If you have just gotten Cable Phone you need
to Activate
your Phone before you can begin using it.
What is Mid-Hudson Cable Phone?
If you have a Mid-Hudson High Speed broadband
Internet connection, Mid-Hudson Cable Phone is a service
you can use to make Internet phone calls at significant
savings over analog calling. You can call anyone or any
phone number. Use your Mid-Hudson Cable Phone line as you
would use any other phone.
Mid-Hudson Cable Phone sends
your phone call across the Internet, your calls go through
your Mid-Hudson Cable Modem, and your Mid-Hudson Cable
phone adapter splits your high-speed broadband Internet
connection. This means that your Internet connection should
work as it did before you installed the Mid-Hudson Cable
phone adapter—sending e-mails and
other web data to your personal computer — while
your phone calls are sent through your phone adapter to
your regular or cordless phone. Most analog phones can
be used with Mid-Hudson Cable Phone service. Typically,
household phones are analog. Corded or cordless telephones
work exceptionally well.
Your Mid-Hudson Cable Phone Service
works independently from you computer, so your computer
does not need to be turned on.
Cable Phone keeps it simple
One Simple plan: Unlimited nationwide calling in the Continental United States and Canada, voice-mail,
and all the popular features that come with a standard phone
with no extra costs.
Simple Savings: Save up $15 every month when you
subscribe to the All the Right Connections Package including;
Basic Cable, High Speed Internet Access and Cable Phone.
Simple to Switch: Keep
your same number* with no switching fees or interruptions in
service.
*In most cases your current number can be ported depending on
your current carrier.
Simple to Use: Mid-Hudson Cable Phone works with
your current phones and jacks.
Start Talking Today: With Mid-Hudson Cable Phone
there are no long-term contracts and you can try it out risk-free!
Sign up for as low as $29.95 per month or less when combined
with other great Mid-Hudson Cable services.
Installation:
Installing and activating your Mid-Hudson Cable
Phone account is quick and easy. Your Cable Phone unit will have
an installation guide and configuration guide with step by step
instructions on activating your phone. As with any computer or
network device, not every system is the same and may require
procedures that differ from the default procedures. Don’t
worry—our Cable Phone Customer Service Department will
give you the help you need to get your account up and running
in no time.
Standard Installation
The standard installation procedure assumes that
you have a high-speed Internet connection, a home router or gateway
to share your Internet connection and to interconnect your PC
and Cable Phone, and DHCP running on your network (most home
routers do this). First install the Broadband Phone Adapter (ATA).
After installing the ATA, activate your Mid-Hudson Cable Phone
account. You will need your 10-digit activation code. This can
be found on your account web page by logging in to your account.
Enter the MAC address located on the ATA adapter and click on "E-mail
me a new password". Get password from e-mail then return
to login page. Login with your MAC address and new password used
to create the account in the account login section. You must
agree to the Terms and Conditions and read the important 911
information which will appear. Reboot the unit by unplugging
the power cable and plug it back in. Unit should take approximately
30 seconds to a minute to configure and reboot. At this point
you may pick up your telephone handset and hear a dial tone.
The first call you should make should be to set up your voice-mail.
To access your voice-mail from your cable phone dial your phone
number. When prompted with a voice-mail recording press the star
(*) button on your phone keypad. You will then be prompted to
enter your password which is your 11 digit Cable Phone number
(ex: 1-518-555-5555). You will then be instructed to change your
password and record your greeting messages.
Reminder: Visit Mid-Hudson
Cable Phone Support for all your questions about your Mid-Hudson
Cable Phone service or call our Cable Phone help desk at 1-518-943-6600
option 4, then option 2.
Mid-Hudson Cable Phone uses VOIP (Voice Over Internet
Protocol) technology to allow you to make and receive phone calls
through your High-Speed Internet connection using a standard
touch-tone phone. Cable Phone provides the same quality as traditional
phone service, but you receive more features and pay far less
for calls to the Continental United States and Canada and around the world.
To use Mid-Hudson Cable Phone service, the only requirement is
a high-quality Mid-Hudson broadband connection.
What is Broadband?
Broadband and high-speed Internet connections provide
very fast Internet access sufficient to carry multiple voice,
video, and/or data transmissions simultaneously. Mid-Hudson’s
High Speed Internet Access is up to 3 to 5 times faster than DSL and
up to 70 times faster than a dial-up connection to the Internet.
What
is a Router?
