Robotic voice and breaking up

Guest

I've had Vonage for a month now - works fine most of the time but I intermittently get this problem: I can hear who I'm speaking to crystal clear but they hear me like a robot and it breaks up like a cell phone call.

I have a cable modem, Linksys (DHCP), 100mb & 802.11b LAN, 9 PCs - and I have a clue. My entire house runs off the Cisco ATA - 4 phones (3 cordless, one corded) and my alarm system. Even with just a single cordless phone and the ATA I get this very annoying problem on occassion.

My ATA is in the basement next to the Linksys and cable modem. I'm changed the bandwidth settings between 30k and 90k. I've rebooted the ATA, I've tried different phones, I've shut down a my PCs. I did a speed test and I have 122k up/ 1.44mb down so it's not a bandwidth issue.

Any ideas?

Papu Papu

Posts: 14 · Moderator Joined: Mar 05, 2003 Posts: 14 Location: USA

Do you know when this happens most? The reason I ask is the cable is like being on a big LAN. You are sharing the bandwidth with all the other users on the network. If the problem is mostly at night with Internet use is high this could be your problem. I get the same kind of problems sometimes. I usually it is during high traffic time.

Posts: 83 · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2003 4:52 pm Post subject:

Happens at any time - this is not a bandwidth issue on my end. I've shut down all of my machines, infrastructure devices (WAPs, PS2, etc.) and I still get it intermittently.

Pingpath sip.vonage.net shows excellent latency, no significant lost packets, speed test even with Kazaa Lite running on 2 machines and Mailserver and webcam running shows 120k up/758k down.

Time of day doesn't matter and my outgoing/incoming traffic doesn't matter, it seems.

Any other ideas would be welcome.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: May 09, 2003 Posts: 1

I have exactly the same problem that papu described. Called Vonage customer support - they are absolutely no help. They blame the router but my other connections (3 computers) are fine. I have changed the cable ISP provider from RoadRunner to Earthling and changed the cable modem - Nothing helps. The line drops randomly when there is more than enough bandwidth, I am so annoyed...
It was fine for 4-5 month, it started happening back in March...
Mad

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: May 09, 2003 Posts: 2

This issue is most likely a bandwidth constraint OR an issue getting from your router to Vonage. Remember your Cisco ATA device is making a connection across the internet to an IP based service. If for some reason the route you take has issues at various hops you will experience poor service.

Also, if your internet connection drops for even 1/10th of a second you will lose your call...

Posts: 83 · Posted: Fri May 09, 2003 11:43 am Post subject:

Since I posted this original note, I have made several changes.

I have no bandwidth constraints and I have tried using a SMC Barricade in place of my Linksys router. No difference.

All wired connections are 100Mb switched - there are no contention issues on my LAN.

I forward ports 5060 & 5061 (UDP) to the Cisco ATA. The ATA itself is on a reserved DHCP lease (locked to it's MAC address) so it always has the same internal IP address.

I have run pathping, tracert, neotrace, plotping, what's up gold, and netiq to try and track this problem. I've changed phone handsets, rewired, and made offerings and burnt incence to the Packet Gods. No difference. (that's a joke).

This problem is intermittent and inconsistent - obviously a router out on the Internet somewhere that is choking and dropping packets. Seems to be somewhere in the NYC/NJ area.

Papu Papu

Posts: 83 · Posted: Fri May 09, 2003 11:50 am Post subject:

I bequeath my worldy goods and chattels to the Packet Gods if they would give me zero latency and zero dropped packets. Oh, and unlimited bandwidth.

So far, nothing works Surprised

)

Papu Papu

Posts: 83 · Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 9:44 am Post subject:

I'm stirring up this old(er) post again to ask the Forum if anyone else is getting this problem intermittently. I still get it to this day.

Antipas, can we set up a Voting thingie - I'm really curious if I (and one other) am the only ones getting this problem.

Papu Papu

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 08, 2003 Posts: 1

I have been on Vonage for about 2 months now, and I too have this problem. My fiancee has been with Vonage for 7 months now and has just recently had problems with droped call and not being able to retrieve voicemail. I think it has to do with growing pains, just like AOL back in the 80's.

Posts: 83 · Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2003 3:44 pm Post subject:

Antipas, can we set up a Voting thingie - I'm really curious if I (and two others) am the only ones getting this problem.

Papu Papu