February, 2018 KIT – Home Phone Bill Hacking / VOIP

 

KIT Definition & Purpose

Building upon a recent post focused on how to hack my phone bills, this month’s KIT outlines my current and exact home phone / VOIP setup that I’m utilizing on average 8-12 hours a day as I am a con call maven in my current role at work. This configuration has been honed over the years of my technology career, and it may not be the flashiest home voice solution – in fact I”m sure it isn’t.

I’m a practical guy that is looking for reliability and solid performance in this home voice and home networking solution. The goal here with this post is to make it so turn key that anyone with an understanding of how to operate a modern smart phone – can get this configuration setup.

 

KIT Payback / Value Prop

Purchasing all of the gear will take under an hour on Amazon, and the install is likely to take another hour. All told let’s estimate a half day to get this up and running if you run into issues, and if you are truly starting from scratch. Most everyone already has a home router that will work just fine.

Total Time – 4 hours
Total Investment – $427 in year one ($100 for VOIP service, $327 for hardware)

If you are spending around what I used to spend for home phone at $40 per month, you’ll make your money back in a year. When you couple this KIT with the mobile phone bill hacks mentioned previously – this payback can be even greater.

Payback Period – 11 months

 

KIT Contents – Service

• Services – Total:  $8.25 per month
• Internet Service – My local internet provider is Time Warner, and they are one of two monopolies in the area. I pray that Google Fiber comes into town someday and disrupts the providers that are literally entrenched at the moment. Time Warner has been the more reliable of the two providers, I’m just not overly psyched about the rates and performance – you can be sure I’ll continue to seek an alternative to hack this bill and to get better performance. If you don’t have at least 1GB of UPLOAD speed, then VOIP may not be the best solution as a rule of thumb. The voice service that I’ve selected will do just fine with lower amounts of bandwidth, and this is another reason why I’m recommending…
• Voice Service – I’m using AxVoice as my provider, and it costs me $8.25 a month for unlimited domestic calls.
• Google Voice – I’ve setup my Google Voice number to ring across all mobile phones, 3rd party voice services/apps, and now this home-bound VOIP service. This is the number that I use as my ‘public’ number, and it will ring out across everything all at once. This is also free provided you are okay with Google potentially culling call records…I’m alright at the moment with this if they want to investigate my various endpoints.

 

KIT Contents – Hardware

• $327 for everything
• Home Router –
  • $100
  • RT-AC66U Dual Band 3×3 Gigabit router

  • 

  • This thing is a beast, and it can be paired with a secondary router or hotspot to really hammer the coverage around your home. I have a single unit and it covers my entire property entirely including a good range outside – perhaps 30 feet around the perimeter of the home. The exterior of my place is all brick btw… Additionally, the unit has 4 ports that can be wired in via 1GB lines – this leads me to the second part of the kit.

 

• Wired Network Over Your Electrical System
  • $100
  • Netgear PowerLine 1000

  • 

    Any of the Netgear PowerLine units are strong and reliable. I’ve never had an issue with mine. I have my PowerLine 1000 units in two different homes over the past few years, and they have worked flawlessly. Always. The benefit here is a few fold:

    • No need to get lines dropped into your wall. This is an expensive and painful job if you DIY or if you hire it out. Sidestep the friction with this purchase.
    • The PowerLine units are very portable, so if you have to move – bring it with you.
    • You leverage an outlet, if you can plug something in – you are done. Simple.
  • This extends a 1GB line directly to where you will have your physical phone via the next piece of the kit.

 

• Desk Router
  • $77
  • NetGear ProSafe Plus Switch GS108E
  • 
  • Admittedly, this is optional if you have all wireless enabled computing gear, as you could jack the following component of the kit – directly into the Netgear PowerLine. In my configuration, I have a router that sits connected to the uplinked PowerLine. From this router, my AXVoice provided gear. For my home office configuration, it is ideal to have a slew of 1GB ports physically within reach for any needs, as I may need to jack in a new piece of gear from time to time – this saves me a walk upstairs. This router is also a very strong and solid piece of equipment given the price tag.
• AXVoice Bridge
  • Cost – $0

  • 

  • The team at AXVoice sends this to you after you sign up – it is included for free as you setup your account and resulting service. This thing is dead simple to setup. Plug it into some power, and take the network cable and plug it into the desktop router.  Done.
• Phone
  • Cost – $50
  • VTech Fire Engine Red Dual Handsets
  • I bought a dual handset configuration from VTech, and I got the red one because I thought it looked cool. Okay, I went cheap/value here at Walmart for the first handset as I wasn’t really sure how much I was going to like this little experiment. I like having two units as one is always nearly charged, and in reserve. I can usually get through a full day of calls with both units being exhausted in the process. I like the ability to walk around the house with the phone and laptop in hand, in case I need to change up the vibe at home. I’m likely going to tweak this part of the kit to include a high quality speaker phone that I can bounce into the wireless handsets as needed. I do have an in ear headset, but I’m not going to include it here – still tweaking that part at the moment.

 

KIT How To’s

 

1. Be sure you have internet service that has at least 1GB upload, not download, speeds.
2. Get the AxVoice service by signing up here.
3. If you don’t already have a strong wireless router – get the Asus router. If you have a router you already like – be sure it has a port free to connect your PowerLine into. Once you have the Asus router, follow the install instructions to get it connected to your internet / cable modem.
4. Get a pair of PowerLine units here. Connect the first PowerLine unit via network cable to the Asus / network router and plug it into the nearest outlet in the wall. Do not plug it into an intermediate power strip. Directly into the wall only.
5. Get the other PowerLIne unit, and plug that into the outlet closest to where you intend to have your phone, and get a network cable plugged into the PowerLine. You should now have a PowerLine closest to the router from step 3 plugged in with three green lights. You should now have a second PowerLine powered up in the outlet – also with three green lights and a network cable hanging off of the bottom of the unit.
6. Get a desktop home router here, and power it on in the outlet closest to where you intend to have your home phone located.
7. Plug the network cable from the second PowerLine unit into the the desktop home router into the ‘uplink’ port.
8. Take a new network cable and plug it into the desktop home router in any port but the ‘uplink’ port.
9. By now you should have received the gear from AxVoice, power it on near where you intend to place the home phone. Take the network cable that is hanging off the home router in step 7 and plug it into the AXVoice-provided device.
10. Get a VTech phone, and power it on near the home desktop router, second PowerLine unit, and the AXVoice provided device. Take the included phone line that came with the phone, and plug it into the AXVoice device.
11. Wait 3-5 minutes and try to call a number to test this baby out. My first test worked fine, and it has been chugging along ever since.