Love my Ooma. Easy to set up, easy to use. If you have internet, seriously look at their website and get one of these. The price is great!

Here is an overview of the system.

http://youtu.be/CPb9lvHn56Y

i got one a few months ago ... kept m old number for a nominal fee and i like my new phone...im "old school" so it took me a while to convince myself it was the way to go!!
Voice quality is very good.
im in California and my monthly bill is under 4 dollars a month...the web site has a program that would show you how much your monthly bill is for your area

Can anybody speak to Faxing over this?

Have had it for 8 months, love it, its perfect.

What I love about it even more is my last bill, $3.72 !

This is so good, plug it in, forget you have it !

I have had Oooma setup since Christmas and I love it. I can't see ever going back when you can have great phone service for less than $5 a month. It was the easiest thing in the world to setup, they let you pick your phone number, and their website is user friendly even after setup to manage your account. If you're already using phone through the cable company I'd say go for the switch you'll love the extra money in your pocket.

pixelpusher220 wrote:Can anybody speak to Faxing over this?

Yes you can fax with this, but just need to key in a special prefix when doing so.

At $99 for a year, the Ooma premium service is worth it to me if for nothing else than the community blacklist. Number gets flagged as a telemarketer? It won't ring on your number anymore. If you'd really like you can have blacklisted numbers receive a "We're sorry, the number you have called has been disconnected or is no longer in service." SCORE!

Faxing depends on the quality of your internet connection. I have an HP all-in-one, and ran the fax phone connection into a phone Y connector plugged into the Ooma. No problems sending/or receiving multi-page faxes, and in my area, don't have to enter any codes. The other Y connection goes to a wireless DECT 6.0 phone to allow wireless phone service throughout the house, without having to purchase ooma phones. By the way, my ooma was also refurbished and bought off Woot, No troubles at all for the last two years. No contracts, can change service up/down at any time (at least so far).

Works well in an RV too.

The Ooma Telo VOIP router works well as an "on the road" phone solution that's far cheaper than cell phones and Skype phone service for long-term RV use.

On the road the Ooma router needs a good WiFi signal with enough bandwidth; it needs "shore power" to power the Ooma Router and a cordless phone; and to connect the Ooma router wirelessly to WiFi you need the "Ooma WiFi Adapter" (found on Amazon).

Set-up also requires using a computer at each new RV campground location to choose the WiFi network that the Ooma router should use.

We had a 3G MiFi "hotspot" as backup in case the RV campground WiFi network was not reliable enough for VOIP use (often the case). The 3G cellular data modem speed was more than adequate for VOIP speech.

The Ooma VOIP router worked as well on the road and was as cheap and efficient to use as it is at home - it's around four dollars a month for federal phone tax.

Oh yeah, we also bought ours as a Woot refurb. The unit's been going strong for a year now with no problems and the Ooma service has been good. At home the Ooma Router and DSL modem is plugged into a UPS (uninterrupted power source) to keep the phone service going even if the power goes out briefly.

We bought this exact model a bit back and have used it without a problem for over a year (maybe 2 now). In Wisconsin, I think we pay $3.xx per month. It has never disconnected, and 911 is linked to our address. It does not need a computer to be on to run, and we love it. If you're thinking about it, know that we are among the very happy with this product. (I did even buy one for my mother - *that's* how easy it is to use)


We have recruited 4 families now, and they have recruited others. I feel I should get a pin or something

great tool, great price. if you're on the fence, buy it.

Don't just assume they have a local number for you, even if you live in a metro area. I have been waiting for over two years to get a number that would be closer than 100 miles away. Makes local incoming calls long distance, so it is almost worthless to me. Customer service is from India.

Will I have to pay more for activation since I'm not buying it from Ooma and its a refurb?

mrowens33 wrote:Will I have to pay more for activation since I'm not buying it from Ooma and its a refurb?

No. Pricing is same as if you bought it from Ooma.

[quote postid="5321175" user="vanevenhoven"] "We have recruited 4 families now, and they have recruited others. I feel I should get a pin or something"
Every now and then Ooma runs a promotion where you can get credit towards your bill. I've always missed those though, but still glad to recommend it.

