Numerous Vonage Customer Service and RTP300 Problems...

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 11, 2006 Posts: 4

To make a long story short, I switched to Vonage because my ISP was switching their Voip provider and the new provider was claiming that they couldn't port my existing numbers over. I have two Voip numbers (one home, one business) so I setup two separate accounts with Vonage so I could take one of the RTP300 boxes with me if I had to travel.

Now to the problems with Vonage:
1. Vonage screwed up the porting of my numbers. The process to port them started on January 19, 2006. The business number was finally transfered on March 14, 2006. The home number Vonage claims was transfered on March 31, 2006 -- but it really wasn't. After TEN DAYS of Vonage's LNP department claiming the number transfered and my proving to Vonage that it didn't, Vonage finally got to the bottom of the problem (they screwed up the transfer and Level3 snapped the transfer back.) During the process of trying to get this resolved, Vonage's system automatically dropped my virtual number that I was having my original service forwarded to, so I didn't have any phone calls for one day (which might not be a bad thing depending on your perspective.) Vonage has since given me a new virtual number and they have started the porting process of my home number ALL OVER AGAIN.
2. I cannot have both RTP300's on my network at the same time REGARDLESS of network configuration, and I have tried every possible configuration. Vonage has been useless with this. In addition, I am having numerous QoS issues with the RTP300's. There are times that I can be on the phone and try to go out to the web and then all hell breaks loose -- the browser hangs, the phone drops call packets in both directions -- and the ONLY solution is to power cycle the RTP300.
3. While trying to resolve #2 above, I discovered that the 1.00.6 version of the firmware had a bug in the QoS option. If you disabled QoS the setting would be re-enabled if you power cycled the router (therefore it was not retaining the setting after a power cycle.) I notified Vonage and I received a call from them on April 3, 2006 confirming the bug and that the issue was getting pushed up to the firmware development team. If, and that is a BIG IF, version 1.00.62 is supposed to resolve this problem, then version 1.00.62 is broken because this problem is still not resolved in version 1.00.62 based on my testing. The setting returns to enabled after a power cycle.
4. Based on all the problems that I have had, I have begged Vonage for ATA boxes and not routers -- Vonage refuses to do this. These routers are junk. I'm sure I am in the minority of users with these problems, but if these routers can't exist in a normal, small business environment then they are useless.
5. These problems have existed since I received my equipment on January 24th. I have been talking to Vonage's "Executive Response Team, The Team That Directly Reports to the CEO" -- which is a bunch of marketing B.S. since they are no better at customer service than their normal off-shored idiots.

Based on my experiences with Vonage, unless Vonage "WOW'S" me with some customer service that actually resolves the issues above, I will be going back to land lines as soon as Vonage finishes the transfer of my home number, so I can have SBC transfer the numbers to them (my home number was originally an SBC number anyway.)

Thanks,
Frodo

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:21 pm Post subject:

The RTP300 is a good Vonage box, but as you have experienced, a barely adequate router. QoS on it is a joke, and a poor joke at that. Took me a long time to try and work around it on my WRTP54G (same as the RTP300 but with wireless), and I finally realized it just.. doesn't... work.

However, the good news - it is reportedly one of the best devices for Vonage voice quality.

Put a real, honest-to-god router in front of both RTP300's, and I think you'll find that the RTP300 does very well as a pure Vonage-only box. That's what I did with my WRTP54G and it's a great Vonage box. When I travel, I even use it as a casual-use router and it does fairly good as long as I don't need QoS or put super heavy traffic through it.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 11, 2006 Posts: 4

I have had the following configurations on my network:
1. BEFSR81 as the main router with the RTP300's plugged into ports 1 and 2 and then two EZXS88W switches, WRT54G, and other equipment plugged into ports 3 through 7. Complete instability with the RTP300's on the network.
2. WRT54G as the main router - the rest the same as #1 above. Same instability.
3. #1 above but with one RTP300 behind the other RTP300. Same instability.
4. #3 above but with the first RTP300 in the DMZ. Same instabililty. Also tried with the second RTP300 in the first RTP300's DMZ. Same instability.
5. #2 above but with one RTP300 behind the other RTP300. Same instability.
6. #5 above but with the first RTP300 in the DMZ. Same instabililty. Also tried with the second RTP300 in the first RTP300's DMZ. Same instability.
5. RTP300 as the main router with second RTP300 in DMZ of main RTP300. Same instability.
6. RTP300 as the main router and second RTP300 removed from network. Instability, but not as severe with both devices on the network. Frequent power cycles still necessary to resolve instability issues.

