On Monday, I sat down to sign up for our Vonage service online, deciding to take advantage of the current first-month-free offer (also see my update below). The signup process was pretty easy -- I created a new Vonage online account, chose our desired area code and calling plan, went with the free Motorola VT2442 phone adapter, and entered all of our billing and location information (important for the 911 service). I encountered a silly little problem using the Safari web browser on my Mac (I was unable to click on one of the form submit buttons), and had to continue with Firefox, but otherwise the whole process took me under five minutes. Within another five or ten minutes of submitting my final order, I received two emails -- one confirming my order and providing me with our new phone number, and the other telling me that I had to clarify our physical home address in order for their 911 system to be able to pinpoint our location. I was able to go onto the Vonage website and do this immediately (the way that Washington, DC has compass quadrants as part of all addresses meant that I had to change how I had entered my address for Vonage to understand it), and received an email a few minutes later telling me that our 911 service had been successfully activated.

Not being in any huge hurry, I opted for ground shipment of the phone adapter, received an email on Tuesday with my tracking information, and received the adapter today. Inside the shipping box was a printed version of my invoice, an envelope of Vonage information, and the Motorola VT2442 box. Opening that box revealed the phone adapter itself and all its associated accessories (power adapter, ethernet cables, and instructions); one of my few quibbles with the whole process was that it was inside this box, rather than inside the Vonage envelope, that I found the Quick Installation Guide. In any event, I was able to follow along with the easy guide, something that in my setup entailed a sum total of four steps: connect the adapter to one of the network ports on my wireless router, connect the power cable to the adapter and the wall, plug a phone into the adapter, and pick up the phone. That was literally it -- the phone had a dial tone, and I was off and running. The Quick Installation Guide directed me to call an 800 number to complete my setup, but this seems like it was just a way to get me to test the phone, and to have me listen to a brief recording explaining how to set up my voicemail.

I've already made a few test calls with the new setup, and can't say that it sounds any different than the traditional phone service that we currently have here in Brookline (which I guess is the point!). I really like the fact that Vonage gives us the ability to have our voicemails digitized and sent to our email, and that we can configure everything via the web (like forwarding our phone -- it feels right in this day and age to be able to manage our phone service via the internet, and to be able to take our phone service with us if we're going anywhere for a prolonged period of time. Only time will tell if we remain happy with the quality of the sound, though; expect more on that later!

Update: Browsing through the Vonage website, I just learned that if I refer you to the service, you can get a free month. The whole referral program there works via email, so feel free to drop me a line if you're interested.)