Vonage Choppy on Time Warner Houston

Posts: 134 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 23, 2005 Posts: 134

For the past week I've been having nothing but problems with Vonage. They include Momentary silences, choppy audio, and disconnected calls. I have done many things to help rectify this including rebooting the router (WRT54G-HyperWRT Firmware), replacing the Toshiba PCX 2200 with a PCX 2500, and having a TWC tech come out and replace the underground coax cable from the interface to the house. NOTHING has helped. From what I've seen it's being cause by a lot of packet loss starting at my second hop. I told TWC this and they can't accept the fact that it is a problem somewhere on their end.

My question is this, is anybody using TWC in Houston having problems? I want to see if it's just my neighborhood or if it's a systemwide issue.

Posts: 417 · Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 9:21 pm Post subject:

I am usinh TWC-RR in SW Houston, and am assighed to the Almeda switch, with no problems.

Hope this makes sense..

Posts: 134 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 23, 2005 Posts: 134

I'm in Katy near the Cypress Springs area. The switch is Houstontxbea. I'm assuming the "bea" is for Bear Creek which is near me. I'm glad to know that it's a localized problem.. Well, sort of. Of course it being a localized problem makes it even more difficult to convey this to TWC. Rolling Eyes

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 3

I don't know which switch I'm assigned to, but I'm just north of Copperfield, but still South of 290 and my vonage has been choppy, had echoes, and delays--all inconsistent, just depends on the call.

I've got Time Warner cable and I also have a digital phone line through them. The Time Warner digital phone line works 100% all the time. I've never been able to tell the difference in it from the old SBC line, but like I said my vonage is a different story.

Just for fun I also signed up with Skype and got a USB phone. It works more consitantly than the Vonage. At least with the Skype phone, I can count on about a 250ms delay always. With Vonage it's hit or miss.

When I have more time I hope to figure it out.

John

Posts: 605 · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 9:35 pm Post subject:

If your lines are underground to your house and it has been over 5 years since they installed them you may need to have the line reburried. Also your cablemodem may be going bad. I would give time warner a call and have them come over for a free roadrunner service call and swap out the modem and bury a new line. They are usually pretty good about that.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 4

KDWycha wrote:

If your lines are underground to your house and it has been over 5 years since they installed them you may need to have the line reburried. Also your cablemodem may be going bad. I would give time warner a call and have them come over for a free roadrunner service call and swap out the modem and bury a new line. They are usually pretty good about that.

Typical answer. Why is it I never had a problem with my broadband connection until I installed Vonage? Maybe it's because broadband networks and equipment aren't really up to the task of carrying VOIP. Between cheap/flaky routers and intermittent traffic jams, VOIP isn't a good option for many of us... and won't be any time soon.

Posts: 28 · Vonage Representative Joined: Nov 09, 2005 Posts: 28

if your paying for broadband cable and can't use vonage, your not getting your moneys worth. take the above advice and call your cable company.. most likely your cable modem has outdated DOCSIS 1.0 firmware, and your lines in your yard are no good.. give them a call!

Posts: 204 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 204

Zimberto wrote:

Typical answer. Why is it I never had a problem with my broadband connection until I installed Vonage? Maybe it's because broadband networks and equipment aren't really up to the task of carrying VOIP. Between cheap/flaky routers and intermittent traffic jams, VOIP isn't a good option for many of us... and won't be any time soon.

You probably always DID have the problem but never noticed it. All data transferred over the internet is done so broken up into packets. With most internet applications, such as web browsing or email, if data packets are delayed or lost, they can be retransmitted and put back together again in the correct order, without you even noticing.

With a VoIP phone call, everything happens in real time (or very very close to it) and there is no time to retransmit lost data. Even if this was done, your phone conversation would stop until the connection caught up again. Ever had a streaming audio or video file stop while the program said "buffering"? That is the effect of a bad internet connection. With VoIP, those times where streaming audio or video would have to rebuffer just turn into blank spaces, resulting in choppy audio.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 4

You make my point perfectly. How many broadband users out there do you think have a connection that is adequate for general internet use, but isn't entirely suitable for a real-time app like VOIP? My guess is over 50%. Into this situation come companies like Vonage who, when people have trouble using VOIP, insist that it is the fault of the broadband provider. I don't buy it!

Comcast provide me with a connection that I can surf, download, etc., at high speed. They make no promises about real-time packet delivery, which may be one of the reasons they themselves don't offer a VOIP solution.

Stop passing the buck.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 3

Quote:

if your paying for broadband cable and can't use vonage, your not getting your moneys worth. take the above advice and call your cable company.. most likely your cable modem has outdated DOCSIS 1.0 firmware, and your lines in your yard are no good.. give them a call!

This can't be true in my case. This is passing the buck. I have a Time Warner Digital Phone that works 100% A+ Perfect.

I also have a Vonage line that uses that same cable modem. The vonage connection is spotty--it gets echoes, dropped calls, delayed voice mails, etc. If I could find one consistant problem, I could try and find the problem, but each call has different issues and sometimes the call will be excellent. Very inconsistant performance.

Vonage, or whoever/whatever it is routing/switching through, is clearly the problem. My packet latency is fine.

John