Comcast vs. Vonage

Posts: 409 · Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:39 pm Post subject:

High packet loss here in MI. Dropped calls back.....

Posts: 409 · Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:58 pm Post subject:

maryjane wrote:

High packet loss here in MI. Dropped calls back.....

Just not working out with my ips and vonage. Maybe in the future things will be better with vonage, I cannot continue to keep a service that is not working.
My isp is working, My vonage is not. what does one do?
Once they all have it figured out I might give em another try in the future.

Best Regards

Posts: 5 · Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:21 pm Post subject: Info for Comcast

I'm trying not to get sucked too far into this process, but wanted to compile some sort of data to provide to Comcast when I try to get them to come out and check whatever they can check to see if they can improve my (and hopefully your) service.

I work on a Mac so I can't use PingPlotter, but did find a very useful utility similar to PP named Virtual Route (a great utility I might add and suggest it to all those on the Mac OS X platform). Here are my two reports for two sampling periods today covering about a half hour for the first and the second that lasted about 15 min. The red bars indicate 100% packet loss. Each plot was 5 sec so that means that in the instance when there are 3 bars the person on the other end couldn't hear me for close to 15 seconds! I had no downloads running, just a few computers running email and websurfing. BUT, this happens even when all computers are off! As you can see, it happens so frequently that it interferes with just about every phone call.

I apologize if the image size extends the width of the post table... I tried to shrink it enough so you can see the info but stay small in width.

Is this basically all I need to furnish Comast to prove that there are problems with their service?

BTW, I'm have 3 Macs (1-2 are wireless at any given time), Linksys WRTP54G running the latest firmware, Motorola Surfboard SB5120 and a recently purchased Hawking HBB1.

Thanks and keep the post alive, hopefully it will do some good!

Posts: 26 · Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:30 pm Post subject:

I never seem to be here when you guys are having a problem, but I have not experienced any problems since vonage has quit putting their service announcement on their web page.

In a nut shell, my problems exactly coincide with the service announcements so far.

Sorry I can't be of any help.

Posts: 63 · Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 5:21 pm Post subject:

maryjane wrote:

High packet loss here in MI. Dropped calls back.....

Maryjane, there seems to be a lot of problems with Comcast in Michigan. See this story from Broadband Reports: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/72627

I have also signed up for 24/7 line monitoring on dslreports.com to try to root out some of these issues. I'm trying to isolate whether my problems with Comcast/Vonage are due to general issues at Comcast, issues specific to Vonage, or an issue specific to Vonage over Comcast.

I am struck by the amount of news about net neutrality in the last few weeks, with recent op/eds in the Wall Street Journal being the most recent that I've seen. In a way, I think this Comcat vs. Vonage thread sort of woke people up to this emerging issue. There are some very good arguments on both sides of the issue. I also saw an interesting article talking about what average user bandwidth usage is today and what it may be if high-def TV ever gets rolled out over the Net. http://telephonyonline.com/iptv/news/BellSouth_VOD_costs_030706/

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 11

Shakedown wrote:

Is this basically all I need to furnish Comast to prove that there are problems with their service?

This shows packet loss and latency end to end. It is unclear if the problem is on your provider, inside another provider or at the end point based on data like this and ping plotter.... What you should do is traceroutes to help identify the real point of loss.

Visualroute has a traceroute function that you can run continuous and see the variation at each hop.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 11

Generally pings do not isolate where the loss or latency problem is. They only tell you there may be a problem. Before blaming a provider or Vonage, one should use the trace in http://www.visualroute.com/ or tracert to help isolate the issue.

Below is an example of an overseas traceroute. You can see where there is increase latency due to distance (speed of light). If you notice increase latency or loss (column 2) this will help you identify the specific source, provider or destination issue. NOTE: This is not an exact science as routers have to respond to ICMP ping vs just passing it through. i.e. small loss at a router does not always mean packet loss through the router.

Posts: 409 · Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 7:59 pm Post subject:

rdstoll wrote:

maryjane wrote:

High packet loss here in MI. Dropped calls back.....

Maryjane, there seems to be a lot of problems with Comcast in Michigan. See this story from Broadband Reports: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/72627

I have also signed up for 24/7 line monitoring on dslreports.com to try to root out some of these issues. I'm trying to isolate whether my problems with Comcast/Vonage are due to general issues at Comcast, issues specific to Vonage, or an issue specific to Vonage over Comcast.

I am struck by the amount of news about net neutrality in the last few weeks, with recent op/eds in the Wall Street Journal being the most recent that I've seen. In a way, I think this Comcat vs. Vonage thread sort of woke people up to this emerging issue. There are some very good arguments on both sides of the issue. I also saw an interesting article talking about what average user bandwidth usage is today and what it may be if high-def TV ever gets rolled out over the Net. http://telephonyonline.com/iptv/news/BellSouth_VOD_costs_030706/

Thanks for that info. rdstoll,
I feel like I'm stuck running in circles with this issue.
So now I just go by the facts.
1.Granted Comcast might be having isp issues it does not affect my downloading, browsing ect..
2. My phone service is useless, when each call gets dropped.
3. Its an on again off again issue using temp. fixes to my router.
4. renders my phone unreliable.
What would you do?
My options are this
1. Cancel out my vonage.
2. Cancel out my cable. ( with no other provider in my aera)
3. Keep my vonage and cable and pay out the arse for my cell phone bill in hopes a maricle fix happens some time soon.
4. Sign on to my cable companies higher priced voip/digital phone service.
5. Go back to expensive land line fees and get raped on taxes.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 8:05 pm Post subject:

Downloading & web browsing are totally different than VoIP. They have time to re-send dropped packets, and the packets can come in clumps without adversely affecting your browsing. With VoIP, you're sending a continuous stream of packets which must be delivered properly. From the graphs Shakedown posted, it's a Comcast issue...and cancelling Vonage won't fix it. With that type of packet loss, you're going to have problems with any VoIP provider, possibly even Comcast's own depending on where they keep their servers.

Posts: 409 · Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 8:11 pm Post subject:

VonageTPA wrote:

Downloading & web browsing are totally different than VoIP. They have time to re-send dropped packets, and the packets can come in clumps without adversely affecting your browsing. With VoIP, you're sending a continuous stream of packets which must be delivered properly. From the graphs Shakedown posted, it's a Comcast issue...and cancelling Vonage won't fix it. With that type of packet loss, you're going to have problems with any VoIP provider, possibly even Comcast's own depending on where they keep their servers.

Ok understood.

So im just out of luck.