It's Official...I am going back to Copper Wire!

Posts: 318 · Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:41 pm Post subject: Re: Your Broadband Quality

vampire8u wrote:

I would have to say that 100% of the problems I have had with my Voip is due to my ISP not the Voip provider. If you have crappy DSL or Cable rest assured if you don't know about it yet, you will once you switch to Vonage.

Amen, I think a lot of the problems above were caused by a bad ISP. I'm one of those who have had near perfect services since signing up!

Posts: 78 · Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 6:22 pm Post subject: Service from Vonage

There are several layers in which things could go wrong with Voip service.

I've been one of the blessed fortunate people. I've had one minor outage for 20 minutes that was actually caused by Vonage. Otherwise the service has been rock solid.

I'm using Cox for my broadband provider and am in RI. I regularly get at least 4Mbps down and 384Kbps service up.

Only complaint I have is that the Linksys RT31P2 is a piece of crap. The case just falls apart but otherwise the unit works.

Here's my set up:

Moto SB510 --> Linksys RT31P2 --> Netgear FVS318 --> 2 PC's
--> Mitel Smart-1 --> Phones

Works like a charm. I can even use my old rotary phones because of the Smart-1. It translates pulse dial to DTMF as well as blocking 411 calls and appending the # to dialed numbers.

Posts: 2 · Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 9:52 pm Post subject: No Problems Here....

I have had Vonage for almost two years, and have had very few problems. Only a couple of small ones, but they were easily fixed. I use Roadrunner cable modem here in Houston, and between that and Vonage, beautiful calling all over the world!

I have a roommate that plays online games all night (Unreal Tournament) and even when he is in the heat of battle, I still have no problems with the calls. I also set my bandwidth to the lowest because that is all I need. It sounds great!

I love the service and have, and will continue to, recommend it to many others.

Just my two-cents. Thanks!

BW
Houston

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 30, 2005 Posts: 1

I've had Vonage for a few weeks now, and am one of those that have had a pretty peaceful experience with the service - people can call me with no problems, I can call others with no problems, and the quality is equal to my old copper connection. That being said, I feel for those that have not had a good experience, and would never presume to tell them that they are wrong for wanting to keep their previous number, as a couple posters have not so subtly alluded to. Just because there are some who see switching numbers as a non issue (some have less people in their circle of friends to inform than others) doesn't mean that others shouldn't be able to rely on the services that Vonage has promised.

While I also understand that there may be problems with an ISP, I think it a little paranoid and naive to believe that all Vonage’s problems are the fault of Comcast, WOW, or any cable company. Vonage is like any other large customer service company; they have a lot of people working for them, and there are more than a few that are incompetent at the work they perform - a personal observation working as a contractor to Comcast, Ford, and a handful of other large companies. While I personally love my Vonage phone service, I realize that it is not perfect, and blowing off the comments of those who are experiencing a problem is callous and rude.

Count me in the group of people who had the audacity to keep the number from my copper days, and I’m happy to say that it switched over seamlessly. If it hadn’t, I probably would have made some noise after a few months, as anyone else on this board would if it happened to them.

Posts: 318 · Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 12:33 am Post subject:

Even if you have to switch numbers...most telcos are under legal obligation to allow you to put a "forwarding message" up for your old line, for up to 90 days, for free.

I told Sprint my new Vonage number and, if you call my old number, you will get a recording informing you of what my new number is.

A very easy way of telling people what my new number is Smile

I would've transferred my number, but Sprint doesn't like doing stuff like that...

Posts: 42

One possible reason for the wide variation in people's experiences seems to be people using ATA devices behind a NAT or router. In theory it should work etc etc, but it seems to me that if anything is going to go wrong, the odds are that it'll be the ATA<->Router/NAT that will get you. This is the prime source of missing or one-way audio.

I myself use a motorola VT1005 outside my firewall on its own standalone IP address. I have it configured as a bridge instead of a NAT and have it pass packets through. For various reasons I can't use an off-the-shelf consumer router, so an integrated ATA/router like the linksys junk isn't an option.

Actually, I'd kill to be able to eliminate the VT1005 entirely, but that is another problem entirely. Evil or Very Mad