Bob Y

Hi, definitely check out the United Society of Baja California: it's a good networking opportunity. They meet at the Rosarito Beach Hotel on first Saturdays at 10 AM. They have various other activities, like getting to know the local restaurants (new one each month). As you may have seen, there are various other groups: Jewish, churches, charities (Red Cross, spay and neuter, etc.).

My favorite volunteer thing is the Mariachi Festival. It raises funds for the Boys and Girls Club being constructed. Festive event with fun people.

Write me for more info and to say hi. There's plenty of helpful people down here, so you never need to feel alone, that's for sure.

Saludos,

Bob

Hi, I spent a lot of hours reading posts about ViOP service and the best feedback was on Callcentric. You can get a device for your router (affordable) and bypass your computer. That means it doesn't have to be on (unlike Skype - not that Skype's bad, of course).

There are very detailed instructions on how to do this online.

You can use a regular phone that way. The only problem I've had is that there's some latency (just enough delay that you have to be aware of it so you don't talk over the other person). That might be fixable, but I haven't looked into it. There are all sorts of technical adjustments one can make that are over my head.

I'm on the 2MB Multicable plan and they haven't been squeezing the bandwidth so far. I know there were complaints in the past and some providers try to discourage VoIP and the like. So far so good. Sound quality has been great. Just can't use the phone and play Pandora at the same time. Maybe with more bandwidth. We've had it for over a month and used it quite a bit.

Enjoy,

Bob