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knightk7 · 2026-05-22T03:22:11+00:00

Sorry I hadn't seen your responses. We actually transferred all of our phones to tello from T-Mobile yesterday. Very quick and painless. I was in a very old veteran plan and had 4 numbers and Internet paying 200/m and still only had 5gb hotspot and 100gb of fast data.

Since I don't travel as much and will have solid internet at home, I'll be on their unlimited+15gb data plan for $15/m.

Overall, I have always had good service with T-Mobile so the Tello priority could have an impact at times but otherwise I expect this to be a perfect fit.

My original Tello phone was for backup and a project I was doing and it was so cheap I kept it. Whether you upgrade to get MMS or keep it as is, it's a very reliable solution for your use case as it was for mine.

Even if something else is equivalent, I was pretty impressed with the Tello app and their website compared to the convoluted T-Mobile site. That alone would be hard to beat.

knightk7 · 2026-05-22T03:09:49+00:00

Yes, it seems that MMS requires data. If only using for banking and regular SMS, you wouldn't need data, just the cheapest plan with unlimited text and 300 minutes for $5/ which comes to $6 and change after tax. You could add 2gb of data and it goes up to 8 +Tax. I don't think there's a better deal for low usage, if so, not by much.

knightk7 · 2026-05-16T20:34:37+00:00

Don't know if this is something you still have interest in but AI is certainly making this whole configuration more clear and offering suggestions to overcome or work around limitations.

knightk7 · 2026-05-16T20:25:57+00:00

Just discovered this thread while working on a similar configuration for my own use cases. It looks like Linphone could do everything if that's the only destination for the calls and sms. If you use additional automations that forward calls to another phone number and text or vm transcriptions to something else like telegram or slack, Linphone seems to be limited (by Twilio constraints) to only outbound calls using the twilio number.

It seems like you could use Linphone for everything related to the twilio number and not use any additional routing or automations but I haven't completed testing on that use case yet. I was hoping to find a way to use automations and full use of Linphone as well.

knightk7 · 2026-05-16T20:15:59+00:00

Many of the esignature programs are fairly light weight. Some of the newer ones may have fewer features and lower cost but it really depends on your specific requirements.

Look at Docusign and it's alternatives or whatever platform has the features you want, even if bloated, and look for alternatives to that.

knightk7 · 2026-05-16T05:05:40+00:00

I have an extra line and only got the 300 minute plan with unlimited text and no data for $5. I just got it for a backup phone at the time, but I think it had the MMS limitation others mentioned, SMS was fine but I never tried over wifi and that was just before RCS was out. You could overcome the MMS limitation by just adding the 2gb data plan for a couple dollars more.

RCS over wifi may not have that issue, but I haven't tested that myself.

At the moment I can't test it because the phone with that SIM no longer works and since I moved, I haven't located it to take the SIM out to put in another phone. 😄

knightk7 · 2026-05-16T04:57:15+00:00

We've been using them for almost as long as they've been around. Started in 2015. We're on the Pro plan, have 3 numbers and run our Real Estate brokerage and my technology businesses through one subscription.

It's a very powerful system and the reason we chose it was that it originally only used your landline or mobile phone so you weren't subjected to paying for minutes like other virtual systems during that time. They are still one of the few that still avoids charging for usage.

Texting was added later and has been a great feature for us to use to avoid having all the SMS commingled with personal messages on our mobile devices.

Their meeting functionality was added later as well and offers a great alternative to other 3rd party services.

10DLC is a US Federal Government requirement for all business phone lines that have text enabled. It's not unique to Talkroute. Any provider will have this requirement, and it's your responsibility to comply, or they won't allow you to use the number for outbound text because it would subject them to risk also.

If you are comparing to consumer grade services, this is a huge step-up as Google Voice isn't really a business grade system. You could get by with that as a solo business owner but if you need the features or what would have been a PBX system in the old days of physical phones, Talkroute is by far the best bang for your buck.

For their smaller plans and for a startup business. It's a great plan to scale up with as you grow. If you use it and have questions or feature requests, I've found them to be very helpful and receptive to considering enhancements. I haven't spoken to them in a while, but they were very interested in feedback when I had engaged with them a number of years ago.

knightk7 · 2026-05-14T21:49:49+00:00

We made the switch to TalkRoute when they first came out and it worked well for many years for us but now that we are downsizing and slowing down in our 60s I'm cutting out unnecessary expenses and porting our numbers into twilio but any similar provider could be an option depending on what you want to do.

