Another Comcast customer havin Vonage problems

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

I have been having intermittent Vonage call quality issues. Today 2/21/2006 have been more serious than most but multiple times I have not been able to carry on a conversation due to lost packets and choppy audio. Sometimes the remote end audio is choppy but more often the remote audio is fine but my outbound audio is choppy.

Here's the information you requested:

1. Your location

Naperville, IL

2. Your ISP name and type (cable, DSL, wireless etc)

Comcast cable modem

3. Upload and download speeds

Here's what the modem is reporting:

Downstream -> 6600000 bps
Upstream -> 384000 bps

4. Modem make and model

Linksys BEFCMU10 v2

5. Type of Vonage adapter used ie RT31P2 or PAP2

PAP2

6. Setup of Network ie Modem---->Vonage Adapter-->PC

Modem->Linksys BEFSR81 Port 1 with QoS enabled->PAP2
Modem->Linksys BEFSR81 Port 2 no QoS->Linksys BEFW11S4->PC network

Yes, PC network is double firewalled. PAP2 is on the first subnet. The rest of the network is on the other.

7. Issue you are experiencing ie dropped calls, choppy audio etc

Extreme choppy audio to the point of being unusable.

8. DETAILED results from www.testyourvoip.com with a test call to Boston.

TO Boston

MOS 3.7
Codec 0.58 38.9%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.90 61.1%
Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%

Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps, 20ms RTP payload, 80kbps IP BW)

Round Trip Latency 140ms

Packet Discards 2.8%

Packet Loss 0.0%

Loss Periods Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 40 ms
Random Loss

Jitter Min: 0 ms
Avg: 8 ms
Max: 45 ms

Post-dial delay 78ms
Call setup 94ms
Media delay 234ms

FROM Boston

TO Boston

MOS 4.4
Codec 0.57 38.9%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.02 3.2%
Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%

Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps, 20ms RTP payload, 80kbps IP BW)

Round Trip Latency 140ms

Packet Discards 0.1%

Packet Loss 0.0%

Loss Periods Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 20 ms
Random Loss

Jitter Min: 4 ms
Avg: 6 ms
Max: 27 ms

Post-dial delay 118ms
Call setup 119ms
Media delay 152ms

Tracing route to vonage.com [216.115.22.200]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 12 ms 14 ms 13 ms 68.86.119.65
3 16 ms 14 ms 16 ms 68.87.230.105
4 13 ms 14 ms 14 ms 68.87.230.250
5 18 ms 21 ms 16 ms 12.125.194.9
6 16 ms 24 ms 19 ms tbr2-p012001.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.4.230]
7 17 ms 35 ms 16 ms ggr2-p3120.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.6.69]
8 17 ms 15 ms 19 ms att-gw.chi.gblx.net [192.205.32.126]
9 40 ms 40 ms 44 ms Vonage-Holdings-Corp-Vonage-Toll-Free-NWRK.ge-2-
3-0.403.ar1.NYC1.gblx.net [64.210.19.18]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 39 ms 44 ms 45 ms 216.115.22.200

Tracing route to vonage.com [216.115.22.200]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 17 ms 30 ms 14 ms 68.86.119.65
3 15 ms 13 ms 24 ms 68.87.230.105
4 15 ms 14 ms 15 ms 68.87.230.250
5 17 ms 22 ms 18 ms 12.125.194.9
6 18 ms 16 ms 17 ms tbr2-p012001.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.4.230]
7 15 ms 16 ms 18 ms ggr2-p3120.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.6.69]
8 45 ms 29 ms 17 ms att-gw.chi.gblx.net [192.205.32.126]
9 40 ms 41 ms 76 ms Vonage-Holdings-Corp-Vonage-Toll-Free-NWRK.ge-2-
3-0.403.ar1.NYC1.gblx.net [64.210.19.18]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 40 ms 38 ms 42 ms 216.115.22.200

A ping throughout the day was showing from 33%-60% packet loss. I am not seeing this now. This problem seems more prevalent during the daytime hours though I have seen choppy audio at night. A ping to other sites during the same interval appeared fine.

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

Let me also add that throughout the day today access to secure.vonage.com has been horrible to completely timing out.

So far Comcast will not acknowlege the problem. However, I have found the first-tier support almost impossible! Why on earth would "clearing my cookies" have anything to do with selective bandwidth issues?

Don't worry...I already know the answer!!!

