VoIP problems: internet provider or VoIP provider?
December 20, 2005 12:41 PM Subscribe
My VoIP is horrible today - calls dropping constantly. This is not new, but it's at an all-time high and is impossible to use the line for business. How do I know if it's the VoIP provider, or is this my broadband service (it's cable modem)? Who do I call and complain to?
Response by poster: I should mention that this is cable modem (time warner roadrunner in nyc) and that I am on a mac. But I did ping some sites and I have 0% packet loss. no one else besides me is here, there are no file sharing or bittorrent or anything else going on, and I am on a mac and there are no viruses or worms.
I rebooted both the cable modem and the phone modem and we'll see if that helps.
posted by micawber at 1:13 PM on December 20, 2005
I rebooted both the cable modem and the phone modem and we'll see if that helps.
posted by micawber at 1:13 PM on December 20, 2005
Could it be that a lot of people in NYC are telecommuting today?
posted by TonyRobots at 2:17 PM on December 20, 2005
posted by TonyRobots at 2:17 PM on December 20, 2005
I second odinsdream's experience - I was given a replacement DOCSIS 2.0 modem (a motorola surfboard) at no charge just a week ago.
posted by wzcx at 2:40 PM on December 20, 2005
posted by wzcx at 2:40 PM on December 20, 2005
I'll third odinstream's experience -- I started having similar trouble with VOIP awhile back, and replaced my ancient (relatively speaking) pre-DOCSIS RCA cable modem with a more up-to-date one, and not only did my VOIP become rock solid, my download speeds in general improved singificantly.
I suspect that this was the result over time of them optimizing the network for the newer modems, until finally mine was too out-of-spec to do the job. The problems didn't surface in simple stuff like web browsing, and I didn't notice much packet loss in pings either, but call quality just became crappy, with lots of digital artifacts and disconnects.
The downside was that the cable co. were not interested in replacing their "rented" modem at their cost, and the price difference for "byo" was negligible, but the $75 or so out of pocket to replace it myself with an over-the-counter model was well worthwhile.
posted by nonliteral at 10:41 PM on December 20, 2005
I suspect that this was the result over time of them optimizing the network for the newer modems, until finally mine was too out-of-spec to do the job. The problems didn't surface in simple stuff like web browsing, and I didn't notice much packet loss in pings either, but call quality just became crappy, with lots of digital artifacts and disconnects.
The downside was that the cable co. were not interested in replacing their "rented" modem at their cost, and the price difference for "byo" was negligible, but the $75 or so out of pocket to replace it myself with an over-the-counter model was well worthwhile.
posted by nonliteral at 10:41 PM on December 20, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
If your cable provider is Rogers in Canada, the easy answer is that there's no one you can call - they don't care.
posted by GuyZero at 12:58 PM on December 20, 2005