clicking sound and flaky dial out on WRTP54G

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 13, 2008 Posts: 8

Here are my stats, my story follows -

1. Seattle, WA
2. Comcast Cable
3. Speedtest.net reports 29741 kbps down 1571 up with 25ms ping
4. Motorola SB5120
5. Linksys WRTP54G with 1.00.62 firmware (wireless turned off)
6. Setup - Modem----> WRTP54G --> Home network
7. Takes several attempts to dial out and persistent, loud clicking sound for first several minutes of call.
8. Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 4700336 bps
Upload speed: 2428312 bps
Quality of service: 87 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 88 ms
Average download pause: 6 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 75 ms
Average round trip time to server: 77 ms

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 3.4 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 0.8 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.1 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported VoIP lines: 41
Estimated MOS score: 4.0

Long story short - had loved Vonage service until about a year ago after I had some lengthy, unhelpful customer service experiences and an old Vonage box that died.

I'm running a Linksys WRTP54G with 1.00.62 firmware and we have a persistent clicking sound for the first several minutes of the phone call (received or placed). Worse, it often takes several attempts to make a phone call. While we do hear a dial tone, dialing a full number results in no ringing. I hang up and dial again. Usually, this takes 3 to 4 attempts to dial out.

I'm extremely reluctant to call customer care as I simply don't have time for the effort.

The only other post I've seen on the topic is here - vonage-forum.com/ftopic9491.html" target="_blank">http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic9491.html

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem and some advice on what I can do. I've thought about buying the new VPortal box as a last ditch effort. Otherwise, I'm probably going to have to drop Vonage.

Any thoughts on what I should try would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Randy Stewart

Posts: 344 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 344

What type of telephones are you use and do you have your telephones connected to your TA via house wiring? The description of "clicking" noise suggests connection to a live phone line power or wireless interferance. If you are using house wiring, if you connect a telephone directly to the TA, does the noise follow or go away?

Posts: 816 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 816

I can think of four things you can try:

Try a different phone cord from your vonage device

If this does not work,

Go into your Vonage features page (Vonage Web Site) and lower the bandwidth saver to the lowest (30kbps) setting.

If this does not work,

Move your phone connection to port 2 and change the setting in your vonage add in's page and then "under move a number" change to port 2.

If this does not work,

Look at your PC's MAC address and clone that address to the Vonage device. (There have been reports, coincidence or not, that after cloning a different address in a Vonage device, problems with Comcast service and Vonage cleared up.)

If any of these or another solution was found, please post back.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 13, 2008 Posts: 8

trekologer wrote:

What type of telephones are you use and do you have your telephones connected to your TA via house wiring? The description of "clicking" noise suggests connection to a live phone line power or wireless interferance. If you are using house wiring, if you connect a telephone directly to the TA, does the noise follow or go away?

I have a 5.8Ghz wireless multi handset unit from Uniden. I just tried plugging in directly to the box, but the same clicking sound happens. I normally use the house wiring.

I have an old handset (wired) that I also tried, same issue.

Good suggestion, though, had not tried that.

Cheers,
Randy

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 13, 2008 Posts: 8

ed56 wrote:

I can think of four things you can try:

Try a different phone cord from your vonage device

Tried that, didn't work.

ed56 wrote:

If this does not work,

Go into your Vonage features page (Vonage Web Site) and lower the bandwidth saver to the lowest (30kbps) setting.

If this does not work,

Move your phone connection to port 2 and change the setting in your vonage add in's page and then "under move a number" change to port 2.

If this does not work,

Look at your PC's MAC address and clone that address to the Vonage device. (There have been reports, coincidence or not, that after cloning a different address in a Vonage device, problems with Comcast service and Vonage cleared up.)

If any of these or another solution was found, please post back.

Trying the first two items now. They seem to take some time, so I'll report back later. The third item is a little more daunting, so I'll try it if the first two don't work.

Thank you for all the good suggestions.

So, one thing I've just stumbled upon is that it seems that some folks have had trouble using the cable modem that I'm using, the Motorola SB5120. The problems they describe aren't like mine, though. Maybe getting a different cable modem will help?

vonage-forum.com/ftopic23054.html" target="_blank">http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic23054.html

Cheers,
Randy

Posts: 816 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 816

Interesting post on the cable modem.

I have the 5101 so I guess I am good.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 13, 2008 Posts: 8

ed56 wrote:

I can think of four things you can try:

Go into your Vonage features page (Vonage Web Site) and lower the bandwidth saver to the lowest (30kbps) setting.

If this does not work,

Move your phone connection to port 2 and change the setting in your vonage add in's page and then "under move a number" change to port 2.

ed56, you are my new best friend Smile

Tried both of the above and I have no more clicking. (I'll set the bandwidth back to 90kbps to see which one actually fixed it).

I am completely overjoyed! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Cheers,
Randy

Posts: 816 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 816

stewtopia wrote:

ed56 wrote:

I can think of four things you can try:

Go into your Vonage features page (Vonage Web Site) and lower the bandwidth saver to the lowest (30kbps) setting.

If this does not work,

Move your phone connection to port 2 and change the setting in your vonage add in's page and then "under move a number" change to port 2.

ed56, you are my new best friend Smile

Tried both of the above and I have no more clicking. (I'll set the bandwidth back to 90kbps to see which one actually fixed it).

I am completely overjoyed! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Cheers,
Randy

We get lucky sometimes Very Happy

Cheers!

Posts: 655 · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 6:56 pm Post subject:

The issue your describe of the clicking is an indication that there is an issue on the analog side of your device. You then proved this by fixing it when moving your phone number to port 2 of the device. This means there is a problem with FXS port 1 and can eventually happen to FXS port 2. If you were to not touch the bandwidth and moved the phone number back to port 1, you should hear the clicking once again.

While you can enjoy your service now, I do recommend buying a new device now to either replace the current or to have on hand if the ports completely go where there will be no signal or voltage present. You would be left without dial tone and would not hear the phone ring while the actual internal parts of the device were working properly.

The FXS ports on a device can go instantly or over time especially when using your home wiring if the Demarc was not disconnected properly or there is the slightest voltage bleeding into your internal home wiring.

Posts: 816 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 816

When I first installed my Vonage service, I had a problem with a clicking sound and echo. I tried a number of fixes, including lowering the bandwidth, resetting and moving the phone cord, changing ports from 1 to 2, and then back. It seemed changing the bandwidth did the trick for the clicking and turning the volume down on the handsets took care of most of the echo.

At the time I had a Toshiba PCX1000 cable modem (DOCSYS 1.0; half duplex), that I eventually had replaced. Since that time I have had very good service.

Others have had the same experinece (see vonage-forum.com/ftopic19986.html" target="_blank">http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic19986.html )