Vonage and SKY systems

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 3

Hi all,

I am new to this forum and maybe I can help wit this Sky / Vonage problem....

This is from what I have digested as I am not a sky customer - for that matter not a BT customer at all....So it may not be 100% correct....

I believe there is a T&C for Sky that you are to have a BT line. Maybe this is why you are having problems. So - by getting a BT phone line, setting up a cheap ADSL ISP (UK online?) and vonage, and connect the sky box to the BT line direct....hows that sound ?

I just have telewest cable and blueyonder now.

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 06, 2005 Posts: 18

hi i was on cable (ntl) for 7 years before moving to vonage so even though it states in the t&c for sky that you need a bt line it does not really matter as long as its a land line ie telewest bell ntl bt it works ok. it seems to be something to do with the vonage line and the sky box not dropping down the speed of the v90 modem i think any how Very Happy

Posts: 71 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jul 19, 2005 Posts: 71

Is anyone at Vonage looking into this issue with Sky? I would like to think the two are working together to resolve this issue as it is likely to impact sales on both sides of the fence.

Sky Multiroom requires that both boxes (or more if you have them) are connected to your telephone line. This is the only way they can tell both boxes are in the same house and that you have not rented the second to your neigbour for something greater then £10 !

This is giving me grief, if not resolved I will be getting rid of multiroom.

Regards,

Paul

Posts: 109 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 30, 2005 Posts: 109

Well, I don't think anyone at Vonage is looking at it. I was just told by Maurice (?) at Vonage Tech support that I'm the first caller he's heard ask about it. So everyone out there get calling into Vonage and speak up!

Anyway though, he did draw a comparison with Tivo in the US, which sounds a valid comparison to me. And there's a whole forum on that.

So, he checked my "settings" and said they were correct for Tivo and so should be OK for Sky ... as I have yet to connect my 2 sky boxes up I can't be sure . (Reason - I have yet to figure out the best way to connect the vonage router and sky boxes without too much cabling).

He said if it doesn't work, I need to find out how to slow down the Sky modem (hmm ... that doesn't sound good news based on what others are saying). Has anyone actually tried Sky technical support on this?

He also told me about the compression standards Vonage use. This doesn't mean anything to me, but maybe it does to you? Let us all know!

They have 3 standard levels, and as I requested Sky compatibility I'm on the lowest compression ie G711U. The other 2 levels are G726 (medium) and G729 (highest).

PS BTW the phone line for Sky systems doesn't have to be a BT line. It worked fine with NTL, until of course I ditched them.

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 06, 2005 Posts: 18

i have called sky i even went up to the point of having the engineer round i didn't tell him it was a vonage line i just disconnected ntl at the box and wired up my vonage box to the ntl box every thing working ok then i called sky. they sent out engineer to check it out and he tried everything to get it to call back but everything he tried just failed. after allot and i mean allot of calls to sky i finally got a number for pace and was informed that the modem can be slowed down but only if sky chose to put the option in the sky menu now we no there is no chance of that ever happening

i have managed to connect to various isp,s via vonage but only at 28.8k i can not see any way of slowing the v90 modem in the sky box down

Posts: 71 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jul 19, 2005 Posts: 71

So from what you guys have said it looks like the problem is resolvable and the easiest option would be for Sky to allow an option to force the modem to a lower speed such as 28.8 or lower.

Out of interest has anyone tried with Vonage set at the highest voice quality (90kps)? Does this help!

I have emailed Sky but received no response yet, this is the second email I have sent them on this topic, the first was not replied to either.

Maybe we can all badger Sky?

As previously mention (and Vonage take note if your reading these forums) this problem might be in its infancy right now but it is going to cause both Vonage and Sky a huger problem if not resolved just like TIVIO has in t he USA.

Regards,

Paul

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:25 am Post subject:

I'm a yank, so no Sky systems to play with here, but our DirecTV systems are probably similar. People over here have had reasonably good success by adding *99 to the dialing prefix. The *99 tells the Linksys & Vonage equipment that you're making a data call and it changes settings, for that call only, to provide a better data call.

Did someone say badger?

http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 06, 2005 Posts: 18

the sky box will not let you enter anything in the settings only numbers no *
unless any one nows any deferent
i have tried to do it with the sky remote and the keyboard no luck yet

Posts: 109 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 30, 2005 Posts: 109

So, I've finally got round to connecting my Sky digibox to the Vonage phone line.

The digibox persistently thinks there's no phone connected.
If I connect a phone in parallel (using a doubler) the phone is connected and I can make a call.
But when I test a callback from the Sky "secret menu" (as per Chrisandsally's suggestion) I don't hear a call being made.

Is this a fault with my physical telephone connection? Or with the sky box? or with Vonage? It doesn't seem as though I've got as far as vonage yet.

The sky box used to work fine with my NTL line (no longer connected).

I have a second digibox I'll try when I get the right connector to connect the Vonage router to that phone line

Posts: 109 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 30, 2005 Posts: 109

I called Vonage technical support. Spoke to a guy called Mike.
He thought Sky is probably like DirecTV and apparently a lot of US customers (30-40%) aren't able to get a phone connection.

He changed some settings on my router, and no luck. Talking on my mobile (he called me), so the changes could take effect.

We rebooted the Sky box, and no luck.

He didn't think it was unusual that I couldn't hear the Sky box dial out - he said Sky box was not recognising the dial tone.

It did appear that they were using their US experience to see if it could apply in the UK; eg asking if there's a network port on the box. He was asking his colleagues about what was done when Tivo didn't recognise the dial tone (hence the Sky box reboot).

The remaining suggestion he had was to change the phone cable ... just in case. I'll try this another time.

But it looks like I'm going to be waiting for Sky to disconnect me. Or I resubscribe to NTL or BT! Which takes away the point of Vonage somewhat.

Anyone got Sky to agree to keep them connected?