Voip Deals Blog

Allo.com is a voip hardware company which offers VoIP PBX and VoIP ATA hardware solutions for home and small businesses who want to set up a voip pbx system.

The Voip PBX system offered by Allo called the Nano/Hybrid PBX is a small but fully featured telephone system with all the pbx features at a very affordable cost. Some of the PBX features of NanoPBX are

• Call Forwarding
• Call Waiting/Holding and retrieval
• Call Transfer – Attended and Blind
• Remote Voice mail Access
• Call Parking and Retrieval
• Recordable IVR
• 50 IP Extentions
• Intercom

Set up is easy and no technical experience is required. If you have ever set up a wireless router at home you can set up Allo’s nano pbx system. You connect the wan port of the Allo Nano Pbx to your internet router. Power it up.  Access the graphical user interface of the nano pbx is by connecting your computer to the LAN port of NANO Pbx. Then from within the interface you set up all the pbx features that you need.

You can attach 6 analogue phones and upto 60 IP phones to the pbx.

Setting up of virtual extensions, uploading voice files for voicemail, IVR(Interactive Voice Response) features, setting up of analogue and ip (virtual) extensions and setting up queues are all done through the graphical interface.

The system costs $425, which is pretty reasonable in our view.

Go to Allo.com for more information about the pbx system.

Recently Yahoo released Yahoo Messenger version 10, which is a vast improvement from its predecessor. Some of the features that we liked are

Enhanced Video Calling

1. You can make your video full screen without affecting quality
2. Position of your video feed at multiple locations on the screen or completely close it and just view your friends video feed.
3. Transfer files during video calls  

Integrated Social Updates with the new “Upadtes” Feature

1. Get social updates from Yahoo properties like yahoo buzz, yahoo im, flickr
2. Get social updates from non-Yahoo properties like Twitter, Facebook and more
3. Control over whose updates you want to see and what updates of yours you want to share

Smart Phone Integration

1. Yahoo messenger version for smart phones like iPhone, Blackberry
2. IM from your smart phone
3. Forward your IMs to your phone

Yahoo Messenger & Yahoo Toolbar Integration

1. Yahoo released an upgraded Yahoo tool bar with more features which complements the yahoo messenger 10.
2. Start IM conversations from any page using the toolbar

With Yahoo messenger PC-to-pc calls are free as always. Yahoo has teamed up with Jajah to offer pc-to-phone calls for rates low as 1¢/minute with free voicemail. Calls from US to phone numbers in US, Canada,  UK, Israel (Tel Aviv), Italy (land lines), China, Mexico(Mexico City) are 0.01 ¢/minute. Calls to toll free numbers within US are free. A detailed rate list to for other countries can be viewed on the Yahoo messenger site.

There are three ways to check your PhonePower voicemail, i.e if you have PhonePower voip.

1. Online

Go to www.PhonePower.com and sign on to ‘My Account’ and within your account, there is a voicemail menu on the left hand side. You can play your messages, delete old ones from there.

2. From Your Home Phone

Dial *21 from your home phone that is connected to the Phonepower voip adapter. If you haven’t set up your voicemail before, you will be guided through the set up process. You can skip all the set up options like personal greetings, voice signature if you want to keep the defaults. Then you will be asked to set up a 4 digit pin#. After that you are all set. You call *21 from your home phone any time to go to your voicemail box and manage your voicemails.

3. From An External Phone or Cell Phone
   

Dial your phone number and once you hear the greetings, hit *to go to your voicemail, you will be asked to enter your pin and once done, you will be able to listen any new voicemails.

Last but not the least, in addition to the above three, PhonePower also offers free voicemail to email. You can  setup within your online account to have Phonepower send new voicemails to your email address. Everytime you get a voicemail, a voice file will be attached and sent to your email, which you can download and play in any audio player like windows media player or quicktime.

Well, its 2010, high speed internet connection at home is no more a novelty. If you have any type of high speed internet at home are you using it to the fullest. Have you switched to a Voip company yet, if not, why? What may be the rational behind an expensive regular phone service!

Whatever your call need is, switching to a voip company will save you a lot. Lets first look at some of the concerns.

911 service- Are you keeping your regular phone company for the 911 service. Most voip phone services offer E911 service, which is similar to the 911 service offered by cell phone providers. With a E911 service you need to provide your home address upfront. The first time you sign up, the voip phone service asks for your home address and uses that as the E911 address. But if you move afterwards, you will need to update your address with your phone company.

Caller Id, Call Waiting - Most voip services offer Caller Id/Call Waiting/3Way Calling. In fact most voip services offer more features for free than regular phone companies.

VoiceMail - Most voip phone services offer Voicemail, also voice mail to email, which is an extra feature most regular phone services lack.

Now Let’s Look At the Cost Savings Voip Services Offer

I urge you to look at your current Phone Bill, and then compare it to what it will cost you if you were to switch to a voip phone service provider.

If you need unlimited calls to US & Canada – If you switch to PhonePower, an unlimited plan will cost you around $14.95 to $18.95 per month depending on a contract length.

For a limited plan – If you were to switch to Phone.com you get 250 minutes of outgoing calls and unlimited incoming calls. Any additional minutes will be 3.9¢ per each extra minute.

Based on the above cost information, check how much you will be able to save with a switch to a voip phone service provider. I am sure in almost all cases there will be a substantial amount of savings. And if there is, don’t hesitate and make the switch. Some voip providers also offer free trials. So you can keep your regular phone company when you are trying out a voip service and if not fully satisfied cancel it.