Getting Started for Residential Users
From VoIP.ms Wiki
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This guide has been made for the residential user who is either looking to move to VoIP or would simply like to get some more guidance on VoIP.ms.
Below you will find a complete setup guide for your phone system including:
- A few recommendations for a phone and a softphone to place and receive calls,
- A phone number,
- A voicemail greeting,
- An optional call forward to your mobile,
- An emergency line for the kids,
- Clear guidelines as to how to manage your phonebook, and
- A few security recommendations.
Contents |
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Visual Representation
Here is a quick visual representation of what your phone system could look like based on the guidelines below, but please note that the phone features listed in this guide are interdependent. We recommend following the setup steps in the order they are present
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Setting up Your VoIP.ms Account and Devices
Understanding VoIP.ms Pay-as-You-Go Pricing
You may be scared by the Pay-as-You-Go model, but it allows you to actually make significant savings and is much more flexible than traditional phone providers. Let's walk through pricing together, but keep in mind that VoIP.ms splits its pricing in two parts, inbound and outbound calls.
Inbound
First, you will need one phone number. Say that you are a based in Canada, a DID number will cost you $0.85 per month.
Second, you get to pay per minute, thus you will pay $0.009 per minute (9/10 of a cent).
Outbound
As soon as your device(s) are set up, you can already make calls, you do not necessarily need to have a number associated to it. You will simply be billed according to your usage with 6-second increments. From our example above, for outbound calls in Canada, you will pay $0.005/minute (half a cent!).
So how much is this costing you?
Say that in a given month, you speak on the phone for 10 hours (you love to call your family and friends!) and receive calls for 5 hours that is 300 incoming minutes (at $0.009/min) and 600 outgoing minutes (at $0.005/min). Therefore, your monthly recurring bill would be $0.85 for your phone number and $5.70 for all your calls during the whole month with VoIP.ms phone system, which yields $6.55 for 15 hours over the phone!
Please note that VoIP.ms charges in U.S. dollars. While it is true that we are a Canadian company, since the company started back in 2007 we adopted the USD as the global currency solution in order to reach and satisfy as many customers as possible.
Ready to get started? Keep on reading.
Devices
VoIP.ms has a Bring Your Own Device policy, thus you may either already have something handy at home or may decide to buy a new device.
Whatever you choose, we are ready to support you. We have support with most flagships companies for devices and softphones.
We kindly suggest to have a softphone installed directly on your mobile for fully unified communications. If this is a new term for you, here's is a useful blog article we wrote.
Phone Numbers (DIDs)
Once you have your device(s), you will either get a local DID or transfer your current one.
1) To get a DID, you may get a local number in USA, Canada or 60+ countries across the globe.
2) You may also transfer your DID from your current provider with our portability tool. This process usually takes up to 5 business days. Moreover, porting local and toll-free DIDs is free with VoIP.ms across Canada and United States.
Don't forget to activate your E911 services and your Caller ID Number and Caller ID Name!
Sub-accounts
If you do not plan to have more than 1 device, you may skip this section.
In order to set up your devices, you will need to create sub-accounts. Sub-accounts allow you to register your devices, they are free and you can have as many as you want.
With your DID, your device(s) and your sub-account(s). You are now ready to build a cloud phone system tailored to your specific needs.
Building a Basic Cloud Phone System
Voicemail
First of, you will need a voicemail to make sure whoever is calling you can leave a voicemail message in the event where you cannot pick up the call. We strongly advise you to take the full benefit of our voicemail system and activate the voicemail to email feature where all voicemail messages are forwarded to your email address as an MP3 attachment.
Call Forwarding
You may be at at home or on-the-go, but you should always benefit from unified communications and therefore to increase the likelihood of getting all your calls, you should activate the Call Forwarding feature. If you do not pick up your home phone within a specific delay, the incoming call will be redirected to a number where you have more chance to answer (e.g. your mobile number or your cottage's phone!).
Ring Group
Ring Group is a great extension of the Call Forwarding feature, but is definitely optional. Say that you have kids and would like to provide them an emergency line. You could easily purchase a local number, and whenever your kids call on the number, it would ring your home phone, your mobile, your significant other mobile, your cottage's phone, etc. all at the same time until somebody picks up.
Phone Book
Finally, our Phone Book feature allows you to configure speed dial entries. Say you have a relative that you call frequently, you can create a Phone Book entry in order to make a call using a speed-dial entry of 4 digits long.
For more advanced users, our CallerID Filtering feature can also be leveraged with our Phone Book feature where you can filter incoming calls based on the groups created.
Increasing Your Security
VoIP.ms offers a plenitude of security features to add an extra layer of security to your account. Here are some of our favorites:
To prevent unauthorized calls from your account:
- IP Restriction: When enabled, the system will only allow outgoing phone calls from the IP address or IP address ranges provided.
- POP Restriction: This feature mimics the IP restriction, the system will only allow outgoing phone calls from the server selected.
- Allow International Calls: Are you only making calls in USA/Canada? If so, when disabling this feature, calls placed to other destinations will be automatically rejected.
- Allow Calls to Countries: Only making calls to Europe? Not a problem. Disable all outbound calls apart from your desired target region.
To prevent unauthorized access to your customer portal:
- Foreign IP Guard: With this protection, every time there is a login attempt from a country other than yours, the customer portal access will be temporarily disabled from that IP address.
- Two Step Verification: This feature is an extension from our TOTP feature, when selected, you will receive a 6-digit code on your e-mail which will be required to login to your account.
Interested to learn more? click here.
Support
After following this guide, you are fully ready to make and receive calls using VoIP.ms. However, if you still need help or have any question, our team is available and ready to support you 24x7.
Technical Support
- E-mail:[email protected]
- Tickets directly through your portal.
Porting
- E-mail: [email protected]
- Tickets directly through your portal.
Sales and General Information
- E-mail: [email protected]
- Tickets directly through your portal.
- Phone: USA/Canada toll-free 1.877.786.4767 or 1.214.615.8599 worldwide
