For years we had no problem with our Sympatico DSL highspeed internet connection - worked flawlessly with no connectuions problems or other interruptions. Then we got rid of the phone line and the Bell land-line connection and got a VOIP phone with Vonage and and also added a wireless router to the connecttions to/from the main desk-top rig in the house. Since we have made those changes 3 months ago, it’s been rough go. I am spending more and more time on the phone with Sympatico trying to iron-out an increasing number of technical problems at there end and ours. Bottom line, when the internet is down we have no home phone - but we do have cell phones. Both my Fiance and I work from home several days a week and use the phone heavily with a lot of long distance calling( hence the VOIP)
Just wondering what best practices are on this front. I am not a techical person at all, when it comes to computers but I need a bomb-proof Internet connection system at home and I am having less and less faith in Sympatico to deliver this.
Yup - you are not alone. A lot of home workers within my group at IBM have flipped to VOIP along with the high speed access, and depending on the service provider, you can have a lot of issues of calls/internet being dropped. You are at the bleeding edge of technology and it is in no way stable. A lot of it depends on the inherent backbone infrastrcuture, some work better than others. I do know with sympatico the distance from their relay switch has a great deal to do with the reliability of service. I was at the far end of a switch in Owen Sound, and there were days …
Can’t help much, other than suggest you find a good deal for phone/long distance service, ditch voip and go back to conventional DSL. Let someone else be the guinea pig and not your business.
Interesting. I have the VOIP, cable modem, and wireless router set up w/o any problems. I’ve been using Vonage with COmcast since 12/05 and recently added the wireless router into the mix. Other tan occassionally having to reboot the cable modem its been great. COnsidering the amount of time my kid spends on the phone to Hawaii, I’m glad to have the free long distance.
If I’m understanding you correctly you didn’t change ISP’s, still are on the same DSL line as pre VOIP, correct? However after installing VOIP you’re loosing internet connectivity, again correct? Lastly you’re losing both VOIP and internet connectivity, not just phone, correct?
Could be all sorts of issues but the first thing you need to rule out is if it’s the provider or your internal equipment. Best way and cheapest way, is to simply remove all the VOIP stuff and set it up pre VOIP. If you’re still losing internet than your ISP is likely at fault. You can also run something like a traceroute at that point and find out where you’re getting nuked. After that and assuming it’s your ISP there’s nothing you can do except have them fix it or find a new ISP.
OTOH if you hook it up the old way, sans VOIP, and no issues arise, then it has something to do with your VOIP set up and or equipment. Not much of a VOIP expert so can’t help a whole lot there except to say one thing at a time. Add the router no Voip equip and see if that works fine. Could be as simple as a faulty router, bad cables, interference etc etc. Add in the VOIP see if that works and so on.
Like I said - some works, some doesn’t - I think comcast has been one of the better ones with my co-workers. But other people I know are constantly dropping on calls, losing connectivity, having their vpns dropped - it is a bit of a crapshoot currently. A couple of years and it should be solid, especially as more large companies adopt this technology for their mobile workforces and force a higher reliability rate, but to date I am not impressed.
It also seems better if you are in the core of a large urban center - seems worse the further out you are in the burbs. YMMV.
“… You are at the bleeding edge of technology and it is in no way stable.”
This is not the bleeding edge of technology by any means - VoIP is a stable product with many years history and many large companies having their entire phone business based on it.
It maybe that your ISP is not experienced with VoIP or is trying to do things on the cheap, but to suggest this is still bleeding edge is giving the ISP a copout that they don’t deserve.
OK - I will agree with you that voip in and of itself is not bleeding edge - what I was trying to get at is for the home market the integration of voip and ISP is pretty variable, and there is not a lot of experience with a fully integrated systems to date. I probably should have said a bleeding edge offering - not technology. Kinda like satellite ISPs about 4 years ago.
Anytime a service, like voip and internet combined, is not offered over a high area of coverage (read relatively rural, suburban, small urban markets) you should have some concern on the maturity of the offering. I live in a smallish city (60K), and you cannot get combined voip and internet here as a general service. That is why I figure about 2 years before this is ready for the mobile workforce to be able to use it without excessive headaches. I have been through the microwave ISP, radio ISP, satellite ISP, etc etc - and what I have seen of voip for the home user is following the same pattern - OK for a really core urban center, not so good for outliers. This will improve over time. At least I hope so, cause it would make my life simpler
Are you on a dsl plan with a single, dynamic IP address (and thus using multiple dummy internal addresses, translated into a valid IP as it leaves your router), or are you using some sort of plan with multiple static IP addresses?
Ditch VOIP. Get a Primus phone line into your house. $60/month CAD for unlimited long distance in North America. They have other calling plans too- very reasonably priced.
I have this setup along with Sympatico internet access and it works perfectly.