Vonage and TiVo - the final word

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 25, 2003 Posts: 1

So I've been looking through all sorts of info on series 2 TiVo units (specifically my HDVR2). I've seen all sorts of conflicting and collaborative information on being able to dial out using the modem over Vonage.

The final word is this:
The problem is Vonage has to configure their gateways for modem
pass thru, and Vonage is awared of the configurations needed on
both the gateways and ATA to make modem work with ATA.
However, it is not clear what gateways they have and whether they
have full control of all the gateways on their network or not. There
is nothing much we can do except to wait for them to "work out"
the solution (whatever that may be).
This is from the software engineering manager for the ATA at Cisco.
So, the ball is completely in Vonage's court at this point.

~Sentinal

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 17, 2003 Posts: 8

Sentinal wrote:

So I've been looking through all sorts of info on series 2 TiVo units (specifically my HDVR2). I've seen all sorts of conflicting and collaborative information on being able to dial out using the modem over Vonage.

The final word is this:
The problem is Vonage has to configure their gateways for modem
pass thru, and Vonage is awared of the configurations needed on
both the gateways and ATA to make modem work with ATA.
However, it is not clear what gateways they have and whether they
have full control of all the gateways on their network or not. There
is nothing much we can do except to wait for them to "work out"
the solution (whatever that may be).
This is from the software engineering manager for the ATA at Cisco.
So, the ball is completely in Vonage's court at this point.

~Sentinal

I'm not for sure I understand what the heck you're trying to say.. i've used a modem via vonage before (when we first moved into our office we didn't have phone service but did have network connectivity) someone had to dial into a RAS server they used my vonage line and their modem to connect - worked just fine

Posts: 106 · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003 12:11 pm Post subject:

technically the vongae lines dont work well for dialup connection/ modem connections / and that type of data. there are exceptions like the fax line. some have good luck some dont.. it depends on how quick of a connection you have to VONAGE. not just form your isp. and how fast you expect to connect via the (dialup) tivo.. dtv.. security system.. etc .. most work.. some don't if you look through posts here and dslr you will see just that..

Guest

I believe there are ways to connect Tivo to your LAN. You may want to look into that instead of trying to dial up via Vonage.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 05, 2003 Posts: 6

WEll, after reading every article i came could dig up on vonage
and tivo.. my brain is swollen...

During a final attempt before i threw the tivo out vonage out the window
i clicked the "Make test call now" on the tivo screen, not paying any attention at all i noticed instead of the usual FAILED i get a negotating
prompt... connected... and setting clock...

after checking that i wasnt dreaming, i forced it to make another call..
which went through OK, and another call, which was also completed. So,
my guess it all depends on current network traffic on the net.. I did
change the voice quality higher in the bandwidth manager... I wonder if the next update will go through without a interuption, if it fails, i guess ill have no choice but to enable to usb ports.

3.1.0-01-2-151 software version.

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 8:42 pm Post subject:

I had my series 1 working properly for about 8 months and it just stopped working without notice. Nothing has changed here and we are on a T1 so bandwidth is a non-issue. The test works, but dialing for numbers fails and dialing for an update fails. Very annoying.

Guest

I received Vonage a few days ago and have thrown in the towel. I can't get my series 1 standalone to play nice with vonage. It's just the motivation I needed to order a TurboNet card... soon enough, i'll be able to have tivoweb and rest of the fun hacks that a networked tivo brings. Smile

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: May 23, 2003 Posts: 9

With regard to the TiVo Series 2 dialing out via 'analog' over your Vonage line, there's a much nicer solution ... If you have a Series 1, TurboNet ROCKS!

The TiVo Series 2 has built in USB ports which would allow the installation of a USB to Ethernet adapter (http://www.9thtee.com/tivousbethernet.htm). Then plug the TiVo into your home network (you DO have a home network, don't you? Very Happy

) Change the dialing prefix to ,#401 and voila! You are now connecting to the TiVo update servers over the internet at broadband speed.

I am not affiliated with 9thTee ... other than being a satisfied customer.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 02, 2003 Posts: 2

Sentinal wrote:

The final word is this:
The problem is Vonage has to configure their gateways for modem
pass thru, and Vonage is awared of the configurations needed on
both the gateways and ATA to make modem work with ATA.
However, it is not clear what gateways they have and whether they
have full control of all the gateways on their network or not. There
is nothing much we can do except to wait for them to "work out"
the solution (whatever that may be).
This is from the software engineering manager for the ATA at Cisco.
So, the ball is completely in Vonage's court at this point.

~Sentinal

I work for a VoIP company that has a product similar to Vonage's. The problem is that high speed data connections (33.6+) do not convert well into VoIP. Low speed modem connections work fine. It has to deal with the analog to digital conversion of the modem connections. The conversion method used, G.711, was developed over 30+ years ago, before high speed modems. VoIP companies continue to use G.711 to ensure compatibility with calls to Bell customers.

That being said, I have a HDVR2 and I'm able to call TiVo. I had to plug in an external modem using the serial cable that came with my Tivo and program TiVo to use a slower modem speed. (I am using 14.4.) I've had no problems since.

You can read more information on how to do that at the TiVo forum. www.tivocommunity.com. The specific forum link is here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66115

Posts: 14 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 03, 2003 Posts: 14

hughvh wrote:

I work for a VoIP company that has a product similar to Vonage's. The problem is that high speed data connections (33.6+) do not convert well into VoIP. Low speed modem connections work fine. It has to deal with the analog to digital conversion of the modem connections. The conversion method used, G.711, was developed over 30+ years ago, before high speed modems. VoIP companies continue to use G.711 to ensure compatibility with calls to Bell customers.

That being said, I have a HDVR2 and I'm able to call TiVo. I had to plug in an external modem using the serial cable that came with my Tivo and program TiVo to use a slower modem speed. (I am using 14.4.) I've had no problems since.

You can read more information on how to do that at the TiVo forum. www.tivocommunity.com. The specific forum link is here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66115

Could you please confirm that the Directv portion of the calls are going over the serial modem? i.e. you have ordered a PPV via remoate on the HDVR2 and had that charge come up on your directv bill. I have not seen anything confirming this works for the Directv calls also. Remember your receiver makes two calls, one to Tivo and one to Directv. When you run a test call via the menu, it is just calling Tivo.