Motorola VT2442

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 28, 2006 Posts: 27

Hey guys,

If you connect a new Vonage adapter, you MUST power off/on (every devices) it so that your Cable modem will see it and then issue it the ISP's new IP address to the Cable modem/vonage. It's all in the QuickSetup guide from Vonage.

Posts: 24 · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 8:18 pm Post subject: Re: Problem resolved (I think)

ekaim wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions, but after considerable effort with Vonage tech support I worked my way through to an advanced tech who ultimately tested my connection at their end and found that my line was not registering properly. He promised to submit this problem to the engineering dept to "resynch" my connection on their servers.

This experience renews my recognition that Vonage tech support is dysfunctional, even if they do finally resolve this particular problem. I've complained of this problem many times, during many hours of many calls to their first-tier and sometimes second-tier support, and only now -- after an additional marathon of calls and transfers up the line (each requiring long holds) -- did Vonage actualy check to see that the problem was at their end; so all of these calls and hours and attempts at testing and reconfigurations of various kinds were utterly futile.

Vonage may be a great Voip solution for customers who are lucky enough never to have a problem -- and from what I read I gather there are many of those. But their tech support system imposes a prohibitive burden on the customer. Perhaps it's economical for them, but I wonder if it will prove to have been a good business decision in the long run.

Thanks again to those who tried to help.

For anyone still following this -- the problem was NOT resolved the way I expected after Vonage tech support finally found a problem with my line at their end. When I didn't receive the e-mail I was promised when the engineering dept was supposed to have "resynched" my connection, I started again -- from the ground up.

The first-level support person could find many records re my problem and tech support's efforts at troubleshooting, but could find no record of the "ticket" that the higher-level tech was supposed to have sent to engineering to correct the "registration error" he had found with my line. My story at least persuaded him to transfer me to the next higher level, where a tech wasted only a relatively small amount of his and my time trying various pointless exercises before transferring me to a tech at a still higher level (I have visions of an endless ladder of tiers of tech support -- though maybe it's not so much a linear ladder as a circle).

The third-level tech (who said he was in New Jersey and sounded as if English was his native language) couldn't find any record of the "ticket" that was supposed to have been sent to engineering either, but he was able to find the same "registration error" when he checked my line at his end. However, he felt the "registration error" might still be a problem at my end, and persuaded me to run through some checks of my wireless router (WRT54GS) and two Vonage adapters (RTP300, which had never given me any trouble; and Moto V2442, which seemed to be where the problem focused).

This tech was really very knowledgeable, thorough, systematic, and patient. Eventually he determined that my problem was that the WRT54GS was not distinguishing my two Vonage adapters properly -- possibly a defect with the router. The optimal solution from that point was to replace the router with a new WRT54GS that might not have the same defect or with a different router altogether.

Meanwhile, however, he had determined that I could get my system to work as I wanted by connecting my V2442 directly to my cable modem, then connecting from the V2442 to my router and from there to my 2 computers and my other Vonage adapter. This was not a technically elegant solution, but it works, and that's as far as I needed to get. This solution has now been working fairly flawlessly for about a month -- the first month of stable system performance I've experienced in about a year and a half of efforts with Vonage.

So, for now, I am finally a satisfied customer. However, despite the kudos I have to give to this final technician who found an effective workaround to my problem, I have to reemphasize my previous criticism of Vonage's tech support. It took an eternity -- in real time and elapsed time -- to get to a technician who could actually help. This system is broken. I honestly don't know why I persisted for so long to get the help I needed, and I am sure that many ex-customers of Vonage got off the merry-go-round because of the unconscionably frustrating problems that this "support" system seems designed to breed.

As I've said in previous rants in this forum, there's every reason to think that Voip is an important relatively new technology for telecom, and I still believe that some company or companies will eventually bring this technology to fruition for some markets, probably including "standalone" consumers. Whether that company will be Vonage, or whether Vonage will still even be in the game at that time, may depend to a large extent on whether Vonage ever recognizes the fundamental dysfunctionality of its current system for technical support.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 01, 2006 Posts: 1

I have a VT 2442 and I'm having problems with the phone not ringing on incoming calls. The phone works OK and if you pick up the phone when somebodys calling it will work but you have no way of knowing they're calling because it DOESN'T ring. I tried 3 different phones. I called Vontage and they said it's a known problem and to hang on for 2 days so their engineering department can straighten it out. These tech support people at Vontage suck. I've called 3 times and evertime I talked to somebody that either can't speak english very well or doesn't understand my problem.

