Intermittant outage

Posts: 187 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 14, 2007 Posts: 187

danielbo wrote:

Does any one know a way to ping the Vonage box or system to let you know if it is not working. My system pings a web site now to tell me if the internet is up or not, but I would like to know what I could do to keep track of Vonage. I use homeseer to run my home, so its easy to activate a warning light and even give a message over the surround sound speakers. I just would need to know what i should ping. Looking for help. Please,

Wouldn't do you any good with most of the recent outages. The Vonage proxy system is still up and pingable, it's just that it's not responding to SIP register requests.

If your network monitoring system is advanced enough, you might be able to have it attempt a register and trip a failure if no response.

Mark

Posts: 187 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 14, 2007 Posts: 187

phillybill wrote:

Vonage has recently been ordered by the courts to pay Verizon for patent violations. I'm sure you've all heard about this. One of the patents is how the SIP protocol was written. (although I don't understand how you can patent an Internet Protocol.) Another has to do with how Vonage connects its Voip network to the PSTN(Public Switched Telephone Network). Vonage has been writing its own SIP protocol to replace the old one. The only way to test it is to load it on to the proxy servers that they use. If it does not work, those proxys will go down. At which point, some phones go down.They then remove it as quickly as possible and replace it with the old one ASAP. They are also in the process of changing their Voip to PSTN network connections at the same time. So alot of peoples phones have been intermittently affected. This is almost surely the reason for your intermittent outages. As they get things tied together better and have their protocols written correctly, things will become much smoother. Vonage is a young company, folks, and they're going through some growing pains. That's all it is.

Peace,
Bill :)

P.S. To danielbo:

Only Vonage knows the IP addresses to their proxy servers and it really should stay that way. With all the issues they're having right now, the last thing they need is a huge ping attack bringing down their servers because someone published thier addresses on the web.

Spoken with authority - but still full of errors...

I don't believe SIP is involved in the patent dispute. It's a control protocol for Voip, much like SS7 on the pstn.

There is always a way to test software without putting it into production. There is absolutely no justifyable reason they would be testing new software on production servers - unless they are total idiots (which I doubt)

If only Vonage knew the IP addresses of their servers then the network wouldn't function. Your adapter would be deaf and mute.
Determining the name and/or IP address of the proxy used by your account is trivial.

Mark

Posts: 66 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jul 08, 2005 Posts: 66

mine has been down for a while this morning (i am in the albany area of NY). however anyone i called this morning who i know also has Vonage also seems to be down.

what happens is if you call a Vonage line, you just get a busy signal. this is weird - i would think that if you couldn't reach the Vonage line it would forward to the my network availability number.

Posts: 61 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 09, 2007 Posts: 61

I agree with that, I just could not think of any other way to keep an eye on my phone box. I would love to hear any other ideas. Its easy to keep track of my ISP because I can ping anywhere. But the phone unit is so much more involved. I can ping the box, but that would just let me know if it is connected to my home server, As you know I need to know that the box is connecting to something outside of the home.
If I had the box close that would not be bad, but I have a small closet that holds everything. The server that runs the house, phone system INTERNET, both hard wire and wireless. This is why I like some type on notification that something is down, before its time to use what ever and find out its not working.
Sounds like I have a problem.

Posts: 187 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 14, 2007 Posts: 187

I incorrectly assumed that you were talking about pinging/checking the Vonage proxy server.

The local adapter has a similar set of monitoring issues. There is no way I've found to tell if the Indian guy trapped in there will be speaking his "unable to register with the Vonage network" message when a phone goes off hook.

Even when it's in that condition, if you go to the web interface and check the status, the line shows as "provisioned".

I'd like to know if anyone has figured out a way to tell, but some sort of "inquiry" to the adapter, that the line is "down".

Mark

Posts: 61 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 09, 2007 Posts: 61

yep, I agree.
you would think there would be some way we could ask him from time to time if we was connected, without having to wait until we have to make an important call.There is something telling that little guy we are not connected, but what? I hate hearing him, not that I hear him that much, but the last couple of weeks at least once a week.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 17, 2007 Posts: 1

Quote:

I don't believe SIP is involved in the patent dispute. It's a control protocol for Voip, much like SS7 on the pstn.

There is always a way to test software without putting it into production. There is absolutely no justifyable reason they would be testing new software on production servers - unless they are total idiots (which I doubt)

Well you know.. a LOT of people are looking into and actively bailing and leaving Vonage a result of all of this court patent crap.

What would really help alleviate the rats jumping ship is if the fat cats would just simply TALK to us and let us know what their strategy is for saving the ship.

As is stands right now.. the CEO has bailed with his golden parachute.. and everyone is tight lipped.. and people who are calling to cancel are getting side tracked.. which just makes everyone just that much more nervous and panic-y.

If the execs took some time to reach out to their customers and tell them about what their plans are to deal with the issues and hand and give some assurances that it's not all going down in a flaming ball, then that might do enough to stop the paniced outrush of clients. It's like a self fulfilling prophecy by them staying clammed up!

HEY EXECS! TELL US WHAT'S GOING ON AND WE'LL HELP YOU FROM GOING BANKRUPT. SAY NOTHING... AND YOU'LL LOSE IT ALL.

Your call.

Tweeks

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:23 am Post subject:

phillybill wrote:

Only Vonage knows the IP addresses to their proxy servers and it really should stay that way. With all the issues they're having right now, the last thing they need is a huge ping attack bringing down their servers because someone published thier addresses on the web.

That's not true -- your firewall or router (if you're using anything decent) will tell you exactly what the IPs for the proxy you're using is. I've had a couple of times where Vonage's proxies weren't disconnecting when the calls were terminated, resulting in them DoSing me in a way. After you've made about 10 calls, that 90kbps adds up. Ended up calling Vonage's network staff (I'm *NOT* posting the info...if you're internet savvy, the info is easily looked up), they brought the offending proxy servers offline and restarted them within 10 minutes of my call.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 17, 2007 Posts: 6

I can dial out and hear the person on the other end clear as day. But when I go to talk, they cannot hear me. It is VERY frustrating! They end up saying "hello, hello" repeatedly for as long as I stay on the line.

I would much prefer that when Vonage is out, I am unable to dial out, so that at least I don't put the callee through the stress of receiving a call where there is no one at the other end.

Has anyone noticed whether the problem is different when the callee is using Verizon??

Posts: 187 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 14, 2007 Posts: 187

What else are you running on you local network that is sending data out over your Internet connection at the same time you're trying to make the call?

Is the person you're calling another Vonage number, or on the pstn?

Mark