Vonage to Vonage call quality

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 4

I have two apartments, both on Charter Pipeline. I have two vonage accounts at either side. Both work perfectly all the time EXCEPT when they try to call each other, then ONE of my lines cuts out. I have tried changing the bandwidth saver to 30... no avail. I've tried different combinations of Voice QOS on RT13P2 even as low as 70 and it still is garbage. Again, one way is fine, the other way isn't. All outside calls from both lines are perfect. Tried calling vonage, and after 17 minutes of waiting it said that some customers are having trouble getting through to customer service and then forwarded me right back to the main menu.

I'm at a loss. I love my vonage lines and don't want to get rid of them, but if I can't call between these two apartments then I have to switch service. Any ideas?

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

Given that the phones are working perfectly except when they talk to one another, I doubt that anyone except customer service can help you. Are you able to determine whether the problem also occurs with calls to other Vonage lines?

As an absolute, out and out shot in the dark, do you have call forwarding or network outage numbers set the same for both? If so, I'd be curious whether changing that made any difference.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 4

Only one line has network outage forwarding on. I disabled this and it makes no difference. I don't know anyone else that has vonage. What is the lowest "safe" Voice QoS setting on the 30kbps bandwidth saver to make sure that it's nothing happening there?

I tried calling vonage cust. help and waited for 7 minutes before getting the exact same message as before.

Do you think that vonage-to-vonage calls override the bandwidth saver option?

Posts: 33 · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:22 pm Post subject: Vonage to Vonage calls

Do you have cable or DSL? Are the appartments in the same building? If they are in the same building, are bouth routers on the same drop?

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:18 pm Post subject:

Vonage to Vonage calls bypass the bandwidth saver, so they're running the full 90kbps for BOTH connections. If you only have a 128kbit pipe up, it's not going to fit.

Posts: 17 · Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:27 am Post subject:

I recently read a topic about a similar situation on another board (can't find it anymore), but it had to do with the provider limiting types of connections within their own network, usually within the same building or within close proximity. Perhaps try giving your provider a call and explain the situation?

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 4

VonageTPA wrote:

Vonage to Vonage calls bypass the bandwidth saver, so they're running the full 90kbps for BOTH connections. If you only have a 128kbit pipe up, it's not going to fit.

Man, that's what I thought. I have 256k up, but the neighborhood around that apartment has lots of connections to charter (monopoly provider) and I get bad network stress during peak hours in the evening (when this problem is the worst). Like I said the bandwidth saver option helped a great deal when talking to other lines, so I guess I thought it would work vonage-to-vonage as well.

I disabled voice QoS altogether and turned off the computers and it seemed to help a little. Is there anyway I can change or get vonage to change what speed it usages with vonage-to-vonage? I called Charter and they're looking to upgrade the lines in my area but that's going to be another 6+ months.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 4

baudfather wrote:

I recently read a topic about a similar situation on another board (can't find it anymore), but it had to do with the provider limiting types of connections within their own network, usually within the same building or within close proximity. Perhaps try giving your provider a call and explain the situation?

Both apartments are on Charter pipeline, but they're in completely different cities, about 100 miles away so I wouldn't explicitly consider them close proximity.

Posts: 276 · Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:41 am Post subject:

VonageTPA wrote:

Vonage to Vonage calls bypass the bandwidth saver, so they're running the full 90kbps for BOTH connections. If you only have a 128kbit pipe up, it's not going to fit.

Not arguing with you, because I don't know - but if that is true, how utterly STUPID on their part! Bandwidth saver is there because... you need to save bandwidth??? If someone doesn't have enough bandwidth and needs to enable bandwidth saver, they don't magically get more bandwidth if they're calling Vonage to Vonage. Why would Vonage do something so DUMB???

Posts: 185 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 18, 2005 Posts: 185

Vonage to Vonage calls do not bypass the Bandwidth saver option, in fact they communicate exactly the same way as Vonage to PSTN, except on one end there is a PSTN Gateway as the User Agent, and on the other, both ends are Phone Adapters.

Does it sound bad when you call CS? Calling Customer service is also a Vonage to Vonage call. Are both devices/numbers on the same account?