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Park your number with a voip firm. You'll get SMS via email. Use local pay-per-use sims wherever you travel. You do not need to maintain a US phone plan to keep

Park your number with a voip firm. You'll get SMS via email. Use local pay-per-use sims wherever you travel. You do not need to maintain a US phone plan to keep a US phone number.

mderazon 3y ago
Any recommended ones?
- smallerfish 3y ago
  Recommend is a strong word since their UI is stuck in the pre-2010s, but voip.ms is cheap and generally good service. And Acrobits Softphone is a reliable SIP dialer for Android which is very light on battery life.
NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
Most MFA implementations will balk as soon as they discover you're on VoIP. And they will.
- delecti 3y ago
  Yup, I've got my 2005 phone number on VOIP, but I've got to keep a "normal" number for things like that. https://xkcd.com/1129/ https://xkcd.com/1129/
- thfuran 3y ago
  I was on Google voice for years and occasionally had something refuse to send verification texts to it, but I don't think I've had that problem since I switched to voip.ms
  - crossroadsguy 3y ago
    I lost my Google voice number after I eventually couldn’t find a cheap temporary place where I could use a US number to keep alive my Google Voice number.
    - jdeibele 3y ago
      You can pay $20 to Google to own a number. When we disconnected our landline, I replaced it with a Google Voice number connected to our wireless phone setup. It gets very little use now but is nice for automated calls from the school telling us a kid was late, schools are closed because of snow, etc.
      - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
        You paid Google? Why'd you pay Google $20? That's $20 more than my number cost me. I mean, other than all the ads, engagement, and PII. I signed up for my number in 2015, with a landline, because I had just purchased an Android tablet, with no SIM slot or mobile plan, so I decided that teh Goog was the best bet for VoIP for me. You've got to guard your conversations on Voice, and don't mention forbidden keywords. Voice will instantly disconnect the call if it detects wrongthink.
        jdeibele 3y ago
        I now "own" that number and can port it out of Google if I wanted to. That was important to me in case they ever decide to shut down Google Voice. I don't see how Google makes money on Google Voice, which makes wary of them shutting it down some day.
        _rs 3y ago
        Any articles or sources for Voice disconnecting calls? I've never experienced this
rsync 3y ago
No, park your 2FA number on a 2FA mule[1] and forward the sms anywhere you like. This solves the “voip number” problem. [1] https://kozubik.com/items/2famule/ https://kozubik.com/items/2famule/
- smallerfish 3y ago
  2fa mule? Kagi isn't finding anything for that term.
  - J_cst 3y ago
    It means "to a dumb second phone that you'd use only for 2 factor authentication"
  - rsync 3y ago
    2FA Mule: https://kozubik.com/items/2famule/ https://kozubik.com/items/2famule/
- j1elo 3y ago
  It's been 2 years since I read your initial comment on using an SMS mule [1], and I'm curious how's it going, you know, that phone you have plugged in at your office in a corner :) No battery swelling? I copied the idea and did the same, it's essentially free of cost to do so where I live, thanks to having operators that offer a pay-what-you-use tier with no fixed monthly cost. The line is just to act as a 2FA mule, so it means it costs nothing (save causing any kind of expense once every 6 months, but sending a single SMS does it, so I guess it actually costs something like 20cts per year) Apart from the SMS Forwarder app [2] you suggested, an HN commenter [3] provided links to some FOSS alternative which I didn't get to try but should work fine and is ad-free. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28251107 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28251107 [2]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frzinapps.smsforward https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frzinapps.... [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29711030 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29711030
  - justsomehnguy 3y ago
yosito 3y ago
Twilio and a lot of other providers for SMS seem to block voip numbers.

Park your number with a voip firm. You'll get SMS via email. Use local pay-per-use sims wherever you travel. You do not need to maintain a US phone plan to keep a US phone number.

mderazon 3y ago

Any recommended ones?

smallerfish 3y ago
Recommend is a strong word since their UI is stuck in the pre-2010s, but voip.ms is cheap and generally good service. And Acrobits Softphone is a reliable SIP dialer for Android which is very light on battery life.

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago

Most MFA implementations will balk as soon as they discover you're on VoIP. And they will.

delecti 3y ago
Yup, I've got my 2005 phone number on VOIP, but I've got to keep a "normal" number for things like that. https://xkcd.com/1129/ https://xkcd.com/1129/
thfuran 3y ago
I was on Google voice for years and occasionally had something refuse to send verification texts to it, but I don't think I've had that problem since I switched to voip.ms
- crossroadsguy 3y ago
  I lost my Google voice number after I eventually couldn’t find a cheap temporary place where I could use a US number to keep alive my Google Voice number.
  - jdeibele 3y ago
    You can pay $20 to Google to own a number. When we disconnected our landline, I replaced it with a Google Voice number connected to our wireless phone setup. It gets very little use now but is nice for automated calls from the school telling us a kid was late, schools are closed because of snow, etc.
    - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
      You paid Google? Why'd you pay Google $20? That's $20 more than my number cost me. I mean, other than all the ads, engagement, and PII. I signed up for my number in 2015, with a landline, because I had just purchased an Android tablet, with no SIM slot or mobile plan, so I decided that teh Goog was the best bet for VoIP for me. You've got to guard your conversations on Voice, and don't mention forbidden keywords. Voice will instantly disconnect the call if it detects wrongthink.
      - jdeibele 3y ago
        I now "own" that number and can port it out of Google if I wanted to. That was important to me in case they ever decide to shut down Google Voice. I don't see how Google makes money on Google Voice, which makes wary of them shutting it down some day.
      - _rs 3y ago
        Any articles or sources for Voice disconnecting calls? I've never experienced this

rsync 3y ago

No, park your 2FA number on a 2FA mule[1] and forward the sms anywhere you like. This solves the “voip number” problem. [1] https://kozubik.com/items/2famule/ https://kozubik.com/items/2famule/

smallerfish 3y ago
2fa mule? Kagi isn't finding anything for that term.
- J_cst 3y ago
  It means "to a dumb second phone that you'd use only for 2 factor authentication"
- rsync 3y ago
  2FA Mule: https://kozubik.com/items/2famule/ https://kozubik.com/items/2famule/
j1elo 3y ago
It's been 2 years since I read your initial comment on using an SMS mule [1], and I'm curious how's it going, you know, that phone you have plugged in at your office in a corner :) No battery swelling? I copied the idea and did the same, it's essentially free of cost to do so where I live, thanks to having operators that offer a pay-what-you-use tier with no fixed monthly cost. The line is just to act as a 2FA mule, so it means it costs nothing (save causing any kind of expense once every 6 months, but sending a single SMS does it, so I guess it actually costs something like 20cts per year) Apart from the SMS Forwarder app [2] you suggested, an HN commenter [3] provided links to some FOSS alternative which I didn't get to try but should work fine and is ad-free. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28251107 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28251107 [2]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frzinapps.smsforward https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frzinapps.... [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29711030 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29711030
- justsomehnguy 3y ago

yosito 3y ago

Twilio and a lot of other providers for SMS seem to block voip numbers.