Great call quality lately, what changed?

Posts: 105 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 19, 2005 Posts: 105

I thought I would post something positive for a change since most people on here only post when they have problems.

I was having problems with large delays a few weeks ago as were other people on Shaw Cable around western Canada. I escalated up the Vonage chain and suddenly around June13 it got better. MUCH better. Since then my call quality has been outstanding. As good if not better than regular landline. Hardly any delay. Clear as a bell! I am quite happy. I hope it stays this way.

Still don't know what changed. I have a Vonage trouble ticket and they were supposed to get back to me but haven't. I got a private message on this forum from someone claiming to work for Vonage and asked for my trouble ticket so they could investigate but they never got back to me either. Maybe they never did anything and it was something on the Shaw network that changed?!

Does ANYONE have a clue what changed on or around June13 to fix the large delays on Shaw Cable? Shaw of course swears they never changed anything. Someone....somewhere..... knows exactly what is going on! They would be doing all of mankind a favor if they would share that info.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 16, 2006 Posts: 3

Mustardman,

I read your post. My job is taking me to Calgary from the US and I was going to keep a US number so that my family can contact me. I am concern if the Vonage service will work well in Calgary given the problems that everyone is seeming to have with Shaw and Telus (quality mostly). What would you recommend?

Also, have you had any problems with the usage limits imposed by these broadband carriers. In the US the broadband carriers don't impose limits so I don't know how much usage would be consumed by the Vonage service.

Would I want a specific router, etc to make the quality better?

Thanks

Posts: 105 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 19, 2005 Posts: 105

If you want to keep your US number for residential use I would say just go for it. It's a no brainer. Vonage can be inconsistent but chances are it will work just fine for you. Our internet is just as good as down south so it should work just as well up here.

A Linksys WRT54GL with DD-WRT firmware is by far the router/firmware of choice IMHO.

VoIP does not use much bandwidth so bandwidth caps should not be a deciding factor. I use Bittorrent and download to my hearts content and talk for hours on end all over North America on Vonage and have never hit any bandwidth limits or gotten any nasty letters from Shaw.

You would have to do an excessive amount of downloading/uploading to hit your bandwidth cap in a month. It's mostly uploading they are concerned about and you can do things to limit that.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 16, 2006 Posts: 3

Did you ever figure out what was causing the QoS problems you were having? I really don't want to deal with the echo or other issues.

Also, is Shaw, Telus, or other the better carrier to go with for broadband service. Is paying the extra $10 for extreme or QoS worth it or is this just fluff.

I am not very savy so this is probably a stupid question but does the linux based router have problems working with Window XP or the soon to be released Vista?

Posts: 105 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 19, 2005 Posts: 105

If you want to keep your US number in Canada you don't have any choice. It's Vonage or some other US VoIP provider. Vonage is just as good as any and arguably it is probably a bit better all around. When people do have problems it is usually due to their internet provider and it does not matter which VoIP provider you use at that point. They will all have the same problems.

It does not matter what your router runs on. You can use the firmware that comes with it or load a 3rd party one. It has nothing to do with what software you are using on on your computer so yes, it will work.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 16, 2006 Posts: 3

Thanks.

So you are no longer having QoS problems with Shaw do you know what changed? What broadband carrier would you recommend?

Would the router you mention be come as part of signing up for Shaw, Vonage Canada, or do I need to purchase it. Also, I do I need a phone adapter?

Posts: 105 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 19, 2005 Posts: 105

You need a phone adapter which Vonage provides. Vonage can also provide a router with the phone adapter built in for a few more $$'s