I have had my refurbished Ooma for my telephone service for three years in a winter rental that is used about six months of the year. I have never had a complaint from a renter about the service and I use it myself about two months out of the year.
I can't give their support team a good review. However, I have not had to use them more than twice. The latest issue was that the lighted buttons on my three year old system did not come on. I called tech support. The answer was that the unit was failing and there was no fix. When I Googled the problem I found the answer. Simple fix that I should have seen on my own. A little, roller, dimmer button had been rotated by the cable guy when he had been troubleshooting a problem. Rotated the button and the button lights were back.
I must say that I sort of expect a hiccup or two with stuff like this. I can usually figure stuff out on my own. I can't be happier with the Ooma service. Did I mention that I have had no phone bill for three years? It does not work without an Internet connection.
When I shut the house down after the season the Ooma box sits for months until a new Internet connection enables it. Any voicemal goes to my Email address and is easy to get.
The one on today's Woot has some taxes that usually amount to about $4 a month. Mine does not. However that deal is not offered anymore.

This is the best Woot I've ever done. It pays for itself in a few months.

Service has been very reliable for the 1.5 years or so I've had it. There was one day of sketchy service over the summer when something went south on the server side, but that is it the whole time.

I am having difficulties with OOMA's customer service. They are charging me a 911 fee for the city and county when I don't even live in a city. My bill is close to $8, nearly double what it should be. They have ignored my request to correct this. Plus my 911 calls are likely going to the wrong 911 service which risks the health and safety of my family.

I ordered mine from Ooma itself. It comes today from ups. B/c of the reviews form kiplinger and here I ordered it. I figured my taxes will be 4.77 a month. My question is. How do they stay in business?

Bought mine on the last woot off and works great. 2 things to consider, number porting is a little pricey at $40 but still worth it. vonage was getting almost $30 a month from me for the international plan, after calling to cancel they tried to entice me to stay by offering a US plan for $8 a month, usually $10 now I think. Only bummer, my refurb arrived with no adapter, called ooma and had a new one in the mail 10 days later. Call quality is even better than vonage. We used to have a bit of an echo, no more

Have it, love it. Only on basic so no telephone bill. If you have a cell phone go cut the cord. Even at $10-$20 a month for basic land line this thing pays for itself in less than a year.

I love mine. I was able to keep my phone number for a nominal fee. Voice quality is perfect. I bought a refurb on woot when Brighthouse increased my phone bill to $50/month. They told me they couldn't offer me a deal because I didn't bundle TV. I needed a home phone because of poor reception for my cell in my home. The money I save without cable TV (all internet for me) and phone is paying my plane ticket to Paris. Woohoo!

Do you need an ethernet connection? We only have Wifi. How could be get it to work?

If you have satelite service for internet, forget it. The latency is too long to make voice quality decent. You'll have a lag time of at least 2 seconds, perhaps 4, resulting in folks talking over themselves and the other person, a terrible echo, etc.

I bought one the last time around. Setup was very straight forward, even working with AT&T to cancel service. Voice quality is very good 99% of the time, but using it is more akin to using a cell phone than a land line phone. It takes a while to get used to the small delay, but the money savings are well worth it. It's a good product.

Anyone know if there is an advantage of buying this $100 system over the $40 Obi100 (http://www.amazon.com/OBi100-Telephone-Adapter-Service-Bridge/dp/B004LO098O/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1358945022&sr=8-9&keywords=ooma)?

From what little research I've done, the Obi100 is nearly identical but lets you use Google Voice for free, so there is not even the $5/month bill. Anyone care to weigh in?

pixelpusher220 wrote:Can anybody speak to Faxing over this?

Faxing is hit or miss. The site says faxing is possible but I can't get it to work.

vivaciousvalerii wrote:I have had Oooma setup since Christmas and I love it. I can't see ever going back when you can have great phone service for less than $5 a month. It was the easiest thing in the world to setup, they let you pick your phone number, and their website is user friendly even after setup to manage your account. If you're already using phone through the cable company I'd say go for the switch you'll love the extra money in your pocket.

I have "Triple Play" (phone, internet, cable) with Comcast. When I tried to cancel my phone service with them and use Ooma instead, Comcast ADDED charges to my monthly bill. For me to use Ooma, I would have to pay Comcast an extra $30 a month. If you're bundling your services like I am, check with your provider to make sure you won't wind up paying more than you are now. I can't stand Comcast, but they're the only game in town and they know it.

westwebb wrote:Do you need an ethernet connection? We only have Wifi. How could be get it to work?

You would need an ooma wifi USB dongle at $50 to connect to your network.

pixelpusher220 wrote:Can anybody speak to Faxing over this?

