Broken Call Receiving End -- Modem Cause

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 26, 2007 Posts: 1

I use 2 RT31P2's a WRT54G. I use Comcast for as my internet connection provider and use their middle grade service (5mg?). I was using a Motorola Surfboard modem that was a little over two years old but was only used about 50% of the time as I travel between two locations throughout the year. I have been a Vonage user since 2005 and have famaliarized myself with some of the problems and pluses of Vonage use. Actually it enabled me to more effectively operate between two locations when no one else was offering the capability for those locations back in 2005.

Several months ago I moved the southern location and began to have sporadic problems with call quality. Gradually it became somewhat worse and I was having consistent broken calls with clients and calling them back on my cell phone, not a tolerable situation. I had Comcast out on 2 different occasions which included running a new line from the house to the street, a new line from outside the house to the modem, a modem check and many many speed check that were not up to spec. Finally had Comcast out a third time they sent a troubleshooter my calls had reached an elevated status. This time he replaced several outlet connections around the house...some improvement still only about 50% and QOS still not acceptable.

Finally he called in and requested to try swapping out the modem. After he pushed a bit they let him. The improvement in speed test was dramatic reaching 6 mg and a 2+ for upload. I was thrilled but also mad at myself for not just throwing out the modem earlier. However, they had done a check on it earlier and it was okay. I now have a Scientific Atlanta 2100 and could not be happier with the connection.

I hope this will help others fix some of their broken call problems. Peter

Posts: 831 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 831

Unfortunately, there are a lot of pieces to good Voip service. The saying that your service is only as good as your ISP's internet connection is very true. One without Voip or not a heavy gamer would generally not notice a poor internet connection. My experience was a so so QOS (for over a year), varying download speeds, at times as low as 1500 MBPS (I attributed to a heavy user in my area) but with bandwidth saver set to low, my phone worked OK. About 4 weeks ago, I would intermittently lose internet, and at times the response was so slow, even web pages would time out.

Time Warner suspected a connection or MTA problem, but due to the intermittent nature of the problem, had difficulty finding it. Finally they located the problem and my QOS has been stellar ever since.