Telephone and Internet


Telephone:  The telephone handsets are located in Charlotte's room, in the kitchen, the living room between the chairs, in Al's room and in the bed room.  All handsets are set to ring except for the one in the bed room which will remain silent.  The four with active ringers are interchangeable and can be put anyplace.

Our phone company in Vontage.  When we are gone and our phone rings it will automaticly transfer the message to an Internet service.  We will be receiving our messages via the Internet.  However, feel free to use the phones as you wish.  We get unlimited phone calls to anywhere in the United States plus unlimited (free calls) to about 60 countries worldwide.  This includes Canada and all of western Europe, including Switzerland.  So, Sue, make all the calls you want to your kids.  And make business calls also if you wish.

Vontage is a voice over IP service meaning it works through the Internet.  So if you are getting a dial tone the Internet is up and working.  

Internet:  The wireless modem is used to make the Internet connection.  To connect make a wireless connection as you normally would.  Select the connection "NETGEAR - Guest:".  This connection requires no password.  It is a limited connection in that it allows only a connection to the Internet (including Skype) but does not allow you to make a connection with other computers.

Troubleshooting:  Hopefully everything works right.  However, if for some reason the Internet goes down the best way to resolve the situation is to shut everything down then turn it all back on.  The photo on the right shows the Internet connection units.  The tall black box is the Internet wireless router.  The vertical white unit on top is the cable modem.  The flat gray Linksys unit is the Vontage connection.  These three units as well as the telephone is plugged into the power device on the second shelf.  In case of problem shut the power device off with the rocker switch in front and wait 30 seconds or so.  Then turn it back on.  It will take a little while for everything to completely reboot.  You can tell everything is up and running when you get a dial tone with one of the handsets.