Comments on: Vonage sucks!

Question: Vonage sucks!

Sufi — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 22:55:36 -0800

Roommate's vonage router is a pain in the butt. Who's job is it to buy a new one?

Three weeks ago I had a roommate move into my home. When she did, she hooked up a vonage router which ended up slowing down my bittorrent speeds significantly, to the point that I cannot even use it.

Now I've researched the problem and it looks like we have two options. We can buy a second router to pair up with the vonage one, or buy a more expensive vonage router as a replacement. Either way we need to buy another router.

My question is, who is responsible for buying it? The roommate, because her router is causing the problem.. or me, because I want to use bittorrent?

By: pocams

pocams — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:04:47 -0800

My first suggestion, not answering the question, is to check the port forwarding on the router - forward the right port and bittorrent should be fine. Apologies if your research found that this can't be done, but feel free to post/mail questions on this.

Now, to answer the question - I'd say that the roommate is responsible for the replacement router. You have a working setup, and the roommate wants to introduce new equipment; it's her responsibility to ensure that that new equipment leaves your working setup as it is.

By: RichardP

RichardP — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 00:00:01 -0800

Is internet access one of the services promised to her when she signed her rental agreement? If not, who currently pays for the internet connection?

By: Sufi

Sufi — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 00:05:01 -0800

There was no rental agreement signed. But yes, she was informed she would be paying a portion of the cable/internet bill.

By: Liosliath

Liosliath — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 00:21:23 -0800

I had to tweak my own router just yesterday to speed up BitTorrent. I found that I was much more successful using Azereus, and a non-standard port.

However, seems like Vonage has its own issues...

And finally, to answer the question - (just like pocams!), it's your roommate's responsibility to have/buy equipment that integrates with your existing working setup.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 02:35:43 -0800

I'd say it's your roommates problem to restore previous service metrics. If she wants to use Vonage on your service, either pony up for a proper router, have her put it downstream from you on it's own subnet or otherwise assist in debugging the problem.

By: k8t

k8t — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 03:57:25 -0800

FYI, at my house we cannot use our Vonage phone and BT at the same time. One always slows down the other.

But, if Vonage is merely plugged in, there is no problem with BT.

Like others said, make sure that the ports are open.

By: disillusioned

disillusioned — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 05:44:08 -0800

There is also a feature accessible through Vonage called the Bandwidth Saver. It allows you to throttle down Vonage's usage, but as said above, a Vonage router simply plugged into the network should not be affecting network speeds, unless a call is being made.

Vonage typically requires around 90 kbps of downstream. On a high-speed cable account like mine, this represents roughly 1/7 my available downstream.

BitTorrent software like Azureus allow you to effectively throttle up or down your bandwidth usage from the BT side of things, so between these two, you should be able to find a balance. (And I have the no-frills, crappy DLink Vonage box that has one port in and two phone ports. It's not even a router.)

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 08:38:48 -0800

I'll go against the stream. Your roommate has behaved innocently. Maintaining the infrastructure of the place to the satisfaction of all is the landlord's job, not the tenant's. If you want a different router, get a different router yourself.

By: Good Brain

Good Brain — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:04:52 -0800

I'm with ROU_X. Having a router on a DSL connection is just basic infrastructure.

By: kindall

kindall — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 13:30:59 -0800

I'd get a router with QOS features that allow you to prioritize the Vonage traffic, and put that first. I have a D-Link DGL-4300, which was one of the few such routers available when I got it, but now it's a reasonably common feature in high-end-ish routers. I use it with my SunRocket service and it works great.

By: Sufi

Sufi — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:11:40 -0800

Liosliath your answer actually fixed the problem. Thanks so much for doing some extra research for me!

Now I'm stuck with another problem! The phone quality is garbage while I'm running BT. I'm gonna dink around with that bandwidth saver (thanks Disi) and see if that helps.

Thanks guys, you've all been a great help!

By: Liosliath

Liosliath — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 18:48:34 -0800

Glad that worked! Can I get my comment marked as a "best answer?" I want to be one of the cool kids at AskMe. (though I'm still afraid of being flamed as a n00bie!)