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king1522

Oct 18, 2004, 10:18 AM

Post #1 of 14 (1417 views)

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Anyone having trouble with Vonage

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I am experiencing a lot of problems with Vonage since I have moved to Jocotepec. It had very clear audio in the states. However, since my move, it is choppy to the point of being almost unusable. I am using Laugunanet wireless. I have tried tweaking the bandwiths on their website, but to no avail. Does anyone have any possible solutions.
Thanks
Don

Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The more paper that
is rolled off, the faster it goes.

Jerry@Ajijic

Oct 18, 2004, 1:59 PM

Post #2 of 14 (1407 views)

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Re: [king1522] Anyone having trouble with Vonage

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Don, we talked to our daughter in Canada last night for about a hour and a half and had no problems. The whole time the reception was excellant. We are on Telmex DSL.

NEOhio

Oct 18, 2004, 2:27 PM

Post #3 of 14 (1401 views)

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Re: [king1522] Anyone having trouble with Vonage

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Since it is free to try it sign up for SKYPE and see if your calls are any clearer. We are just amazed at the clarity.

johanson / Moderator

Oct 18, 2004, 2:39 PM

Post #4 of 14 (1400 views)

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Re: [king1522] Anyone having trouble with Vonage

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Do you have this problem with both upload and download, or just one way? You know from here when I talk, it's an upload, and when I listen, it's a download. I have a very close wireless connection. I am 700 meters from the Ajijic wireless lagunanet tower, and usually I do not have a cutout problem. However upon occasion I have had a little difficulty, but it was not so bad that I could not make the phone call.

I just talked to a friend who uses Prodigy Infinitum along with Vonage and she said that the only time she had problems was when her husband started surfing the net or checking their email while she was trying to talk on the phone. Translated, there was not sufficient bandwidth for both her husband to surf the net and for her to use VoIP at the same time.

kirkswig

Oct 18, 2004, 5:00 PM

Post #5 of 14 (1385 views)

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Re: [johanson] Anyone having trouble with Vonage

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Linux has something called iptables, which allows you to "shape" your network traffic. This is something I hope to set up just as soon as I get more of the basic issues here out of the way.

The idea with shaping is that you can prioritize your network traffic. You would be able to instruct the firewall to always give priority to certain kinds of applications over others. For instance, many VoIP users would want to give Vonage priority over web browsing, email and everything else. If you do a lot of p2p stuff, sharing or downloading files, by prioritizing your traffic so that the interactive applications are handled first, you can theoretically saturate your bandwidth while still achieving excellent latency for the stuff that matters.

Right now it's a toy for geeks mostly, but I have to believe somebody is working on a more user-friendly version.

I do a lot of p2p since arriving in Mexico; as a result, I end up waiting on email and web access, and while usable, it's annoying nonetheless. Vonage will force me to move on iptables though... quality of service there will just be too important.

Will let you and everybody else know how it works out.

To boldly go where no wig has gone before.

El Gringo Nuevo

Oct 18, 2004, 10:40 PM

Post #6 of 14 (1366 views)

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Re: [king1522] Anyone having trouble with Vonage

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Wireless may be the magic word here. My friends in Las Fuentes who use Vonage with a wireless system consistently have challenges, especially in bad weather.

johanson / Moderator

Oct 19, 2004, 11:58 AM

Post #7 of 14 (1342 views)

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Re: [El Gringo Nuevo] Anyone having trouble with Vonage

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I wonder could it be the location? Both of those persons get their wireless signal from the Joco tower. I get my wireless signal from the Ajijic tower and have no problems. Does anyone else have any wireless VoIP experience here Lakeside?

carlw

Oct 20, 2004, 11:46 AM

Post #8 of 14 (1311 views)

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Re: [johanson] Anyone having trouble with Vonage

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Today's Dallas Morning News www.dallasnews.com has an article in the Business section on VoIP in Mexico, "VoIP is a growing challenge to Mexico's phone giant." Concerns the growth in popularity of VoIP as a way for Mexican ex-pats to keep up with the folks at home and not have to pay Telemex's high long distance rates.

king1522

Oct 20, 2004, 2:44 PM

Post #9 of 14 (1296 views)

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Re: [johanson] Anyone having trouble with Vonage

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I am wondering the same thing Pete. I stopped by the CIA today, which uses wireless, and tried my Vonage. It was far from perfect, but much better than here in Jocotepec. I would like to hear from other Voip users in Jocotepec. I am wondering if perhaps I used something like Interconnect and not using the phone modem in between would help. In other words, just use the software download and a headset. Whatever the case, I am not sure I will continue using Vonage if it doesn't get better.
Don

Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The more paper that
is rolled off, the faster it goes.

johanson / Moderator

Oct 20, 2004, 7:21 PM

Post #10 of 14 (1283 views)

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Re: [king1522] Anyone having trouble with Vonage

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King1522 it was great meeting you and your wife the other day. I sure wish I had a better answer for you. I know there are other persons in your area who use Vonage. Too bad we don't have their comments here.

You could always spend an extra 20 bucks one month and double your wireless connection speed and see if that makes a difference. I don't know what else to recommend.

Edited: I learned that you are at the extreme edge of the wireless area, and that Rod had to double your connection speed just to try to give you the basic speed. That might explain why you are having problems

I just lost my wireless connection. It seems that the power supply failed in my tower. I'm on my laptop now using dial-up. I will configure an Ethernet Bridge and connect the laptop via cat 5e Thursday.

I'm really motivated. It's either T-1 or a 33.6 dialup connection.

Edited: I'm back on line using broadband.

(This post was edited by johanson on Oct 21, 2004, 3:03 PM)

king1522

Oct 21, 2004, 1:56 PM

Post #11 of 14 (1257 views)

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Re: [johanson] Anyone having trouble with Vonage

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Thanks Pete. It was also nice meeting you. My wife has heard "Pete said this or Pete said that". Now she has a real person to identify with. I subscribed to Iconnecthere. The sound is very acceptable. Much better than Vonage. The person on the other end says I sound like l am talking in a barrel. The reason for that is that I am using a very cheesy microphone!
Don

Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The more paper that
is rolled off, the faster it goes.

johanson / Moderator

Oct 21, 2004, 3:57 PM

Post #12 of 14 (1252 views)

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