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Well I tried to migrate away from GV as a free service for my husband's micro business. I was annoyed with the lack of support and that occasional wonky issues would crop up (having to do with ring tones; all settings were perfect on my android) that I would research and resolve. Obviously having to use the Google cabal wasn't too thrilling either. I ported to Ooma. Here are the issues with Ooma: 1. Ooma Telo only supports one POTS port (not really an issue for me any more since I have an extra phone line as I now use...

Is anyone on FR using a smart phone VOIP app that touts their end-to-end security? Are you happy with it? I understand we are taking a lot of companies word on what they say they do, and I know that at least one (Wire) says all their software is open source and is reviewed (on the Apple App store the top rated commment for Wire implies its not that secure. And Apple's FaceTime is supposedly very secure and it is built in to the Iphone and Mac, but (a) I don't trust anything coming out of Tim Cook's mouth and...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3064601/posts?page=69Two months ago I posted a thread at chat about what freepers like for internet phones. I read all the posts and decided to try out obi100. You will find 1000+ reviews for it on AmazonObi100 works great. You have to coordinate it with google voice and it is 100% free this way to make calls within America and I think Canada. For outside USA you probably have to deposit money into your google voice account a company like Vonage supplies the hardware and software. It is easy one stop shoppingwhen you buy obi100 for $40 all you get is...

There are various things out there. But I could not find something to set this up. VoIP (Voice over IP) has been around for a long time. I would not mind just using headphones and a microphone to make the phone call. There is a website IPKall.com that will give you a Washington state telephone number. But I am not sure how you set up the VoIP part. I tried to see if there were any other threads on this. I guess using SKYPE is one way to do this, but not to call someone else who has a real...

UPDATE: Why Govt. Source leaked PRISMAdditional information is being reported that confirms what most of us have always suspected. NSA is collecting all our email data, tracking our movements, our photographs, our documents, etc. Also factor in the fact that a court recently ruled that Obama is free to collect our DNA without being found guilty of any crime. National Security Agency (NSA) building designed for massive data collection in Utah:WaPo reports the following:The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection...

I am trying to connect 3 VoIP phones for our office and the 'help' line tells me I need a 'switch' to connect to our router (because all the ports are full). When I asked her how the other 2 phones will be connected to the internet, she says they have to be physically plugged into the switch as well. This will leave a mess of phone lines running along the floor! Surely there's a better way?

Swedish telecom operators want to implement technologies that will block mobile phone users in Sweden from making free calls using services like Skype and Viber.

A recently surfaced Microsoft patent focuses on technology that could be used to spy on VoIP users' conversations without the detection of participants. Redmond originally applied for the patent in 2009, well before its move to buy up VoIP provider Skype. This technology may have been developed with an eye to selling it to government agencies. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has applied for a patent on technology that may let its user secretly intercept Voice over IP (VoIP) communications, amend the content and store it. The application was filed in December 2009 and was recently made public. The technology could allow...

Have you recently tried calling someone outside of your local area code only to receive a confusing message about your long distance call not being a local call so you need to contact your carrier or call 305-848-8288? If so, the person or business you are trying to reach is using magicJack. And you are not alone in your woes... Starting Friday November 12th, problems began to occur when long distance callers received this unexpected recording: "Please listen to this entire message. Your phone carrier has routed this call improperly. This call is being identified as a local call, and...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Extradited Hacker Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Masterminding First-Ever Hack Into Internet Phone Networks Defendant Also Ordered to Pay Over $1 Million in Restitution NEWARK, NJ—The first individual ever charged with hacking into the networks of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers and reselling hacked VoIP services for a profit was sentenced today to 120 months in prison, United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Edwin Andres Pena, 27, transmitted over 10 million minutes of unauthorized telephone calls over the victims' networks. Pena, a Venezuelan citizen, fled the United States...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google Inc. is adding a free e-mail feature that may persuade more people to cut the cords on their landline phones. The service unveiled Wednesday enables U.S. users of Google's Gmail service to make calls from microphone-equipped computers to telephones virtually anywhere in the world.

