Trying to isolate the problem...

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 12, 2004 Posts: 6

This may sound similar to other posts on this forum--I've been studying them quite a bit, but here's my story:

I'm trying to figure out what wrong with my Vonage before I throw in the towel. Here's the scoop:

ISP: Comcast, Chicago area.
Speedtest: really good: ~2.5 downstream, ~256k upstream--consistently

I've been a Vonage customer since late summer. Originally had the Motorola router and service was pretty good. Maybe one issue per week. After I called and cancelled my land line we noticed that on occasion the upstream traffic stopped. We could hear the caller but the caller couldn' hear us. Annoying, but didn't happen too often.

In October I called Vonage support and they had me do some ping plotting and they set my packet size to medium. Still no improvement.

My LAN topography was: Internet--cable modem--netgear wireless router--(computers & Vonage Motorola unit). I opened up all the ports required by Vonage on the Netgear router.

By December things were getting pretty bad--most calls of any length were dropping. One didn't hang up and I had a 240 minute charge on my 500 minute plan (Vonage nicely is crediting my account for this issue). I tried moving the Motorola unit in front of the router but the downstream port wasn't working from what we could tell. Vonage sent out a new Router suspecting I had a bad port on the unit. I know have a Linksys RT31P2. My LAN topography is:
Internet--cable modem--Linksys RT31P2--(phone) Netgear router[now configured as a wireless hub with DHCP and firewall disabled]--computers

Now I can't do anything. When I pick up the phone I get a dial tone but if I even try to connect to voice mail the tones from the key pad don't even make it.

On a PC on the network, in a DOS box, I run ping www.comcast.net -t -l 1200 (sometimes I skip the -l 1200 as it makes no difference). I'll get great through put with 45-55ms latency but as soon as I pick up the phone and dial a number, the ping returns Host not reachable. When I hang up the phone, pings return. If I try downloading a file from the Internet it moves along at 300-400kb/sec but as soon as I pick up the phone and dial, the download stops. It appears that the Internet gets locked up!

I've tried a vanilla system: removing all equipment from the LAN except just the LinkSys and the phone, but still can't get anything to go upstream.

Comcast support makes me connect a PC directly into the modem. Everything works fine when I do that and obviously the phone adapter isn't connected so I can't troubleshoot the issue.

So, if anyone has any ideas, I'm really interested in getting some help.

Thanks

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:30 am Post subject:

have you messed with anything in the router settings (192.168.15.1)? I'm wondering if QoS or something is involved and that's why you're getting completely cut off with the phone. I would try disabline all QoS and looking around in general at the settings to see if anything "looks off" if you're comfortable enough doing that. are you set to "obtain ip automatically or is it static? I don't know why your phone isn't working, but your internet shouldn't stop completely. there are a myriad of things in the router settings, your best bet is to get the manual and go through the set up for it step by step to make sure everything is set correctly. and all in all, it could be a bad phone port on the linksys. did Vonage ever have you try port 2 instead? could give that a shot if you still have problems.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 12, 2004 Posts: 6

I've played with the setting a couple of times (and have restored to factory defaults and applied different sets of changes).

I thought the QoS settings weren't accessible. I'll look again. The biggest change is that I don't use the 192.168.#.# settings as it conflicts with a VPN tool I'm using. I don't believe that is the problem as the problem persisted when I restored factory presets and made it the only device on my network.

Another item: I'm using my cable company's cable modem. I'm going to the store today and purchase my own--a Motorola SB5100 (that's the only one carried by my local Circuit City). Anyone have opinions on that unit?

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:42 am Post subject:

QoS is under applications and gaming. I would definitely suggest going through the manual.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,10414082~mode=flat

Posts: 35 · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:47 pm Post subject:

I am having the same problem too.

On Comcast with the QoS on the Linksys Router.

If I disable it, what should I set the settings to?

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 5:05 pm Post subject:

you should set them to "disable"
there are three enable and disable radio buttons throughout that screen.
don't get me wrong, QoS is a good thing, so if disabling it doesn't solve your problem, I would turn it back on.
also, a lot of people use comcast with Vonage, but if both of you are in the same area, make sure they don't happen to be blocking the ports Vonage needs (unlikely, but when all else fails...)

Posts: 35 · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 5:32 pm Post subject:

I use all my bandwidth, so QoS is very important for me to have on. The problem is, when set to Auto I lose all my bandwidth (3Mb)... That is a lot to lose!

Here are some tests I have conducted since my last post. Note, even when manual is set, the download is 1Mb! that is huge amount!!

My Settings:
Comcast 3000/256

Test 1:
QoS on Auto - No Call
2958/237

Test 2:
QoS on Auto - Call
(different server than other tests though)
387\72
1054\72

Test 3:
QoS on Manual 180 - No Call
2959/237

Test 4:
QoS on Manual 180 - Call
1925/72

Well.. I made an attempt, but now looks like the test servers limit a number of connections per time period, so my test 2 is from a different server. All tests done at the same time though.

I am going to try for a little with the Manual 180 setting and see what happens.

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 7:39 pm Post subject:

when you said you had the "same problem", do you mean you also can't make calls? that's the problem the original poster was having. It doesn't look like QoS is your issue (whether or not you can make calls), unless you want to try disabling it altogether.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 12, 2004 Posts: 6

Home now. I disabled all three QoS on the screen and had the same. Made a call to my cell phone. Worked the first second and then nothing (which is consistent with what's been happening).

My father-in-law has Vonage and he's bringing his adapter over (from Detroit area). We'll hook it up and see what performance we get. If it behaves the same I picked up a new Cable Modem from Circuit City (Motorola SB5100) and will swap out cable modems.

Keep your fingers crossed?

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 12, 2004 Posts: 6

And there was great rejoicing throughout the land.

I swapped Vonage routers and had the same results.

I swapped cable modems and service returned! I had two 20+ minute conversations without a hiccup and surfed the web at the same time.

So, it was the lousy cable modem I was renting from Comcast.

It appears the case is solved.