I know of a few Skype-compatible devices, but have not looked into it too much. Some of the reviews that I’ve read for such products are fairly negative, so I’m waiting for the technology to improve a bit.

Nice site, btw.

It honestly astounds me that in 2008 there *still* aren’t many DVRs and receivers that both require a “phone home” occasionally and can’t do it over the internet (wired ethernet is *so* laughably cheap … and even opening up those largely-disused USB ports would be a help).

In reality, it’s not a *huge* problem, but there are a few exceptions:

* Pay-Per-View via satellite (less often, via cable) won’t work from the receiver; you have to phone in to a call center or visit the provider’s web site to order a Pay-Per-View. Naturally if you’re trying to save money, this is a luxury that goes on the chopping block first (I hope )
* TiVos get whiny if they can’t phone home at least twice a month. This whiny attitude gets worse the longer the lack-of-phone-line condition lasts. Some people report the machines complain daily.
* Dish network actually charges a “not attached to phone line” fee of $5 per month for certain households (the rules that govern this are a touch confusing to me, but the best I can figure out is this only applies when there’s more than one receiver (dual-tuner receivers count as “one receiver”) — this one seems to be intended mostly to stop people from putting six receivers on one account and wiring up several (unrelated) houses with satellite service (i.e. theft of service).

Packet8 and Vonage are more expensive alternatives to Skype for the whole phone calls thing. They have three benefits over Skype, none of which really apply to me (I use Skype for incoming and outgoing calls too ):

* You can send and receive faxes over Packet8 and Vonage (sometimes this requires a bit of tweaking to get right, but once you’ve done it once, it generally keeps working).
* Packet8 and Vonage lines work for the “phone home” problem with some receivers I described above. Usually you have to set the receiver to use a dialing prefix (that tells the phone adapter to tune the call differently) but it usually works.
* You can use a regular phone without having to involve a computer (there are some Skype-compatible devices supposedly coming this year that do this same job, and once those hit the market, Skype may become another suitable fax/modem medium), and in fact if you know what you’re doing (disconnect the phone company’s line into your house at the junction box, then plug in your Packet8/Vonage adapter to a phone jack instead of a phone) you can give every phone jack in your home a ring tone (very handy).

Your post goes over quite a few good ideas, too. I *love* GrandCentral Give out one phone number, and decide who gets to ring which phone line(s) when they call. Wonderful stuff Excellent post, by the way!