about to cancel... or is it my adapter? last help anyone?

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 3:46 pm Post subject:

Michael,

I don't want to sound like I am beating a dead horse here, but I don't think that giving your ISP a pass based on how intelligent they are makes the most sense to me. I am hoping that when you say they have assured you that the bandwidth is sufficient they have also given you satisfactory answers on quality metrics like latency, loss and jitter.

There are several possible sources of problems for Voip systems.

Your network
Your Voip Equipment
Your ISP
The Internet
Your Voip Provider

I would suggest this test that will eliminate items number 2 and 5, or more specifically if the test is successful they will confirm that Vonage or your Vonage equipment is at fault. To be honest this test is probably more work than many people would go through, but it won't cost you anything and you seem genuinely interested in getting Vonage working.

Test

Sign up for a free Free World Dialup account.
Download a client.
Place a few calls to either the FWD echo* service, their welcome operators or any other FWD user.
You may also be able to place calls to toll free numbers for free (you could at some point).

Of course this means that you will need a computer with a microphone and speakers (or a headset). I hadn't considered that when I said it wouldn't cost anything to run the test.

If these calls are successful then you have proven that the problem lies somewhere within Vonage or your Vonage equipment with the possible exception of a problem on the Internet between Vonage and your ISP. This will also tell you whether changing from Vonage to another Voip provider would be worth attempting.

On the other hand if these calls are unsuccessful then you need to get several measurements of latency, loss and jitter and go back to your ISP for resolution.

Good luck,
Steve

*FWD Echo: To test outbound calling, dial 613 for an Echo test. Make sure you can hear the voice saying that this is an Echo Test, as well as be able to hear your own voice echoed back at you.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 05, 2006 Posts: 10

Possibly the 3.1.1.14 could be designating hardware revision 3?

Not sure about this one either...more than likely Vonage would override this firmware flash with their version anyways...

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 3:54 pm Post subject:

somms wrote:

Possibly the 3.1.1.14 could be designating hardware revision 3?

Not sure about this one either...more than likely Vonage would override this firmware flash with their version anyways...

Possibly, but as far as I now there is not version 3 of the hardware.

In any case, it's either not going to work with Vonage at all, or it'll be overwritten with a Vonage sanctioned firmware at the next reboot.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 18, 2006 Posts: 10

steve -
thanks for the detailed suggestions... sounds complex, will have to wait until I have time for thorough testing.

btw, would Skype offer a similar test environment?
I used to use it regularly with little trouble, could dust off the headset and try again.

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:49 pm Post subject:

I was actually thinking Skype would provide a similar test. FWD is closer because it uses the same protocol, but the underlying principles are close enough that Skype should be a reasonable test.