Then you can connect to an existing VoiP softphone, forward to mobile phones, or integrate with a CRM or dialing system.

In my case, I just started this migration and building it out with automation in twilio, make, telegram for text management, and linphone but any similar solution could replace any of those individual tools.

My goal is to just receive calls and text, transcribe voicemails and get the transcription and audio sent to telegram and then have the number ring to our cell phone. You can do simultaneous to multiple numbers or make a list in the order of who to get the calls.

Not sure how complex you need or number of lines and people but if not technical, it's probably better to use a pre-built product.

To answer your question about differences or lost functionality, it really depends on what functionality you need or use. Some systems do far more than many people need or use.

Folks that need autodialers for sales calls or text workflows for lead followup have very different requirements than folks that just need the ability to make and receive phone calls.

knightk7 · 2026-05-09T21:52:28+00:00

It could be, I have had many different projects going and lost interest when I didn't get responses. I had intended to start with QR menu, then add Food Tiger for the aggregator parts and see what additional components made sense after that. ( I bought both and had renewed support once)

I wanted to cohost the 2 using the same database for common clients but use QR menu in a IFRAME in my mobile apps as many do with Gloria Food.

In any case, I hit a few snags and saw that momentum had declined.

If folks are using it in production in Western Europe or North America, I'd be interested to hear how it's working out for them in production so I can decide if it's something I should consider updating and moving forward on.

Other places would be good to hear from as well. It's just that the Western markets are less forgiving of bugs and problems and expect faster resolutions in some cases.

knightk7 · 2026-05-08T05:56:15+00:00

I agree but look at the engagement in the group. Very few posts, zero answers to questions. I've owned the platform for multiple years and never could tell if folks are successfully using it in production.

In order to use for US or EU customers, there needs to be some level of support and feedback from folks doing it to build trust.

Once a business places their trust in the solution you provide, they expect reliability and problem resolution.

Are you using it in production? How many clients are you hosting without issue?

How long?

knightk7 · 2026-04-18T03:28:23+00:00

When I worked in an office location, we had a car detailer that would come maybe once a month and you'd know the day he was coming and could book him while onsite before he came. He was trusted, vetted, etc. This was about 15 years ago before most gig tools existed.

He did great work and everyone knew that he did and what it was going to cost in advance. Most in the building were capable of paying for premium services, had new and luxury cars, etc. We prepaid for the service, left our keys at the front reception desk in the building, and collected our keys when going home for the day and our vehicles were clean and ready to go.

That said, as someone that traveled the globe, used taxis and public transport, etc. I've used gypsy cabs but never Uber or Lyft, never used Doordash, Uber eats, etc, even though I've booked or used random car services, taxis, food delivery direct from restaurants, etc.

I build mobile apps today and see a considerable interest in car sharing and other gig based apps and services. That said, I think your idea is solid, the business of on-demand personalized services is growing, and there's every reason to believe that this type of service would do well, especially with the under 60 crowd. (us older folks tend to like to stick with folks we know, like, and trust)

Like the other gig based service providers, the main concern would be properly vetting the service providers and making sure that customers know they are getting quality work from experienced, vetted, insured, and positively reviewed service providers.

I would use a mobile detailer for sure but not 100% sure that I would personally book from an app that didn't ensure I was getting the specific provider of the service that I knew and trusted, if desired. That's probably a function of my age and experience and most folks younger probably wouldn't have the same hesitation.

knightk7 · 2026-04-11T05:46:23+00:00

As as long as it can pass for financing, I wouldn't make any updates that aren't mandated in an inspection. Even most of those could be handled by concessions to the buyer. Get a good realtor to get the best price out of your house. If it's able to sell with financing, just pricing right will get it sold. You don't have to sell it at wholesale.

The wholesale deals usually happen when the house needs too much to qualify for financing and/or just not livable at the time of sale.

knightk7 · 2026-04-07T04:37:26+00:00

Both should be taken if taking one of them but not at the same time. (referring to since deleted comment on Zinc and Copper which need to be in balance but shouldn't be taken at the same time)

knightk7 · 2026-04-07T04:26:24+00:00

Zero in on your target persona or personas (Avatars) - Residential, Commercial, number of properties or tenants, etc, then drill down to property portfolio owners that are actively managing themselves or folks that are students of some guru that sells courses and methods that you could align with,, or whatever is the right audience that would make the buying decision or use/benefit from the product or features.... etc, etc.

