Problems with Linksys RT31P2 (Phone doesn't work)

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 30, 2004 Posts: 11

All right, finally someone picked the phone at Vonage support. He straightaway told me that it will not work and there is nothing he can do about it.
The way he explained it is that he could see on his side that my adapter is trying to connect to Vonage but this is getting "timed out". There is something wrong with my internet connection. He asked me to run "tftp tftp.vonage.net get test". I did that and it returned an error. According to him, this means that Vonage will not work on this internet connection. Does anyone know if that means anything?
The reason I got Vonage was their claim that all I have to have is a broadband connection. That doesn't seem to be true.
By the way, an email to customercare@vonage.com has no reply yet (it's been more than three days).

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:24 am Post subject:

not surprised about the email support (or lack thereof).
I've never heard of that test, but here are my results

C:\>tftp tftp.vonage.net get test
Transfer successful: 5 bytes in 1 second, 5 bytes/s

I did it several times and it never varied.

Posts: 22 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 29, 2004 Posts: 22

aa2aa wrote:

The way he explained it is that he could see on his side that my adapter is trying to connect to Vonage but this is getting "timed out". There is something wrong with my internet connection. He asked me to run "tftp tftp.vonage.net get test". I did that and it returned an error. According to him, this means that Vonage will not work on this internet connection.

Sounds like what 'reebok' stated earlier in the thread:

reebok wrote:

well, that's good, but it doesn't mean that their ISP isn't blocking these ports.

is correct.

Since your above test did not work, that confirms that you and your Vonage adapter are not able to make a connection to Vonage. Although your hotel is helpful, this is due to the hotel's ISP (Internet Service Provider). When you were at home, your internet/broadband provider was SBC/Roadrunner/Comcast/etc. You need to have the hotel find out who their provider is, and either you or the hotel get in touch with the ISP and ask them if, or more likely, which ports are they blocking. Then you can maybe direct the ISP to stop blocking the SIP/VoIP ports.

Hope this helps.
P.S. I have a complete list of ports used by Vonage, straight from a knowledgeable Vonage tech, but at this point, that will do you no good. You will need to get in touch with the hotel ISP and tell them that you are using SIP/VoIP and are unable to make a connection.

P.S.S. I do hope this isn't done on purpose by the hotel. They may be blocking these ports purely to force you to use their phone system and increase their revenue!

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 06, 2004 Posts: 1

I am trying to connect in a hotel in Prague and I have not had any success. First I sign up for the internet service with my laptop and then I remove the plug from my laptop and plug it directly to my linksys phone adapter with the phone I brought along plugged into that. The Ethernet light turns on but not the phone 1. The funny thing is that I do get a dial tone on the phone but I am not able to make calls or receive them, I guess this is the phone line for the hotel’s DSL service.

I tried the test on my computer and received the following results:

C:\>tftp tftp.vonage.net get test
Transfer successful: 5 bytes in 1 second, 5 bytes/s

Am I missing something? Some on this forum have mentioned having a router as well, I did not think I needed that. Please let me know anything you think might help. I am going to be here for most of January and I need this to keep in touch with my family.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 30, 2004 Posts: 11

hoj,

I was facing exact same issue. Vonage support is useless. I was very disappointed because Vonage projects itself to work anywhere with a broadband connection. Clearly that is not the case. I finally switched to a less expensive hotel which doesn't provide broadband internet (I was paying 30 Euro per day extra to have internet in my room).

Good luck!