Sunday, May 25, 2008
Fairies in the Garden
Some big red toadstools have sprung up in our front garden, so here is a picture of one. It was very dark, but look at who is in the picture! Perhaps we have leprechauns!
One day the truth might be revealed!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
ADSL Telephone system
With the deregulation of the telecoms market, several companies now offer 'naked ADSL' which is a broadband service through the copper wires already coming into your house for your phone. Previously you had to have a phone connected for $42-odd per month, and a broadband package added to that. Now you can have broadband only.
Once you have broadband, you can make phone calls with systems like Skype. You can also buy a telephone device that plugs into a spare Ethernet port on the broadband router and can have a phone number allocated to it.
This one is a Linksys PAP2T Phone adapter that comes pre-loaded with XNET VFX, which is operated by WorldXChange. It has two independent phone lines, so you could have one dedicated to a fax, although it's not recommended with this PAP2T. This one cost me $91.25 incl GST and freight from PCWise Ltd. Dick Smith sells them for $119.00.
Basically, plug in the PAP2T to a spare Ethernet connection, plug in a phone and get the I.P. number by dialling some numbers. Connect to that I.P. number using your browser and go through some setup screens. No information on how to do this is enclosed, you have to dig it out of www.xnet.co.nz/vfx and find the hardware setup video. Then write the instructions down while repeatedly pausing and rewinding the video.
Once you have done that, and gone through the online account setup with WorldXChange, they will ring you back and confirm all the details. Then, in a couple of days, they will allocate a local number, such as 09 9xx xxxx.
This will all cost $11.25 per month plus tolls at 5 cents a minute to NZ, Australia, UK, USA. The $11.25 is currently waived if you have WorldXChange broadband.
So we will try this out for a few months, and we may be able to ditch ihug/Vodafone, switch the broadband to WorldXChange and transfer our home phone number to this device. The call quality can't be much worse than we have already, some incoming calls are very hard to hear. We should be able to save about $40 per month if it works.
Linksys have other hardware to do the same job, including an ADSL 4-port wireless router with two phone ports, and another model with pass-through Ethernet, so if you have a one-port ADSL modem and one computer, you can hook up the phone device and plug your computer in as well.
To those who phone us, I will let you know our 09 995-8xxx number when it is working.
Update 25 may - it works! Call quality is 10/10 clear, no breaking up or hiss or crackle.
Once you have broadband, you can make phone calls with systems like Skype. You can also buy a telephone device that plugs into a spare Ethernet port on the broadband router and can have a phone number allocated to it.
This one is a Linksys PAP2T Phone adapter that comes pre-loaded with XNET VFX, which is operated by WorldXChange. It has two independent phone lines, so you could have one dedicated to a fax, although it's not recommended with this PAP2T. This one cost me $91.25 incl GST and freight from PCWise Ltd. Dick Smith sells them for $119.00.
Basically, plug in the PAP2T to a spare Ethernet connection, plug in a phone and get the I.P. number by dialling some numbers. Connect to that I.P. number using your browser and go through some setup screens. No information on how to do this is enclosed, you have to dig it out of www.xnet.co.nz/vfx and find the hardware setup video. Then write the instructions down while repeatedly pausing and rewinding the video.
Once you have done that, and gone through the online account setup with WorldXChange, they will ring you back and confirm all the details. Then, in a couple of days, they will allocate a local number, such as 09 9xx xxxx.
This will all cost $11.25 per month plus tolls at 5 cents a minute to NZ, Australia, UK, USA. The $11.25 is currently waived if you have WorldXChange broadband.
So we will try this out for a few months, and we may be able to ditch ihug/Vodafone, switch the broadband to WorldXChange and transfer our home phone number to this device. The call quality can't be much worse than we have already, some incoming calls are very hard to hear. We should be able to save about $40 per month if it works.
Linksys have other hardware to do the same job, including an ADSL 4-port wireless router with two phone ports, and another model with pass-through Ethernet, so if you have a one-port ADSL modem and one computer, you can hook up the phone device and plug your computer in as well.
To those who phone us, I will let you know our 09 995-8xxx number when it is working.
Update 25 may - it works! Call quality is 10/10 clear, no breaking up or hiss or crackle.
