VONAGE hogging more bandwidth than documented?

Posts: 23

Maybe I'm posting this in the wrong section, but I'm running out of options. If I'm in the wrong place, can someone please redirect me?

I've had Vonage service since may of '04. I was using COMCAST BROADBAND... and a MOTOROLA MTA unit from Vonage. My bandwidth was roughly 3Mbit downstream, and 275k upstream, on average. On the same internet connection I had my Vonage service on, I ALSO ran an internet radio station, that required a max of 160k upstream... leaving 115k upstream for other internet use, including my Vonage service. I never had a single problem w/ poor audio quality of phone calls, even when nearly maxing out my upstream bandwidth. Exclamation

In November of 2004, I had a power failure during a firmware upgrade on the MOTOROLA MTA device, and Vonage replaced the MOTOROLA w/ a LINKSYS RT31P2 broadband router, with 2 phone ports. Since getting this new router, I've moved. Once again I'm using COMCAST BROADBAND service, now at an even higher bandwidth of nearly 4Mbit downstream, and nearly 375k upstream. Again, I am running an internet radio station stream, that utilizes no more than 160k of the upstream bandwidth, again, leaving nearly 215k upstream bandwidth for internet use and my Vonage service.
According to documentation on Vonage website, they say they need a maximum of 90k in both directions, for optimal service. Every time I attempt to make a phone call on Vonage, the call starts fine, but within the first minute or so, the party I'm calling can either no longer hear me, or only get about every 3rd word or so.... PLUS my internet streamer for the radio station begins having problems streaming it's data, claiming there's not enough outgoing bandwidth to stream properly. This ONLY happens when I'm attempting to make a call on Vonage. Mad

Vonage thought this might be a faulty router, so they sent me a new one. The same issues. Tech Support [when you're luck enough to talk to them after waiting an hour+ on hold,] don't seem to be of much help.
I've attempted to fix this by adjusting the BANDWIDTH saver on Vonage with no positive results. I've attempted to adjust various configurations in the router, also to no avail. Anyone else having these types of issues?? .. and if so, got any suggestions Question

Thanks... I like the service, when it works [like it did in my first several months of use,] but if I can't get this solved, I'm dropping them.

Thanks...

Andrew
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Posts: 20 · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 7:59 pm Post subject:

sounds like packet loss to me, read some of the other comcast problem posts.

Posts: 23 · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 8:08 pm Post subject:

Okay Vonage BEGINNINER QUESTION #2 then:

Where would you suggest I go to test for packet loss, and what kind of results should I be expecting?

Thanks... Andrew

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 8:49 pm Post subject:

why do you capitalize like that?
on the left side there's a speed test link. it will give packet loss info. as will testyourvoip.com (detailed results). post your results here. I usually get no packet loss. what cable modem do you have?
personally it sounds like qos (if not other things) kicking in to me.

Posts: 23 · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 9:01 pm Post subject:

results from TestYourVoip.com: [4 tests about 3 min apart]

DOWNLOAD: 4.10Mb 2.41Mb 4.11Mb 3.91Mb
UPLOAD: 171k 256k 174k 192k
QoS: 75% 17% 72% 76%
RTT: 75ms 75ms 75ms 76ms
MAX PAUSE: 20ms 421ms 23ms 125ms

I have the SB5120 cable modem that COMCAST brought w/ their install. IT was brand new, right out of the box at the time [Nov. '04]

Your thoughts?

-Andrew

Posts: 244 · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 9:11 pm Post subject:

You are not getting the upstream that you mentioned above. That is your problem. If your radio station is using 160 your are dam near out of bandwidth.

Can your throttle that down any?

If not you are going to continue to have problems.

Posts: 23 · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 9:21 pm Post subject:

But that's not an issue. When I had Vonage in Denver on COMCAST with at even SLOWER speeds, using the MOTOROLA MTA from Vonage I never had this problem... EVER, and I damn near DID top out my bandwidth then. Now I have MORE bandwidth to use [my results from the tests above were EXCLUDING the 160k I was running already,] but I can't seem to make a single call w/o it getting choppy within a minute or so and my webstreams beginning to buffer saying there's not enough upstream bandwidth.

Suggestions?

Posts: 244 · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 9:28 pm Post subject:

Trust me, thats your issue. If you dont believe me turn off your radio stream, set your upstream qos at 70 and try again.

Im betting your former connection was more solid/reliable. I also notice that your QOS Scores are low.

Look at mine compared to yours.

Download 2,885,192 bps
Upload 194,296 bps
QOS 97%
RTT 52 ms
MaxPause 16 ms

Max Pause and QOS have alot to do with clear Voip Calls.

Posts: 24 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 22, 2004 Posts: 24

No offense, but sounds to me like you want someone to tell you the problem is the change in TAs. Just another suggestion on testing. You might want to try some of the testing tools at dslreports.com. speed test is at http://www.dslreports.com/linequality and will give you ping and packet loss testing from both east and west coasts. post the url to your results after you're done.

Posts: 23 · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 10:09 pm Post subject:

None taken... actually, all I realyl want is for someone to point and sat "THIS IS WHAT THE PROBLEM SEEMS TO BE..."

Here's my results from the line quality test:

Simple ping loss check
10secs of 40byte packets 2 per second 0% loss 43.2ms 45.5ms 60.5ms
pass
low bandwidth stream
10secs of 56k/bit ping stream 512byte packets 0% loss 44.5ms 47.4ms 62.3ms
pass
medium bandwidth stream
10secs of 128k/bit ping stream 512byte packets 0% loss 44.4ms 48.8ms 178ms
pass
your first hop ping
stream of 40byte pings to 66.176.2.246 0% loss 36.3ms You are 6ms
to your first hop!

I'm afraid I know barely enough about how this is supposed to work. I just seem to get conflicting suggestions here, and trying to figure out what route I should take.