Ooma Core VoIP Phone System
by ooma
|
List Price: Our Price: $170.00 You Save: $79.99 (32%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Ooma Core VoIP Phone System
Customer Review: OOMA & Xlink after 1 month
Summary: 5 Stars
Well after 1 month, I have got to say, "I wish I had done this sooner!!"
I have an Xlink gateway and have a cell phone that I have been using as my home phone for the last 6 months or so. I have a family plan with three phones, but with the home phone now as one of them, it has been eating the minutes away. I needed something different. I found out about OOMA and decided to give it a try. Well after 1 month, it has been one of the best decision I have ever made.
I still have my Xlink box, so I connected ooma to the landline connection on the Xlink box. My cell phone connects by bluetooth to the Xlink box. I have a cordless answering machine at home with 6 handsets. The Xlink box allows me to answer the cell phone at any of the 6 handsets, so in the basement media room where cell phone coverage is not very good, that really helps. Now with OOMA connected, it is by default the first dial tone you get when you pick up a phone. If I want, I still can call out on my cell phone, but I don't because it costs minutes!! If I get a call on the ooma system, all the cordless phones in the house ring and I can answer any of them. That also holds true if I get a call on the cell phone.
I didn't hook it up as suggested in the manualto get the best quality, but I certainly can't tell any difference from a standard line line. I already had a router in a home network so I attached it to the router instead of the suggested place of between your router and the cable modem. I did however, go into the router and turned on the QoS function and set the MAC address up for the ooma device so that it had a high priority on traffic. As of this date, I have never and neither has any one on the other end of a call ever noticed any echoing, dropping of words, etc. that are common to VOip systems. This is just a great system and coupled with the Xlink box really gives us the best of both worlds. With the Xlink box connected you will always have a dial tone. Example was a couple of weeks ago, my internet when down for a couple of hours. Don't know why, just saw the red light flashing on the ooma box, and tried to get online with a browser and could not, but when I picked up a phone, I had a dial tone. It was the cell phone dial tone, so I could still call out. The Xlink box automatically switched the default to the cell phone since it didn't sense that the ooma system was active.
The other thing I gained; now I can fax out again. I haven't tried incoming, but outgoing works fine. They tell you to hit *99 before you type the phone number and that seemed to work fine.
All in all, I have rated this product (OOMA) at 5 stars. I haven't had the need to call for support so can't rate that, but for the product and does it work!! 5 STARS.
RCH
Customer Review: Buy it! You won't regret it! Don't hesitate!
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't write too many reviews but I am quite compelled to do so of the ooma system. I've owned it for a few months and I haven't had a single issue with it whatsoever! As long as you follow the simple instructions included, you'll not have a single issue. I have tried a few different variations of the setup and haven't had any problems. But the recommended setup is designed to allow your system optimal performance.
For example: The ooma setup recommends the Hub is installed between your router (or computer) and your cable or DSL modem. This is so the Hub's QoS (Qality of Service) protocol takes effect. QoS is utilized so the ooma Hub takes precedence over the rest of your internet bandwidth. That way, no matter how much bandwidth is being used up by your computer (downloading or uploading large and time consuming files), you can make and receive calls without any interruption. I've modified this by connecting the ooma Hub to the router as I would any other computer. I then programmed my router to allow the Hub to take precedence over the network's other resources. In my case, I didn't want the Hub to be in the closet with the rest of my networking equipment. I wanted to use its keypad like anyone would an answering machine.
The instructions also recommend if you are using a fax machine, to use the Hub's phone connection. However, I've used the Scout for sending and receiving faxes more than a dozen times. That's were the Scout resides, right next to my fax machine.
Voice quality is superb! Its slightly better than Verizon's POTS. I've tried normal Verizon (Expensive with terrible customer service), Vonage (Which I liked but ooma is a much cheaper alternative!), Skype (Wish it was better and used normal off the shelf telephones instead of specialized equipment), and MagicJack (just as good quality as Skype but the idea of leaving a computer on, turned me off). Honestly, only Vonage could really compete in quality. In price, really, there's no competition at all.
I look at it this way, if you're already spending nearly $50 to $70 on high speed internet and television service, why not get free phone service? Comcast, Verizon, and all the other large ISPs are more than happy to take your money hand over fist. What they offer is free HBO for a month or some other promotion that ends anyways. Sure, they'll give you bundled telephone, internet, and TV at a cheap price for 6 months to a year, but for a lifetime? No way. I personally believe ooma has them all beat, promotions or not.
I was nervous at first; its too good to be true. It must be inferior product design or a bait and switch. I took the plunge and discovered its exactly as advertised! Just a great product, that delivers an awesome, free service!
Customer Review: If I can set this up, anyone can!
Summary: 5 Stars
When it comes to technology, I'm a Mom who can operate a microwave, order from Amazon, and that's about it. The Ooma company is right . All you need is a phone jack, electrical outlet and a computer modem (we use comcast cable) in the same area and you're good to go. They include the cords (telephone and ethernet) and an idiot proof diagram. The Ooma base unit waited a couple of minutes before it showed the blue light that indicates it's working. I called customer service to have them port our number over from Verizon. Waited about 10 minutes on a weekday morning in January. Used that time to go on the Ooma web site and set up my account so it only took a few minutes to confirm everything when I got a rep on the phone . Decided to go with the Premier service as they ported our number for free. With the first 3 months free, that gives us 15 months to decide if the Premier service is worth it. With the Premier we did get a second number included anywhere in the country, so I chose one in a city where we have family. That was sort of cool.
