Location Determination Beta

Posts: 176 · Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 5:55 pm Post subject:

I have been staring at the Beta Test Email since the 13th, but I am not comfortable installing unknown software onto my laptop. I have it configured the way I like it and I don't want to waste time fixing it up again. What is the actual purpose of this test, and why is it laptop specific?

Here is the message:
We are sending out this special request to a limited number of our customers because we are in search of volunteers to help us evaluate a new technology. This technology involves the automatic determination of your location based on wireless access points. It is a technology that could ultimately play a key role in improving the accuracy and reliability of 911 emergency calling services.

Given that wireless access points are integral to this technology, we are looking for volunteers who use a wireless router in their home.

Participating volunteers will be asked to:

1) Download evaluation software from Vonage (6MB file size).
2) Install the evaluation software on their computer. *1
[Installs as a browser Toolbar]
3) Place their PC next to or near their existing Vonage device.
4) Launch their browser, and click the Vonage button on the new Toolbar.
5) The program will calculate your location and display it in a Google map.
6) Enter name, address, and Vonage phone number. (data is transmitted to a centralized database)
7) Uninstall the program.

Estimated Total Time Commitment is approximately 10 minutes.

In return for participating, we will mail you a Vonage tee-shirt and baseball hat.

Posts: 318 · Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:35 pm Post subject:

Just a quick update on this...

The corporate IT department at my company spent 8 hours trying to solve this problem today. I was at the center of problem-solving efforts. We had three employees off-site, one consultant off-site, and another on-site employee and myself working on this all day today (48 wasted man hours)...and still no solution. We've finally realized that we will have to do a clean install of windows. We attempted a "repair install" of XP, but this did not work.

It appears this beta program did not like my Broadcom 10/100 NIC drivers. The drivers cannot be uninstalled...the Device Manager will hang when this is attempted. The repair install was also hanging. But then, out of exasperation, we put in a Knoppix live CD to check if the actual hardware was bad. But Knoppix was able to use the NIC just fine. Upon restarting, the XP repair install continued without a problem.

This is an extermely odd problem and has everyone perplexed. I wish I could give a more definitive solution, but if anyone else experiences this problem...your only recourse is most likely a clean install of XP.

Computer: Dell D520
OS: Windows XP Pro
NIC is a Broadcom 10/100; WiFi card is the Intel card that I think comes with the Centrino Duo processors.

I have not heard anything back from the Executive Response Team yet. Also, Karin at Vonage (ID 21445) promised me a call-back within the hour yesterday...unsurprisingly, no call was received.

I better at least get that stupid hat and T-shirt for all these problems!

Posts: 318 · Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 1:02 pm Post subject:

I finally got the problem solved. I had to reboot into safe mode (REAL safe mode, NOT safe mode with networking). I was then able to uninstall the drivers for both my NIC and my WiFi card...upon rebooting, XP recognized the NIC and WiFi card and re-installed good drivers for them.

It appears the Skyhook/Vonage program corrupted my driver files and/or related entries in the registry. Luckily, everything is almost back to normal now.

I finally got a call back today from the "Executive Response Team." Robert (extension 23413) called. He had no knowledge of the beta program and later told me it had already been discontinued (even though it is only a week old).

Robert was almost as bad as the Karin person I had before. He was argumentative and said repeatedly that there was no way of knowing for sure the Vonage software caused my problems. Continually invalidating my personal knowledge of the situation!

I fixed the problem on my own by the time Robert called. I was tempted to ask for his supervisor, but I am sure he would've given me the same runaround that Karin gave me ("Our supervisors won't talk on the phone.")

At least my Vonage service is still stellar. It's just the customer service that is severely lacking. You would've thought they would have fixed it by now...I guess their CS will continue to be on the par with any other phone company. Oh well. Sad

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 20, 2006 Posts: 1

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Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 15, 2006 Posts: 3

otaku wrote:

I finally got the problem solved. I had to reboot into safe mode (REAL safe mode, NOT safe mode with networking). I was then able to uninstall the drivers for both my NIC and my WiFi card...upon rebooting, XP recognized the NIC and WiFi card and re-installed good drivers for them.

It appears the Skyhook/Vonage program corrupted my driver files and/or related entries in the registry. Luckily, everything is almost back to normal now.

I finally got a call back today from the "Executive Response Team." Robert (extension 23413) called. He had no knowledge of the beta program and later told me it had already been discontinued (even though it is only a week old).

Robert was almost as bad as the Karin person I had before. He was argumentative and said repeatedly that there was no way of knowing for sure the Vonage software caused my problems. Continually invalidating my personal knowledge of the situation!

I fixed the problem on my own by the time Robert called. I was tempted to ask for his supervisor, but I am sure he would've given me the same runaround that Karin gave me ("Our supervisors won't talk on the phone.")

At least my Vonage service is still stellar. It's just the customer service that is severely lacking. You would've thought they would have fixed it by now...I guess their CS will continue to be on the par with any other phone company. Oh well. Sad

Either way , BETA programs are to be used at the customers own discretion. Being that it is in the BETA phase , it is considered to be possibly buggy. In other words you are using your own PC as a guinea pig.

Posts: 318 · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:59 am Post subject:

Deeyou wrote:

Either way , BETA programs are to be used at the customers own discretion. Being that it is in the BETA phase , it is considered to be possibly buggy. In other words you are using your own PC as a guinea pig.

True that. However, this does not excuse the poor customer service Vonage showed me. Nor does it excuse the fact that e-mails to their beta team remain unanswered after weeks. Also, the people on the phone told me the beta program had been ended already...however, I found out they lied to me: I am still getting e-mails from the beta team, reminding me the beta is still ongoing.

Poor communication within the company and extremely poor customer service. I guess this is the norm with phone companies, but I always hoped Vonage would improve in this area...suppose I was hoping for too much.

Posts: 318 · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:02 am Post subject:

Newest e-mail from the beta team:

Quote:

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From: <betatrial@vonage.com>
To: <me@address.hidden>
Subject: Vonage Location Determination Testing
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 09:39:16 -0700
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This message is a friendly reminder that the location determination software is still available on the Vonage website. If you no longer have the links to the software or the directions that were emailed out previously, we would be happy to resend them to you.
Please email your request or questions to BetaTrial@Vonage.com.

We appreciate all the support we have received. We will soon be concluding our testing of the location determination software at which time the links to the software will be disabled.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Regards,

Vonage Beta Team

This e-mail was sent more than a week after Vonage's "executive response team" told me the beta trial had ended.