ready to throw equipment out the window

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 14, 2005 Posts: 4

I received my Linksys RTP 300-VD router on Saturday. I hooked things up, made my initial call to activate and that was all I could do. I could not make calls. I simply get a three tone sound and that is it. Long story short...Here we are at day four, second router, over 10 hours wasted with tech support and I still can't make phone calls. I am sorry I ever elected to go with this service. Obviously no one knows what they are doing. This is a problem that should be able to be resolved and yet no one seems to know what to do. I have friends that have the service and love it...I wish I could say the same. Last night tech support never even bothered to call back. I sit here waiting after being billed for the service and still have none! At this point I should start charging Vonage a $40 an hour charge that I am losing by not working for every hour I spend with them trying to figure this out.
Not happy in PA

Posts: 46 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jun 03, 2005 Posts: 46

Ranting about it sometimes make you feel better but we are not going to be able to help out much unless you give us some information on your equipment and how you have it hooked up.
Start with:
ISP
Service speeds
Modem make and model
other routers
and how you have it all hooked up.

Remember, this forum can sometimes help because maybe someone has had a similar problem with similar equipment.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 14, 2005 Posts: 4

My ISP is Comcast (Cable modem-Motorola SB5120).
My router is a Lynksys RTP 300

Actually...after another call to tech support with a promise for a level 2 or 3 tech to return my call within 2 hours which didn't happen...I made about six email requests to various departments which generated nothing but automated responses. About another 2 or three hours have passed and still nothing from Vonage.

In the meantime I took all the manuals from Lynksys and my Motorola modem and started playing with every setting I could and resetting the equipment. FINALLY I got it to work but at this point I am not sure exactly which setting did the trick so it won't be of help to anyone else.

The point is that I should not have had to waste at least 10 hours of my own time trying to get this to work. Vonage should have tech support that can handle this. I am NOT the only customer who has had a router that cannot make calls! I have seen other comments in the forum but they had different routers. I did use some of their info though when checking my settings.

Now let us see how long it takes to transfer my number. Overall I will hold out a while before recommending Vonage to anyone else.

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

Izzycat,

I'm glad to hear that you have it working though it is still not good that you had to spend that much time getting it to work.

I fully agree with you and I'm sure many here will agree that CS and Tech Support at Vonage is like swiss cheese. Sometimes you hit the hole in one, other times you hit the cheese and it bounces back at you.

I do discourage using email though since it has never resulted in anything positive for me. You can also read the innumerable posts here regarding the same experience with email correspondence.

I guess since you reconfigured so many of the settings, it will now be nearly impossible to trace which one really did make the difference though I'm sure many on this site would love to see the solution.

Regardless, it's working and that's the good news. Hope it continues.

Do understand from the big picture that Voip is still in its infancy and expecting a plug and play system is a bit much though in most instances it is exactly that.

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Aug 26, 2005 Posts: 15

I feel for you izzy...I dont guess my problems have been as severe as yours, but my POS RTP300 loses dial tone about once a day for absolutely no bloody reason. Vonage tech support **** to say the least...but I can say that they don't suck anymore than Packet8!

Yes I believe that anyone on the forum understands that residential Voip is in it's infancy...but companies should spend more money on R&D and make alot more test cases in rural areas before they blow the service out to as many markets as they can. Companies nowadays just plain stink. A crappy product, crappy service but they'll never miss a beat charging your credit card.

Posts: 233 · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:43 am Post subject:

Wow. I hate to hear all that trouble. I should have played the lottery instead of hooking up my system. Mine was about as plug-n-play as you get. I already had my wireless router hooked up and even use a wireless repeater. I already had several wired devices off the router including a print server on the secondary side of a switch. I get my PAP2 at Best Buy. Plug it into my router. Log into Vonage. Fill out the forms and I have dial tone. The only thing I added was a UPS for my cable modem, router, and adapter. I am beginning to wonder if that is why Vonage uses and locks the PAP2. Now one difference may be that I have firewalls on my computers so I don't use any "special" settings on my router. The only virus problems I had was because my daughter likes to load whatever software somebody sends her.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 14, 2005 Posts: 4

Yeah...I should have bought my own equipment. I think part of the problem is the brand of router. I also have firewalls on my system so there wasn't a problem with firewall settings. This was more of an ISP/Vonage settings problem. My ISP was of no help because they are the ones who hold my current phone service but it was what they "didn't say" that helped me with the answers. My Vonage router sits in front of my wireless router so there wasn't a configuration problem with the wireless router firewall. It really was all a settings problem but any decent tech should have been able to figure it out. I build computers from the ground up so I know enough to figure things out but the point is that I shouldn't have had to. Vonage support should be able to handle problems like this and they can't. Now I am getting a run around about a credit. It may go out the window yet! Lol

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:55 pm Post subject:

benhart wrote:

I feel for you izzy...I dont guess my problems have been as severe as yours, but my POS RTP300 loses dial tone about once a day for absolutely no bloody reason. Vonage tech support **** to say the least...but I can say that they don't suck anymore than Packet8!

If you're losing dialtone at all, I'd suggest you look at your internet connection. The only times I've ever had a loss of dialtone issue were when my internet connection was having problems. That said, my Vonage adapter goes with me just about everywhere I travel, and it's been on no fewer than 7 different networks powered by at least 5 different providers and haven't experienced any problems that were Vonage's fault.

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

VonageTPA wrote:

That said, my Vonage adapter goes with me just about everywhere I travel, and it's been on no fewer than 7 different networks powered by at least 5 different providers and haven't experienced any problems that were Vonage's fault.

Disregarding fault, how was your travelling experience overall? Is it a pretty good way to stay in touch when you're on the road?

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:36 pm Post subject:

It's been very good so far. As a habit, I'll log into my Vonage account and set the bandwidth down to the lowest setting before leaving for any place I've not already been, figuring that it'll save me headaches when I'm on the road. I did have one connection that required that I sign into the hotel's webpage with my laptop before their network would let the Vonage router sign into Vonage and work, but it worked fine after that. I also have used the laptop as a wireless network client and fed the Vonage box internet from the laptop using WinXP's Internet Connection Sharing. Worked quite well. As long as you have a little network knowledge, it's pretty easy to do. Of course, with Simulring and my network availability feature ringing my cell phone, even when I've not gotten settled in the room yet, I can still receive calls.

Wishlist: 1) I wish the WRTP54G could be used as a wireless client instead of just only as an access point. Would be really slick for connecting into wireless networks rather than doing the laptop deal or having to carry a separate wireless bridge/router.
2) I'm still looking for a good travel phone. Something small, yet good quality. I keep a Sony phone stashed in my suitcase along with clothes, but would prefer something that'd slip into my laptop bag, as the RTP300's thin enough to drop right in.