I have changed my internet provider and the new router has a phone connection at the back. I was assured that my existing BT cordless landline phone would work from this connection. I have tried it out but I loose my connection after a few minutes. The ring tones sound a bit rough and the call recipient says they get a slight echo. I have tried connecting the phone to the phone socket in the filter but no ring tone. Any suggestions what is the best phone to connect to VoIP?
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I’m not a real technical guy in this area. I will tell you that all experience I’ve with VoIP has been bad, As you say the connection is sketchy at best. When my wife an I owned a VoIP phone, no one ever called us on it, they always called our cells so we got rid of it and that’s a while back. I know this isn’t much help, but it what I got. 
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Thanks Danny. I am 84 and know next to nothing about these things. I was wandering if I got an extension hard wired into the master socket I could by pass the router.
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Are you with Virgin Media? If so, perhaps I can be of help.
We are, and until the end of last year we had no problems with VOIP - we used Vonage. Then, suddenly without explanation, we found that VOIP no longer worked through the Virgin router.
I made lots of enquiries and found that the Virgin routers don’t like VOIP. There is something in the router - SIP ALG - which is on by default and cannot be turned off even if you request such from Virgin.
We had two options: ditch Vonage (but we need the speed) or buy a separate modem and attach it to the Virgin router (more expense).
We eventually decided to ditch the landline and use only our two mobile phones. Actually, this works out cheaper, especially when we use them at home using WiFi!
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Thanks JBR. No, we are not with Virgin. Our gas and electricity provider SSE gave us an attractive broadband and phone package which we accepted. Big mistake. Now they have changed name to OVO. The broadband is okay but the technical back up seems to be poor. I have a mobile phone which I keep in the car for emergencies but I prefer a landline in the house. Maybe that will need to change.
This is what I’ve been using also. I couldn’t find a free app in the UK but I would think there would be. I just can’t find one from here.
Try a cordless phone they draw less current from the line, they derive their power from the mains and batteries in the handset, I have a Panasonic set with a couple of wireless extensions but works well from my modem.
To be honest I rarely use it and am thinking of giving it away as I really only use my mobile, the “landline” goes straight to an answering machine. The fibre connection is purely for the Internet it just happens to have free VOIP so I set it up.
Is that a dect phone Bruce? Would they work of the VoIP on the router and would I keep my landline number?
Yes, the Panasonic phones are dect, originally they plugged straight into the WAN router but that failed so now they go into a little VOIP box I bought off ebay which connects to the LAN socket on the router
As for the number or at least as far as i know, in Australia you “own” your number so it is yours to take to which ever provider you like. I have had my number for over 40 years. Of course it was a Telstra (our BT) landline originally, since then I have transferred it to various ISPs but as I say I haven’t actually used it for years.
The mobile is cheaper for domestic and international phone calls while the data just builds up - currently I have over 125Gb of data available which I will never use I turned off the phone’s wifi to try to get it down.
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Thanks Bruce. I will maybe try a dect phone.