I move around a lot and I need to stay connected specifically I need a phone number that people can contact me with. This is particularly important because potential employers need a way to call me. Most people don't know what VoIP is and those that do seem to only know about Skype. My experience with skype has been of intentionally deceptive advertising and billing practices, terrible and extremely slow support, an awful (admittedly beta) Linux client and arguably poor voice quality. Although finding an open source SIP client such as Ekiga has proven easy and encouraging finding a good SIP provider that gives me the features that I want has been difficult. I need to be able to call people on PTSN and even more importantly I need a static phone number that people can call me on and leave a message even when I'm not logged on. What have peoples experience been with various VoIP providers and who do you prefer? Also what are your favorite clients?

check out Comcast Thanks much, Serob48

You'll need hi-speed internet. I just purchased a MagicJack. MJ provides a "home telephone" number when you get online and register. The features are good...3-way, call fwdg, voicemail, etc. Nice sound quality. This is the better answer I should have given you earlier. MJ will cost first year simply your purchase, and an extra $1.00 per year for a warranty on the physical unit. Now, let's call it $50 per year. Combine that with maybe $45/month for hi-speed from Comcast. This is about $50 per MONTH for all you need. This is HALF of what my former services added up to through my local phone company. For the following year, MJ service currently only costs $20. Amazing! Thanks much, Serob48

After reading the Wikipedia article on this particular service (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagicJack) I am certain this is not a service I want to use. In particular it is a closed non SIP based network that requires proprietary software andhardware. Although it does not mention linux I am almost certain it does not work on that platform given its proprietary nature which I specified in my original post. In fact this whole post seems somewhat disconnected to what I was looking for. This part in particular "MJ service currently only costs $20. Amazing!" makes it sound like an advertisement. Do actual people really say things like that?

How about "Thanks for trying, Serob48" instead of being completely negative. Asus M4A78-EM AMD Phenom II X2 550 @ 3.11 Patriot PC2-6400 4Gig MSI R4830 Seagate 160Gig SATA Seagate 320Gig SATA External 1T

You are right, I was awful harsh with that comment. I was frustrated because the response did not seem to be addressing my post and it sounded like an advertisement pushing a service to me which are quite common in forums. But there is no excuse for treating others badly and I am sorry for it. I went overboard in an also frustrating and too common on the internet flame. My apologies.