Cordless Phone Problem

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 16, 2005 Posts: 2

Hello,

I've had Vonage service for about three weeks and for the most part it works very well. I do have one issue when I switch from using a simple analog phone (with a speaker) to my cordless phone (I have the same problem with both 5.8 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz cordless phones). I have Comcast service in NJ (Monmouth county - very reliable in my case) and am using the RCA cable modem from Comcast. The problem is as follows:

1. I use my speaker for a conference call (everything works fine)
2. Unplug the speaker phone and replug my cordless phone (which I use 95% of the time)
3. I reboot cable modem, Linksys router (from Vonage) and my PC
4. The cordless phone has dialtone and I can hear the tones as I dial, but the call does not get through.
5. I hang up the cordless phone, and (this is the most strange aspect) the RCA modem shuts down and starts to reboot.
6. Sometimes I need to do many reboots before the cordless starts to work again. Once it does, the call quality is almost perfect.

I've even tried used a one-to-two phone plug adapter on the Vonage (Linksys) router, but still cannot switch from one phone to the other.

I tested all the phones on my wireline service from Verizon (no problems whatsoever).

By the way, my cordless phone does have a speaker, but my conference calls can be quite long and the cordless phone battery will run out before the end of the call. So, I really need to use both phones, depending on the situation.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Steve

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 6:12 pm Post subject:

that's pretty weird as the phone adapter has nothing to do with and doesn't care what's connected to it. in other words, any phone should basically work, and you definitely shouldn't have to do all of those (or any) reboots. what happens if you just unplug the the speakerphone and plug the cordless in? no dialtone? what happens if you hang up the speakerphone, then pick it back up and dial something else? does it work as it should? since this evidently isn't a phone specific issue (you said you've tried it on multiple cordless phones), I wonder if you've tried using the cord that the spearkerphone usually uses on a cordless phone (cord from phone to vonage device). kinda silly but that really seems like the only variable in the situation. the only other thing I can think to try is plugging another corded phone in after using the speakerphone and see if it works.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 16, 2005 Posts: 2

Thanks.

If I just switch from one phone to the other (test for dialton) but don't make any calls, everything is fine. It seems that I need to make a call on the speaker phone, and then I can't easily switch back to the cordless phone. It seems that the Vonage Linksys router is sending a reboot signal to the RCA cable modem.

Yes, I have tried with an even simpler corded phone (no speaker or any special feature) and I get the same problem. My best guess is that either the electrical pattern or the pattern of IP packets is different between the corded and cordless phone, and this is somehow creating an interaction problem between the RCA cable modem and the Linksys router.

Also, other than this problem, I have had no problems with the RCA cable modem. Before getting Vonage, I had a wireless Linksys router between my PC and RCA cable modem (again, there were no problems at all).

Steve