McShaken
Premium
join:2006-02-20
Olympia, WA
|  [Vonage] Comcast Vs. VOIP
Looks like a forum at the Vonage site is on fire with claims that Comcast is messing with their VOIP Service...
»blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/index.php?p=938
Conspiracy theory, or corporate greed? Comcast is really pushing their own telephone service now. Do you think they'd stoop to the level of intentionally throttling Vonage or other VOIP providers? |
|
NetFixer
Freedom is NOT Free
Premium
join:2004-06-24
Murfreesboro, TN
 ·Vonage
 ·Cingular Wireless
·AT&T CallVantage
 ·AT&T Southeast
1 edit | Comcast does not seem to be interfering with my two Vonage lines in any way, and my »www.testmyvoip.com tests vary between 3.8 and 4.2 depending upon time of day and network loading.
--
Outsourcing is not the same thing as Offshoring!!.
Test your firewall.
Smell the flowers. |
|
McShaken
Premium
join:2006-02-20
Olympia, WA | This seems to be effecting only certain markets. It's even showing up on slashdot.
»slashdot.org/articles/06/03/02/139241.shtml |
|
techRW
join:2004-09-03
| reply to McShaken
I'm surprised people haven't been more upset about the Comcast/Vonage problem here on this forum. If Comcast is intentionally causing problems for Vonage customers, the implications for VoIP are huge.
That said I have yet to read anything definitive about what Comcast is actually doing to create problems for Vonage despite the fact that posts on the Vonage dashboard have repeatedly singled Comcast out as the problem. |
|
McShaken
Premium
join:2006-02-20
Olympia, WA | reply to McShaken
I hope Comcast isn't doing this on purpose... If they were (and if someone could prove it), and a person (or people) died because they couldn't connect to 911, you're talking about a HUGE lawsuit. |
|
YChicagoVoIP
join:2004-12-19 | reply to McShaken
I was wondering whose fault my VoIP problems have been over the past few days -- rock solid until a few days ago, and now everything has gone unreliable with VoIP out here. |
|
pokesph
It Is Almost Fast
Premium
join:2001-06-25
Sacramento, CA
clubs:
 ·Comcast
| reply to McShaken
out here in the west, just today i tried to send a fax with my vonage (Comcast as ISP) and it took well over 2.5 hours for it to finally go thru without the call dropping out..
something is fishy in the Comcast network..
--
Webmaster Steve
- - - - - - - - - - - -
»ppnhosting.com
»sphenterprizes.com
»pokemonpalace.net |
|
montano
join:2001-04-29
Central Cali
·VOIPo
| reply to McShaken
Is this just a Vonage/Comcast issue ? I have Comcast and use several different VoIP providers, not Vonage however. I have not had any problems at all with any of the providers I use.
I also live in Cali.
--
Comcast ISP/ ViaTalk/ GizmoProject/ iax.cc/ Grandstream GXP 2000/ SPA2000/ PAP2 |
|
caddyroger
Buy American
Premium
join:2001-06-11
clubs:  | reply to McShaken
I have vonage and comcast. Every thing is working good. |
|
McShaken
Premium
join:2006-02-20
Olympia, WA
| reply to montano
The thought is that Comcast is targeting Vonage because they're currently the largest VOIP provider out there and they are advertising like crazy... I just saw a half-hour infomercial on Vonage last week, not at 3am either, it was at 8 in the morning PST.
With Comcast pushing their own, more expensive, VOIP service, some wonder if they're doing this to increase their own sales. |
|
Fisamo
Premium
join:2004-02-20
Apex, NC | If the issues seen by Comcast/Vonage customers are due to active service degradation by Comcast, Comcast will be facing some stiff fines. The FCC fined Madison River Communications last fall for trying the same thing. |
|
bigbw5
join:2002-04-03
Tucson, AZ | how would comcast even know i have vonage, or any voip for that matter.. |
|
jose3030
Premium
join:1999-08-17
Manassas, VA
| reply to McShaken
I have Comcast and *HAD* Vonage
had to cancel the line because it was so unreliable.
Now I'm w/ Sunrocket and everything works like a charm.
BTW, I was w/ Vonage for over 2 yrs w/o any glitches before this started about maybe a month or 2 ago. I thought it was just me, I was like, no, cant be. Then I tested it and it got worse and worse.
Vonage lost me.  |
|
priller
join:2000-10-20
Gainesville, VA
·voip.ms
·Callcentric
·Vonage
·callwithus
1 edit | reply to bigbw5
Re: [Vonage] Comcast Vs. VOIP
said by bigbw5  :how would comcast even know i have vonage, or any voip for that matter.. 1) They could do it based on IP address - It wouldn't take much to figure out the addresses of any given VoIP provider.
2) Network based application recognition. They just inspect the IP packet contents for the type of data and apply a given QoS to it. |
|
McShaken
Premium
join:2006-02-20
Olympia, WA
| reply to bigbw5
From what I'm reading, they claim that Comcast can throttle bandwidth to/from the Vonage servers. So, anyone within that area that's served by Comast AND has Vonage will be effected. Everybody else would be oblivious. Others post that they've jumped ship and have gone to another VOIP provider, but the problem remains. IF Comcast is doing this to Vonage, there's no reason to believe that they won't do it to the rest of the competition. |
|
ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium
join:2005-03-14
Putnam, CT
clubs:
·VOIPo
·Metrocast Communic..
·AT&T DSL Service
·ViaTalk
| said by McShaken :From what I'm reading, they claim that Comcast can throttle bandwidth to/from the Vonage servers. So, anyone within that area that's served by Comast AND has Vonage will be effected. Everybody else would be oblivious. Others post that they've jumped ship and have gone to another VOIP provider, but the problem remains. IF Comcast is doing this to Vonage, there's no reason to believe that they won't do it to the rest of the competition. Exactly. Most likely what they would do is glaze it over by saying something like "for security reasons etc" or some bs like that.
--
Make a Difference-Join Team Helix! |
|
techRW
join:2004-09-03 | reply to McShaken
Comcast Puts Vonage Rumors to Rest
»www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1933665,00.asp |
|
christcorp
Premium
join:2001-05-21
Cheyenne, WY
·VOIPo
·Bresnan Online
1 edit | Even if Comcast, or any other ISP, was purposely blocking certain ports, as long as they aren't intentionally misleading the customers it is perfectly legal.
In this case however, if Comcast was blocking it would have been intentionally misleading to customers. If the ISP however states, even if it's the fine print of the TOS, that they do not allow certain ports to be open, that is their right to do so. It's their company and they can do whatever they want. As long as the customer is aware of what they are paying for. They could have Unlimited broadband for $9.99 a month, but it's only available on even days of the month, if they want. As long as the customer is aware of it, it is totally legal. Of course in that scenerio they probably wouldn't have too many customers.
If they really wanted to gain the VOIP customers, all they would have to do is to make it known that they block all know ports that voip providers use, but that they give a major discount if you use their VOIP service. Currently, the cable companies and ILECs are charging just about as much for voip as you were paying for Ma'Bell. If they made voip available, reasonable, cost effective, and reliable, the cable customers wouldn't care what ports they blocked.
Vonage doesn't have a "RIGHT" to be accessed by an ISP anymore than us as customers have a "RIGHT" to broadband in the first place. People actually tried to sue an ILEC because they refused to put broadband in their neighborhood because they didn't believe it would be cost effective. The ILEC won, and other providers decided to go into the market. Later... Mike... |
|
