[Wolves] VOIP

[Matthew Revell]

Howdy,

I've just had Telewest installed in my house. Great broadband offering, 
significantly cheaper than Sky/BT for tv and telephone (line rental) 
combo. Hey, in recent years, Telewest even have decent customer service 
and staff who seem keen to help.

Now, the main downside to Telewest is their extortionate phone tariff. I 
refuse to pay a 6p call connection charge on all calls, plus 2p per 
minute for a local calls in the evening. Oh, and let's not even get into 
their to-mobile rates, as I'm likely to burst a vein.

So, finally, I bring the email to something vaguely on topic. I've been 
looking at various VOIP - PSTN providers, such as BT Broadband Voice, 
Vonage and so on. I like the BT service, as they give you a free 
analogue to IP phone adapter but the service is expensive and limited. 
The American services look quite cheap but are they any good?

Really, what I'm asking is:

Can anyone recommend a VOIP service that runs off hardware or Linux 
compatible software, that connects to normal phones and is cheap?

OR

Can anyone recommend VOIP software for Linux that'd just let me call PC 
to PC?

BTW - does anyone else have the free 1571 service on Telewest? Is your 
ring tone also intermittent, even if there's no message to listen to?

Cheers,

Matthew.