Use of Vonage outside the USA

Posts: 83 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 16, 2003 Posts: 83

begra8fl wrote:

I don't think vonage forbids use. Packet 8 and Net2phone offer the same service to the world. The only problem is if you have a VT1000 then you will need a step up transformer for your power cord. Depends on were you go. If Europe they use 220-240v and VT1000 support 110-120v. Very bad

This is the third post today that I have seen that indicates the VT1005 only supports 110-120v. That is not true and I am curious where people are getting that information. I have used my VT1005 in Europe and Asia and it supports 100-220v, 50-60Hz. quite nicely. The only thing one needs is either a plug adapter or new cord pigtail.

Posts: 2 · Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2004 9:44 pm Post subject: Vonage Works From New Zealand

Reporting in from New Zealand.
I Just installed my Vonage Motorolla box this week.
The power adapter works with both US & International power so no problem there. I was concerned that my 256K ADSL link might introduce problems but the voice quality, so far, has been as good or better than our local Telco. $25 per month US is a bargain compared to what the NZ telcos charge for US calls. With most of my family and friends in the US I can now keep in touch without breaking the bank.
My only problem was that Vonage had assigned me a phone# that was already taken.
It took Tech Support about 2 hours to get it sorted.
So far it has paid for itself in savings in just one week!

HBC - Auckland

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 18, 2004 Posts: 1

I currently have a Net2Phone based Hardware IP Phone in India and they charge me per minute for calls to the US. I think they charge by locating the where the call is made from.
However it works perfectly without any problems. Anybody had success configuring a vonage phone a in Inida? If it works it would be the bomb.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 09, 2004 Posts: 1

Its dependent on the foreign ISP as well.

I couldnt get a dial-tone in Malaysia. I tried various configurations, and even had some techie friends meddle with it for hours but no success (I didnt have a router though).

Finally, I called up Vonage, and guess what, my ISP (which is also the telco monopoly) has blocked UDP port 69. So, I cant receive the signal.

Anybody know if there's anyway to bypass this at all?

Posts: 51 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 08, 2005 Posts: 51

Hi,

Did anyone had a success using Vonage in India?

Thanks
Anu

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 15, 2004 Posts: 4

for what its worth, ive been using vonage in china for about 6 months now and it works great. depending on who im calling (other vonage customer, landline, cell phone) it seems i get a bit different quality service but overall its great. seems like im next door when i call my mother.

i have dsl through china telecom over here and even though pulling up american websites and such is really slow, my vonage service seems to work very well.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 3

nicbizz wrote:

I couldnt get a dial-tone in Malaysia. I tried various configurations, and even had some techie friends meddle with it for hours but no success (I didnt have a router though).

Finally, I called up Vonage, and guess what, my ISP (which is also the telco monopoly) has blocked UDP port 69. So, I cant receive the signal.

Anybody know if there's anyway to bypass this at all?

There are two ways to bypass blocking of ports by your ISP.

One way is to set up a tunnel between where you are and the remote server. For example, using IPsec (the VPN standard) you would have an encrypted tunnel through port 500 between you and a remote server or network that would make your PC appear as if it was located on the remote LAN.

However, you would need Vonage to cooperate because it always takes two ends to build a tunnel. Now, if you had a friend with a broadband connection in a place where the ports Vonage use is not blocked, then you could send your Vonage adapter there and build a tunnel between you and your friend, then from there the packets would go to Vonage the normal way.

The other way is to use a VoIP service other than Vonage, a service which uses ports that your ISP doesn't block. This may be a lot easier to do and you can check it out using a software phone on your PC before you buy any adapter or IP phone.

If you use a VoIP provider which uses the SIP protocol, this would use port 5060. So if your ISP doesn't block port 5060, then this could be an option for you.

However, if your ISP blocks Vonage, then they probably block other, SIP based services, too.

In this case, it might be a good idea to use a service that supports the IAX protocol which is less well known yet and the chance that your ISP knows about it is small. IAX uses port 4569 by default. An additional benefit is that IAX is absolutely NAT friendly. No workarounds are needed to make it work through NAT. IAX just goes through NAT since it only uses a single port.

Many providers support IAX now. The most well known are probably NuFone, Voicepulse and VoipJet but there are many many more.

In order to connect to an IAX service, you will need an IP phone or adapter that supports IAX. The most popular IAX adapter is called IAXy from www.digium.com. You can also use a software phone. Firefly is a popular softphone that supports both SIP and IAX.

Finally, it is possible to run your own VOIP switch using a software called Asterisk. This is open source and free. It is developed on Linux, but also runs on BSD, MacOS X and, using a Unix compatibility API called Cygwin, it can also be run on Windows.

Asterisk allows you to tweak VOIP in ways that you cannot do with a VOIP adapter. You can run multiple phones off your Asterisk server and bridge between VOIP and the tradtitional phone network. You can also change the port settings for VOIP protocols which can help to work around port blocking by ISPs.

for more information on Asterisk visit http://www.asterisk.org

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 07, 2005 Posts: 10

Raja wrote:

You are allowed to use VOIP phones in India, provided you don't connect them to the regular telephone lines. I use VOIP phones on regular basis in India. Services are provided by Indian ISP like VSNL or Bharathi using similar Cisco ATA boxes that Vonage provides. Sometimes it works great other times it bad.

I am looking into using Vonage in India to make calls to the US. Has anybody tried that?

I have been told by this ceo in bangalore who uses vonage equipment in his office for all USA communications. Linksys has an office in Bangalore

Also for power supply and other linksys support:

Linksys
Products: EtherFast Cable/DSL routers; ADSL USB modems
Contact: E-mail: linksys@vsnl.com Website: www.linksys.com
Tel: 80-2273130-32 Fax: 2273129
Address: 1C & 2C
Alsa Glenridge, 32
Langford Road
Bangalore 560025

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 26, 2005 Posts: 7

anu73 wrote:

Hi,

Did anyone had a success using Vonage in India?

Thanks
Anu

I've been using Vonage in India for the last year and half. I just brought the Vonage box I was using in the US with me it it just started working without a problem when I plugged it in to my broadband connection.

Spock

Posts: 51 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 08, 2005 Posts: 51

Spock wrote:

anu73 wrote:

Hi,

Did anyone had a success using Vonage in India?

Thanks
Anu

I've been using Vonage in India for the last year and half. I just brought the Vonage box I was using in the US with me it it just started working without a problem when I plugged it in to my broadband connection.

Spock

Hi Spock,

Good that you can use it. Can you give more info like your location, which broadband you are using, which plan, bandwidth, what type of convertor you are using to plug the Linksys router etc. This type of answers help others if they want to use vonage. Thanks and I would appreciate if you provide this info.

Bye
Anu