Comicwoman

What service would you recommend for someone primarily US based, with frequent calls and travel to Europe? Low cost is good, does not have to be free. Bonus points if service available to the Middle East.

ScottC

Looking for a PC based service (requires the PC to be turned on all the time) or a service with a "box" like Vonage?

I'm a big fan of Magicjack, because it is dirt cheap (their intl. rates are low too), but it does require a PC to be turned on to use it.

BLI-Flyer

I've had Vonage for several years and am very happy with it. The big drawback with MagicJack, for me, is having to leave a computer on all the time if you want to receive incoming calls. Here's the link to Vonage's international plans and the countries you can call:
http://www.vonage.com/intplans_detai...BIN070907017W1

PTravel

I'll second MagicJack -- I have three, two permanently installed on machines at home and in my office, and one which I use for travel. Nothing beats being able to call back the US for free, and international from the US are very, very reasonable -- usually a penny or two a minute.

The MagicJack is a small USB device. You can plug a regular telephone into it, or else you can use the microphone and speaker on your computer. It's very reliable and call quality is usually excellent.

KyRoamer

Anyone use Skype? How does it do for you. I have it here at home but only use it occasionally. Have not tried it from overseas or to call a land line or cellphone.

Comicwoman

Leaving the PC on is not a deal breaker. Thanks so far for the reviews.

ScottC

Despite all the broohaaha about Skype, I've never been a fan. Call quality has never impressed me, and since it is generally a free service, customer care is nowhere to be found.

I was a very early adopter of Vonage, but I left them when their rates began to go insane. My $15 plan started off with about $1 in taxes, and by the time I canceled I was paying almost $9 a month in taxes and fees. Plus their service just got downright useless.

GadgetFreak

Im a big fan of Skype. I get the occasional bad connection but then just reconnect. I use it routinely at work. I have an almost daily conference call with a remote worker in my lab that I call on a Skype USB speakerphone. I also call other people on that speakerphone and I have one of the Philips dual mode (Skype and landline) cordless phones in my office that I use a lot. Im very happy with it. When traveling internationally I forward my US cellular to my Skype in and forward that to my UK or United Mobile SIM. I recently renewed my Skype account. It is about $3 per month for unlimited US calls and it has very good rates in international calls. I like it also because it is software based. So I can use it at home or in my office without anything other than a headset (including a BT headset is I want).

jerry crump

Nobody mentioned ooma. no pc left on and free after the initial $200-$300 investment.

UAVirgin

I have used Internetcalls.com for several years and have been very happy with the pricing from the US to Europe.

I am not a fan of Skype, it steals your bandwidth.

ClueByFour

Keep in mind that the magicjack will analyze your called numbers to target ads, and there is no uninstaller for their software (you must rip thru the registry and delete things). Their customer support is virtually nonexistant, and when it is, they have no in depth knowledge of the product.

It is, however, dirt cheap.

PTravel

I've yet to see a targeted ad or, for that matter, an ad for anything other than MagicJack services.

You can just delete the directory to which the MJ software installs.

True.

Not necessarily -- there are ways of reaching second tier and above and they do know their product.

ClueByFour

What you see is irrelevant to what they can do once the device is installed on your computer. I suggest (since I believe you are a lawyer by trade) that you review carefully the EULA you agreed to with the service and see if anything strikes you odd.

Sure, you can do that, but it does not remove the registry entries and a few other goodies they drop. Moreover, they (unlike almost every other major software vendor known to man) don't give you an uninstaller to do this work.

Really? I was helping someone debug one of these things, and the online chatdude insisted that it was a PC problem after three reboots and re-insertions did not solve the problem. As a customer, one should not have to jump thru hoops to get help.

If it works for you, that's fine. Keep in mind that the company's EULA allows them to do various nefarious things to your PC, the support is lousy, and you cannot uninstall it. Essentially, you get exactly what you pay for (eg, these reasons are why it's so incredibly cheap).

PTravel

I've reviewed the EULA. It doesn't bother me. And I have three MJs installed, and none display ads.

I've run lots of uninstallers that don't remove registry entries. That's hardly unique to MJ.

I agree. You might find this thread interesting:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...rt-stinks.html

Two of my three MJs run on dedicated thin clients. The third runs on my laptop and I keep a close eye on things -- nothing nefarious to date.

As for not being able to uninstall it, sorry, but you're wrong. I've done complete uninstalls of the MJ when I've moved it from one laptop to another.

ClueByFour

Great, so the part that says:

Which means it's not really "make all the free calls you want" and various other things they advertise.

You may also not be bothered by the part that reads:

Or,

Can't opt out. It gets better, but you get the gist.

Really? I don't generally run them, or prefer ones that give me the flexibility to choose. It strikes me that there is a reason.

I agree. You might find this thread interesting:


I'd be interested to see your list of registry keys and directories.

Yeah, one can uninstall it. Not without more work than every significant competitor and more work than most reputable software vendors. And I that's how they can make it cheap.

You want to load your machines up with this to save a buck? Your call.