WA Legislature OKs tax increase for 911 upgrades THE ASSOCIATED PRESS OLYMPIA, Wash. -- State lawmakers have approved a bill that lets counties and the state increase taxes on land lines and cell phones to pay for 911 system upgrades. Voice-over-Internet phone services would be taxed as well under the bill, which got final approval from the state House on a 56-34 vote Friday.

Sorry about the vanity, but, since FReepers are the best out there, I hope one of you will be able to help me out with a vexing computer problem with Skype. Thanks to the massive mishandling of Michigan's and the Nation's economy, I've been forced to move from Michigan to Maryland for a new job. The family is back home and much of our communication is via Skype. Whenever we talk (audio and video) there is a consistent beeping coming from the computer speakers in Michigan. It happen on both their desktop and laptop and only on calls from me....

SNIPPET: “In about less than a week, India will mark the first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks. After the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s Chicago breakthrough, now Italy has achieved some headway in the investigations relating to last year’s terror events(26/11). The Italian police have arrested, after almost a year long monitoring and surveillance, two Pakistani nationals (Father and Son duo) from Brescia city who are accused of sending funds from their money transfer agency and providing the logistical support to Pakistani terrorists. The suspects Mohammad Yaqub Janjua and Aamer Yaqub Janjua, owners of the Madina Trading telephone...

Last month Skype was in talks to acquire VoIP startup Gizmo5. It was a perfect backup plan in case all that IP litigation didn't work out. Gizmo5's SIP infrastructure could theoretically replace Skype's proprietary P2P back end. After the Skype settlement, though, Gizmo5's strategic value to Skype sort of plummeted. In the meantime, Google bought them, say multiple sources with knowledge of the deal, for around $30 million in cash. The deal is done, say our sources, and will be announced shortly. Gizmo5 is a good fit with a number of Google products. Google Talk allows voice calls between users...

eBay, the San Jose-based online-auctions giant, is trading two-thirds of the Internet phone service Skype for about $2 billion, reversing a 2005 acquisition that many analysts considered a head scratcher from the beginning. It's really a reversal: Among the private funds buying a 65 percent stake in the business from eBay is Index Ventures, a venture-capital firm which backed Skype as a startup and profited nicely from the original sale of the company. Silver Lake Capital, a private-equity firm famous for tech buyouts like that of hard-drive maker Seagate, led the deal, in which eBay sold a 65 percent stake...

Oxford, N.C. — Sixteen-year-old Ashton Lundeby's bedroom in his mother's Granville County home is nothing, if not patriotic. Images of American flags are everywhere – on the bed, on the floor, on the wall. But according to the United States government, the tenth-grade home-schooler is being held on a criminal complaint that he made a bomb threat from his home on the night of Feb. 15.

Note: The following text is a quote: Federal Grand Jury Returns Indictment on Internet Bomb Threats Hammond, IN—The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana announced that a three-count indictment was returned against Ashton Lundeby for his role in Internet bomb and related threats directed to Purdue University, Indiana University/Purdue University at Fort Wayne, Ind., and numerous other educational institutions throughout the country. Lundeby, 16, of Oxford, N.C., was arrested by the FBI at his home in Oxford on March 6, 2009. A federal search warrant was also executed at that time. Lundeby was arrested pursuant to a...

Suspicious phone conversations on Skype could be targeted for tapping as part of a pan-European crackdown on what law authorities believe is a massive technical loophole in current wiretapping laws, allowing criminals to communicate without fear of being overheard by the police. The European investigation could also help U.S. law enforcement authorities gain access to Internet calls. The National Security Agency (NSA) is understood to believe that suspected terrorists use Skype to circumvent detection. While the police can get a court order to tap a suspect's land line and mobile phone, it is currently impossible to get a similar order...

Sorry to post a vanity but I am looking at VOIP for the small office. I was going to go with Packet 8 where you buy the phone at Office Depot. $24.95 a month and you can add more lines at $4.95 a month. I do not like the people behind Vonage - the Citrons. The family got fined heavily by the SEC in their last venture with their online brokerage. A relative has magic Jack for $40. $20 for the jack, $20 for the first year. $20 a year after that. It is for the office. I also need...