manual say's wait until the cool blue lights stop flashing ... and make call. Yeah - Right: When does THAT ever work?

The lights stopped flashing, I picked up my phone, fully expecting to hear ... nothing. What I heard was: A dial tone. Whoa! I dialed my house phone ... and it rang! Unbelievable! From there on it was boringly simple, just like a phone should be.

Try it - You'll like it.
http://www.vonage.com
(No, I don't sell it. It's just good and worth knowing about.)