Vonage VoIP Forum Digest - April 23, 2007

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April 23, 2007

By Daniel Connor

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

Vonage news is a little light today so we will go straight to the Forums where members discuss on the upload speed of Vonage. Finally we will conclude with the Vonage stock price update.

In The Vonage VoIP Forum

On the Vonage VoIP Forum, a new member, KevinPWDW begins a thread titled, ‘How much upload speed does Vonage use?’

He puts his question as, “I ran the tests and I consistently get approx 4.5MB D/L & 450kb Upload. BUT as soon as I'm on the phone, my DL speed will stay the same but my Upload will go all the way down into the 100-150 range. Is this normal? If not, what can I do to change it?”

He adds, “Reason I ask is that I play alot of games online and don't want it sucking up anymore bandwidth than it should. Below is my setup: Motorola Surfboard SB4100 (it's not 2.0 but it's worked for many years) Linksys router RT31P2 (supplied by Vonage) 1 computer & Xbox 360 hooked directly into router. Tests were done with no P2P, Xbox or anything else running. Just done while using/not using the cordless phone I have plugged into the router.”

Ghazal, a Vonage Member Associate replies, “Vonage required minimum of 90 kbps upload/download speed but you should have at least 180 kbps of stable connection to make it work, your Modem DOCSIS version should be also at least V2.0 so you will not to have the audio issues some Vonage customer have ! hope that will help.” KevinPWDW, following Ghazals reply says, “I don't have any audio issues at all. I just was wondering what the normal "drop" in upload speed was when using the phone. Seems like 300kb is a lot.”

Natehoy is always a helpful member and even this time he replied to KevinPWDW by providing useful links as usual. He said, “Hmm, no that's not normal. There may be some issue with the QoS engine on your RT31P2. You might want to try disabling QoS on the RT31P2 temporarily to see if it makes a difference. A little primer on QoS: http://vonage.nmhoy.net/qos.html In your case, the RT31P2 may be picking a slower upload speed than your connection really supports. When there are no high-priority packets, it may not do any throttling of the rest of your bandwidth, but when the Vonage line is in use it may be underestimating the remaining available bandwidth.”

He adds, “PS: Just for clarity. I have (measured) 200kbps of upload speed, running on a DOCSIS 1.0 modem. Vonage (in the standard 90kbps quality setting) takes up just about 90-95 kbps upstream bandwidth on my connection. I can assure you that you do NOT need more than the 90kbps, plus maybe another 10kbps for overhead, for a stable Vonage experience. You also do not need a DOCSIS 2.0 modem. It may improve things with your actual connection (if your ISP does not support DOCSIS 1.0 or 1.0 well any more), but it isn't necessary for Vonage.”

He concludes, “If your bandwidth tests show a good MOS score, DOCSIS is irrelevant. My Vonage line is as clear as a landline, and always has been (once I upgraded to a non-Vonage router due to the QoS issues I mention in my article). One thing you may need is a router that can do a decent job at QoS. The Linksys WRT54GL is my personal favorite, others around here like the StreamEngine-based automatic VoIP accelerators like the Hawking HBB1”. Melisam78 has posted several problems earlier and also got them solved by the other members.

There is another thread that melisam78 begins titles, “I am REALLY upset. I have Internet connection (cable through new wave communications) and my internet connection has been going fine ALL night long but I've been without phone for THREE hours now!! I'm getting really upset. I have a family member in the hospital who could pass away any minute and NO ONE CAN GET THROUGH TO ME ON MY LINE!!! what the hell is going on here? This has been going on for about two weeks now, my phone service just drops out and stays out for HOURS at a time, and it happens DAILY. I have been with vonage for years (took a break while I moved) but the past month has been really bad service. I completely understand the court case etc... but why the bad service? there was no bad service before the case started!! I have an RTP300 router I'm on High speed cable connection. I have unplugged everything and given it a rest, and I have even unscrewed the coaxle from the modem to let it rest, and still no service. is anyone else having this problem???”

This was posted on Saturday but there is no reply yet. She might still be in search of a solution. Hence immediate replies from the other members are expected and would be appreciated.

Vonage Stock Report

On Friday, at the New York stock Exchange, Vonage’s stock closed at $2.99 per share which is a dip of 0.01 cent (-0.33%) from Thursday’s closing price of $3.00 a share. The day’s lowest price was $2.95 and the total number of Vonage shares traded was 1,864,700.

Once again our Vonage Forum can be reached through vonage-forum.com/forum15.html">this link.

That's what's hot about Vonage today. Check with us tomorrow for our next edition of the Vonage VoIP Forum Digest.