I haven't read through this entire thread, but I did see quite a few positive comments about Majic Jack. I've had mine for over a year (before they introduced the ability to get a 352 area code - I have a 407). I have been thrilled with it at times, and very disappointed with it other times. I have had some periodic garbling making it sound like you are underwater (needing to redial maybe a few times to get a better connection), frequent need to reboot the computer to get dial tone, and I always have to wait what seems like a long time to get dial tone. And I get a little annoyed that I have to leave the computer on 24x7 to have phone service. However, when it does work, it's great. And we have cells as back-ups anyway.
I have heard about a device that costs around $200 that plugs directly into your internet and needs no computer to gat you phone service. It's called Ooma. I am considering that as an alternate to the Majic Jack.
Here's a link:
http://www.ooma.com/