A few questions

[arkaf]

I hope I am posting in the right place. I have a few questions that will probably sound completely ignorant, but in this case I really am ignorant. I just downloaded the desktop version for windows today and I"m not even sure if this is what I'm looking for or even if it will work for what I need.
The reason why I was looking for something like this other than the fact that I could talk to my daughter living away from us was so I can have a phone number that I can give to a few friends on the internet instead of my home phone.
Mostly it will be used for international incoming calls. I don't plan to call much and specially outside Canada. But I have this one friend from back home that I haven't seen for over 30 years. 30 years is a long time and I am not really sure if I want to give her my home phone number or not hence the idea to look for something like this.
Anyway I was reading everything in a hurry this morning when I downloaded the desktop version and I thought I understood everything completely but now I am not sure anymore:) Here's my questions:
1. I understood that this service is free to make calls within certain areas in Canada. What I need to know is: is it also free to receive ( not make ) oversea ( Portugal ) calls?
2. I read about porting ( not sure if I understood that too well) or forwarding. I would like to be able to receive the calls made to my number from this desktop version in my home phone as opposed to use headphones and mike connected to the computer ( it's really difficult to reach the back where I have the connections ) . Is this possible and what is the best solution porting or forwarding?
3.I have read about routers in here and there seems to be some problems with some routers. Now I only know how to work on the computer itself - sorry I'm an old lady -, usually leave the rest to my husband. I do know my computer is connected by wireless and that we are on a home network ( 3 computers ) and yes we do have a router as well as a sign enhancer (?) I think because my computer is on the 3rd floor and the modem on the basement which was giving me trouble to connect to the internet. What router? I think cysco or linksys? Should I expect problems?
4. I have antivirus and firewall on this computer, and if I'm not mistaken the router has a firewall of its own, is there anything I need to do for the phone connection to come trough? ( see I told you I'm really not knowledgeable about this things )
5. As I said, this was the first time I heard about this site and this forum, and I don't know much of how these things work. But it seemed to be the solution of my problem to have my old friend calling me without offending her by refusing to give her my home phone number( I'm a bit paranoid over giving specific info over the internet, blame it on my age , really ). So I would really appreciate if someone could answer my questions.
I apologize if I should have posted this somewhere else in the forum but general questions seemed the most appropriate place to post.
Thank you

[FONGO_steve]

Hi arkaf,

I've done my best to answer your questions below:

1. I understood that this service is free to make calls within certain areas in Canada. What I need to know is: is it also free to receive ( not make ) oversea ( Portugal ) calls?

Receiving calls on our numbers is just like receiving a call on any normal mobile or fixed line telephone service. You won't pay to receive the call and the person calling you will only pay if they're making a long distance call. I.e. if they're calling you from Portugal then they'll still pay the same long distance rates that they would pay to call your home or mobile from Portugual.

2. I read about porting ( not sure if I understood that too well) or forwarding. I would like to be able to receive the calls made to my number from this desktop version in my home phone as opposed to use headphones and mike connected to the computer ( it's really difficult to reach the back where I have the connections ) . Is this possible and what is the best solution porting or forwarding?

Porting involves transferring your existing phone number over to our service. If you just want to use your number that we assigned you as a home phone and not transfer your existing phone number then you can do that as well. We offer the Fongo home phone service which includes a telephone adapter to use a normal telephone handset through our service.

3.I have read about routers in here and there seems to be some problems with some routers. Now I only know how to work on the computer itself - sorry I'm an old lady -, usually leave the rest to my husband. I do know my computer is connected by wireless and that we are on a home network ( 3 computers ) and yes we do have a router as well as a sign enhancer (?) I think because my computer is on the 3rd floor and the modem on the basement which was giving me trouble to connect to the internet. What router? I think cysco or linksys? Should I expect problems?

If the desktop softphone is working great on your computer, then I don't suspect you'll encounter any issues with using the analog telephone adapter either. If by chance you do, we have a great community of technical users here who I'm sure can lend some tips with your router. By the way, what router model do you have?

4. I have antivirus and firewall on this computer, and if I'm not mistaken the router has a firewall of its own, is there anything I need to do for the phone connection to come trough? ( see I told you I'm really not knowledgeable about this things )

Antivirus shouldn't affect the software phone, but the firewall might. If the firewall gives you problems (calls won't connect, or are missing audio) then set the firewall to open ports 5060 and 10000-20000.

[dibsmft]

I guess, since you have already downloaded the PC app, your best bet is to configure the app with username and password and see if you can call your home phone and vice versa. If that works then you are all set to accept and make calls.
I can make and accept calls using my rather old laptop via Wifi (wireless) connection. You should be able to forward incoming calls to your home phone but to make outgoing calls you will need to use a microphone and headphones if you computer built in sound system is no better than mine. Good luck .... I am not so young either!

[Jake]

I don't want to throw too many options at you, but as long as your home number is in the list of free calling areas and it seems that all you really want is for a few people to call the number; then don't turn on the desktop app but instead log into your online account and change the setting to always forward calls to your home number.

What this will do is when you receive a call to your new Fongo number the system will forward this to your home phone number.

If you ever want to make outgoing calls through this new number, then you will have to start up the desktop app and use that.

[arkaf]

Thank you so much for all the answers I now have a better idea.
I haven't used it for any calls yet, so I'm not sure if it's working or if I need to check the ports in the firewall I'll check later when I come from work.
Oh I just read the two other responses. Thank you dibsmft and jake. That would be exactly what I will want to do. I am going to log in and set it to always forward to my home number. Thank you.