Comcast vs. Vonage

Posts: 159 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Aug 05, 2005 Posts: 159

Seems to have been corrected again. Took awhile.

Posts: 44 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 21, 2006 Posts: 44

Ping statistics for 216.115.22.200:
Packets: Sent = 60, Received = 55, Lost = 5 (8% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 42ms, Maximum = 61ms, Average = 43ms

Posts: 159 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Aug 05, 2005 Posts: 159

Yeah, still seeing about 5-8% packet loss myself but much better than the 50% I was seeing all morning.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 06, 2006 Posts: 1

I live in Atlanta, and have had Comcast and Vonage for over a year now. After about 3 months, I began having issues with Vonage - words would get cut off, there would be pauses where either side couldn't hear the other, etc.

It turned out to be the Comcast modem I had been given. Comcast was upgrading their service at the time to 6mbps instead of 3 or 4, and had to change the frequency of the data being sent and received for that to take affect.

The modem I had (I believe it was a Panasonic) couldn't handle the change. Comcast came out, switched my modem out to a Motorola, and I haven't had problems since.

Give Comcast a call and find out whether or not the rate has changed on your internet connection, and if it has, find out if the modem you currently use is compatable with that change.

Posts: 76 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 76

I'm at a client site today and I decided to run a ping test using their T1 to Vonage just to see if there is any issue outside of the Comcast network. In the two ping tests I ran for about 5 minutes a piece I was getting between 13 to 15% packet loss to Vonage on a dedicated T1 line. Tracert completes in 9 hops but hop 8 comes back as a request timed out.

Hope this helps give a small point of reference. I'm a Comcast and Vonage user in Illinois (just outside of Chicago) and have had very few problems. Not sure if I'm just lucky or what. I'm not trying to defend Comcast or Vonage in any way but I find it interesting that I am getting packet loss from a non-Comcast connection.

Also, the post above about the modem is a good one. If the modem you are using is not on Comcast's approved list, it may "work", it just may not work as good as it should. With Comcast continually increasing their speeds, you have to have a modem that can grow and accomdate with those changes or you are asking for trouble.

Posts: 159 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Aug 05, 2005 Posts: 159

The last hop between AT&T and Vonage through Comcast has been better this afternoon but not great.

Posts: 76 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 76

Just ran a ping test from home on the Comcast line:

744 packets sent - 743 Received - 1 lost
Min round trip - 33ms - Max round trip - 87ms - average 36ms

Two trace routes completed in 12 hops, both with the first hop timing out.

Vonage VoIP test:
Download 7,019,360 bps
Upload 371,896 bps
QOS 36%
RTT 33 ms
MaxPause 436 ms

Test You Voip website:
3.9 to San Jose
3.5 to Montreal
3.5 to Boston
3.6 to London
3.6 to Sydney

Just some more data. All this was run while my company laptop was VPN'ed into the main office, my wifes company laptop was VPN'ed into her main office and I was doing some sporadic downloads during the ping test.

Posts: 2135 · Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:28 am Post subject:

cid92 wrote:

...both with the first hop timing out.

Which will always happen if you are using a Linksys router, as they are not pingable.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 07, 2006 Posts: 10

kpdillon wrote:

Seems to have been corrected again. Took awhile.

What is this picture measuring, and where can I get the app that makes it? It looks like a useful tool.

I have Comcast and Vonage, have had choppy audio on the upload side (others have told me that my calls are choppy and broken up). Today I called and after a few attempts to speak to a real person, actually did. They said they set my bandwidth to 90 Kbps (synchronous, I assume) and rate of packetization to either 15 or10.

The 1st person said 15, the 2nd person said 10. Is there a way I can check this? My router doesn't display QoS settings.

I'm sure it's not the bandwidth; tracert's and ping tests come through clean, and I have plenty of bandwidth to support multiple 90Kbps data streams.

Posts: 76 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 76

dconnor wrote:

cid92 wrote:

...both with the first hop timing out.

Which will always happen if you are using a Linksys router, as they are not pingable.

I don't use a Linksys router though. My setup goes:

Comcast --> SonicWall Soho 3 --> Netgear switch --> computers, PAP2, WRT54G

I ran the tests from a desktop that is connected to the switch. EIther way, the stats came back with good results.