Comcast vs. Vonage

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 18, 2006 Posts: 3

Ok, I can access the website now - we'll see about the voicemail and outgoing calls in a bit... Hooray!

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 18, 2006 Posts: 9

I think it is quite likely that this formum is being monitored by Comcast and perhaps when they saw my posts about filing complaints with the FCC they decided to unblock access to the website. I doubt very much that this is over.

The US Senate is holding hearings on keeping the net neutral, but the broadbands are fighting it so they can legally restrict where you go and what you do on the Net. We cannot let them win this.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 18, 2006 Posts: 5

Earlier today I couldn't get onto the Vonage website, but a couple of hours later. It works like it used to. I guess your correct, they are watching this website, and are noticing that there are people getting upset and willing to push the subject as far as it needs to go.

Lets see what happens in the next couple of days.

Richard

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 19, 2006 Posts: 2

Works now too for us (Lansing, MI).

But this appears to have been a network issue. Yesterday (Saturday) when it was not working, here is the traceroute to www.vonage.com:

[eharris@insanity:~] $ traceroute www.vonage.com
traceroute to www.vonage.com (216.115.22.200), 64 hops max, 44 byte packets
1 73.41.200.1 (73.41.200.1) 15.429 ms 10.876 ms 11.637 ms
2 12.244.87.33 (12.244.87.33) 24.032 ms 11.694 ms 12.729 ms
3 12.244.65.193 (12.244.65.193) 17.321 ms 13.256 ms 11.094 ms
4 12.119.243.101 (12.119.243.101) 22.806 ms 18.641 ms 19.728 ms
5 gbr1-p20.dtrmi.ip.att.net (12.123.139.30) 128.544 ms 167.600 ms 204.833 ms
6 tbr2-p012501.dtrmi.ip.att.net (12.122.12.177) 33.244 ms 26.191 ms 25.523 ms
7 tbr2-cl18.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.10.134) 30.781 ms 27.311 ms 26.045 ms
8 ggr2-p390.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.123.6.37) 28.628 ms 24.363 ms 25.624 ms
9 att-gw.chi.gblx.net (192.205.32.126) 30.792 ms 32.378 ms 28.484 ms
10 * * Vonage-Holdings-Corp-Vonage-Toll-Free-NWRK.ge-2-3-0.403.ar1.NYC1.gblx.net (64.210.19.1 Cool

56.170 ms
11 * * *
12 * * *
13 * * *
14 *^C

Now here is the traceroute when it is working:

traceroute to www.vonage.com (216.115.22.200), 64 hops max, 44 byte packets
1 73.41.200.1 (73.41.200.1) 15.082 ms 10.418 ms 11.838 ms
2 12.244.87.33 (12.244.87.33) 15.980 ms 10.567 ms 14.291 ms
3 12.244.65.193 (12.244.65.193) 16.713 ms 11.223 ms 14.571 ms
4 12.119.243.101 (12.119.243.101) 23.041 ms 27.960 ms 17.812 ms
5 gbr1-p20.dtrmi.ip.att.net (12.123.139.30) 28.529 ms 24.470 ms 26.248 ms
6 tbr2-p012501.dtrmi.ip.att.net (12.122.12.177) 38.309 ms 25.076 ms 26.181 ms
7 tbr2-cl18.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.10.134) 40.620 ms 25.653 ms 25.957 ms
8 * ggr2-p390.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.123.6.37) 144.075 ms 172.736 ms
9 72.ATM1-0.BR3.DFW9.ALTER.NET (204.255.174.9) 55.977 ms 53.967 ms 53.298 ms
10 0.so-5-3-0.XL2.CHI2.ALTER.NET (152.63.64.5 Cool

58.240 ms 54.123 ms *
11 * 0.so-4-0-0.XL2.NYC4.ALTER.NET (152.63.123.214) 42.952 ms 44.016 ms
12 POS7-0.GW12.NYC4.ALTER.NET (152.63.22.73) 48.358 ms 46.274 ms 42.801 ms
13 vonage-nyc-gw.customer.alter.net (157.130.13.218) 51.235 ms 45.443 ms 47.885 ms
14 10.31.3.253 (10.31.3.253) 49.535 ms 44.100 ms 45.936 ms

You will notice now traffic is routing over ALTER.NET's network, not GBLX.net.

Let's hope it continues working!

Posts: 193 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 193

looks to me like att starts the prob at hop 5 then hop 8.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 19, 2006 Posts: 2

To me, it looks like the issue was between GBLX.net's Chicago and NYC router.

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 12, 2005 Posts: 18

I wonder if someone could try something.....

Do a traceroute to to where your vonage is routing through (for example, mine goes through 69.59.249.31. The first vonage hop is nycmnyzlrs1-vonage-3-2-0.wcg.net (64.200.81.154). What I would like to see is if can you ping the first vonage hop during an outage, but not the end point like you can when it works. If you cannot, then the issue is on Vonages network, and it is quite possible that there is a peering point that handles most of the people in Michigan, while other peering points handle others (each Level I and II providers have multiple peer points). Most of the traffic coming through a peering point will follow the same route.

From what I have read over the last 25+ pages looks to me to be mostly a Vonage issue as almost every traceroute gets to their network. By pinging the two locations at the same time on the route you would normally take, you can get an indiciation where the issue is happening.

Just my 2 cents, and no I do not have any issues either for or against Vonage/Comcast (though I do admit to liking Vonage quite a bit).

