Yes I was having similar problems recently.

I ended up using Fring + sipgate. Which works despite a 12 second lag time. That 12 seconds applied to both calling my out of state friend as well as calling my laptop.

I hate those FIOS modem+routers, they don't seem to understand correct port forwarding and really should just be modems.

I'm currently trying to get my friend's Kubuntu install up and running. After that, I'll try giving her a call via Gizmo.

My instructions are mostly for initial set up. But I'd be more than happy to work on getting it functioning correctly for/with you, Texrat.