Sporadically cannot dial into Conference Calls

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 14, 2006 Posts: 1

Lately I've had a problem dialling into conference calls (I mean the AT&T conference services provided for business calls along side web meetings). I can dial into the toll-free number just fine, but when I get prompted to enter a meeting code, the machine on the other end doesn't seem to "hear" my key presses. I've checked with some other folks who use Vonage and they have experienced the same problem, only recently. It seems to come and go. It will work fine early in the morning one day, but a couple of hours later I can't get into any conference calls from my Vonage phone. Then later on the same day I might be able to get in just fine.

A POTS phone or cell phone can get into the conference call, no problem - so it's not likely a problem with the conference service. Shutting down, waiting (for cooldown) and restarting my network appliance stack does not resolve the problem. The problem just seemed to resolve on its own when it "feels like it".

I'm using Comporium (York County, SC) as my ISP and don't seem to be experiencing any other network issues. I have a Motorola VT1000 (running VT20_02.03.00_A). Below are the test results.

Any ideas as to what is causing this and whether or not it can be fixed?

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 4355944 bps
Upload speed: 518280 bps
Quality of service: 68 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 586 ms
Average download pause: 7 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 44 ms
Average round trip time to server: 46 ms

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 4.6 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 8.5 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.1 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported VoIP lines: 8
Estimated MOS score: 3.9

Posts: 62 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 04, 2006 Posts: 62

I'm having the same problem this morning. I tried to dial into a conference call today. I could get to the automated message asking for the passcode, but the other side didn't hear the key presses. I tried both vonage lines and different phones with the same result. I also noticed this with the audio as well a couple of days ago. I called someone and they couldn't hear me and hung up. Don't know if it is related.

Posts: 323 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 323

I have had this issue with dialing in to conference systems from time to time.

I haven't narrowed down the issue, but I do the following which seems to minimize the occurences.

When I am entering responses to prompts in the system simply hit the buttons slower and have them depressed for a bit longer than normal.

I find that when I do this I almost always get through.

If I'm on a speaker phone I also mute it so that the only sound going across the call are the beeps and not any other sounds.

This isn't so much a why, but hopefully it will help you connect with more consistency.

Posts: 17 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 03, 2005 Posts: 17

This was a major problem for me with other VOIP companies, but with Vonage I haven't had the problem for the year I've been with them.

...Until yesterday. No matter what I did, the tones weren't recongnized.

Fix: I power-cycled the adapter (D-Link VTA). Afterward it worked fine and tones were recognized.

Hopefully this was a fluky thing and won't happen on a regular basis. I have dialed into weekly conferences for a year without problems with Vonage, so it might just be a fluke problem.

Posts: 29 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Aug 18, 2005 Posts: 29

Have you tried to adjust your "bandwidth saver" mode to the highest setting? Sounds (no pun intended) that your DTMF tones aren't being properly registered by the audio conferencing bridge. Most likely could be caused by poor bandwidth issues causing the tones to not sound clear on the bridge side.

I spend my days supporting conferencing bridges (many large carriers such as AT&T included) so thats my take on it.. Out of curiosity, on such conference calls, what caller command toggles self-mute?