VOIP Phone Troubles

[Shayla]

Until now, I've had DSL for my laptop and a local
landline for the phone. Dirk wants to get us set
up with faster service, so we signed up for cable
internet. The guy offered to package it with something
called VOIP (phone over cable internet), and it's
been a nightmare trying to figure it out.

The cable guy came and hooked that up on Monday
morning, after which Dirk lost a whole day of work
trying to get the phone in sync with it. Finally figured
out the power cable to their modem was the wrong
size, so we made a trip to the office and replaced it.
Then he figured out that everytime he called out,
it dropped our internet connection.

He's called a motherload of people, talked to several
technicians both over the phone and internet, and
it's still not working. At this point, he's so far past
fried that he wants to just ditch it.

Do any of you use VOIP? It's supposed to work
through our phones, but just be coming from
the cable instead of a landline.

 

[Mike Labbe]

We have been using our current VOIP provider in our house for about 5 years (VIATALK) $9 per month for the phone service, including unlimited long distance and every calling feature imaginable (simul ring, call forwarding, call waiting caller id, conference calling, voicemail, etc) (plus about $3 in tax per month) There haven't been any troubles.

Before that, we used the cable company's solution for about 6 years. Our business has been using the cable company's solution for over 9 years now, and it has been rock solid reliable. (we have more than 10 lines on it, in our plaza) However, the cable company's solution doesn't use our internet feed. It comes in on the same cable, but is at a different frequency with dedicated bandwidth. It's louder and clearer than that of the phone company.

Are you sure that your cable company is using VOIP with your internet connection, and not what ours is doing? If so, how fast is your internet connection rated for? example 15/5, 30/10, etc. If it's very slow, there could be quality problems with the calls.

If done right, you shouldn't find any difference. You'll get a regular dial tone on all the phones in your house that you always used.

I would call and complain, until they get it right.

Mike

 

[Markoc]

We have 3 lines which are VOIP through Vonage. Every once in a while we have problems with calls being dropped but it's been rare lately. Early on the problem was with the poor wiring that ran from the pole to the house (Concast cable). Once they replaced the lines it was 100 times better.

 

[Shayla]

Thanks guys. I read these to Dirk, and he says he
thinks it's the firewall in the wireless router. It's keeping
the phone and internet from working together. Kind of
dumb, since that's what our provide gave us to make
it work. He lost a whole day of work on Monday, trying
everything he could think of, and then he worked on it
all Tuesday evening, as well. At this point, the company
that's supposed to be our VOIP provider, Phone Power,
has my phone number, and because the system isn't
working, I have the cable internet but no house phone.
Any calls to my number are being routed to his cel
phone.

Thanks for letting me talk about it here. He's very
bright, having wired the electric lines for an entire
lumber mill himself, but having to deal with this
quagmire of conflicting messages and 'helps' has
been hard to tolerate. It seems to me that if they
sell us a service, they should make sure it actually
works. Just my crazy way of thinking.

 

[Mike Labbe]

Hopefully I can give some advice to help you troubleshoot this. (I'm a licensed telecommunications contractor for telephones, data, audio, and video.)

It shouldn't be the firewall. VOIP calls out to the server, and doesn't usually require an incoming port to be opened in the firewall. It sounds more like defective equipment, wiring issue, bad phone, a marginal cable signal, or a slow speed internet line itself. You can check your speed at www.speedtest.net

Can you describe exactly what problem you are having with it? Could it be a wiring problem? Have you tried plugging a phone directly into the VOIP box, and disconnecting the wire that feeds the rest of the house? I have heard of people having problems because they plugged the VOIP into an existing house jack, to backfeed the dial tone to the other phones. (but they failed to disconnect the OLD wires coming to the house, from the pole. Even though turned off, the wires are still powered and hooked up to a port at the phone company). Your VOIP box puts more power on the wires, and conflicts.

I have also seen problems with certain very OLD phones, which can cause a problem. Back in the (very) old days, phones used all 4 wires in the jack. Now they only use 2 of them (red and green pair). Some VOIP boxes use the second pair for "line 2". If lines 1 and 2 were shorted together(by an old phone), this would cause a real problem. Plugging a modern phone directly into the VOIP box will make sure that's not a factor. If that resolves it (and if its disconnected at the network interface), try unplugging all house phones and plug each one in until you find the one causing the issue.

If the problem is that your internet goes down completely (connect/link light goes OFF on cablemodem), when you use the telephone/stress the line, it is a line quality problem. This is something the cable provider can check over the phone, if you call. They can get into your equipment remotely to check the signal strength, and how much line noise is on it.

Normally, when you install VOIP, you disconnect the (old) phone company's wires from the grey "network interface" box, on the side of the house. Did you say that the CABLE COMPANY installed this? If so, they would know to do this. Even though the old phone company is shut off, its still powered and connected at the other end (central office). They can't both be on the same pair of wires, at the same time.

The first troubleshooting step is to try is a phone directly to the VOIP equipment. If it works it could mean a bad phone in the house, or #2 (below)

The second thing is to check the "network interface" box from the (former) phone company. Make sure you are disconnected from the pole. In most cases, you can just remove the "test jack" plug, to achieve this goal. (it's a regular RJ jack, where a phone would plug in)

The third thing to check is if the actual cable internet is going down when this happens (the CONNECT or LINK light on their equipment will go off) If that is happening, call them.

I hope this is helpful
Mike

 

[Shayla]

Mike, you're one of the most generous people I know.
Thank you for taking time from what must be a busy
day just to write this note.

He's tried a lot of different things, but I'll have him look
at this to see if he might find an answer in it. He's gone
from about 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., so it'll be later today.

 

[Jim Miller]

Mike, you're one of the most generous people I know.
Thank you...

I would like to ditto Shayla's gratitude for all you do here, Mike. This sort of information is probably helpful to several of us, and not only to the person asking the questions.

 

[Jim Miller]

We have been using our current VOIP provider in our house for about 5 years (VIATALK) $9 per month for the phone service....There haven't been any troubles.

That seems like a great deal, Mike.

I've been trying to justify adding Roadrunner at home through our TV cable company, but it just doesn't seem to be worth $30/month, because I would use it only on weekends, and I tether my Blackberry for that purpose now. It's nowhere near as fast, but usually tolerable. Insight (Comcast) wants about $25/month for their VOIP. No deal.

At home, if we could do away with our AT&T land line (minimum $29/month with minimal features, no long distance) and get a really good VOIP ($9) through Roadrunner ($30), that would cost only $10/month more for much better broadband and lots more phone features.

Am I missing something here?

 

[nikfrz]

I have had Vonage at home since 1995 thru cable and has worked flawlessly. I pay 14.99 per month which includes taxes.

I also have Vonage at work thru DSL, and there have been some inconveniences, but not enough to switch back to a landline. I cant get it thru cable there. Otherwise, I would switch.

Both are hardwired to desktops. I'm wondering if your wireless has a lot to do with it.

As suggested, I would just make them fix it.

I called Via Talk last year, and the rep told me that they wouldnt know if I could port my numbers until I signed up??? Wha???????