Anyone else having trouble with Caller ID?

Posts: 86 · Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 8:30 pm Post subject:

seeker_ktf wrote:

OK. I have working caller ID. I've testing it 8 times from various phones.

Curious if your line voltage is still 50.4 volts with consistently working Caller ID

Posts: 48 · Full Forum Member Joined: Sep 22, 2005 Posts: 48

csnet wrote:

Curious if your line voltage is still 50.4 volts with consistently working Caller ID

Yes. Still.

Posts: 30 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Nov 20, 2005 Posts: 30

I too have had problems with Caller ID since .52. In fact, at one point I convinced a CS tech to roll me back to .50, only to learn later that this should not have been done because .50 didn't support 911 calls. Yikes!

I've tried the voltage change idea, the ring cadence change idea, the "unplug enough phones so that only 5 devices in the house are connected to the RTP300" idea, and nothing has consistently worked. At this point, I'll get several calls in a row with Caller ID, and then the router refuses to cooperate on Caller ID for a day or two before it behaves again. So, every morning the family asks me, "Well, Dad, think Caller ID will work today?" Groan.

Of course, this is just the latest problem with my Vonage service. And I am referring to problems that go beyond the occasional dropped call. First, my original RT31P2 crapped out all of a sudden one day, taking phone service and internet access down with it. Then, after receiving the replacement RTP300, I couldn't access my employer's VPN, until I figured out after 2 weeks of playing with it that I had to move the RTP behind my DLink router. Then, I get dinged by Vonage for $99 for having failed to return the RT31P2 that was sleeping with the fishes, despite receiving no verbal or written instructions that this was necessary or how best to do it. Now, I'm dealing with the ongoing Caller ID saga.

I have friends and family ask me all the time about switching from POTS to Voip. My response is, "Are you nuts? Sure, the price is great, but unless you have the patience of a saint or want to immerse yourself in the arcane world of ring cadences and VPN passthroughs, stay right where you're at. Do you really want to live in mortal fear of firmware updates, which invariably create as many problems as they solve?"

Frankly, the only reason I don't change to a different Voip provider is my pessimistic belief that they all have problems. So why don't I go back to POTS? Right now, I'm too cheap, but they longer this goes on, the more likely I'll just throw in the towel.

Posts: 23 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Sep 21, 2005 Posts: 23

Mr_Sorento wrote:

For everyone with the RTP300 still having Caller ID problems, try the following:

Call up and either speak with a good CS rep or Tech Support rep and ask them to change your ring [1] cadence value to: 0xFFFFFCC000000000

Also, have them change your on-hook-voltage from 48 to 45

Thanks for your advice Mr. S. Prior to these changes my CID was one call and out after each reset with both the .52 and .55 firmware. I have 3 phones and one fax machine on this line.

Your suggestion seems to have worked (mostly) for me. After these changes i have results from 12 test calls. CID has been 100% effective (12 for 12) on my Uniden TRU 8866. However, it has only been 66% effective (8 for 12) on my ATT 972. All 4 of the "misses" on the ATT phone were placed from my T-Mobile cell phone. Of 6 calls placed from the T-Mobile only 2 showed up on the ATT phone's CID. Strangely, all 6 of these T-Mobile calls showed up on the Uniden's CID. Someone smarter than me will have to explain why the ATT phone apparently had trouble picking up the CID info from one source and not another, while the Uniden worked every time. I suppose it could be a random failure not related to the source of the call. But 6 for 6 from one source and only 2 for 6 from another does not sound random.

When asking the Vonage rep to make the changes, you need to be explicit. The tech rep I spoke was operating under instructions to set the on hook voltage to 48, not decrease it to 45. He knew nothing about changing the ring cadence. Based on this, I would have to agree that Vonage does not appear to have a very organized approach to troubleshooting this issue. If they do it is not being very well coordinated with tech support.

Posts: 122 · Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 5:25 pm Post subject:

Optiman,

You're very welcome! I'm glad someone read my earlier post on how to solve this Caller ID problem. Regarding you comments about CS and Tech Support, YES, they are not very well organized or informed. When I spoke to me tech last week, I asked him if they all had a central message board (like this Blog site) that they could post messages to internally for known problems or solutions to known problems. He told me, "NO" but said that was a good idea and that he'd recommend it. From my chat with it him, all of the Vonage reps and tech reps seem to operate completely independent of each other aside from the notes that may be in your account that they can review. It would seem to me that in this day and age of communications and the Internet, that Vonage would have some kind of central web message board or central KnowledgeBase to deal with customer problems. Nooooooooooo, that would be require too much common sense. You know, it's the simple things in life that people often overlook!!!

