Vonage Users - Do you use Softphone?
 

Ok, I finally made the leap yesterday into VOIP. Got Vonage for home and a "virtual phone number" in my in laws area so that they can call their daughter for free (they now think I'm a God!!! :) ). Now I have a question for all you Vonage users out there: what's the benefit to getting softphone for my laptop? I already have two cell phones with huge amounts of minutes and my office phone is already forwarded to my cell. I travel extensively (40+) weeks per year, but no one has problems getting a hold of me.

It seems to me that the only time that the softphone would come in handy is when I'm traveling overseas. If I understand it correctly, anyplace I have access to high speed internet, I can use the VONAGE softphone, right? So it wouldn't matter if I was sitting in a hotel in Tokyo or a hotel in Copenhagen, I could still use the softphone and it wouldn't cost me any more (at least to call a US number--I know I would pay international if I was sitting in Copenhagan and call a Copenhagan number). Am I correct?

thanks!

Everything you wrote is correct. It is great for overseas use, or for people with insufficient cell minutes. Because it also enable free vonage<>vonage calls it is great for those long calls to your family...

I signed up for Vonage specifically to get the Softphone for use while traveling. I tried to use it on a recent trip to London and the call quality was horrible. I switched over to Dialpad (my backup) and it worked great. If I don't have better luck with it overseas I may dump Vonage.... too bad, though, I really like getting my voicemail in an email message.

Another potential advantage would be if you can offload some of your cell minutes to VoIP (whether at home or via Softphone). I get that benefit at home simply with the VoIP handsets. You could get an even bigger offload effect if you are making a lot of cell calls while sitting in a hotel room on the road.

After getting VoIP hooked up, I was able to drop two notches down on my monthly cell plan, saving $37/month. A month or two from now I'll probably drop another notch saving another $15. For now, I'm taking it one step at a time: I want the savings, but not at the expense of having to become anal about watching our family's wireless usage.

Perhaps you'll be able to decrease your 2 wireless phones' "huge" amounts of minutes to "large" amounts of minutes. :)

Ok, I broke down and got the Softphone add on (I'm using it right now!!). I learned a lesson though (although it was a "well, DUH" once I thought about it). My laptop has speakers but no microphone, so I bought one of those desk-top microphones. People on the other end were complaining about an echo on the line and I finally figured it out. Due to latency, they were hearing their voices out of the speakers on my laptop and through the microphone!! As soon as I plugged in my bose headphones, it went away. :)

Now my next question, what kind of headsets are people using with softphone? I need one that is relatively cheap, but packs well. Any ideas?

I feel kind of stupid sitting here with my bose headphones on and using my cheapie microphone!

Thanks!

For VOIP I use a Plantronics USB headset:

http://www.plantronics.com/north_ame...035/prod440042

With its DSP and noise cancelling microphone I get the best possible quality.