Comcast is now fragging Vonage traffic- ruined mine

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 5

I've had Vonage for a couple years and love it. Unfortunately, Comcast is now strongly pushing their own phone service, and not coincidentally my phone now produces a loud buzzing ONLY during peak traffic times. This is not a physical problem as it only happens during the high network traffic times of day.

The buzzing is SO bad I cannot even dial out as the system cannot recognize the key tones.

I believe Comcast is now fragging Vonage phones by deliberately assigning Vonage packets the lowest priority on their physical network.

I see no practical solution. Regretfully, I am probably going to have to switch to Comcast.

Does anyone have a solution? Another few days and I'm giving up.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 5

It's been going about 20 mins now. It has zero progress. I'm guessing it can't even connect.

I have absolutely no problems with any other Internet apps.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

On the chance that Comcast isn't doing this deliberately, please post the technical details listed in the sticky message at the top of the forum. Also, if you haven't tried re-booting all your equipment, please do. If your setup includes both wireless components and a cordless phone, please try things with an ordinary corded phone.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 5

I've already established that the phone and the local eq are not the problem. They work perfectly in all situations that do not involve sending Vonage packets over Comcast's network, and they work fine on Comcast's network during off-peak hours.

The speed test ran for over an hour and produced nothing. Comcast is hemorrhaging Vonage packets too badly for the test to even run.

Posts: 533 · Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 1:14 pm Post subject:

TallDave wrote:

I've already established that the phone and the local eq are not the problem. They work perfectly in all situations that do not involve sending Vonage packets over Comcast's network, and they work fine on Comcast's network during off-peak hours.

The speed test ran for over an hour and produced nothing. Comcast is hemorrhaging Vonage packets too badly for the test to even run.

The test Steve48 asked you to run is completely independent of Vonage's network. So, if you can't run that test, you can't say that Comcast is doing something specific to "Vonage packets".

Posts: 185 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 18, 2005 Posts: 185

A hard buzz on the line is not indicative of a data related problem. Data problems such as latency and packet drops have a distinctly digital sound, such as garbled or dropped audio, a hard buzz on the line is 99.9% of the time an analog problem. Try different phone hardware, also, if the port on your device is having problems that could be the problem. Replace the wires too, as they can receive analog interference and cause a buzz.

On a personal note I have been using Vonage with comcast for months now with no problems.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 5

Ez,

Well then, somehow Comcast has figured out to identify all Voip packets that don't belong to them and downgrade their priority on their physical network in my area (in fact, they actually claim in their promos that their service has better quality on their network). Same difference from my perspective.

Data,

Again, ALL HARDWARE WORKS PERFECTLY DURING OFF-PEAK HOURS.

I also used Vonage for over a year with no problem. Let me note also you might never see this problem if your local Comcast network wasn't near capacity at high traffic times.

Posts: 533 · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:49 pm Post subject:

TallDave wrote:

Ez,

Well then, somehow Comcast has figured out to identify all Voip packets that don't belong to them and downgrade their priority on their physical network in my area (in fact, they actually claim in their promos that their service has better quality on their network). Same difference from my perspective.

That's possible, it's a trivial thing to do and I wouldn't put it by them. I'm not sure that with such a big company like Comcast that they would only do that in one region and only during peak usage times though.

They claim better quality for their service because you don't have to leave their network to get to their call management servers. Essentially the Voip portion of your calls do not traverse the Internet, like they do with Vonage or any other Voip provider.

Posts: 185 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 18, 2005 Posts: 185

I'm just telling you the facts, a hard buzz is an analog problem, comcast can only cause digital problems for you.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 5

Well, I'm telling you the facts: there's no buzz until I plug into Comcast's network.

Now, lest you think I'm dismissing you out of hand, I do get a similar buzz from running a fan or heater nearby the line. That is definitely an analog issue relating to interference the line. But of course I get that whether or not I plug into the network.

The buzz I'm getting is also "clickier" than the analog buzz from the fan, which is a lot smoother, as if each lost packet is a click and the net result of the clicks amounts to a buzz. I think I'm getting a digital problem that imitates an analog problem. Hell, maybe they're doing that on purpose to confuse people.

There appears to be nothing I can do about this. Guess I'll switch this weekend.