A router is a network device that manages the distribution
of data to and from multiple devices on that network. You may
already have a router attached between your Mid-Hudson Cable
Modem and a PC. If you do not have a router in your home please
let us know at the time you call for Cable Phone, we have an
adapter which will enable you to hook up your Cable Phone unit
without a router.
911
Mid-Hudson Cable Phone system supports E911 in Columbia, Greene and Albany counties. As always, you need to remember that VOIP service is
dependent
on power, internet and many other factors and it should not be considered used or relied upon as a life line.
E911 provides the local 911 dispatch center full name and location of the call.
Cable Phone Customers are encouraged to verify their 911 is working once they have set it up. When the dispatcher answers (911 what is your emergency...) they should immediately say "no emergency I would just like to verify my information". If there are active emergencies the dispatcher may tell the Cable Phone customer to call back.
Features
Keep Your Existing Phone Number
Add Multiple Phone
Numbers To Your Account
Take It With You
Call Forwarding (*72)
Deactivating Call Forwarding (*73)
Call Forwarding When Busy (*90)
Deactivating Call Forwarding When Busy (*91)
Call Forwarding When No Answer (*92)
Deactivating Call Forwarding When No Answer (*93)
Automatic Call Return (*69)
Do Not Disturb (*78)
Deactivating Do Not Disturb (*79)
Call Waiting (*57)
Disable Call Waiting (*56)
Caller ID
Call Redial (*07)
3-Way Calling - Anywhere, Any Time,
Easy
Virtual Phone Number
Choose Your Area Code
Fax Service
Dial 411 For Information
Voice-mail
Keep Your Existing Phone Number (in most cases)
In most cases, there’s no need to give
up your phone number just because you change phone companies.
Mid-Hudson Cable Phone offers you the option of keeping your
phone number in most cases. Just sign up and select the option
to keep your existing phone number, and we'll send you the
simple steps to start the transfer process. You can also transfer
your number later if you want to try out your Mid-Hudson Cable
Phone service first.
Transferring your number will take a minimum
of twenty business days once you start the transfer process.
During the number transfer process, we will provide you with
a temporary number so that you can begin to use our service immediately.
Then, when your number is transferred, we'll inform you and your
number will be transferred automatically.
If for any reason
Mid-Hudson Cable Phone cannot transfer your number, you may choose
to get a new Mid-Hudson Cable Phone number in your area or elsewhere,
or you may decide to keep your existing phone line with minimal
service and add a Mid-Hudson Cable Phone number to save on outgoing
calls.
Add Multiple Phone Numbers To Your Account
Now, you'll be able to see all of your calls on one convenient
bill. Mid-Hudson Cable Phone allows you to add multiple phone
numbers to your account. Have fax lines, toll-free numbers, and
virtual phone numbers on any Mid-Hudson Cable Phone account.
Call Forwarding
Call Forwarding is available. You can send incoming calls to
any phone number you choose in the contiguous 48 States and Canada (excluding Alaska, Hawaii & Puerto Rico).
And it's FREE!
IMPORTANT: Call Forwarding is free with all Mid-Hudson
Cable Phone however; please remember that each forwarded call
is treated as an outgoing call.
To setup call forwarding, Log
into your Cable Phone account, enable forward all calls & enter
in forward unreachable box. You can Forward All Calls When Your
Phone is Unreachable, by enabling it in the control panel. By
enabling this feature if you connection goes down, all calls
will be forwarded to an alternate number you provide, such as
a cell phone.
Automatic Call Return
Automatic Call Return returns your last incoming
call automatically, whether or not the call was answered. Just
dial *69 and your Mid-Hudson Cable Phone service will dial back
the last call made to you. There are No Extra Charges for *69
Automatic Call Return! There are no extra charges to use the
Automatic Call Return feature; however, returned calls are treated
just like any outgoing call.
Call Waiting
The days of busy signals are over. Call
Waiting allows you to accept an incoming call when you're already
on the phone. This feature places your first call on hold while
you answer the incoming call. You’ll never miss a phone
call again.
While you're on the phone, a beep tone alerts you
to another incoming call. If available, the phone number of the
caller will also display on your Caller ID device. If you want
to take the call, press the flash button or switch hook on your
phone to answer the second incoming call while the first party
is placed on hold. (Calls that you do not answer will go to your
voice-mail.) Press the flash button or switch hook again to reconnect
to the original party, and hold the waiting party. You can continue
to alternate between parties as often as you’d like. It’s
like having two lines while paying for only one.
