I unhooked the test line into my Telco box, and then plugged the box
from Vonage into a phone jack which made every phone in the house live
on the Vonage line. I then ran a test from my Brinks system and it
failed. I called Vonage and asked them to tweak a few things such as
packetization and they seemed to know what I was after. The
technician said to ask Brinks to change the baud rate to 9600. I
called Brinks and they said that this required a visit to the house.
They then said they didn't work with Broadband lines. I've been
looking around in newsgroups and forums and finding folks who said
they have it working. I also hear about folks who have it working
with ADT. I told Brinks I'll have to replace them if they can't
support me. The guy said I needed to call Customer Support for this.
I told him I didn't need to do anything but quit paying my bill. He
said that would result in a collection and bad credit for me. I told
him I had great credit and wasn't worried. The bottom line I guess is
I need to figure out a solution. My local phone service is over $40
per month. They don't offer any stepped down service just for the
alarm either.
In that case no problem.
BTW, one of the things I really like about Vonage is their "dual ringing"
(or whatever they call it) feature. I programmed it so that all incoming
calls ring simultaneously on my VOIP line and my cell phone. When I step
away from my desk I just grab the cellular and that's my cordless phone. I
don't pay for incoming calls on the cellular so the only cost is the monthly
Vonage charge plus the 800 number service.
We have a land line (Verizon) for our home phone. I like having it as a
backup in case something goes awry with Vonage. At the moment I also have
several Verizon lines for business use but I plan to replace those with VOIP
in a year or so.
The cost of a T1 is coming down to where small businesses handle it. Once
that's in place I'll host my web servers in-house and split out a portion of
the BW for telephone service. Even with that Vonage will still hold the
attraction of being portable. We have a condo in Brazil and with Vonage I
can work there the same as at home in the States.
When you cancel Brinks they'll most likely leave the system in place, hoping
you'll eventually come back to them. However, there have been stories of
Brinks customers whose alarms were inoperable once they quit using the
Brinks service. The systems are almost invariably leased and their policy,
as I understand it is not to allow you to make use of the system unless you
renew the contract. From what many ex-Brinks clients have said, the
salesmen apparently neglect to mention this during the sales presentation.
Unfortunately, you can't service or program Brinks' proprietary systems
without their assistance.
Best of luck.
Alarm and Home Automation System FAQ
http://www.bass-home.com/faq/masterfaq/faq.htm
Regards,
Robert
=============================>
Bass Home Electronics
2291 Pine View Circle
Sarasota · Florida · 34231
877-722-8900 Sales & Tech Support
941-925-9747 Fax
941-232-0791 Wireless
Nextel Private ID - 161*21755*1
http://www.bass-home.com
http://www.bassburglaralarms.com
=============================>