rtp300 outgoing calls with answer delay (hello?.. hello?..)

Posts: 75 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Sep 06, 2005 Posts: 75

i just signed up for Vonage and have just started using it. so far, it seems to be working just fine, except for the first 1-2 seconds when i call someone. i'm using the rtp300 device they sent me, which has the newest firmware version installed (1.00.45). i have 5meg down/384k up cable through roadrunner.

in the case of outgoing calls, i dial the number and it starts ringing. i hear anywhere from 2-3 rings (usually) and then a click like the other line was picked up. at this point there's typically silence followed by the person on the other end saying "HELLO??" in a somewhat annoyed fashion. when i then say "hello" back to them, they say that they already said hello 2-3 times (where i only heard 1) and that they thought nobody was on the line and were about to hang up. in fact, i've already had a couple people hang up on me for this very reason which is obviously very bad for the usefulness of the line for placing calls. one single time in my dozens and dozens of test calls did i hear the person say "hello" on their first time right after answering. in this case, it was right after a ring tone stopped when they picked up... more on this below.

for incoming calls, it seems to work perfectly in all cases. people call me, i answer (typically after 2 rings to get the cid info, but i've tested it picking up phone after 1 or many rings) and immediately they hear me say hello and i hear them just fine.

for testing purposes, i've removed everything from my network and plugged the rtp300 device directly into my cable modem, with no computers attached, and power cycled everything as directed by Vonage. i've also tried various regular corded phones to make sure it wasn't with the new cordless set i just got. my internet connection tests out just fine, with good pings and no loss. to make test calls i'd call my land line from my Vonage line (it's easier than calling other people and gets same results) and answer it with "hello?" but i would always hear my Vonage line continue to ring for another second or so before the little "click" indicating the connection was made and i could hear myself on both lines.

i spent well over an hour talking with a tech at Vonage yesterday evening (as an aside, the hold times were quite reasonable, i was dreading the long waits i've heard about, yet they were really quick to get to me), and he had me redo basically all of what i had done previously in my own testing (disconnecting everything but the device, using other phones, running MANY speed tests and line quality tests) and they are satisfied that it's not with my isp or local equipment. during the time with the tech, he also reconfigured a few things within the rtp300 device itself, many of which i don't know what he did, but he would say something like "i'm changing a setting on your device now, lets do a reset on it again and test it". after which i'd do a test between my Vonage line and my landline and the same delay on pickup would happen. he even reconfigured the device to use my "phone 2" plug instead of "phone 1", unfortunately with unchanged results.

something interesting to note is about the "rings" when calling someone. when using a landline, you often hear people pick up the phone in the middle of a ring, where you start to hear it ring and they suddenly pick up the phone mid-ring. i didn't put it together initially, but so far i've *never* heard someone pick up, when calling from my Vonage line, mid-ring. it's as if no matter when they pick it up, if i start hearing a ring it'll play the whole ring sound before completing the call. not once have i heard a partial ring when calling out, which seems to defy the odds.

i'm sure i've forgotten some small details of what we've done to troubleshoot this, but we've done pretty much everything. almost the entire day yesterday was devoted to this issue and testing everything.

to me it seems that there is something with the service, or the rtp300 device, with the way it connects an outgoing call and playing the ringing sound. could it be that it's incapable of playing a partial ring so if people pick up as a ring starts or mid-ring, it has to play the whole entire ring sound before completing and giving you the connected line to speak on? it sounds weird, but that's really what it seems like.

are other people with the rtp300 hearing anything like this? it took me a couple days to finally realize this was happening, and then finally calling myself on a landline and hearing it happen for myself before i finally believed it was happening. this isn't a side-effect of Voip in general, is it? do people with other devices (or this one, for that matter) hear the first "hello?" when calling out? do you hear partial rings when making calls?

the end result of talking with Vonage tech support yesterday was that they issued a trouble ticket and elevated the issue. i'm supposed to hear back from them soon, with i guess another level of support staff, but it'd be really helpful to have other people's experience as it relates to the issues i'm having so i have all the info i can when next i talk to their techs.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

I'm a new user and I have the RTP300. I'm not experiencing the delay that you describe when people answer.

