Vonage is a voice over internet (VoIP) telephone service. This means that you make telephone calls using a normal phone over your internet connection instead of over the lines of the phone company. You can call any phone number using this service and the receiver does not need anything special to receive your call.

Pros:

Inexpensive, lots of features, includes all calls to the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Cons:

Occasional reliability issues, some voice quality issues including echoes and static, not available during an electrical or internet outage, must have broadband internet access to use it

Review:

Vonage telephone service is great as a second line. It is very inexpensive and includes a lot of features compared to regular telephone service. However, it is not a utility and will never have the reliability of Ma Bell so I would not consider it as an only line option.

The unlimited Vonage plans cost $24.99 for a personal line and $49.99 for a business line. The business line includes all the features of the personal line plus a dedicated fax line. If you plan to list your phone number in a Yellow pages advertisement, they generally require that you have a business line. If you are simply telecommuting, a personal line is fine.

In order to use Vonage you must have high-speed broadband internet access. I have a cable modem and use Comcast as my internet service provider (ISP). Make sure you have adequate bandwidth before you get Vonage. Without adequate bandwidth, voice quality will suffer greatly if you are surfing the internet or downloading files when you talk on the phone. Vonage recommends at least 90kbs, but I have found that you should have a minimum or 728kbs in both upload and download bandwidth to consider using VoIP.

For me, Vonage is only reliable about 95% of the time. This is not necessarily Vonage’s fault because they have no control over blackouts, your connection speeds, or the network traffic going on at any given time. This reliability issue is important because you must have an alternative phone option in place to use during an outage or period of bad voice quality. I have access to my home phone and my cellular phone for use whenever I can’t use my Vonage phone. For me this works, you have to ask yourself if it works for you.

Vonage comes with a huge assortment of features that usually cost extra with a line from the telephone company. I use the call waiting, caller ID, voicemail, call forwarding, and conference call features constantly. To give you an example of how robust the features are let me tell you about voicemail. When someone leaves a voicemail message, I can listen to it from any phone, I can log into my account at vonage.com and listen to it through my computer speakers, or I can have an audio file of the message sent anywhere by email. I do all three. There are many more features available including free calls to anywhere in the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico.

The final point I would like to make is regarding the geek factor. You do not have to be a geek or a rocket scientist to set up Vonage. However, it may still intimidate people that are afraid of wires and electronic devices. Another thing to note is that the Vonage adapter adds another bit of complexity to your network. This is only a problem when you have a problem. If you call your ISP for support for any type of internet access problems, you can be sure that they will ask you to disconnect your Vonage equipment before beginning the troubleshooting.

If you can live with all of this, then you are a prime candidate for Vonage.

The Verdict:

Vonage is a great money saving choice for a second line or a home office line under the following conditions:
1. You have access to a land line or cell phone during occasional outages.
2. The speed of your broadband internet connection is adequate (I recommend at least 728kbs up and down).
3. You have a basic level of comfort with technology. (You do not have to be a rocket scientist or geek).

What is it?

The Brother MFC-420CN is a compact inkjet printer, scanner, copier, fax machine, memory card reader. It has USB2 and RJ-45 network connectivity and it has a document feeder.

Pros:

Compact, built in networking and USB2 connectivity, separate color ink cartridges, built in memory card readers, built in document feeder, easy to use.

Cons:

Light duty feel, small capacity, it says the ink cartridges are empty when it seems it could suck several more pages out of them.

Review:

When I first set up my home office I needed a small, quiet, multi-function printer, scanner, fax machine. The system recommended by the IT department was a huge monstrosity of system, but I wanted something that wouldn’t crowd my already tight space. I took matters into my own hands and found this versatile and compact little system.

My minimum requirements were a printer that was compact, had separate color cartridges and could print scan and fax. My “nice-to-have” features were a document feeder and network connectivity so I could share the printer with my other computers. This printer met those needs plus provided a flash memory card reader that works with a variety of formats.

My experience with the system has been quite good. I must admit that I am not a heavy user. Generally, I print a couple 10-12 page documents a day, but on occasion I have printed out 100-200 page documents and it hasn’t had any problems. The software is useful and easy to use, but I have found that on rare occasions it freaks out and I need to goose the computer to get it working properly again. This isn’t shocking because I generally leave my system on for weeks and only reboot occasionally.

The only problem I have with this device is that it “feels” cheap. I feel like I have to be careful handling it or I might break it. This “feeling” also makes me wonder if it would start to flounder if I tried to work it harder and more often. I don’t know how valid these thoughts are, because so far it has handled everything I have thrown at it with pure utility.

The Verdict:

I like the Brother MFC-420CN. It is compact, feature rich, and has performed ably for a year.

Buy the Brother MFC-420CN from Amazon.com now!

Other Related Brother Multifunction Printers:

Brother MFC-820cw: Features Wireless Network w/2.5" Color LCD

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