| Blogs > Kats48 > My Blog |
|
Technologically challenged...VoIP help? - maybe I'm the one who needs tweaked Hello friends. For anyone keeping an eye on me, you may have noticed I've been MIA for over a week. I feel technologically challenged lately...not to mention my modem went on the fritz a week ago, it took 6 days for the cable guy to come fix it...so a few nice fellows had to wait for a reply from me. My apologies....sincerely, I'm not a game-player or into idle flirts....I'm real, but shit just happens sometimes. (If you know me or my profile...then you know I'm a writer and rather loquacious, just to forewarn you.) The reason I'm feeling challenged lately is the phenomenon of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone service. Most people have heard of Skype or Vonage....both VoIP services. I went a less expensive route....with MagicJack, a little credit card size gizmo that plugs into a USB port on my PC, my phone cord connects into the other end...and voila'!... Phone service for 20$ A YEAR...YES, I said per YEAR! For that amount of yearly savings on home phone service, I'll put up with leaving my computer logged on nearly 24/7 and the minor aggravations I'm experiencing....which is where I'm asking for a little help if anyone knows about MagicJack quirkiness. From what I've heard and read so far....most VoIP phone services have much the same problems, but surely there's got to be some tweaking I can do so this will work and sound alot better? Here's the problems..... A. Because the service uses "idle bandwidth", sometimes when I'm online with a few too many browser tabs open, perhaps doing a download or update, and streaming music via Pandora internet Radio (a music genome project...you gotta check out if you've never heard it before)...anyway! (I ramble) Because of idle bandwidth...or the lack of enough remaining while I"m doing stuff online...I pick up/answer my phone when it rings (usually the first ring) with or without clicking the accept button on the magicjack pop up flash screen, and although I should be "instantly" connected to my caller, it hesitates in silent limbo, maybe with a crackle in there, then either we're connected, or it's taken LONG enough that the caller is already sent to my voicemail and thinks I'm ignoring them or not home. (I call them right back usually, but a few of my friends are getting downright annoyed with my phone's "behavior", and I can't say I blame them.) When I'm not doing anything on the computer, this problem doesn't happen...so I figure it must be bandwidth...only I don't know that there's anything I can really do about that except limit myself to doing one browsing thing at a time or stop streaming my music. (I get 10 megs from my ISP, if that means anything) B. The other annoying problem is the sound quality during a conversation. The further away from the PC I am on my cordless phone, (and the less going on on my PC) the less this problem happens, but the sound is like a static crackle whenever me or the other person starts or stops talking during the conversation...kinda like a two-way radio...and for chatty talkers like myself, it causes a few words to get cut out or missed, which is a real drag. So! Anyone had these problems with VoIP? Anyone found solutions to these problems? Would love your feedback. I'm learning a little more about it, but touching base with online communities for feedback often gets right to the heart of something without all the endless searching for answers thru traditional channels. Please....chime right in with your thoughts if you know anything about this stuff....and is it just MagicJack, or do ALL VoIP's have the same two-way radio aspects to them? Thanks everyone. -Kats48 (aka Red77, Katscan, Catnip & Kats48 on other sites) 
|
×
×