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

Results of the Vonage Voip speed test (I'm not seeing problems now):

My Results
Download 2,645,264 bps
Upload 362,456 bps
QOS 87%
RTT 43 ms
MaxPause 61 ms

Let me repeat that the worst of these problems always seem to occur (or mostly anyway) during daytime hours.

Posts: 63 · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:46 pm Post subject:

BigDaveB wrote:

Let me repeat that the worst of these problems always seem to occur (or mostly anyway) during daytime hours.

My bet is these a-holes at Comcast are on union time. ****? This has happened at least three times in the last two weeks. I get angry calls from home that our internet (and hence, phone service) is down, yet when I get home everything is working fine. Comcast tech is either oblivious to the problem or flat-out lying about it when I ask them. My only conclusion is that these pricks are doing some network upgrade and because of union contracts, they have to do this right in the middle of the day instead of say, 2:30am? ****???

Posts: 47

Good Morning,

I live in SE Michigan and use Vonage with Comcast. I have a PAP2 device and started having major quality problems about 3 weeks ago.I ended up calling Vonage and having my firmware updated to the newest revision. That was last week and since then it has been great!

Just a suggestion in case you have not tried that yet.

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

djcman wrote:

Good Morning,

I live in SE Michigan and use Vonage with Comcast. I have a PAP2 device and started having major quality problems about 3 weeks ago.I ended up calling Vonage and having my firmware updated to the newest revision. That was last week and since then it has been great!

Just a suggestion in case you have not tried that yet.

It's now 9:30 am here and the problem is back again. I'm having problems accessing secure.vonage.com again as well.

I suppose it's worth checking but I don't see how this has anything to do with firmware:

Pinging vonage.com [216.115.22.200] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=58ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=108
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=108
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=108
Request timed out.
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=54ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=108
Request timed out.
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=108
Request timed out.
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=108
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=72ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=49ms TTL=108
Reply from 216.115.22.200: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=108

Ping statistics for 216.115.22.200:
Packets: Sent = 41, Received = 32, Lost = 9 (21% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 41ms, Maximum = 72ms, Average = 36ms

Tracing route to vonage.com [216.115.22.200]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 12 ms 14 ms 13 ms 68.86.119.65
3 13 ms 14 ms 14 ms 68.87.230.105
4 13 ms 14 ms 15 ms 68.87.230.250
5 15 ms 16 ms 31 ms 12.125.194.9
6 30 ms 18 ms 17 ms tbr2-p012001.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.4.230]
7 16 ms 14 ms 16 ms ggr2-p3120.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.6.69]
8 19 ms 16 ms 19 ms att-gw.chi.gblx.net [192.205.32.126]
9 49 ms 46 ms 47 ms Vonage-Holdings-Corp-Vonage-Toll-Free-NWRK.ge-2-3-0.403.ar1.NYC1.gblx.net [64.210.19.18]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 46 ms * * 216.115.22.200
12 49 ms * 47 ms 216.115.22.200

Trace complete.

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

Ok, so I'm not imagining things! Another "service outage" announcement for Comcast and the Midwest area, lost packets in the 22%-25% range (better than yesterday), problems accessing the secure.vonage.com web site, though I was able to place a local call earlier without the problems I saw yesterday of being completely unusable.

Can I safely assume that one or both parties are trying to resolve this issue or should I assume the normal finger-pointing tactics across corporate boundaries?

Either someone is messing with the network during the day, or business bandwidth on the same backbone is swamping the network. Any bets on the politics of Voip packet priority?

I fully understand not to expect POTS reliability, but this is pretty frustrating!

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

Oh...and for a chuckle about Comcast's first-tier support...they asked me to plug my modem into the wall socket instead of my battery backup!

These guys are a riot! Lol

Posts: 409 · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:02 pm Post subject:

Having major phone disconnections here BigDave. I'm able to access all Vonage websites. My tests are coming back normal.. Just a phone disconnection issue here ...

Unlike last time there was a Comcast Service issue announcement.. I had all those issues your having now.

Im not calling anyone on this issue as they want to fiddle around with my router settings and that usually just snowballs my issues into a big mess.

Im gonna ride this one out but keep checking back in on your status..

Posts: 533 · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:35 pm Post subject:

BigDaveB wrote:

Oh...and for a chuckle about Comcast's first-tier support...they asked me to plug my modem into the wall socket instead of my battery backup!

These guys are a riot! Lol

Hey, it's on their script, that's all they know.

1. Clear your cookies (regardless of the issue).
2. Reboot your computer.
3. Format your harddrive.
4. Goto 1.