Bad Sound Quality? My Experience May help You.

Posts: 24 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 28, 2005 Posts: 24

I have been a Vonage custmer for 9 months after ditching POTS service. For all of this time the voice quality, echoes, noise, distortion, particularly at the receiver end has been dismal. My wife has been throwing a fit and none of my friends will touch Vonage, nor Voip generally, because of what they hear when we call. Calls to Vonage over the summer-fall changed nothing. On this forum, I had been reading about firmware upgrades to the Linksys RT31P2 and how these were pushed-out automatically by Vonage when released. I decided to check my router. (Type 192.168.15.1 in your browser window; login with ID: admin and Password: admin. Look at upper right for the firmware version). The current firmware version is 1.30.01: my router was stuck on 1.28.xx. It took four calls to Vonage talking to different tech reps each time. The first promised to push out the firmware upgrade and assured me of no further problems. It never happened and he never followed up. The next sent me the upgrade file but with wrong password, then failed to call me back as promised after the connection was broken to reset the router. He didn't reply to two emails either. Very frustrating. Thankfully the last time, I got a rep who didn't treat me like an idiot, took my analysis of the problem, verified I had the right uprade file, gave me the password, waited until the firmware in my modem was upgraded, then we both wished each other a nice day. Too bad reps like him are not the norm. But this is not meant to be a rant against Vonage tech support rather to encourage you to check your router firmware version if you are having voice quality problems because you cannot rely on upgrades happening automatically.

Eric

Posts: 24 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 28, 2005 Posts: 24

I should add that after upgrading the firmware the sound quality has improved 1000% per cent. Coincidence? Anyway, my wife is now happy. Never ignore the Wife Acceptance Factor. Vonage: Are you listening?

Posts: 409 · Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 4:09 pm Post subject:

I took a look at that site http://192.168.15.1/ and mine is selected as ( remote upgrade - disabled ) hmmm now im wondering if it should be enabled?? its under administration tab

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 30, 2003 Posts: 18

You make a great observation, find the right tech. Tier one support is a call center in India. Basically - USELESS!!! These are they guys who make sure that you have modem plugged into box.

Had a problem several months ago with very bad distortion, couldn't fax (all out of the blue). Finally the tech said, must be bad ATA. Swapped out my Motorola VT1005 for a Linksys RTP300. Hooked it up, same exact problem.

Called back and insisted on tier two support. The tech worked with me for about an hour, kept pushing adjustments to the box until I had crystal clear audio and 100% faxing reliability.

About a week later found that Caller ID was not working, was getting 'NO DATA' from all calls unless I rebooted the box. Again got Tier Two support, they adjusted some voltage specification for Caller ID, problem solved.

Moral.... If you get the wrong tech support guy insist on escalating the problem.

Almost 3 years on Vonage. Only time I've been frustrated is when I get the guys who think I have no clue how to plug in the box (and I'm an IT tech!)