Skype and Positively Outrageous Service
Having a second telephone line brought into the house (I work remotely) is crucial if you want to stay sane. I used to have a business line come to the house, but the big problem with business lines is that there are no call blocking features like you get on residential.
So the phone rings constantly with telemarketers. The residential line gets *none*, due to the cool anonymous call blocking features.
So finally I decided to cancel the line and go with Skype. I've used Skype for a while to talk to my family in Australia (they immigrated there from England) because of course it's free!
Now Skype has the ability to work as a real phone line too, with their SkypeOut and SkypeIn (beta) services. So far, I'm impressed. I just topped up my SkypeOut with $10 and it removes 1.7c for every minute that you are on the phone to a 'real' non-Skype phone.
SkypeIn (beta) is a flat fee of 30 Euros a year, and includes voicemail too. You get to choose a local number; mine is 678-608-3321 (very easy to remember with lots of repeated numbers) - but don't bother calling yet because I completely emptied my office and started over at the weekend. Of the dozens of peripherals attached to my PC, Skype is one of the last to be plugged in.
Why? I'm waiting for a new VOIP device to make Skype work with my cordless phone. I used to have one of the cheap-n-nasty PC2TEL devices from Rota which was ok up to a point, but wouldnt make my phone ring, and I couldn't just pick up the phone to start a Skype call. Better than nothing... just.
Now I have ordered a VTA1000 VOIP Gateway from www.pcphoneline.com, which promises to solve those problems. It should allow me to use Skype literally just like a regular phone. I'll keep you posted..
P.S. An update on 1-877-DOZ-DOGS; my phone started ringing. Most people hang up when they call though, so I guess they're just seeing how the www.gotvmail.com service works. Realize that I'm using none of their fancy features - it's just a toll-free number redirect to me. At OurLittleNet I used a lot more features such as setting up different extensions and departments.
I did get one person brave enough to talk to me; Serge called just to say Hi and was surprised that I picked it up "after hours". All part of the Positively Outrageous Service Serge.. 
..but don't buy a copy. I have 3 spare copies here and will send one to anyone who asks, together with one of my awesome mugs. Just tell me what is your favorite business-related book and why - and your street address.
I'll go first; these books changed my business life: