Land line phone service
 

Is there cheaper/better service than AT&T? For a house land line?? AND/OR Dial up?

Sure get an IP phone. Depends on what speed Internet you have available.

Here we have skype. It costs 60 dollars a year or just 5 dollars a month.

Pardon an ole mans ignorance. Whats an IP phone, and what speed does the puter need to be??

IP = Internet Protocol.
IP Phone= a phone that uses the internet for transmission of the phone call.
In a basic sense it works like this...
---> = connects to.

Your IP Phone ---> Your Broadband connection.
Your broadband connection ----> Your IP phone service.
Your IP Phone Service ----> local to the call dialing center.
Local calling center Dials call. Then you connect.

The above is done by computer instantly and seamlessly.
You can have a "local" phone number just about anywhere in the world. So say your family lives in California USA and you live in London, UK. You can have a local number for them to contact you toll free with no international charges. Of course it can also be just a local number as well.

To have it work well I'd suggest a 1 meg connection, but a 500K can work if it's DSL. Faster is better always of course. Satalite won't do tho. The time it takes for the signal to go to space and return makes the call choppy.

It doesn't need to hook up to the computer at all. Just the highspeed router on your broadband connection. Tho it can. To try it on your computer if you want... It's free. You will need a microphone and speakers.

Setup a google plus account.
Click make a call.
Download the sound drivers when prompted.
Dial the number pad.
It won't last forever as a free service but it will show you how well it can work.

Could you send this to my DD at amykchristopher.com and put a heading like (yiour dad asked me to send this to you)??

Sure... But first delete her address portion from this site.

Then send her email address to me in a PM.


Do it right away! She doesn't want spam mail. :)

I dont know how to do that.

Go to the post that you put the address in. Click "Edit". When it opens, just use your "delete" button to delete that part of your post. Click the "save" or whatever words are there that say the same thing. Check to make sure it worked.

First delete her URL. Use the edit button on the bottom of your post.

Then click on my name on the left side of my posts.. It will show a small menu.

Pick send private message .

Type in the box and click send. But for right now.

I'll send you one. Look at the top of your page. It will say (1) message.
click it open the box. Type in your message. :)

stanb999 - is broadband required for the Skype?

As I understand it, broadband is not possible with dial up?

I have dial up and the speed is so slow. Any fast option out here is not cost reasonable. So is there a way to use the skype type service?

My DS uses it to call me, but it is not always clear, and there are times with bits of other conversations, etc. Is that usual?

Yes, not just "Broadband" But a good highspeed connection. What some companies call broadband... Well that is for a different discussion.

As for Skype being clear. Ours sure is. She could be dialing from a computer and the mic is just picking up background noise from a TV or radio. It isn't a "party line" at all.

The reason we can justify spending the "extra" for a really fast internet connection are many. But it may not be so for you.

We use it for phone, Netflix, other movies, and TV. Not to mention the endless hours on the Facebook and Here. So the extra 20 bucks a month IMHO is well spent in the long run if your not spending it in other places.

There are ways to communicate by voice via dialup if both of you have same setup on your computers. You wont be able to call a landline phone or a cell phone, only another SIP based phone. There will also tend to be lag. On other hand it will be free.

Puppy Linux has a SIP utility called PSIP included or at least my older version of Puppy does. Some of Puppy users were enthused about it at one point, disappointed with old non functional linux SIP utility, so created PSIP, working most of bugs out of it. You only can talk to another person with SIP utility on their computer. Very light weight and supposedly does work on dialup though nobody much seems to have dialup anymore. Except for few of us in boonies.

You might also look at some of older instant messaging utilities (from era when most people were on dialup) that dont try to do video, some of those allowed voice communication but both users had to have it installed on computer.

Originally even Skype was supposed to work marginally on dialup, but for sure the current versions wouldnt. This was free Skype where it was installed on both computers and you could only talk to somebody with Skype on their computer.

Any of these SIP based utilities on dialup, if they work at all, will be clumsy and probably be lags where you say something and going to be a technical pause before you hear an answer.

He calls from a computer, but I don't think he has tv etc. So it is picking it up through the connection some way. He does live remote. There are "echos" and "hollow" sounds, etc. Can be distracting, but it is cheap to use.

My only high speed options are satellite, line of sight (when a company is actually working out here), and cell phone cards. If any of those were only $20 extra a month and were reliable, it would be a bargain.

To FBB's original question - those are things he could check into in his area and see what is available and the cost, etc. If he is closer to a city, he might have some options.

HermitJohn - Thanks for that info. I will do some checking on it. Since the Skype that he uses does work, we will probably continue to use that. He does have to pay as he uses it, but it is not much and so much less than his cell phone.

The use of dial up does seem to be a real "thing of the past". Web sites and just about everything now uses something that is much slower to load and some of it just simply does not load at all. It is frustrating, but for me at this point, it is not worth the high $$ I would have to pay to get high speed.

If you are talking local service, probably not. Unless you live in high population area, probably no choice on local landline service for local calls. Why many people went to cell phones and ditched landline. If you want cheap long distance via landline, yes. There are several dial around long distance services, I still have one called onesuite.com Cheap International Calls, Internet Fax, VoIP, Call Forwarding, All Pay-As-You-Go in OneSuite You pre-buy minutes and then dial around through their 800 number service and for me its like 2 or 3 cents a minute to anywhere in country. I make so few long distance calls, this is great, plus onesuite.com doesnt have all those maintenance/nusiance fees that eat up your balance. They even changed rules so now if you make one call every six months, your minutes carry over until you use them up. I still have credit from three years ago.

