Cannot use phone with Comcast

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 19, 2007 Posts: 1

Ever since Comcast put their Voip Service live on their servers I cannot use my phone and be on the internet at the same time. It has to one or the other. I called Comcast customer service and they say that their is something wrong with my Vonage hardware. There is nothing wrong with it. It only stopped working when Comcast came online with their service. How do I get around this? I am not going to switch to Comcast.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Posts: 203 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Mar 04, 2006 Posts: 203

ladybea wrote:

Ever since Comcast put their Voip Service live on their servers I cannot use my phone and be on the internet at the same time. It has to one or the other. I called Comcast customer service and they say that their is something wrong with my Vonage hardware. There is nothing wrong with it. It only stopped working when Comcast came online with their service. How do I get around this? I am not going to switch to Comcast.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Try calling Vonage and ask them to change your SIP PORT to something other than 5060, and to change your RTP ports to something other than 16384 & 16482.

These are the ports used by you ATA to "listen" and send voice packets. Comcast is notorious for "throttling" these ports, for their phone service. If you ask me - they out right block these ports, so that you will have no choice but to switch to thier service. Of course, that is speculation and ComCRAP will never admit to it.

Your other option (and best option) is to find another ISP. Is wireless available, FIOS, naked DSL?

Good luck with CS.

Also an option and more difficult for you is a good quality QoS router.

Posts: 15 · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 10:05 am Post subject:

I have Comcast and have had no problems with using Vonage. There have been times when I've been online, the phone is being used and the tv is on (all going through Comcast) with everything working fine.
Only reason I mention this is that it sounds like your situation should be correctable, it's not a system-wide Comcast problem.
And yes, Comcast Voip is available in my area. I'm constantly getting their solicitations.

Good luck!

Posts: 42 · Full Forum Member Joined: Aug 12, 2007 Posts: 42

TomCatMi wrote:

it's not a system-wide Comcast problem.

Comcast is not one giant "system", it is all of these little systems cobbled together in to one. It is entirely possible that your area allows Vonage traffic uninterrupted while the OP's Comcast area throttles it. The Sandvine technology that they use can forge packets for any type of traffic that they choose and it would be nothing for them to target Vonage or CallVantage or any other Voip provider to "encourage" their customers to switch to their digital phone.

The P2P people are already proving that Comcast throttles BitTorrent traffic. I wonder how long it will be before someone proves they are doing the same to Voip. It is a Federal offense to interfere with a phone call, even if the interference is unintentional. I predict that soon enough we will find out if this law extends to Voip as it does landlines.

Comcast and Time Warner are two of the worst in the world in terms of having consistent policies in place from area to area.

Posts: 203 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Mar 04, 2006 Posts: 203

dualsub06 wrote:

TomCatMi wrote:

it's not a system-wide Comcast problem.

Comcast is not one giant "system", it is all of these little systems cobbled together in to one. It is entirely possible that your area allows Vonage traffic uninterrupted while the OP's Comcast area throttles it. The Sandvine technology that they use can forge packets for any type of traffic that they choose and it would be nothing for them to target Vonage or CallVantage or any other Voip provider to "encourage" their customers to switch to their digital phone.

The P2P people are already proving that Comcast throttles BitTorrent traffic. I wonder how long it will be before someone proves they are doing the same to Voip. It is a Federal offense to interfere with a phone call, even if the interference is unintentional. I predict that soon enough we will find out if this law extends to Voip as it does landlines.

Comcast and Time Warner are two of the worst in the world in terms of having consistent policies in place from area to area.

Spot on. Drop ComCRAP wherever possible. They used to get 180+ Per month out of me for internet and tv. Now they get 0. nothing. Never will again.

Posts: 15 · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 11:30 am Post subject:

dualsub06 wrote:

TomCatMi wrote:

it's not a system-wide Comcast problem.

Comcast is not one giant "system", it is all of these little systems cobbled together in to one. It is entirely possible that your area allows Vonage traffic uninterrupted while the OP's Comcast area throttles it. The Sandvine technology that they use can forge packets for any type of traffic that they choose and it would be nothing for them to target Vonage or CallVantage or any other Voip provider to "encourage" their customers to switch to their digital phone.

The P2P people are already proving that Comcast throttles BitTorrent traffic. I wonder how long it will be before someone proves they are doing the same to Voip. It is a Federal offense to interfere with a phone call, even if the interference is unintentional. I predict that soon enough we will find out if this law extends to Voip as it does landlines.

Comcast and Time Warner are two of the worst in the world in terms of having consistent policies in place from area to area.

Didn't know that, thanks for the clarification!

In any case, just wanted the OP to know that Comcast and Vonage CAN work fine together.

Posts: 42 · Full Forum Member Joined: Aug 12, 2007 Posts: 42

TomCatMi wrote:

In any case, just wanted the OP to know that Comcast and Vonage CAN work fine together.

Yes, in the smaller Comcast areas there are few problems with Vonage or P2P traffic. In the medium size to larger markets the problems can be with P2P only or include Voip as well as video download services like iTMS or Amazon Unbox. There are forums that deal with broadband and cable TV where real world issues are brought out by actual users and this is a huge issue for many people.

Voip users tend to be among some of the most technologically savvy individuals out there. There are a number of them collecting data on the interference not only by Comcast but Time Warner and many others that some suspect use packet shaping as a sales technique for their digital phone service. We will find out in the not so distant future if the Voip issue is created by the ISP or not. Just like the guy out in The People's Republic of California is suing Comcast or one of the big boys over traffic shaping of P2P packets 2008 will see lawsuits fly over Voip as well.

Posts: 15 · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:16 pm Post subject:

dualsub06 wrote:

TomCatMi wrote:

In any case, just wanted the OP to know that Comcast and Vonage CAN work fine together.

Yes, in the smaller Comcast areas there are few problems with Vonage or P2P traffic. In the medium size to larger markets the problems can be with P2P only or include Voip as well as video download services like iTMS or Amazon Unbox. There are forums that deal with broadband and cable TV where real world issues are brought out by actual users and this is a huge issue for many people.

Voip users tend to be among some of the most technologically savvy individuals out there. There are a number of them collecting data on the interference not only by Comcast but Time Warner and many others that some suspect use packet shaping as a sales technique for their digital phone service. We will find out in the not so distant future if the Voip issue is created by the ISP or not. Just like the guy out in The People's Republic of California is suing Comcast or one of the big boys over traffic shaping of P2P packets 2008 will see lawsuits fly over Voip as well.

I'm in a fairly large market area (Metro Detroit) and have had no problems so far.
If Comcast (or any other ISP) is using packet shaping to obtain Voip customers, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

I'm not technologically savvy and have no idea what P2P means. All I want to pass along is that in this area, for now at least, Vonage and Comcast are compatible bed partners.

I probably just put a jinx on myself and won't be able to make a coherent phone call tomorrow
Cynic