Okay, I have an odd hypothetical question for the technically savvy here: My family operates a small motel. All the rooms have phone jacks that are connected to a central Panasonic phone system (PBX). We also have a broadband internet connection through our cable provider. Recently, we activated an account with Vonage to replace Verizon as our long distance carrier. In other words, a call from a room goes through our phone system, then through a Vonage A/D converter, and then through our broadband connection. Today we had a guest connect his laptop (with a traditional modem) to the phone jack in his room to try to access his dial-up account, but had trouble getting through (I wasn't there, so I don't know anything about his dial-up settings, etc.) My question: If the dial-up settings were correct (i.e. - the modem knew to dial 9 to get an outside line before dialing the access number, etc.) could this person get dial-up internet through our phone system and VoIP account? Or are VoIP accounts fundamentally incompatible with dial-up modems? I called Vonage up to ask this question, but I had a really tough time communicating with the customer service rep. I was doing a bad job explaining my question and I couldn't tell if he didn't understand what I was asking, or I just didn't understand his answer (probably both).
Look here for ideas: Vonage VOIP Forum Here are a few threads that sounds similar to your question: Vonage & Dialup Vonage & Modem Dialup How many rooms are in the motel? Is the Broadband connection available to the rooms (other than through a phone jack)? Is the Broadband connection underutilized?
I don't know about your specific situation, but we set up a Cisco VOIP system where I work about two years ago. One of the things that the Cisco guys told me is that modems tend to have a bit of trouble on VOIP systems -- it's kind of hit and miss.
Hey guys, I wasn't able to check up on this thread for awhile, but I wanted to thank you for your input. It's good to have some confirmation that modems don't work well with VoIP.