I did the dial around cause my local phone company long ago forced me to pick a long distance company. If I chose them for long distance, they wanted a monthly fee for it whether I made any calls or not. Several of the other major long distance carriers were same. I found some oddball outfit that didnt charge if you didnt make any calls. They didnt offer good rate, but they didnt charge me monthly fee. My phone company wouldnt let me not have any long distance company or if I insisted, they would, but they had a monthly fee for not having a long distance company.... And occasionally I do need to make a long distance call so went with onesuite.com. I had about $20 credit 3 years ago and still have around $16 left in my account.... I dont make many calls and I dont make long duration calls!

I have no idea actually who my long distance company of record is now, cant use dialaround as official long distance company of record. That one I signed up with went out of buisiness, but somehow my local company never asked me to pick new one and they dont charge me monthly fee so leave well enough alone.

If you do need long distance company of record, Big Red Wire bigredwire telephone & time portal seems good pick, doesnt look like they have monthly fee if you dont make any calls. Rates arent horrible either.

Tell your Son he can get unlimited calling out for 30 bucks a year with Skype.
The service is called Skype out. The per min. rates stink.

Remember tho folks. The reason Skype is so cheap is it isn't a Phone service. They tell you that on their site. Many times. Plus 911 doesn't work at all (FYI).
For a phone service you need to pay taxes, universal connection fees, E911 access fees and other federal fees. With skype you don't. Because it isn't a phone service. ;)

FarmBoyBill - To your original question. If all you want is a phone connection with dial up. There should be a basic phone company in your area. Maybe that is AT&T where you are. Ask them what they charge for the services they offer. Then, check to see of there are other companies that provide service in your area. Bigger cities have more to offer. Check their prices.

When you get basic phone service, there are internet companies that provide access to the internet and usually cheaper prices than the main phone companies. Most will also provide long distance service also at a reduced price. If that interests you, I can give you more info on that. The company I use provides the internet access for the dial up and I also get long distance for a much reduced price. I have used it for years and it works very well.

Tell me about it! Grrr... Websites ignore dialup users completely. Assume everybody has unlimited broadband. I block ads from loading and block images from loading, depending on site. This speeds things. I also block flash which is real bandwidth waster. However some sites now are all flash, all the time. You dont have flash turned on, you see absolutely nothing.

Be nice if websites would offer alternative simple quick loading html site with basic info for those of us stuck in the last century technology-wise. I dont need all the eye candy. But buisinesses are looking for stupid rich people they can make big bucks off of, and of course those stupid rich people wouldnt be using dialup. Dialup is only for poor or very rural people or smart frugal people, which they dont want as customers anyway.

Is annoying not to be able to watch some of the do it yourself type videos on youtube, but what is, is. so unless a miracle occurs and my local phone company suddenly offers DSL down my road, I'm on dialup forever, at least as long as dialup is still available, fewer and fewer dialup providers. DSL is only like 4 mile away, maybe closer, really dont know anybody between here and there to ask if they have it. My phone company is based out of some other state and doesnt seem to know if or when DSL will be available when you call them.

SiK I already have AT&T. Had it when I had dial up. Was told thats all there is here for land lines. Was just checking to see what other Okies that might be near me thought about that being true or not.

Read this article

How To Emulate A Mobile Web Browser In Firefox?

It lays out how to trick websites into sending your computer "mobile" sites. They generally contain less frills and bandwidth requirements.

Interesting, but last comment on that site says as of April 12, doesnt work anymore??? Maybe just site that individual was accessing?? I know some sites arent satisfied with browser id strings anymore, they use more thorough tests to find out your actual browser and operating system. Why, I'm not sure, but seems very important to them so they do it.

I know for long time some sites send different content to different browsers. Opera had long standing problem that it would get sent "errror, you have too old of a browser, please upgrade along with links to IE and Firefox downloads" webpage or something simular. Website designers assumed Opera hadnt progressed in last 15 years or something and still couldnt even handle simplest javascript. But if you could trick site in sending content for IE or Firefox, then Opera could easily handle it.

I have verizon in my area. Plus most of the other carriers. I pay $25 a month for my land line from verizon.

:coffee: All this talk about fancy broadband, IP Phones, VoIP etc etc is great until the power goes out. Your hard lines coming in from the phone company run on their own power system. At least mine still do. So even with two personal cell phones, a work blackberry and internet over cable I still have a hardline at the house. I'm the head network engineer for one of the counties in my state, I'm a a Cisco CCNP and have been doing IP phones at work since 2003. Just my opinion.

If you want LL service your stuck with what is available. I use and air card for my puter and actually pay less than the LL DSL cost me but have realitively the same service. Go to a providers site and look at the map. I have a no contract cell phone with no long distance charges that I get all I want for $15 monthly at my discression. I pay $2 for 24 hr service on a day I use the phone. I always have money left over I don't use. Sure beats the $60 some I was paying. Plus the number is registered to no one. It eliminates any call I don't know the caller because I have caller ID (standard) which includes the number and city call is made from. I'm think about changing puter air card to a no contract. I can get the same or more for less.

Bill - you might check whether there is Windstream there. I have it here - it isn't fast as lightning, by any stretch of the imagination, but their 3meg broadband is a lot faster than the dial up I was on, AND it is only an extra $10 month for unlimited computer usage, phone and unlimited long distance (continental US). Runs me just under $60/month.

Mary