What other people think about AT&T CallVantage Service VoIP Telephone Adapter?
Flexible features, and a small UPS makes all the difference
We've had model DVG-1120M for over a year. CallVantage is a very full-featured service with many options. For example, if the electrical power goes out at your house, you can set up CallVantage so that house calls are automatically routed to a cell phone or to voice mail. There are also many other great features we use.
The VOIP box has been reliable though there are a couple of irritations.
- The documentation that comes with it is quite sufficient for basic plug-it-in-and-make-a-call. But for users who have a home network and want to set up networking features, the documentation is scanty to say the very least.
- The model we have has a few bugs and we (so far) haven't received a firmware update for it. (Maybe customers have to *ask* for bug fixes?). The biggest bug-a-boo on our model is we can't enable MAC filtering. The VOIP box stops responding the internal network whenever MAC address filtering is enabled. To re-enable the internet requires a hard reset and then reconfiguration. As another user suggested, it may be better to let the VOIP box act as a pass-through and use another more sophisticated piece of equipment to control the networking.
- We have a cable modem. After a power interruption the VOIP will usually not work right away if all the attached equipment - cable modem, voip, router, and computer - powers up simultaneously. The VOIP box is quite picky about the reset sequence of all attached equipment. Even a sub-second mains power outage may affect the cable modem and VOIP box.
- After a power outage the reset sequence of the VOIP box and attached equipment is painful. The documentation says to power off all the attached equipment and power them up, in sequence, with a couple of minutes in between. We get frequent power interruptions, often just 1-to-5 second outage blips, sometimes a few times a day. Resets were a major burden until we got a UPS.
To avoid burdensome resets due to brief mains power outages, buy a small UPS at a computer store or office supply store. It resembles a large heavy power strip and it will eliminate the seemingly-endless hours of hassle if your power is as unreliable as ours. (A UPS will not, however, last through a power outage lasting more than couple of minutes - exact time depends upon the size of the UPS and the power draw on it).
We enjoy the flexible, custom features of CallVantage and the VOIP box is fairly easy to use with the addition of a UPS.
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What other people think about AT&T CallVantage Service VoIP Telephone Adapter?
Flexible features, and a small UPS makes all the difference
We've had model DVG-1120M for over a year. CallVantage is a very full-featured service with many options. For example, if the electrical power goes out at your house, you can set up CallVantage so that house calls are automatically routed to a cell phone or to voice mail. There are also many other great features we use.
The VOIP box has been reliable though there are a couple of irritations.
- The documentation that comes with it is quite sufficient for basic plug-it-in-and-make-a-call. But for users who have a home network and want to set up networking features, the documentation is scanty to say the very least.
- The model we have has a few bugs and we (so far) haven't received a firmware update for it. (Maybe customers have to *ask* for bug fixes?). The biggest bug-a-boo on our model is we can't enable MAC filtering. The VOIP box stops responding the internal network whenever MAC address filtering is enabled. To re-enable the internet requires a hard reset and then reconfiguration. As another user suggested, it may be better to let the VOIP box act as a pass-through and use another more sophisticated piece of equipment to control the networking.
- We have a cable modem. After a power interruption the VOIP will usually not work right away if all the attached equipment - cable modem, voip, router, and computer - powers up simultaneously. The VOIP box is quite picky about the reset sequence of all attached equipment. Even a sub-second mains power outage may affect the cable modem and VOIP box.
- After a power outage the reset sequence of the VOIP box and attached equipment is painful. The documentation says to power off all the attached equipment and power them up, in sequence, with a couple of minutes in between. We get frequent power interruptions, often just 1-to-5 second outage blips, sometimes a few times a day. Resets were a major burden until we got a UPS.
To avoid burdensome resets due to brief mains power outages, buy a small UPS at a computer store or office supply store. It resembles a large heavy power strip and it will eliminate the seemingly-endless hours of hassle if your power is as unreliable as ours. (A UPS will not, however, last through a power outage lasting more than couple of minutes - exact time depends upon the size of the UPS and the power draw on it).
We enjoy the flexible, custom features of CallVantage and the VOIP box is fairly easy to use with the addition of a UPS.