I am setup with wireless connection from xplornet(storm is in the background i think) I have a receiver mounted on my roof...

The reciever plugs directly into my pc(no router). My service is 1.5meg/600k and tests consistantly at those speeds.

Does my basic service offer enough bandwidth to go VOIP? Im think of going with vonage...

Im about to save 20$ a month gettin off bell, so i could bump up to 3meg for less the 10$ more... if needed

Thanks

from there website:

What's Broadband?
Broadband is high-speed Internet access such as through a Cable or DSL modem. It gives you a continuous connection to the Internet at speeds much faster than dial-up. You need a broadband connection to use Vonage because we insist on consistent high quality audio for all your calls. As a general rule, if you're getting speeds of 90 Kbps or better, you probably have a broadband connection.

About Cable Internet
Cable Internet uses a Cable modem and connects through your existing Cable TV line. Typically your local Cable TV company would provide your Cable Internet service. This service does not interfere with your TV connection. This Cable modem lets your computer and any other equipment connect to the Internet faster than a dial-up modem. A typical Cable Internet connection might have 128 Kbps of upload and 1.5 Mbps of download speeds. Your speeds can vary depending on what your Cable provider offers, and how many other people in your area are using the same service.

So you should be fine.

Does my basic service offer enough bandwidth to go VOIP? Im think of going with vonage...

Bandwidth is not the issue. Its latency and jitter.

My advice is to try a Voip test site such as the Primus one listed in one of the stickies (or a similar one) and find out what numbers you get.

Xplornet tells me that they will be offering their own VOIP by the end of Summer.

did that primus test and failed.

Strange cuz i down load at good speeds and play online games..

Any other test i coudl try?

http://myspeed.visualware.com/voip/

From there it says im a pass but have 3.2% packet loss with could cause broken up conversations. Maybe ill contact xplornet for a temporary speed boost to see it that helps? They offer it free

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 505328 bps
Upload speed: 389800 bps
Quality of service: -- %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 1406 ms
Average download pause: 32 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 56 ms
Average round trip time to server: 1045 ms

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 5.9 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 4.9 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 3.2 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.1 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported VoIP lines: 6
Estimated MOS score: 3.6

Average round trip to the server: over 1000 ms. That's a full second. That means annoying lag when you're using VoIP. Unfortunately, wireless solutions often add latency over what you get with wire.

You can try it. You might find the delay tolerable... you might also find it horribly annoying. And this latency will be in addition to whatever latency the person you are calling has, if they are using VoIP.

IT maybe the mature trees growing out there leaves..... I got hooked up as the leaves fell last year.... hmmmmmmmmmm it maybe cutting my connection down a bit

Wireless is like this. It gets interference from other sources (and to a slight degree from itself). The very nature of wireless means it's higher latency than wired solutions. This is the nature of how it works.

It won't have less latency in the winter, except for TCP packets that have to be retransmitted due to connection quality, if your theory is correct, but that will be slight. UDP is what is used for VoIP, and it just discards packets that don't arrie on time so it doesn't slow down the connection at all, it just reduces the quality of the video or audio experience.

For a joke I tried using my Voicestick VoIP connection over a dialup connection from the cottage last weekend and it worked fine. Bandwidth is rarely the issue with VoIP. Latency is.

hmm some of that is over my head but thanks.... I may simply wait till xplornet starts up there VOIP. So when or if i have problems one number can deal with it, i dont want vonage blaming xplronet and vise versa... Xplornet due to have VOIP this fall..