Posts: 75 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Sep 06, 2005 Posts: 75

Steve48 wrote:

I'm a new user and I have the RTP300. I'm not experiencing the delay that you describe when people answer.

are you absolutely sure? it took me a couple days to realize and finally believe it was happening to me. and the final test was to call a landline from my Vonage phone and hold it to my right ear, and when the landline rang pick it up to my left ear and answer "hello"... every time i answer, i hear a continuing ring in my right ear (vonage line) for a second or so until i hear myself, usually on the second "hello".

the performance of the connection after that initial slight delay seems to be near perfect... there is no delay at all aside from the pickup during a ring. since i posted earlier today, i've tried a couple dozen more calls from Vonage to landline, and have yet to get a pickup mid-ring. what are the odds? Confused

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

I'm not absolutely sure, no. I do know that I haven't been conscious of missing any words when the other party answers. I tested what you were saying by using my Vonage phone to call a number at work that is always answered by a machine. Each time I tried it, I distinctly heard the click as the machine started, and all the words were there.

On the other hand, I know that there are slight delays in the transmissions over the internet, and I suspect that they are in both directions. There's always a slight pause after I finish talking before the other party responds. It may be that the problem you're having is no more than a greater than normal transmission delay in your internet service. However, I don't know how that would explain the missing words that are getting covered up by the ring tone.

Posts: 75 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Sep 06, 2005 Posts: 75

i've, again, thoroughly tested this with similar results. i've disconnected everything and connected only the phone adapter to my cable modem and reset everything per Vonage instructions. all tests from testyourvoip as well as speed/line integrity tests from dslreports all come back perfectly fine.

i wonder if anyone else could take a few seconds and do a quick test. if you have both Vonage and a landline in your house, call your landline from your Vonage line, and with the Vonage handset up to your ear answer the landline and say "hello" as soon as you answer it -- listen carefully to see if you still hear your Vonage line ringing after you've picked up the landline. do you hear yourself say hello? try it a couple times and see what happens for you...

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

I don't have another land line, but I just tried calling my cell phone 3 times. Each time I heard myself say hello. On the fourth time, I let the cell phone ring through to voicemail, and I heard every word of the machine greeting. At no time did I hear it continue to ring for a perceptible time after I answered.

I tried again a fifth time, deliberately timing my answering of the cell phone for when the ring tone just started for the Vonage phone. The ring tone stopped immediately. It did not continue until that ring ended.

Posts: 75 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Sep 06, 2005 Posts: 75

*sigh* ... well, i'm glad for you Wink

to be honest i'd wish you'd have the same results as me so there'd be some rhyme or reason to this. perhaps it's a bad adapter? i dunno.

i've had this issue with sbc landlines in or around houston, tx. i wouldn't think that'd make a difference, but it's worth mentioning anyway. i just called a cingular cell phone up in rhode island and it "worked" on the first ring, which is totally different than what i'm experiencing otherwise around here.

anyway... it's very discouraging, as i'd so love for this to work perfectly each time. anyone else want to give it a try and ring your house's landline for a test? Razz

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

It is discouraging. Let's go back a little and ignore the ring tone for a moment. If you connect with your landline and have a normal conversation with someone over the connection, is there an abnormally long delay? Have the person stand in the same room with you and see how long it is between when you hear them directly and when you hear them over the phone. Try reporting the results of that test the Vonage tech.

The delay when I do that is perceptible, but no longer than about one syllable. It's hard to quantify better than that.

Posts: 75 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Sep 06, 2005 Posts: 75

the connection is absolutely perfect otherwise, and always is. it's just in the connection of me calling out to someone else. most often the other party reports picking up the phone and answering "hello?" while i'm still hearing a ring. after that, and once we get past the "i already said hello once" nonsense, there is no delay and it sounds perfect Confused

Posts: 75 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Sep 06, 2005 Posts: 75

after waiting for info on the trouble ticket they opened for me, i call them today to ask about any progress. apparently they decided there wasn't enough info that the initial tech wrote down and needed more info, and instead of, ya know, CALLING ME to ask they just killed the ticket and presummably have me wait to call in again. grrr.

ANYWAY, the guy i talked to now wanted to go through all the same steps they did before, even though they had recorded the results of all those tests with me the other day, but this time for whatever reason he wanted to adjust the ring voltage -- which i asked "isn't that for incoming calls, not outgoing? incoming works fine" but he did it anyway. now after i got off the phone with him i can't get ANY incoming calls because my phone never rings now. *sigh* guess i get to wait on hold for another 15 mins to get my ringer fixed.

there's seriously nobody who can recreate this issue by calling themselves on their landline? i'm the only one? can it be a bad adapter if everything else works perfectly well otherwise?