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Review by NetFixer See Profile

  • Location: Murfreesboro, Rutherford, TN, USA
  • Cost: $23 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 1 days
  • Caps of 1024 gigabytes/month
Works well as a load balanced connection with my with AT&T connection
Comcaast's price for unlimited bandwidth is too expensive, but so far I haven't needed it
The $23 promo price is good for a backup connection (but I may drop it after the promo ends)
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

I recently added Comcast/Xfinity Internet connection as a backup/load balanced circuit to my AT&T connection. So far, the dual WAN configuration with AT&T and Comcast (load balanced to 50% for each circuit) seems to be working OK with my TRENDnet TEW-829DRU router -- even IPv6 works with both ISPs.

The main reason I did it was because I had to get cable TV for a disabled person in my household who could not deal with IPTV, and Comcast (whose price for basic cable service was better than AT&T) offered a 25mbps Internet connection for only $23 per month (at least during the 12 month promo).

member for 19.7 years, 7695 visits, last login: 3.5 years ago
updated 3.9 years ago

FanaticGamer
join:2006-10-16
Jacksonville, FL

FanaticGamer

Member

Update?

very very curious to see how everything went VOIP wise. Here in Town, plenty of people have VOIP,CDV, or Bellsouth..... let us know^^
FG
trailtreker
join:2006-06-08
Mcgaheysville, VA

trailtreker

Member

Voice Of Idiototic People

What a tragedy

0zero01
Premium Member
join:2000-08-01
Bremerton, WA

0zero01

Premium Member

Fax

Did you setup your vonage box with a static, or is it using a local address?

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
Premium Member
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
Pace 5268AC
TRENDnet TEW-829DRU

3 edits

NetFixer

Premium Member

Re: Fax

Both of my Vonage routers are on my RV082 DMZ interface and each has its own static public IP address (no cascaded NAT problems). FYI, I was already using the max 9600 baud rate, no compression, no error correction, no handshaking, and a DSL filter on the modem output tricks.




Also, as I said in the review update, normal VoIP voice service and incoming faxes continue to work with no problems.

Interestingly, I tried sending and receiving between my Vonage fax line and my RingCentral fax line today, and it worked perfectly in both directions. I had in fact done a couple of fax tests right after I got the new Comcast service activated, and those tests also worked OK (but they were local calls to a neighbor). However, since I had two failures in as many days to two different long distance locations (I was able to return those faxes using my new RingCentral line which would eliminate any failure on the remote end as the cause of the failure), I will no longer be able to trust using Vonage fax over my Comcast connection as my only fax service. Of course, those fax transmissions might have failed using an AT&T DSL connection too, but I have no way to verify or test that anymore.

For now, I am keeping the Vonage fax line active along with the RingCentral line (with the RingCentral line now being published as my official fax line). After a couple of months, after I am reasonably sure that there are no gotchas with the RingCentral service, and that nobody is sending me any faxes on the Vonage line, I will probably either drop the Vonage fax line, or just convert it to a backup voice line.

As a bonus, using the RingCentral line will actually cost less than using the Vonage fax line , so I really don't mind switching. The base price is the same, but the RingCentral service does not have the added bogus fees that Vonage attaches (my Vonage $9.99 fax line actually costs me $14.85 per month with the added bogus fees).
NetFixer

1 edit

1 recommendation

NetFixer

Premium Member

Fax problem final update

Well, after trying numerous QoS settings in my RV082, and even replacing my RV082 with a Netgear managed switch with advanced QoS settings, I have been unable to get reliable faxing using Vonage over Comcast. In fact, it has gotten worse, I could no longer even send a Vonage to Vonage fax or a fax between Vonage and RingCentral in either direction.

Since Vonage had recently sent me notification that the price was going up on the line that I had been using for faxes, I took that as an omen and canceled that line, killed my Windows fax service, and disconnected the USR fax modem. The RingCentral fax service works with no problems.

Of course, even though I hated having to change from a local fax service to a hosted fax service, the RingCentral service is less expensive than a Vonage line, and the troubleshooting process left me with a cleaner/simpler network infrastructure. I could actually remove the Netgear FS105 now that I only have one Vonage router, but I have left it in place because I will probably be installing a 3G MicroCell soon, and that is where it will connect.