home phone, internet, router questions

[Grace Alone]

We are moving soon and will no longer have cable internet, tv, phone service.

I do want a home phone in addition to cell phones, but I want a reliable and inexpensive option, if possible. Suggestions?

We will have DSL for internet. Is 3 mbps good enough? We usually have more than one computer going at a time.

We need a new router, too. I've read here and elsewhere that Linksys is best. But now there are g and n routers and I do not know which we should get.

Any suggestions for these three items? Thanks in advance!

 

[Wayne]

We dropped the home land line and went with "dry loop DSL" or "naked DSL" as it is called.
With cells phones, we saw no need of the land line, have fewer interrupting calls, and were pleasantly surprised to find that the government hasn't caught on to taxing and adding fees to the DSL service...yet. Where some 20% of the phone bills amounted to taxes and fees, with just the DSL service, there is none of that, just the $19.95 per month.

 

[MLCOPE2]

3mbps is fine if you don't do a lot of downloading or uploading. If it is for regular web surfing, video viewing, email, etc. then you should not have any problems. But if you do do a lot of down/up loading you will find that your wait time is a little long.

I'm sure that you will get any number of responses on which brand of router is best but regardless of brand definitely go with the "n" router. The differences between a/b/g/n are both in distance and signal strength, a being the weakest and n the strongest.

As far as home phone service I'm not sure exactly what you are looking for but I have heard mostly good things about "magic jack". It is an internet phone (therefore internet is necessary for use) but it only costs $40 to start and that includes a full years service with unlimited local and long distance. Then it is only $20 a year for the same service. The downside to this is that not all areas have a mj server so you may end up with a number from another area code (for example my area code is 765 but my mj's would be 574 as there is no local server).

 

[Grace Alone]

Wayne, do you mean the phone is through the DSL like our cable internet phone was? How do you connect the phone or get a number?

---------- Post added at 09:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 PM ----------

Thank you Michael! It helps to know we should go with an n router. I've heard of Magic Jack and will have to check and see if I can get a number in this area code.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

1. 3 MBps is fine unless you're going to be consistently transferring gigantic files outbound.
2. I use Vonage for my home phones and do not pay for a land line. I've used it for 3 years and am very happy with it. I set my phone base station at the Internet router. It's one of those phones that has multiple phones that communicate via wireless and don't need other connectors.
3. Wireless router brands are not that important. Wireless G is just fine. I've got N capabilities but have never found it propagates very well and a G connection at 54 MBps is faster than your inbound anyway.

 

[Grace Alone]

Thank you, Rich! The reviews on a Linksys g router is better than those on the newer n routers, so I'd just as soon go with the g if it is sufficient. Glad to have the referral for Vonage as well. I'll check on that, too!

 

[fredtgreco]

I agree with Rich on Vonage. I have been using it since 2003, and love it. I love paying $25 a month for everything.

 

[21st Century Calvinist]

I have just switched from cable TV/DSL/Phone to AT&T internet and home phone. Much cheaper (even if I had taken the satellite TV option). You can get a modem/wireless router from AT&T. So far working well. It was also easy and quick to install.

 

[Grace Alone]

I have just switched from cable TV/DSL/Phone to AT&T internet and home phone. Much cheaper (even if I had taken the satellite TV option). You can get a modem/wireless router from AT&T. So far working well. It was also easy and quick to install.

Donnie, our only option for DSL at this point is AT&T, so I can see that with the bundle discount, the phone is really not much more than the rate for Vonage. If we do TV, I think it will be through Direct TV because I have read it is difficult to make changes (and correct billing errors) when you get it through AT&T.

 

[Wayne]

Wayne, do you mean the phone is through the DSL like our cable internet phone was? How do you connect the phone or get a number?

Janis: No, we chose to simply use cell phones for all our phone needs. In that regard I wasn't answering one of your questions, but as you saw from other contributions, there are ways to have a phone connection over the Internet.