I'm rid of Vonage and I'm happy!

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 30, 2005 Posts: 4

For me switching to Vonage (and probably any other Voip provider) was a big mistake. The biggest problem was reliability with numerous fast-busy signals both inbound and outbound. My broadband provider is Time-Warner (San Diego) and I've never had any problems with them in any way. I would guess that Vonage has not expanded their infrastructure to meet their customer base. Anyway, I'm back with SBC and it's completely reliable for $28/mo (all fees included) with caller-ID, call-waiting, and selective call blocking/screening (something Vonage doesn't offer for any price). Of course I must use a Costo calling card ($0.023/min) for long distance but that is a minor cost and inconvenience compared to the gross unreliability of the Vonage Voip system.

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:53 pm Post subject:

I don't think that Vonage, or even Voip is correct for everybody, but I take issue with your post.

MeanOldTeacher wrote:

The biggest problem was reliability with numerous fast-busy signals both inbound and outbound.

The only problem you ever came to the forum to discuss previously, and the one you credited in a previous post with your decision to leave, was the inability to access a local toll free number.

Nearly every single business has a local number you can use instead of a toll free number. This would appear to be much less of a hassle than using a Costco calling card.

MeanOldTeacher wrote:

I would guess that Vonage has not expanded their infrastructure to meet their customer base.

The fact that there are a vast number of people who use Vonage successfully belie your guess. If there was truly an infrastructure problem like you suggest then these problems would be commonly affecting a great number of users, or at least a significant number of users with a common element. This has not been reported to be happening and Vonage's number of customers continues to grow.

MeanOldTeacher wrote:

My broadband provider is Time-Warner (San Diego) and I've never had any problems with them in any way.

Many people never had any problem with their broadband connection for email and web browsing. A connection can appear to work perfectly for protocols which are not sensitive to packet delays and retransmissions but can be useless for a real time protocol.

So, before identifying Vonage as the point of failure and publicly blaming them in an open forum, did you:

Test your connection using testyourvoip.com?
Run pingplotter to see if there was an issue with your broadband connection?
Post your hardware configuration and ask if there might be any issues?

As I said, Voip is not for everyone. If a person doesn't want to be responsible for verifying that their broadband line and home network is properly configured for Voip then, if it doesn't work on the first try, they should get their money back and stay with POTS.

But making a decision to leave and blaming it on the Voip carrier with no supporting data is plain wrong.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 30, 2005 Posts: 4

Stephen,

Thanks for the quick response. I certainly can't argue with most of what you've said. However, I have observed numerous postings on both the Vonage forums and in other places on the Web regarding various unrelibity issues, including connection problems, with Vonage as well as other Voip providers. My experience only validates some of these claims in my own mind and I simply don't have the time to spend playing the blame game and debugging an immature technology. While all of this is annecdotal of course, I personally know two ex-Vonage subscribers, one in San Diego and another in the Phoenix area, who did run the various tests successfully only to conclude, maybe incorrectly, that it was a Voip problem. Although this may not be peculiar to Vonage, but to Voip in general, Vonage was obviously my main concern. That's just my unsupported opinion, however, as you point out.

Thanks,
Ray

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 06, 2005 Posts: 6

scerruti wrote:

Test your connection using testyourvoip.com?
Run pingplotter to see if there was an issue with your broadband connection?
Post your hardware configuration and ask if there might be any issues?

Where can I find pingplotter? Is that the same as traceroute?

TIA,
Imagineer

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:23 pm Post subject:

Pingplotter is available at http://www.pingplotter.com and is much more comprehensive than traceroute.

Please do a forum search to find out some suggested configurations.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 14, 2003 Posts: 9

MeanOldTeacher wrote:

For me switching to Vonage (and probably any other Voip provider) was a big mistake. The biggest problem was reliability with numerous fast-busy signals both inbound and outbound. My broadband provider is Time-Warner (San Diego) and I've never had any problems with them in any way. I would guess that Vonage has not expanded their infrastructure to meet their customer base. Anyway, I'm back with SBC and it's completely reliable for $28/mo (all fees included) with caller-ID, call-waiting, and selective call blocking/screening (something Vonage doesn't offer for any price). Of course I must use a Costo calling card ($0.023/min) for long distance but that is a minor cost and inconvenience compared to the gross unreliability of the Vonage Voip system.

Even if Vonage get's 10 bad posts a day, that is still less than .00125% complaining. Granted not everyone complains on the forums, so lets say 100 more a day are complaining... that is still less than .01375 of ONE PERCENT... I think MOST people have good luck and the people with problems seem to be people with high latency and/or jitter... High speed is not good enough!

Ping plot!
Dan

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 10

Hi Steve,

I see you are running comcast also. Can you check out the topic I started today and add anything useful you may have me check. I appreciate it as I am about to cancel service as nobody seems to be able to help me.
FYI - Just trying out your software. Looks very cool!

Jules

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 10

Sorry, here is the link to the topic.

http://www.vonage-forum.com/sutra39551.html#39551

Posts: 13 · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:32 pm Post subject:

scerruti wrote:

Pingplotter is available at http://www.pingplotter.com and is much more comprehensive than traceroute.

Please do a forum search to find out some suggested configurations.

Would you happen to know if there is something similar for Mac's, I didn't see on the Pingplotter site anything but for DOS machines, or maybe I just didn't see it?

Thanks for any suggestions. Smile