Road Runner and Vonage

Posts: 3 · Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 11:38 am Post subject: RR with VOIP

[B]I have been using Road Runner with Vonage since January with NO issues what-so-ever. However, I just recently ported my number to Time Warner's Digital Phone service. I was currently paying $147/month for EVERYTHING but phone. Now that I ported my number to TWC Digital Phone, my bill went up to $155. $8/month for phone service, just for porting? I can handle that...

Posts: 233 · Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 2:44 pm Post subject:

No problems here yet. RR Standard with Vonage. Very happy.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 25, 2005 Posts: 1

I have had Vonage for about four months on a TimeWarner Road Running cable in upstate New York, and there have been a growing set of problems. I am thinking of going back to a regular land line. The worst problem is with the uploads; I can hear people clearly but about 90% of the time people on the other end hear only broken up and garbled voice, often completely unintelligible. This problem has gotten worse over the past two months.
There are other problems with busy signals, service outages, etc. I have the Vophone forwarded to my office when the cable line is down, and so I get a pretty good measure of how often RoadRunner is down. Pretty often.
I have also used the various testing capabilities on the web and found that the main characteristic is just sheer variability. Sometimes my download speed is 3400 kbps, sometimes 304 kbps. Sometimes my RTT is 120 ms, sometimes 4300 ms. Sometimes my testyourvoip.com Quality Score is 4.5 ("Next Door") and sometimes 2.0 ("Forget the phone"), all of these variations within maybe 2 hours of use.
I'm no expert, but it sure seems that RoadRunner has a congestion problem here in Upstate NewYork that causes these fluxuations. And this makes Vophone an unacceptible service for the time being.

Posts: 282 · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 7:10 pm Post subject: Vonage and RR in NC

I've been using TWC RR for about 5 years in central NC and it has always been good and has gotten better with time (faster download speeds 4.5M - 5M). Overall it has been very reliable. The only negative I have regarding RR is that the upload speeds haven't kept pace, with 384K being pretty much the max. Many other providers provide 1Meg or better up today. I've been using my company's SIP service for Work@Home (IP phone with corporate dial plan and SimRing to main office) for about a year now and it has worked very well. I'm just a week old on Vonage, but so far, so good. We've been using both broadband phones at the same time with good results. I'm curious to see what happens when my son is playing Halo2 on Xbox Live and I'm using the phone. I'm afraid that the upload bandwidth will be challanged during those times.

Posts: 282 · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 7:17 pm Post subject: Vonage and RR in NC

For some reason my earlier post didn't take. I've been using RR for about 5 years in NC. Has been generally reliable and has good download speeds but only so-so upload (384K). Seems to work fine with Vonage (just a week old). I've been using a SIP phone for Work@Home for about a year and that has worked fine over RR with very few service problems.

Posts: 57 · Full Forum Member Joined: Sep 03, 2005 Posts: 57

I worked at a RoadRunner division in Stategic Planning for 6 years. I just recently left to pursue other opportunities. I know everything about Time Warner Cable and its products. I saw the first ever launch of RoadRunner service in our area. Let me tell you RoadRunner has evolved into a solid product over the years. I don't even know where to begin to tell you the problems we had when RoadRunner was a new technology. These days it pretty much just runs and almost never goes down. When I was an employee there, I had all of the services, including the very first RR and Digital phones (remember I was in Planning). Digital phone is also evolving into a very good product, but like another user said - too pricy.

Now I use Roadrunner with Vonage. I almost never have problems with RR, but Vonage is a different story. However, my Vonage has been running good these days..maybe I shouldn't say it too loud.

Posts: 132 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Aug 16, 2005 Posts: 132

I've had RR in Houston for over 5 yrs. Very good, reliable service over all even when it rains (and it floods in Houston) and during major lightning storms. Outages are rare, and when they happen they're short.

Vonage: had it for about 2 months with TONS and TONS of calls, including international. Has its downs here and there but very minor (nothing that a casual reboot doesn't fix; taught the wife how to do it and she's done it successfully once). Now Vonage Customer Support needs work... lenghthy holds but when you do get in you get things straightened out if you're a bit technical and can deal with the 1st tier reps.

Overall: RR and Vonage a 9.5 out of 10 in my (pocket)book. I used to pay MCI $73/month. I now pay around $27. Definitely worth it last time I checked my math!

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 08, 2005 Posts: 6

RR in Tampa with 2 Vanage lines, A web server, Media Center, and 5 networked machines and no problems.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 26, 2005 Posts: 1

I live in Syracuse NY and have had Vonage for about 2 months now. I have been using RR since it was introduced by Time Warner. The problems I am having are the same as what rocket_tom has posted. I live in a neighborhood where almost everyone has RR and and we are experiencing a lot of problems with poor call quality. My other big complaint is with Vonage. I can not get them to get my 911 activated. I am thinking of either going to Time Warners Voip or going back to my old land line.

Here are my stats as of this posting:

Download 492,032 bps
Upload 254,232 bps
QOS 81%
RTT 115 ms
MaxPause 270 ms

Some times I get a max pause of 600-800 ms. Sad

Posts: 57 · Full Forum Member Joined: Sep 03, 2005 Posts: 57

Time Warner's Voip is a very good product. I had it before. It uses the same RoadRunner connection in your house, but it has its own dedicated bandwidth and server, a private "passway" if you will. Sound is very good and it's getting to the point that it is almost trouble free. Besides all Time Warner's systems' Voip service have E911. The only problem is it is $40.00 a month. A future product strategy in the works is that TWC will have a tierred plan, much like Vonage, a lower priced tier with a limited number of minutes per month. I know it's coming, just don't know when the decision will be made. In the mean time I will stick with my Vonage.