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 28, 2006 Posts: 27

ekaim wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions, but after considerable effort with Vonage tech support I worked my way through to an advanced tech who ultimately tested my connection at their end and found that my line was not registering properly. He promised to submit this problem to the engineering dept to "resynch" my connection on their servers.

This experience renews my recognition that Vonage tech support is dysfunctional, even if they do finally resolve this particular problem. I've complained of this problem many times, during many hours of many calls to their first-tier and sometimes second-tier support, and only now -- after an additional marathon of calls and transfers up the line (each requiring long holds) -- did Vonage actualy check to see that the problem was at their end; so all of these calls and hours and attempts at testing and reconfigurations of various kinds were utterly futile.

Vonage may be a great Voip solution for customers who are lucky enough never to have a problem -- and from what I read I gather there are many of those. But their tech support system imposes a prohibitive burden on the customer. Perhaps it's economical for them, but I wonder if it will prove to have been a good business decision in the long run.

Thanks again to those who tried to help.

For anyone still following this -- the problem was NOT resolved the way I expected after Vonage tech support finally found a problem with my line at their end. When I didn't receive the e-mail I was promised when the engineering dept was supposed to have "resynched" my connection, I started again -- from the ground up.

The first-level support person could find many records re my problem and tech support's efforts at troubleshooting, but could find no record of the "ticket" that the higher-level tech was supposed to have sent to engineering to correct the "registration error" he had found with my line. My story at least persuaded him to transfer me to the next higher level, where a tech wasted only a relatively small amount of his and my time trying various pointless exercises before transferring me to a tech at a still higher level (I have visions of an endless ladder of tiers of tech support -- though maybe it's not so much a linear ladder as a circle).

The third-level tech (who said he was in New Jersey and sounded as if English was his native language) couldn't find any record of the "ticket" that was supposed to have been sent to engineering either, but he was able to find the same "registration error" when he checked my line at his end. However, he felt the "registration error" might still be a problem at my end, and persuaded me to run through some checks of my wireless router (WRT54GS) and two Vonage adapters (RTP300, which had never given me any trouble; and Moto V2442, which seemed to be where the problem focused).

This tech was really very knowledgeable, thorough, systematic, and patient. Eventually he determined that my problem was that the WRT54GS was not distinguishing my two Vonage adapters properly -- possibly a defect with the router. The optimal solution from that point was to replace the router with a new WRT54GS that might not have the same defect or with a different router altogether.

Meanwhile, however, he had determined that I could get my system to work as I wanted by connecting my V2442 directly to my cable modem, then connecting from the V2442 to my router and from there to my 2 computers and my other Vonage adapter. This was not a technically elegant solution, but it works, and that's as far as I needed to get. This solution has now been working fairly flawlessly for about a month -- the first month of stable system performance I've experienced in about a year and a half of efforts with Vonage.

So, for now, I am finally a satisfied customer. However, despite the kudos I have to give to this final technician who found an effective workaround to my problem, I have to reemphasize my previous criticism of Vonage's tech support. It took an eternity -- in real time and elapsed time -- to get to a technician who could actually help. This system is broken. I honestly don't know why I persisted for so long to get the help I needed, and I am sure that many ex-customers of Vonage got off the merry-go-round because of the unconscionably frustrating problems that this "support" system seems designed to breed.

As I've said in previous rants in this forum, there's every reason to think that Voip is an important relatively new technology for telecom, and I still believe that some company or companies will eventually bring this technology to fruition for some markets, probably including "standalone" consumers. Whether that company will be Vonage, or whether Vonage will still even be in the game at that time, may depend to a large extent on whether Vonage ever recognizes the fundamental dysfunctionality of its current system for technical support.

///////////////

Users should always try Vonage manual's recommendation before doing their otherwise. E.g., Vonage said connect VT2442 to CableModem, then connect your existing router/computers to Vonage. Benefits of this approach:

1. If you are a new customer, you get your Vonage phone working asap, eliminating other variables that you might introduced if you deviate from Vonage recommendations.

2. VT2442 can prioritize voice calls over data when bandwidth is an issue. This prioritization is active ONLY if Vonage is directly connected to the Cable Modem. It is all in their manuals. Dumb users simply don't follow instructions!

Once you get it working, you can switch from dumb user to smart user mode by deviating from the above setup. If your smart setup don't work, you know that you can fallback to Vonage's recommended setup.

