Vonage VoIP Forum Digest, February 1, 2007

February 1, 2007

By Daniel Connor

Welcome to today's edition of the Vonage Voip Forum Digest. 

In the news, we'll hit a prominent mention and brief description of Vonage's Wi-Fi phone. We'll go to this Vonage Forum thread about a router setting issue that seems to be affecting one Vonage Forum Member's Vonage service, as well as a specific question about recording Vonage calls. We'll also check in on Vonage's stock price.

In The News

Magazine Reviews Vonage's UTStarcom F1000

Peter Jacobson of trade publication Information Week is out with an article reviewing several Wi-Fi phones, including Vonage's.

"Like Skype, Vonage also offers a Wi-Fi phone, but just one model: the UTStarcom F1000 (list price: $130)," he writes. But the company says it expects to certify and release a number of additional devices in 2007. The F1000 works in very much the same way as other devices; the Vonage software is embedded into the device itself, and it connects to the service via an available Wi-Fi network.

Then Jacobson added this detail which many of you readers probably already know:

"Vonage currently offers unlimited local and long distance calling for $25 a month."

So let's check and see what types of questions Vonage customers who are also Vonage Forum Members are asking in the Vonage Voip Forum.

On The Vonage Voip Forum

New Vonage Forum Member PurpleDee may be turning a bit purple in regards to the problem he describes in a Vonage Forum thread he has opened and has entitled, IP conflict with VT2142.

"I have just received my connection package containing a Motorola VT2142," he writes. "I currently have a LAN already set up in my home. It has one free port on the Linksys router so this is where i want to install my VT2142.

Next, PurpleDee describes his problem is that the green power light quickly becomes a red flashing power light when he connects down-line from his router.

"If I connect my VT2142 directly to my modem, my phone works fine," he explains. "But then my Internet to the entire network goes out completely."

Then PurpleDee explains his findings so far.

"On looking through the technical help in the PDF files that are downloadable from the Vonage website, I found that the connection address to configure the VT2142 is 192.168.15.1," he writes.

"This is exactly the same as I use to connect to my Router. It also uses 192.168.15.1," PurpleDee points out. "This leads me to think that the problem I have is an address conflict. Any idea how to resolve this?"

This question draws the interest of fellow Vonage Forum Member jayson.

"You are exactly correct," jayson writes in response to PurpleDee's conclusions. "This is happening because WAN and LAN of VT2142 are sharing the same IP."

Next, jayson tells PurpleDee what to do:

"Here is the fix: connect the computer to LAN and power to 2142.Type 192.168.15.1 in a browser and log in to the router with the same as user name and password. Go to setup->lan configuration and change the IPs there to some other network i.e..,192.168.20.1.. and it should work," he writes.

"Note: If you have any difficulties doing this change your network's ip to something like 192.168.20.1..," adds jayson.

Every once in a while, we get questions about how best to record Vonage calls. Let me say first that you will most likely need the other person's permission to do so. But here's an interesting variety of that question I don't see too often. This question comes in the form of a Vonage Forum thread entitled, How to record V-Phone Vonage conversations?? The thread was begun by Vonage Forum Member kevinmoore.

"Does anyone know of any FREE software that I can use to record Vonage V-Phone or regular Vonage phone conversations on my computer?," asks kevinmoore.

Veteran Vonage Forum Member vonalink suggests two such programs.

"Free programs are Wireshark (previously known as Ethereal) and Cain," he answers.

Hey, Dan here. I can't endorse or not endorse any of these programs, so I suggest you Google both and see what the developers and even some users are saying about them. Of course you can also start a Vonage Forum thread (hint, hint) asking our Members if they have experience with either.

Vonage Stock Report

On Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, Vonage stock closed at $5.68 a share, which was a dip of 19 cents  from Tuesday's closing price of $5.87 a share, but then again it was two cents higher than the day's lowest price for Vonage stock, and that was $5.66 a share. Total Vonage shares traded on Wednesday were calculated as 1,064,900 shares.

Once again, our Vonage Stock Forum can be reached from this link. 

We've Updated Our VoIP Speed Test

The fact that rt31p2 some calls not coming thru - which was one of the two Vonage Forum threads we highlighted today- featured a Vonage Forum Member posting the results of his Voip Speed Test gives me another reason to call your attention to our upgraded Voip Speed Test.

Instead of the simple upload/download test, this one has all the reporting that is needed to diagnose ISP issues such as Jitter and Packet Loss.

The advanced report screen has been configured with a "Copy to Clip Board" button so you can easily paste the results in the forums.

I would like to thank the following members for giving valuable input during the beta testing: reebok, Steve48, NateHoy, VonageTPA, Trowski and scerruti.

For those of you that are interested in the details behind the results, the following are the tests parameters:

The test is located in Washington DC.

The data.bin file for the speed test upload/download is 10Mb with 8 seconds max time out.

75,000 bytes is used to calculate the number of supported Voip lines.

Other variables:

Voip lines simulated =1
Voip bytes per packet =8
Voip simulation seconds =10
Voip packets per second =75

If you have any questions about this test, feel free to post them in this thread.