Vtech phone - "extension in use" - no dial tone

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 10

Call in and get a new power supply for the phone. This is a known issue that happens a lot! Those phones are a POS as they say. Some customers need a new cord once every few months.

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

And for goodness sakes, scrounge up a simple corded phone someplace. Cordless phones are very convenient, but when it comes to reliability and troubleshooting, there's nothing like an old fashioned phone with a cord on it.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 12, 2007 Posts: 9

It's the Vtech phone and/or power supply(s). I bought a corded phone for $2 @ Goodwill today and it works fine.

Now, I have to convince my husband to reinstall all the phone jacks he ripped out when we dumped Alltel home service, so we can use the house wiring and get away from wireless... Or - does someone have a suggestion for a highly-compatible/reliable wireless multi-handset phone that's affordable?

Thanks for all your help, folks...

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

Most cordless phones are pretty decent, though, as you've seen, I like to have a corded phone around for troubleshooting. Living in a large house, I prefer the lower frequency ones rather than the 5.8 GHz phones. However, avoid 2.4 GHz phones if you also have a wireless LAN.

All that said, I think keeping the house wiring up and running is a good idea. It gives you a lot of flexibility in what you can use.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 12, 2007 Posts: 9

[quote="ex"]Call in and get a new power supply for the phone. This is a known issue that happens a lot! Those phones are a POS as they say. Some customers need a new cord once every few months.[/quote]

Ex,

You were spot on. Went to radio shack and spent $5 for a new connector for my adaptaplug adapter to replace the VTech adapter -- phone works great again.

Thanks

Posts: 111 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 26, 2008 Posts: 111

mk1 wrote:

It's the Vtech phone and/or power supply(s). I bought a corded phone for $2 @ Goodwill today and it works fine.
Or - does someone have a suggestion for a highly-compatible/reliable wireless multi-handset phone that's affordable?

Thanks for all your help, folks...

"You get what you pay for" is never truer than with electronics.

Opt for a phone that is the old style with two bells and a clapper in the middle and it may last 50 years. But escalate into the electronic world and you got trouible in River City. Not only do you need to buy new rechargable batteries every once in a while, you have a zillion other things that can go on the fritz. Power supply, internal circuitry, etc. Then couple that with the way some build them cheap so folks will find them "affordable" and well... Not a pretty picture down the road.

Someone in tech support once said that about 70% of the service calls can be fixed by rebooting the adapter. After that, what would the percentage be that is caused by opting for the cheapest phone/isp plan? Another 20% maybe?

But to answer your question about the cordless models, it would seem that the best way to go is with individual base/handset models of decent quality. As someone else mentioned, the vtechs are crap, so why not get the house wiring up to snuff and plug your independent cordless phones into the wall and go from there? Just a suggestion....

About your QoS, try this site and see if your readings don't improve:
http://my voipspeed.visualware.com/
Apparently not all these test sites are created equal. Confused

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 25, 2008 Posts: 1

I have experienced the exact problem with a 5.8gig Vtech wireless
ever since I subscribed to Vonage. The problem is intermittant, failing about once (1) a month. I have tried re-wiring, power, resetting the Vonage adapter, new batteries, removing the base station power and phone line, and plugging in an old fashioned corded phone, all to no avail.
I discovered after several episodes of the failure that the only sure way I could restore the line (and my sanity) was to call myself from an outside line. Works every time.

I believe the problem is in the Vonage adapter.