Here is my traceroute:
traceroute to 69.59.249.31 (69.59.249.31), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1 10.129.0.1 (10.129.0.1) 6.086 ms 9.241 ms 22.710 ms
2 rd1no-ge3-0-0-8 (64.59.142.195) 6.890 ms 7.097 ms 5.826 ms
3 rc1no-ge6-0-0 (66.163.77.5) 7.266 ms 6.823 ms 6.792 ms
4 rc1so-pos15-0 (66.163.77.9) 8.923 ms 7.895 ms 17.164 ms
5 rc1wh-pos12-0.vc.shawcable.net (66.163.76.10) 20.184 ms 20.182 ms 20.265 ms
6 rc2wt-pos7-0.wa.shawcable.net (66.163.76.154) 22.858 ms 23.323 ms 23.174 ms
7 rc1sj-pos0-0.cl.shawcable.net (66.163.77.70) 44.696 ms 43.992 ms 44.731 ms
8 rc2sj-ge2-0-0.cl.shawcable.net (66.163.67.10) 45.217 ms 45.224 ms 43.459 ms
9 sntcca1wcx1-pos3-3.wcg.net (64.200.149.5) 43.883 ms 45.777 ms 52.391 ms
10 sntcca1wcx3-pos5-0-oc192.wcg.net (64.200.149.25) 43.443 ms 44.765 ms 43.666 ms
11 dnvrco1wcx3-pos14-0.wcg.net (64.200.240.181) 67.037 ms 68.848 ms 68.561 ms
12 brvwil1wcx3-pos2-0-oc192.wcg.net (64.200.240.122) 86.515 ms 86.136 ms 85.622 ms
13 nycmny2wcx3-pos14-0-oc192.wcg.net (64.200.240.254) 97.366 ms 90.608 ms 91.373 ms
14 nycmnyzlce1-pos4-0.wcg.net (64.200.87.86) 98.244 ms 96.591 ms 97.918 ms
15 nycmnyzlrs1-vonage-3-2-0.wcg.net (64.200.81.154) 91.810 ms 97.990 ms 91.926 ms
16 * * *
17 69.59.249.31 (69.59.249.31) 96.210 ms 97.064 ms 108.483 ms

As you can see, there are two points where my ping times jump. The first jump in at hop 7 and is on Shaws network. I can call and complain about this as it is on their network. The second jump is on hop 11, and it is not on Shaws so there is nothing I can do about it other then call and ISP that I am not a customer of and will not be listened too.

Posts: 274 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 09, 2006 Posts: 274

With all due respect, guys, I think you're nuts.

Now, I'm not some Comcast sales rep. or #1 Comcast fan, but your conspiratorial assumptions strain the bounds of credulity. It wouldn't surprise me if you guys also believe that NASA faked the Moon landing and that the government is hiding aliens in Roswell, NM. Rolling Eyes

You have no verifiable, actual evidence that Comcast is intentionally doing anything, including blocking access to this web site. Talking about wild flights of paranoia and conspiracy. Jeesh.

I was having some Comcast problems not too unlike the problems you guys are experiencing, so I had a Comcast tech come out and fix a few things. We got to talking about this "great Comcast conspiracy" of Vonage blocking and all. Now, I must preface my comments by explaining that this Comcast tech emphatically recommended a person get Vonage--and NOT Comcast Digital Voice--if one was considering VoIP, because, as he said, "our srvice isn't that great."

He went on to explain that he was personally aware of the Comcast problems in the Midwest, particularly the NW Chicago area and Michigan areas. He further explained that the problems were not due to any Comcast intentionally afflicted actions. Sure, you all will retort, "Well he's a Comcast employee, what would you expect to hear from him?" Well, as I said above, he was honest about their Digital Voice service, not recommending it. If he was so biased in favor of his own company, why did we recommend against going with its VoIP and in favor of Vonage?

Posts: 102 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jul 04, 2005 Posts: 102

that comcast tech was probably a contractor and as such probably doesnt care what you do.. he will still get his money.. i bet whatever he fixed will be broke soon... contractors for comcast give comcast a bad name... and comcast knows it...

so ill turn the tables..

how do you know that what folks here have been saying is NOT true? do you have proof that there is no concpiracy? you need not cloe your mind to ideas that seem far fetched or out of reality...

people thought the folks on the jerry springer show were actors.. well some of them may well be and may wel be acting, but im sure you guys have sen "jackass" on MTV and the foolish people on american idol or american inventor?

point is dont close your mind.. people thought ENRON was a great company... that thre company would not lead you wrong... look what happend...

ok im digressing, but i can really see comcast doing this...

yeah i believe in aliens and the roswell incident... show me proof that those things DIDNT exist?

Posts: 274 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 09, 2006 Posts: 274

tronixx wrote:

that comcast tech was probably a contractor and as such probably doesnt care what you do.. he will still get his money.. i bet whatever he fixed will be broke soon... contractors for comcast give comcast a bad name... and comcast knows it...

First of all, he wasn't a contractor. He was an honest and very helpful Comcast employee who fixed my problems without charging me a dime, which he could have based on the three problems he fixed.

Quote:

so ill turn the tables..

how do you know that what folks here have been saying is NOT true? do you have proof that there is no concpiracy? you need not cloe your mind to ideas that seem far fetched or out of reality...

Now you're sounding illogically stupid. Everyone knows that one cannot prove a negative. The burden of proof lies with those who make the accusations and assertions. God, I hope you never find yourself in court or you're screwed.