You can with (IIRC) *99 as a dial prefix, but I would not expect perfect faxes all the time- a lot depends on the quality of internet connection, and how brane damaged the machine on the other end is. (I had to fax a 12+ page document recently for my home purchase; It took several tries and I ended up having to fax it from work anyhow.) Receiving faxes, on the other paw, I've had no problems with at all.

That having been said, I've had mine for a year and it's been good to me.

I have the Ooma Hub that I got off of Woot a few years ago. Love it. Someone mentioned that the quality is more like a cell phone- no way! Either they have a horrible ISP or they set it up wrong. My Ooma quality is as good as a regular land line. As far as faxing goes, I don't have much experience- but here is a good link
http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-fax-over-voip-on-the-internet/

I'm shocked at the level to which people think this is such a great deal. Both the device and the cost of service is over double that of Magic Jack.

Regarding quality issues, many of the reviews (some a couple years old) mention having to tweak settings on routers and modems to get optimum service. The only two things I did, set the quality on the web interface to the highest setting and gave ooma priority (QOS) setting on router. I have good Internet service and a NETGEAR n600 router. If your unsure about your network quality and want to go this route, try magic jack first. Much cheaper way to see if your connection is good enough

I've had a refurb Ooma set up for 1 year now with no issues.
You will need a good, stable broadband connection or it will drop your calls. I attempted to use a LAN-through-AC network extender and had frequent dropped calls. I replaced that with a single long ethernet cable and it hasn't dropped a call since. I have a 10 down/1.5 up connection.

pixelpusher220 wrote:Can anybody speak to Faxing over this?

i have the original ooma (grey with white buttons) and it faxes through my brother all in one just fine, no prefix needed, just have the Brother dial the area code and 7 digit number. don't even need the "1" for long distance with ooma. I think i paid $200 for the ooma around 2007 or 2008, and I haven't paid a dime since. though i understand new users may have to pay annual 911 fees or something.

[quote postid="5321056" user="starmanbackwards"]i got one a few months ago ... kept m old number for a nominal fee and i like my new phone...im "old school" so it took me a while to convince myself it was the way to go!!
Voice quality is very good.
im in California and my monthly bill is under 4 dollars a month...the web site has a program that would show you how much your monthly bill is for your area[/quote

WHY in the world is there a min fee?
Is there a 911 tax and is that special etc with more fees/taxes? I don't get\understand your comment about each state\area having different bills?


m

Can anyone speak to possible limitations of the Ooma?
With MagicJack I've found (too late) that they block the conference lines I call daily (908.290.0715 for example) and make you buy up credits to call those numbers.
And NetTalk will limit your minutes to 2,500 per month. (not sure if that's incoming & outgoing combined - but I think it might be.
Does Ooma have any of the same restrictions?
One final question, I have 38.95 Mbps down / 10.64 Mbps through Comcast - that should be plenty to support this product, correct? Thanks in advance.

I got a refurbished Ooma in the previous Woot and love it! I too have Comcast but they compete with FIOS locally and I've switched from one to the other more than once. This way I don't have to port my home phone # every time. I just go with their internet service as with this and Netflix we don't need anything else. However we also have a cell phone - we get power outages around here and I wouldn't want to be incommunicado in an emergency.

VinLap wrote:Can anyone speak to possible limitations of the Ooma?
With MagicJack I've found (too late) that they block the conference lines I call daily (908.290.0715 for example) and make you buy up credits to call those numbers.
And NetTalk will limit your minutes to 2,500 per month. (not sure if that's incoming & outgoing combined - but I think it might be.
Does Ooma have any of the same restrictions?
One final question, I have 38.95 Mbps down / 10.64 Mbps through Comcast - that should be plenty to support this product, correct? Thanks in advance.

Should be NO problem with that bandwidth. Back in the electronic stone age when digital was just starting, T1 lines (1.54 Mb) were set up to handle 24 channels of voice, or right at 64Kb per channel. You should not even notice a call while you are surfing with the bandwidth you have.

As to your other questions..I've had many hours on conference lines, no blockage for me. Also, in the TOS, I believe Ooma limits to 5K minutes a month, but I've never reached it, so can't say it's "limiting" my useage at all.

BTW, Have had an Ooma for over 2 years now...great device, can't recommend it enough!

Mine is bricked, (loved it for the two years it worked) but I still keep the service because I pay less than 4 dollars a month and all the calls transfer automatically to my cell. This way locals can still call me, and I have a junk number to give out. You can upgrade and have the messages translated to text and sent to email.