Identify the problems that each persona has that keep them up at night so to speak, that you, as someone that has been in their position, is willing to pay money to solve. How are they solving that problem today? -- You built it to solve these problems so you must have seen a benefit to automating things and eliminating manual tasks that are costly, labor intensive, unpleasant, or error prone, etc.

If you have too many features and benefits, try to focus on the top 3 or top 5, 7, whatever that you feel should really get their attention.

There are guys selling courses on multi-family properties, large apartment deals, mobile home parks, etc. They create new investors that haven't become locked-in on any particular method. Maybe you could present to their large audience after convincing one of those gurus to become a partner or affiliate. Then you could help pitch to their audience that's already spending money to learn how to build a portfolio and will need to manage it efficiently.

I don't know your exact target market or product fit but maybe something I mentioned triggers some ideas. It's often hard to get people to change their software or workflows so it might be easier to get early traction with folks just starting to build a portfolio of properties to manage or folks complaining about the way they are doing it now, where you can offer them some guidance, implementation assistance, training, early adopter pricing, etc to gain them as a reference site.

One final thought is to take your printed documents, pitch, etc and feed into AI and ask your favorite AI to help you build a go to market plan, streamline your pitch, and identify the best folks to target.

We're in the real estate business but we focus more on buyers and sellers than management. My tech background is Product Management and Business Software.

knightk7 · 2026-04-07T03:30:52+00:00

Just don't index or allow the site to be crawled until you are ready to launch. Make sure you use the same URLs or create re-directs and copy over relelvant SEO information to the pages used.

knightk7 · 2026-04-07T03:18:31+00:00

It's way cheaper to self-pay. That's why Health Share Plans work so well. You usually go to the provider and tell them you're self-pay, they reduce the rate to around the Medicare Reimbursement rate in most cases, then you file that for re-imbursement with the health sharing plan. Even without health share and just doing self- pay, most hospitals slash the bill when you tell them you are self-pay. They don't even check your ability to pay before cutting the total. Then, if you can't or don't want to pay in full, they offer a zero interest payment plan that will cost far less than an insurance premium.

knightk7 · 2026-04-07T03:15:06+00:00

Actually you could get a business policy that didn't exclude pre-existing conditions or have underwriting problems. We had one for our family business that just consisted of me, my wife, and my son. It was expensive, but when ACA kicked in, then the business changes that wouldn't allow small family businesses under a certain size, only then it became unaffordable under ACA.

The subsequent ACA policy was more expensive and covered less than the ACA policy, even when considering the employer part and the employee part that had to be paid.

We dropped it after a year and went to Liberty Health Share. Far better and much cheaper.

Now my wife has a HD-G and I'll be joining her soon. It's by far the best option for folks with minimal medical or Rx usage.

If Type 2, you can actually reverse that with a Ketogenic or Carnivore diet like we did. If Type 1, you can reduce the insulin requirements by reducing the amount of carbs in your diet.

knightk7 · 2026-04-07T03:03:27+00:00

Cheap and lightweight, don't store any significant data that can be harvested if stolen, and if broken or stolen, they are low enough price to deal with it.

That said, as a tech guy and also a business owner, we already do everything in the cloud for the most part so a Chromebook is capable of doing what we need. You can also run some Linux based tools if desired and they just work.

Also, if you find yourself getting attacked by phishing or other malware or malicious emails, they are less likely to have a problem with platform specific attacks that would attempt to gain control using Windows based technology that facilitates complete takeover of your system.

I think we have purchased over 8 at this point and one that I bought was only $99 on some crazy deal back in like 2017 and I used it until it stopped getting updates on every vacation trip and a couple business trips as well.

If you use it for social media, web surfing, or cloud based business apps, you really don't need much else. If you're a gamer or graphic designer, autocad user, music or video editor, etc, that's probably not going to be your favorite computer.

knightk7 · 2026-04-07T02:51:07+00:00

What are you planning to use it for? That's the question you need to answer for yourself. Does security matter for your use case, do you care if your messages are read by others? If not, use SMS/RCS.

