5. Vonage Features

Since Vonage shipped my review unit already set up with a demo account and phone number, all I had to do is plug it into power and a working broadband connection and wait a minute or so while the BTS base unit contacted the mother ship and registered. Once the green Ready light came on I was able to start making and receiving calls. Normally, you'll need to point your browser to http://vonage.com/activate to set up an account and activate your BTS.

We've looked at a few Vonage products in the past, but haven't provided a look at Vonage's user interface. So here's a selection of some of the more interesting screens in the shots below.

Figure 8: Vonage Dashboard (click image to enlarge)	Figure 9: Features (click image to enlarge)
Figure 10: Call Forwarding (click image to enlarge)	Figure 11: Bandwidth Saver (click image to enlarge)

In addition to what you see in Figures 8 through 11, you can also add Soft Phone capability to your account or purchase a dedicated Fax line for $10 /month for each service. There are plenty of other Add-ons you can purchase, too, to bulk up your monthly bill.

I found the UI nicely laid out, although I must report that during one of my testing sessions, the whole secure customer interface slowed to a slow enough crawl as to become unusable.