Without the RTP300's on the network:
1. BEFSR81 as main router - no instability. Voip calls perfect with Sipura ATA from original Voip.
2. WRT54G as main router - no instability. Voip calls perfect with Sipura ATA from original Voip.

So... even with the RTP300's connected as just voice adapters, they still cause instability on my network.

BTW... TestYourVoiP.com reports an overall rating of 4.0 when I tested it.

What router do you have as your main router for your network?

Posts: 400 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 400

Have you tried disabling your main routers firewall? My experience with Vonage TA is that they will cause your setup to go whacko. If you haven't the disable your main routers firewall and the DMZ and keep this router first in your connection after your modem. You should see more stability.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 11, 2006 Posts: 4

When the WRT54G (hardware version 2) router was the main router, I had Firewall Protection disabled. I also had a hardware version 5 of the WRT54G, but you cannot disable the SPI firewall in that router -- this was confirmed with a call to Linksys (so basically the hardware version 5 of the WRT54G was worthless and went back to the store.)

Unfortunately, the setting on the RTP300 to turn off the firewall also controls NAT.

Posts: 21 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Aug 09, 2005 Posts: 21

I am using a Linksys WRT54G as my main router, then I have a RTP300 on port 1, a RTP300 on port 2, a hub on port 3 and a hub on port 4.
I have had no problems with either of the RTP300s, and I have a total of 3 lines running.
I run DD-WRT v23 firmware on the WRT54G and I can monitor just about anything via SNMP on that router....

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 11, 2006 Posts: 4

Pardon my ignorance, I did check out dd-wrt.org, but what are the benefits of using this firmware opposed to the firmware that Linksys produces? Does it support Voip better? Are there other enhancements that I can take advantage of? The documentation on the site isn't very good.

Posts: 21 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Aug 09, 2005 Posts: 21

Many more available features than the stock Linksys firmware.
Much better support for QoS...I give SIP protocol the highest priority.
Many other services available to run like SNMP for performance monitoring.
dd-wrt Documentation

I run their "standard" firmware and it works wonderfully.

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 01, 2006 Posts: 18

I am torn between Sveasoft, DD--wrt and Hyper-wrt.

Anybody try all three and determine which is best for Voip?

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:41 pm Post subject:

I know HyperWRT works very well (I've been using it for a long time with Vonage), and I'm sure (from reports others have made) that DD-WRT is also excellent.

I have no experience with Sveasoft myself, but from what I understand it is no better than HyperWRT or DD-WRT, some even say worse, but that is just what I have read on other forums. Sveasoft also costs money.

Of course, if you use HyperWRT or DD-WRT, please do send the author a few bucks. Wink

The basic choice between HyperWRT and DD-WRT is:

HyperWRT: Written as an "overlay" or "mod" to the stock firmware (though, of course, it is compiled as a complete package), upgraded with new stock firmware as Linksys releases new versions, designed to be as close as possible to stock firmware while adding features. The screens look very much like the original firmware, with lots more options. Current version: http://www.thibor.co.uk/

Example: screenshots of HyperWRT QoS screen (as part of a tutorial I wrote up on configuring HyperWRT for Vonage:

http://vonage.nmhoy.net/wrt54glqos.html

DD-WRT: Took stock firmware and basically "started fresh", adding huge swaths of features Linksys never intended. Some VERY cool stuff there if you need advanced features.

From the feedback I have seen, DD-WRT is more complex to manage (but, with that many features, well DUH! (grin)) but really, really unlocks your router if you need very advanced features.

Speed reports are a toss up. The router is a 200MHz processor Linux machine, so it's going to top out at about 15MBps on the WAN link no matter what you do. I don't think anyone has any serious benchmarks proving that DD-WRT or HyperWRT Thibor (the current version) are slower or faster relative to the other. Both are fast.

Personally, I went HyperWRT because I have little need of the super-advanced features of DD-WRT, and HyperWRT added what I needed. I also use it because it appears to be simpler to manage, and that is important when I recommend and support something to relative network newbies at forums like this one. But, I don't think you can go wrong either way.