They emailed me an online form to fill out for porting a number and I had to send them a copy of the front page of our Verizon bill. I scaned it into the computer and included it as an attachment. The Ooma system started working right away including our new out of state number. The phones connected to the the base and the scout had an Ooma dial tone that sounds almost musical. Our other phones in the house still had the Verizon tone. We could answer incoming calls on any of the phones, but were careful to make outgoing long distance calls on the Ooma connected phones. Four weeks later I received and email from Ooma telling me the number had been ported, so I called Verizon and AT&T and said goodbye! The voice quality has been the same as Verizon so I can't complain. I am using 2 Panasonic 6.0 dect.phones with lots of additional hand sets. One connected to the base on the first floor with the modem and another connected to the scout on the second floor. We just needed a phone jack, not a modem, with the scout. This also means if someone's talking on one floor we can still answer incoming and make outgoing calls on the other floor. Our Comcast went down for a few minutes the other night so we did loose phone service as well as the other cable services. I could avoid this by keeping a basic land line, but we have our cel phones as a back up.
I had originally been thinking about trying Vonage or Comcast's VOIP system, but I thought I'd give this Ooma a try first. At this price, what was there to loose? So glad I did. Now instead of a bill, Verizon just sent us a letter asking us to come back. Ha Ha! Can't believe Ooma isn't advertising like the other VOIP systems. This really is the best thing.
Customer Review: Forget Vonage, Skype or anything else. Ooma is a no-brainer.
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This is my second Ooma as I decided to use another for my home business. I had my first unit for over 6 months now, and I am so impressed, that it made no sense to keep my business line. Ooma is not meant for business use, but I work online, and phone calls are becoming a thing of the past. But this eliminate the monthly charges and I can call 3000 miles away for no cost. This is a must own... especially with the new price!
I'm a fan of the VOIP concept, but have been less than impressed since it's reveal. With services like Skype and Vonage out there, they are soon to be history if they don't catch up with the technology of the new love of my life, Ooma!
First off, this is very simple to setup, so have no fear. You put the ac adapter in the hub, connect it to your internet connection, and you now have a working phone line, instantly. Actually, two phone lines! You go to their web site, choose a phone number you like, setup voicemail (you can either check voicemail on the hub, or online, or in your email!), and plug in your phone to the hub.
I have a wireless phone system with multiple handsets. I simply put the wireless base as the phone on the hub, and I now have four phones in the house. If someone is using the phone, and there is another phone available, there is no waiting! You have a second line to make or receive calls. If you only have wired equipment, you use a "scout" that you can plug in to any electric outlet, and you have another phone jack. If you want to keep your normal landline and use Ooma, you can do that too, but I don't know why you would. I don't.
I was using Skype as my only service for over a year, and I promptly ended that with this experience. You do not have to leave your computer on, and remember, voicemail is online, so you don't have to use the hub for that at all if you don't want to.
It's simple, sleek, and oddly fun. I love bragging about it. I feel like I won a prize. Seriously, call anywhere in the US, anytime, with a real phone number, for free. The only cost would be minimal per minute charges calling outside the USA. But still no bill, as you fill that account like a phone card. Pay as you go. But I cannot remember the last time I ever called outside USA.
Sound quality is just like a normal phone. Unlike Skype where you take what you can get, if you get anything.
Get it yesterday!
Customer Review: Breaking up with Vonage to date Ooma
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had vonage for years for my home office line, so it gets used a lot. I held off on ooma for at least a year(and researched it the whole time!), because I was terrified of losing my phone number, and also because the fax is not guaranteed to work. Plus the entire task just seemed daunting.
But the price dropped, so I decided to take the ooma plunge. I was completely sick of my vonage bill creeping up in price every month. It started around $39, now it's over $50 a month, with no change to my service. Number porting is really easy and then you can also check the current status of the number porting in your Ooma account. It went just as described, but easier. On the Ooma site it says the day of porting the phone number might not be in service. But by 11am, mine was back in action and I cancelled Vonage completely the next day.
Setup, well...you know how people are always like "oh, its so easy! no problems, done in minutes!"... I don't believe those people because I always run into some kind of snag despite being very tech savvy. And I hate to say this, but all those praises were true. I had it done in about 10 minutes. I followed the easy to use set up directions that came with it(with diagrams, which is appreciated since I'm more visual), and off I went. When the light turned blue on the top of the Hub, I stared at it for awhile, waiting for something to go wrong, but nothing did. It was a seamless setup, which is not something I can say often.
I got a temporary phone number while my office vonage number is ported over, but I was dying to start using my ooma NOW. So I did some forwarding in my vonage account so that when clients call my vonage number, it forwards along and rings my ooma temporary number(confusing, I know!)and I'm even using the ooma voicemail now!
I decided to ditch my traditional fax for efaxing(all via email), using ring central which is working out beautifully as well. I signed up already for ooma premier service, since $10 a month isn't a big deal for all the fun features, like personal blacklist which is my favorite. All in all, I'm saving a bundle of money and I'm really happy with the switch.
Only downside so far: I called Ooma to inquire about faxing and the scout, and number porting. I asked some fairly simple questions. The guy responded to me like I was speaking Swahili. He didn't seem to understand my questions, and his answers made no sense. He just talked in technical circles that actually had not much to do with my original questions. Thankfully there's a great official ooma forum/lounge where you can just pose questions to other Ooma users and usually get fantastic advice.