Incoming Calls, Incoming Audio drops after 10 Seconds

Posts: 220 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Aug 19, 2003 Posts: 220

We've been Vonage customers since 2003. We've really not had to even think much about the service for the last few years, since we moved to this house four years ago and took over the wiring. Back "in the day" I can remember changing out vonage devices all the time, having to reboot the modem daily, being excited when we finally got caller id, etc. BUT now we're having a problem that so far almost 3 hours with tech support doesn't seem to be fixing.

1. Modem, just installed an SBG900 (motorola with onboard wireless router). Previous Modem was an SB5100 and we had a linksys wireless router beHIND the vonage linksys router.
2. Vonage device, VDV21-VD. Just installed it. Problem with outgoing audio started with installation of Modem, however, and existed with our old Linksys RT31P2 as well the moment the new modem was provisioned.
3. Comcast High Speeed fat pipe. 10,000kbs down/1600 kbs up

PROBLEM:
On INCOMING CALLS ONLY, INCOMING audio drops out after 10 to 15 seconds. Does NOT drop on OUTGOING CALLS.

MEASURES TAKEN on 9/2/08:
1. Opened the firewall on the modem.
2. Tier 2 tech on 9/2 worked for about an hour. I asked about opening ports. He said not necessary. Finally, with whatever he did, the problem was resolved and we thought all was fine.
3. After the problem was resolved, noticed all caller ID info was coming in as "unknown." Didn't worry; thought it might take a bit to right itself and didn't want to spend anymore time on phone with support.
DEVELOPMENTS AND MEASURES TAKEN ON 9/4/08:
4. This morning, the Caller ID info came back -- and simultaneously the problem with dropping incoming audio returned.
5. Called support -- only complaint I have here is the Tier 1 dude kept me on the phone for OVER AN HOUR and would NOT listen to me. Blamed speed, phones, everything but sunspots and global warming. FINALLY, when I was about to lose it completey, upgraded me to Tier 2.
6. Tier 2 dude had me assign a static IP to the vonage box.
7. Tier 2 dude had me open ports 5060-5061 and 10,000 to 20,000. We tested and it worked.
8. My husband called about 30 minutes later, problem had returned. Checked the modem and the static ip was still intact and ports open.
9. At this point, I've put the static IP for the vonage device in a DMZ. I just was able to receive a call, finally. Not really feeling great about having it in the DMZ in case people can back-hack from it to my other devices.

Long story, but does anybody have any idea A, why this is happening and B, of other ways to rectify the problem?

thanks in advance,
laurel

edited. my error. It's INCOMING audio that drops; Outgoing audio remains. Again, only on INCOMING calls. Both incoming/outgoing fine on outgoing calls.

Posts: 339 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 339

Your problem is caused by the Motorola SGB900. It has a firewall that interferes with VoIP when at its default settings. You need to decrease its level.

Posts: 220 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Aug 19, 2003 Posts: 220

thank you, but as you can see in my original message, the first step we did was opened the firewall -- i.e., the option of NONE was selecteed and the modem rebooted. Additionally, it is now in a DMZ which completely bypasses any firewall, if there was one, which there isn't. But the problem persisted after the firewall was deactivated until the vonage tier 2 tech made some changes on the vonage end. He did not describe them. As I said, it disabled Caller ID but stopped the problem. When Caller ID reactivated, the problem returned. The problem is apparently on the vonage end and has to do with the caller id interaction.

Laurel

Posts: 339 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 339

1. DMZ does not bypass the firewall, it just forwards all ports.
2. Caller ID has absolutely nothing to do with audio and it is just a coincidence that the two symptoms occurred around the same time.

It seems that something that the modem/router is doing ends up interrupting the audio stream. A lot of changes were made. Try backing them all out, returning everything to the defaults, then try the different firewall settings one at a time.

Posts: 220 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Aug 19, 2003 Posts: 220

Right now it appears to be working. Except for any potential security risks, it would probably be fine to leave as is and still may be.

The motorola may handle DMZ differently than what you are used to seeing. From the modem's help description of the Gaming DMZ:

The CPE configured to be in the Gaming DMZ is not protected by the firewall and is open to communication from any computer on the Internet. Thus, careful consideration should be given before configuring your CPE to be in the DMZ. This feature is useful if you are having difficulties running certain applications - typically gaming applications.

I won't argue the Caller ID point further, but it is rather bizarre that we had the problem with caller id, the problem resolved and caller id went away, and then caller id came back and the problem returned. it may not be specifically CALLER ID but perhaps how the feature is handled on the Vonage server end.

I will probably attempt to try again tonight, when my husband is around to help!

Posts: 339 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 339

Most routers consider NAT (network address translation) to be a firewall. It is, in the sense that something on the outside cannot directly connect to a host on the inside. According to some posts I have seen in other places, Motorola reccomends using the gaming DMZ for fixing issues with using VoIP. Although from other things I've read, you might be better with your previous setup, the SB5100 + a Linksys wireless router.

Posts: 220 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Aug 19, 2003 Posts: 220

phone has worked fine all afternoon. I do have some slight echoing, which I didn't have before. Not sure if that's the new device, the new modem or coincidence. We'd like to make the SBG900 work. A, we bought it for our beach house and couldn't get the webcam down there to work with the firewalls, even when they're dropped and we put it in a DMZ so we're stuck with a $100+ modem. But more importantly, it has better wireless range for the computers upstairs (the old linksys had "rabbit ears" and the works to hold connections). Finally, it's faster than our 5100 was for sure.

I may go ahead and remove the port forwarding and see if the DMZ alone corrects the problem. I don't even know what we have the NAT settings on right now. May play with them as well.

thanks!
L

Posts: 339 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 339

You don't want to turn NAT off because if you do, it won't function at all.

Posts: 220 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Aug 19, 2003 Posts: 220

no, I wasn't going to turn it off. Was considering a NAT pass-through but I guess since it says (true DMZ) it's no different than the gaming DMZ. Like I said, it is working so that's progress. Don't think anybody would hack the Vonage box. Just worry about anything connected to it if they can get to it.