Call Waiting ID allows your phone to display the
number of another caller while you are on the phone. Call Waiting
must be enabled for Call Waiting ID to display. This feature
requires that you have a telephone with built-in Caller ID capability
and a display or an external Caller ID box with a display.
Call
Waiting is FREE with your monthly calling plan fee.
3-Way Calling
- Anywhere, Any Time, Easy
Create a conference call between yourself
and two other parties instantly, without any special equipment,
even when your phone does not have a conference button.
It’s this easy:
Dial your first party as you normally
would.
Once connected with the first party, press the
Flash Button or Switch Hook on your phone.
Listen for a dial
tone, and then dial the second party.
After the second party
is connected, press the Flash Button or Switch Hook again,
and you're all connected.
To end the conference, simply hang
up. If you have Flash Call Transfer, the conference does not
end when you hang up since the callers are transferred together.
COSTS: There will be NO extra fee for making a 3-Way Call. 3-Way
calling is recorded as two separate phone calls made from your
account at the same time. Calling within the contiguous 48 States and Canada (excluding Alaska, Hawaii & Puerto Rico),
both calls are FREE. If you are calling internationally, your
call will be billed based on the rates for those countries. See
our International Rates.
Virtual Phone Number
A Virtual Phone Number is a
second number that rings to a primary Mid-Hudson Cable Phone
line. A Virtual Phone Number is a way for people outside your
local calling area to call you for the price of a local call,
if you choose a virtual phone number in their local calling area.
Whether they're across the country, your family and friends can
call you like you're right next door when they use another VOIP
phone.
Virtual Phone Numbers can be from most area codes
in the U.S., thereby providing enormous savings to people phoning
you from that selected area code. Just as your primary Mid-Hudson
Cable Phone number does not need to be tied to your actual geographical
location, virtual phone numbers can be taken out from any of
your friends’, family’s, or business contacts' local
area codes.
All you pay is the small monthly fee for the Virtual Phone Number,
just $4.99 per month with a $9.95 activation fee. International
fees may be applicable.
For businesses, in addition to saving their customers
and potential customers money by permitting them to make a call
to a number in their local area code, Virtual Phone Numbers allow
the businesses to show a local presence in a geographic area
without physically residing there.
Virtual Phone Numbers are
for incoming calls only, so they ring to your primary Mid-Hudson
Cable Phone line. In the same way that you can have more than
one e-mail address point to the same e-mail account, you can
have more than one Mid-Hudson Cable Phone number link to your
Mid-Hudson Cable Phone primary number. Behind the scenes, the
Mid-Hudson Cable Phone Call Routing Network points your Virtual
Phone Number calls to your primary line.
Sign up for a Virtual
Phone Number through your web account online. Just click on “Add
a Virtual Phone Number" from the "Features" link
and pick the area code of your choice from the selections available.
Choose
Your Area Code
You live in New York, but all your friends live
in California? No problem! You can have a California number.
With Mid-Hudson Cable Phone, you are no longer tied to your local
area code. You can select any area you want from our list. This
means that wherever you live, you can request a rate center that
is local to those who call you the most.
This feature allows you to choose a phone number
from any of the available rate centers, regardless of where your
phone will be physically located. There can be many rate centers
within one area code. With Mid-Hudson Cable Phone, rate center
selection does not affect your calling rates. When you make calls
from your account, all calls within the Continental United States,
and Canada are included with your flat-rate service. Your area
code and phone number is only used for inbound calls. This feature
is always FREE of extra charge.
Fax Service
Mid-Hudson Cable Phone Business or Residential
customers can get a dedicated fax line for a one-time $9.95 activation
fee and then the monthly charge is just $29.95 with a residential
account. Faxes many be made to the contiguous 48 States and Canada (excluding Alaska, Hawaii & Puerto Rico) on the basic
plan without additional charge. Outgoing international faxes
are billed at our regular low International rates.
Just add a Mid-Hudson Cable Phone dedicated fax line, plug your
fax machine into line 2 of the phone adapter, and begin sending
and receiving faxes. Mid-Hudson Cable Phone fax lines work with
all brands of fax machines.
With a dedicated fax line, it’s easy
to keep track of outgoing faxes since those calls are separate
from all others. This allows you to check your fax activity
online, anytime, anywhere.
