Friday, January 5, 2007 - 2:55AM

Switching to VoIP

By DAN ROBINSON

Editor/Photographer

I decided to switch my phone service to Packet 8's "voice over IP" this week, and I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. I hope I don't sound like I'm a salesman for this, but it really is a good deal. For those that don't know, VoIP is simply home telephone service that uses your internet connection rather than the phone company's phone line. You get a little router-like box that plugs into an ethernet port, then you just plug your main home phone line into that. You can't really tell the difference from a quality standpoint. It is much cheaper that the 'land line' service, less than 30 bucks a month for unlimited local and long distance (and that's including all the taxes and fees). But best of all, the service has some cool features - one of which solves a big problem for me: ringing both my home and cell phone at the same time. The service has a web-based control panel that lets you enter a 'simultaneous ring' number, so that when someone calls your VoIP phone, it rings both the home and cell phones!

So, I can finally go back to having a single phone number to give out to everyone. And thanks to the local number portability, I get to keep my old home number for this. All in all, it's a pretty nice deal. I know I said I didn't want to sound like a salesman, but if you want to sign up for this, let me know and I'll send you a referral email link (they will give me a small referral credit on my bill).