Regarding your intermittent problems with your phones, I too had problems with an older BellSouth caller ID box. I took it out and all is well now on both my Att and Uniden caller ID phones. Did you ever have consisent caller ID on all your phones in the past?

Posts: 48 · Full Forum Member Joined: Sep 22, 2005 Posts: 48

optiman wrote:

When asking the Vonage rep to make the changes, you need to be explicit. The tech rep I spoke was operating under instructions to set the on hook voltage to 48, not decrease it to 45. He knew nothing about changing the ring cadence. Based on this, I would have to agree that Vonage does not appear to have a very organized approach to troubleshooting this issue. If they do it is not being very well coordinated with tech support.

I must be really unlucky at getting techs. My very short lived CID celebration was ended when CID stopped working again so I called (3 times in 3 days) to get them to follow my instructions exactly. Basically, they were unwilling to do what I asked them regarding the voltage or ring cadence. "There is an active ticket on this situation and the techs are aware of the problem so there's and there's nothing else I can do."

My wife has given up on Vonage and I can't blame her. It's funny, because my line worked fine from last Febuary all the way to about 8 weeks ago. Since then problems keep surfacing that are individually minor in scale but more and more frequent. You kinda think it would go the other way... that is, things start out all rough and a few little flaws would be knocked off the list each week.

Posts: 159 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Aug 05, 2005 Posts: 159

Not to sound like a broken record but running firmware 1.00.47 callerID is still working perfectly here. Callerid did not work consistently with 1.00.50 and 1.00.55.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 4

Can anyone provide a pointer to .47 firmware?

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 18, 2005 Posts: 1

Found this thread a few days ago when I was pulling my hair out trying to fix the same problem. Thanks to all for sharing your experiences. I guess it is true, misery loves company... and my situation was exactly the same as described by many.

Just to share what has happened here, I read somewhere in the thread about unplugging an older phone. Well, I did have an old, non-caller ID phone on the line, and unplugged it. I cross my fingers when I say this, but I have had ID back ever since.

I think this is a big part of the problem- there is no "standardization" for phone manufacturers. Voltage issues, quality of parts, different technologies- some phones are well made while others are complete junk- add to that the variations you can have in the house wiring, anything that will affect the line, voltage and signal can be a factor- and I think it would make finding a complete fix almost impossible.

Now I am not saying that Vonage has no responsibility here- obviously since it was working one day and then not the next points out that the changes V made broke what was working- but trying to find a complete solution when there are so many configuration variables at the user end, well that's a tech nightmare. Just my .02, and I will post any changes for me, but I hope we all get it working again.

thanks again for a very helpful forum.

Posts: 57 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 23, 2005 Posts: 57

bpjen wrote:

Found this thread a few days ago when I was pulling my hair out trying to fix the same problem. Thanks to all for sharing your experiences. I guess it is true, misery loves company... and my situation was exactly the same as described by many.

Just to share what has happened here, I read somewhere in the thread about unplugging an older phone. Well, I did have an old, non-caller ID phone on the line, and unplugged it. I cross my fingers when I say this, but I have had ID back ever since.

I think this is a big part of the problem- there is no "standardization" for phone manufacturers. Voltage issues, quality of parts, different technologies- some phones are well made while others are complete junk- add to that the variations you can have in the house wiring, anything that will affect the line, voltage and signal can be a factor- and I think it would make finding a complete fix almost impossible.

Now I am not saying that Vonage has no responsibility here- obviously since it was working one day and then not the next points out that the changes V made broke what was working- but trying to find a complete solution when there are so many configuration variables at the user end, well that's a tech nightmare. Just my .02, and I will post any changes for me, but I hope we all get it working again.

thanks again for a very helpful forum.

Although I agree that it is a tricky issue and there are a lot of phone manufacturers, that is not an excuse for Vonage. The RTP300 on 1.00.47 worked FINE. Caller ID on ILEC's POTS lines work FINE. Something is messed up with 1.00.55.

And what is so frustrating is that Vonage refuses to change my ring cadence value to: 0xFFFFFCC000000000 and my on-hook-voltage from 48 to 45. I had a tech who replied an e-mail that those settings "would make no difference." I mentioned that it worked for several people on the forum he responded "Vonage forums has some good information, but alot of it is not entirely accurate. I am sure we will get to the bottom of your issue shortly. "