Now, can someone tell me whether you have port#80 forwarding problems with VT2442. I can forward any port but port#80. VT2442 seems to be reserving that port for itself only.

Posts: 6

Reading this Forum has been very helpful so far, but I have some questions that occur *before* one actually has the VT2442 in hand...

My current setup:
Cable Modem > Adapter > D-link wired router > 2 laptops + 1 pc

My current adapter (Motorola VT1005V) seems to go on the blink and drops calls when someone is on the phone + I am connected to my work's VPN + doing some transaction that requires my VPN connection to be active. It's not 100% guaranteed to happen when these factors are in place, but it's becoming rather frequent this past month.

I've checked w/the ISP during a few of these times, and Adelphia verified that both the modem & their service were on point. The D-link is only 8 mos old whereas my adapter is 2+yrs old. So, my initial conclusion was that if hardware is to be targeted, chances are that it's the VT1005V. While this might be a bad conclusion to draw, I can't spend the time to identify precisely which piece of hardware is the culprit because doing so will either leave me with NO PHONE or only 1 computer with web access, and I can't afford either at this point. Besides, when Vonage's tech support had me do THIS setup...

Cable Modem > Router > Adapter

...it all went to hell. My next conclusion was that I could get the Motorola VT2442 and even eliminate 1 piece of hardware -- and my problems should be solved.

Here are my questions:

1) For those who have purchased Motorola's VT2442, did you HAVE to go thru Vonage's site to buy it? Both CompUSA and Circuit City didn't even have it in their databases when the clerks looked it up -- which I thought was somewhat odd... I'm about to purchase this hardware via Vonage's website now.

(I'm guessing that if the answer to #1 is "yes", then #2 is kinda taken care of and not important.)

2) Suppose I have my new VT2442 in possession and I'm ready to roll: was there any kind of notification process that you had to go through inform Vonage of, "I have a new adapter and wish to use it" ... or was the hardware's information transmitted during the power-on and just handled? Does Vonage need a call from the client to inform them of this kind of hardware change?

Thanks for any input you can provide.

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 28, 2006 Posts: 27

b8akaratn wrote:

Reading this Forum has been very helpful so far, but I have some questions that occur *before* one actually has the VT2442 in hand...

My current setup:
Cable Modem > Adapter > D-link wired router > 2 laptops + 1 pc

My current adapter (Motorola VT1005V) seems to go on the blink and drops calls when someone is on the phone + I am connected to my work's VPN + doing some transaction that requires my VPN connection to be active. It's not 100% guaranteed to happen when these factors are in place, but it's becoming rather frequent this past month.

I've checked w/the ISP during a few of these times, and Adelphia verified that both the modem & their service were on point. The D-link is only 8 mos old whereas my adapter is 2+yrs old. So, my initial conclusion was that if hardware is to be targeted, chances are that it's the VT1005V. While this might be a bad conclusion to draw, I can't spend the time to identify precisely which piece of hardware is the culprit because doing so will either leave me with NO PHONE or only 1 computer with web access, and I can't afford either at this point. Besides, when Vonage's tech support had me do THIS setup...

Cable Modem > Router > Adapter

...it all went to hell. My next conclusion was that I could get the Motorola VT2442 and even eliminate 1 piece of hardware -- and my problems should be solved.

Here are my questions:

1) For those who have purchased Motorola's VT2442, did you HAVE to go thru Vonage's site to buy it? Both CompUSA and Circuit City didn't even have it in their databases when the clerks looked it up -- which I thought was somewhat odd... I'm about to purchase this hardware via Vonage's website now.

(I'm guessing that if the answer to #1 is "yes", then #2 is kinda taken care of and not important.)

2) Suppose I have my new VT2442 in possession and I'm ready to roll: was there any kind of notification process that you had to go through inform Vonage of, "I have a new adapter and wish to use it" ... or was the hardware's information transmitted during the power-on and just handled? Does Vonage need a call from the client to inform them of this kind of hardware change?

Thanks for any input you can provide.

////////////////

Each adaptor has an unique key. Vonage must have that key in its database for you to use it at all. That key is the Mac address and you can register that yourself online for any NEW adaptor. Can't use the web site to transfer phone# from one EXISTING adaptor to another adaptor, e.g., travelling. When you buy direct from Vonage, the MAC address is pre-registered for you. If you buy it from 3rd party, you must register it online.