The one flaw I’ve found in VoIP services, if it can truly be called a flaw, is that VoIP doesn’t behave exactly like landline phone service. Instead of plugging into a wall jack, you plug into a little box that in turn connects to your router. This is fine for those of us who are geeky enough to rig up convoluted schemes for adding extra phone connections throughout the house, but what about regular people (like my wife) who want the phone to just work? What the VoIP companies forget to tell you in their marketing materials is that you can connect your VoIP service to the phone lines running through the walls of your house. I’ve got a free tutorial showing you how, complete with pictures. Connect your VoIP system to the phone lines in your house.

A Gnomie named Greg writes: “I’ve been using Vonage as my home phone service for several months now. Best move I ever made – costs less, better audio quality, and more functionality. Be sure to check out the options available to you – there’s a wireless Linksys router with a Vonage VoIP endpoint built in available now, for example. And if no one has already offered, let me know and I think I can refer you to Vonage and get you a free month of service.”

Another Gnomie writes: “We went Vonage just about a month ago, and I’ll never go back to SBC. More features than I will ever need, as good, if not better audio quality than SBC has ever had. Faxes work with no apparent difference from the POTS line, just plug it in and it works. Power failures an issue?? that’s what UPS systems are for plug the router and VoIP adapter into the UPS your PC is on, or get a cheap one, they sure don’t use much current on their own.”