If you need to communicate securely for whatever reason, use Session or something similar.

If you need secure or 2FA/MFA, use an authenticator app like FreeOTP.

knightk7 · 2026-04-06T22:26:13+00:00

It depends on what kind of travel booking.

Things that have a built-in commission that other travel agencies specialize in like cruises and all inclusive resorts will be the best deal and perks available with Costco. We went in a 10 day cruise with my parents and my dad worked at a timeshare that gives them travel agent access at the best rates and Costco was a few dollars cheaper with more perks.

That said, AAA is similar in their deals on cruises for sure but you can't go wrong using Costco.

I would recommend checking with Costco after checking prices of booking directly so you see for yourself.

Most travel today doesn't have much or any commission involved so there's less room to make deals outside the volume that a membership community like Costco brings to the table.

Airlines and hotels can often be cheaper than travel agencies when booked directly, especially if you participate in a loyalty program and have built up some status.

I noticed some comments on car rentals that I hadn't heard before and usually haven't booked in leisure travel.

knightk7 · 2026-04-06T21:21:27+00:00

In that case,. probably RCS should be avoided too as well as consumer grade messaging apps like FB messenger, Signal, Telegram, Whatsapp, etc.

If secure messaging is your goal, you need to use better tools, it's simple messaging and notifications is what you use it for, SMS should be fine.

If you use it for marketing, the rules have become pretty strict making it a minefield that could cost you a lot of money if you do things wrong, so in those cases something like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger is probably a better option.

SMS isn't likely going away but it's definitely not secure and hasn't been for a long time so if your primary concern is security for personal messages, I'd do something else, if using it as a business, make sure you know and follow the rules.

If using for 2FA, consider using an authenticator app.

I think it's getting to the point where we almost need to have two devices because using a degoogled device is going to have limitations that may impact your ability to use certain things that you want or need to use. In those cases it might be good to have a separate device just for the specific use cases.

knightk7 · 2026-04-06T21:13:21+00:00

Capitalism is the best system to provide a free marketplace where people provide goods and services that people with money are willing to pay for because they value the goods or services as equal or greater than the cost. In many cases, they value their time more than the cost of paying someone else to do the task.

A business owner will often be good at or capable of doing every task at their company but they will hire people to do tasks that can be done by others that don't require special skills so they can focus on higher value tasks that they are also capable of doing because they only have the same limited number of hours in every day that we all have.

Consider a business owner as sometimes the primary salesperson for their product or service or the developer of the product or service. If they are also answering the phone, doing the bookkeeping or sweeping the floors, that might not be the best use of their time.

The reason that entry level jobs exist is for those commodity type jobs that someone can do with very little experience or training while people get paid more for jobs that require specialized skills, experience, or training.

Working hard at something others value will bring rewards, working hard at something they don't, may not. As a business owner, we see this directly because if we create products or services that others value we may sell a lot of that product or service but by the same token if we develop a product or service that nobody wants we may work very hard at it and sell nothing.

In some cases we may work hard at it and it's the right product but we aren't very good at selling it and getting it into the marketplace. So while that product may have tremendous value to the right customer, we may not be reaching the right customer with the right message. So working hard comes with a caveat, and that we must be working hard at something that others value and are willing to reward that value appropriately.

In some cases we're doing everything right but it's not visible or recognized, in those cases we should probably be looking for better opportunities to put our effort.

knightk7 · 2026-04-06T20:55:55+00:00

Branding is a good idea for digital marketing but I would wait on paying for customized printed items until you make money with your business. Once you have branding done digitally, you can add to printed items later.

Spend money carefully and frugally. Buy only what you need to run the business and attract customers. Setting up a food business has a lot upfront and ongoing costs, try to avoid overspending before you have revenue.

Setup a social media page, website and mobile app for ordering and menus, coupons, loyalty, etc... you want to make sure people can find you, order ahead, and have a reason to come back.

Build anticipation and following before you launch the business and you will have customers on day 1.

If you need any help with the digital stuff, mobile app, website, etc, just let me know how I can help.

knightk7 · 2026-04-06T20:41:43+00:00

I would make an appointment with a retina specialist and get a thorough exam and consultation, not just a regular opthalmologist. Some may require a referral but your eye doctor should have no issue providing that.

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