Important Faxing Information
Many Cable Phone members enjoy using Mid-Hudson's service for small and home office needs - including faxing.
Feedback from our members has revealed that many members do not know that faxing is available with Cable Phone today. However, faxing via any Internet phone service provider can be a bit of a challenge. The service provider must convert the fax transmissions into an Internet format, send them out, and translate them back at the other end. These complex hand-shakes make for a challenging transaction. This article contains some valuable tips on faxing with Cable Phone.
What to look for in a fax machine
The vast majority of current consumer grade fax machines and the increasingly popular all-in-one printer/fax/scanner machines available via national retailers provide a consistent level of service. Look for Fax Transmission Speeds described in terms like "G3 compatible", "sends 1 page per 6 seconds" or "modem speed at 9,600 bps or 14,400 bps" (sometimes shown as 14.4k bps). If your fax machine package indicates this level of performance, you should be in good shape to fax via Cable Phone. Remember, your fax reliability may vary depending on the speed of your broadband connection.
Avoid Super G3 speed
There is another fax speed out there called Super G3. Most consumer grade faxes don't offer Super G3 speed. Fax machines supporting Super G3 are most typically found in a corporate business environment. While sometimes a fax in Super G3 mode will go through using Cable Phone service, longer faxes are more likely to have some sort of transmission problem, and we cannot guarantee reliable operation of Super G3 fax transmissions.
Some more technical speak and what the future holds
Mid-Hudson wants you to have the best service quality possible. To accomplish this, we use the G.711 VoIP format to send both our voice and fax calls. G.711 is the closest format to the traditional telephone network and needs 80-90 kbps to operate which broadband easily supports. In addition, Cable Phone supports the protocol T.38 for fax. This protocol was developed by Cisco Systems in the late 1990's and has become the industry standard for fax. Unfortunately, when you make a fax call using Cable Phone, a combination of VoIP and traditional telephone companies may be involved to get your call to it's destination, thus if the service provider you're calling doesn't support T.38 we're back to using G.711 (which everyone supports).
Mid-Hudson is looking to make fax work all the time with any fax machine and be as fast as possible. To improve fax, Mid-Hudson is challenging our equipment vendors and other service providers to work with us and make all kinds of calling, including fax, easier and more reliable for you.
Dial 411 For Information
Dial 411 with Mid-Hudson
Cable Phone and connect with National Directory Assistance and
Reverse Directory Assistance public operators to check telephone
numbers, addresses, and reverse lookup service across the nation
for access to any listings in the contiguous 48 States and Canada (excluding Alaska, Hawaii & Puerto Rico). Reverse search
features allow you to get phone numbers by address or addresses
by phone number. You can easily expand the geographic area of
your search, and you don’t
have to provide the operator with perfect spellings either. Operators
can even assist you with partial of incorrect spellings when
you aren’t sure.
Operators are bilingual (English and Spanish). Each
dialed 411 calls cost just $1.25.
Voice-mail
With Mid-Hudson Cable Phone, now you can
get your messages by phone or e-mail. You can easily retrieve
the messages anywhere, anytime—at home, in the office,
on the road, or on your computer via e-mail.
Mid-Hudson Cable Phone voice-mail is a service that allows callers
to leave messages when you are not available, or when you simply
choose not to answer your phone. You can record your own outgoing
message so that when calls are routed to your voice-mail, callers
will hear your voice-mail greeting and have the option to leave
a message.
With Mid-Hudson Cable Phone voice-mail, you
can check your voice-mails by phone with several access numbers
across the contiguous 48 States and Canada (excluding Alaska, Hawaii & Puerto Rico). To hear your messages
from a phone, dial your phone number or, for your convenience,
we offer an 800 number. Out of the area? Simply dial your phone
number and pin. Better yet, you can check your messages without
checking your phone. Access your voice-mails through your web
account and play them back through your computer. Mid-Hudson
Cable Phone can also send you an e-mail notifying you every
time you receive voice-mail and even attach the actual message.
You’ll be able to forward
voice-mails to others as an e-mail attachment or save them to
your PC’s hard drive. Most of the popular media player
formats are supported.
All of these voice-mail features can be turned on or off anytime
you want. Activate e-mail notification at the touch of a button.
Record scheduled greetings for different hours of the day and
different days of the year. Choose a new PIN for voice-mail access
whenever you want.
Setting up a Mid-Hudson voice-mail is easy and it’s Free,
it’s included with your monthly plan.
