Thinking of making the jump.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 10:37 pm Post subject: Thinking of making the jump.

Hi,
I currently have cable service with Road Runner. I have family overseas. I'm thinking of switching to Vonage. I wanted to get current (or past) subscribers input. How is the service? What about customer support? Any problems with overseas connections and latancy issues?
Sincerely,
Guest

Posts: 41 · Full Forum Member Joined: 1064934432 Posts: 41

Here's my experience so far:
After watching this forum for a bit and picking up some tips on what equipment does / does not work, I decided to take the plunge. I ordered up cable service and made sure the cable co. established a solid connection using a non-RCA cable modem. I then ordered up Vonage service using the on-line application process. I made sure I ordered the router recommended by Vonage as part of the package. Vonage set the account up quickly and shipped the items promptly. I followed the installation instructions carefully and.... It all works beautifully! Very Happy

Notes:
- it has only been installed for two weeks, so I don't have a lot of history to fall back on, but so far I'm happy.
- I am using Charter Pipeline in Michigan. Right now they are re-arranging their service levels so they have my connection set at the highest speed until they finish their changes. I have only signed up for the slowest connection (384 down, 128 up), so I don't know what will happen when they put the proper restricitons in place.
- I am currently hanging on to my POTS line until I am convinced that Vonage will continue to be reliable - probably 2 - 3 months.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 03, 2003 Posts: 8

I was in the same boat when I considered Vonage. I call family members overseas almost everyday.

Vonage call quality in domestic US is very good. However, once you go off the ocean, there is a big delay in the conversation. Kind of like international call 10 years ago.

I ended up buying prepaid international calling card and stay with Vonage. It's still much cheaper than using regular Telco service.

Posts: 8

I've been using Vonage for the past two months with Road Runner ISP in NYC and very satisfied with the quality of calls and service.

I haven't tried their customer support because the service is reliable and haven't encountered any problem in term of bandwidth or call quality.

I connect the Vonage (Cisco ATA 186) to my D-link switch, attached to Cisco 500 Pix Firewall as the Gateway router and firewall. The cable modem is the Time Warner Cable's Toshiba Cable modem. Do not use the Scientific Atlanta's DTV cable box that has a built-in Cable Modem. The performance is not as well as the Toshiba's Docsis cable modem. Always look for the separate cable modem where you use cable filter. It looks like a splitter but does not degrade signal.

I make International call to asia averaging 500 minutes a months without experiencing significant delay. The delay is about 1-2 seconds on calls to land-line phone overseas. No delay is experienced if calling an overseas cell phone / hand phone. This is probably due to faster packet switching technology built-into a cellular network than the country's Public Switched Telephone Network or POTS lines.

Domestic calls are excellent with less than 1% incidence of faint local echoes. This is most likely caused by routing issues on the Internet. But the Cisco 186 is very quick in detecting this issue and compensate it right away.

I've ditched my land-line phone and stick with Vonage for 99.9% of my calls from home. In the event of an emergency, I still can use the Vonage Public access point for 911 or my Cell's E-911 service.

All I need now is a broadband satellite backup in case of Time Warner cable's failure.
In overal, I am a very satisfied customer of Vonage.