Vonage – You Are Forgiven

What kind of track record had the Belkin had?

I have never used one, as their wi-fi products all feature non-removable antennas, which I don’t like,and after a call to the company when I needed one, I was told is a company philosophy but their other products have worked fine for me.

Just wondering.

I have a Vonage line, a Verizon cell phone, a MagicJack and two land lines.

Once installed the Vonage line became the phone of choice, it out performs all the others.

The MagicJack is virtually useless, it is so unreliable I no longer bother connecting it.

Thanks for your article on Vonage. I noticed that twice in your article you used “than” where you meant to use “then”. Typo?

Routers. I hate them sometimes. I have dozens and dozens of clients. They use Linksys (the most dominant), Netgear, DLink, Apple (which I’m finding to be MOST reliable), and Belkin.

I’ve had the frustration of similar situations where, everything is working just fine. No changes made to the network, workstations, or servers. And BAM! You find yourself troubleshooting problems that seemingly have no cause.

The sad thing is, it is cheaper to replace them then repair them. If I can’t fix it in 15 minutes, I replace it.

Here’s my recommendation on troubleshooting it.
1. Reset it back to factory defaults, but make sure you’ve backed up the settings for port forwarding, virtual servers, security, Static IP, PPOE, and so on. (that alone can take 30 – 60 minutes to write it all down, if it isn’t already documented.
2. Update the firmware.
3. Call the manufacturer tech support
4. NOW go buy that new router

By the way…the MOST COMMON fix? Unplug the modem and the router for 1 minute (some say, only 15 seconds, but if varies from brand to brand so longer won’t hurt). Plug in the modem, wait a few more seconds, then plug in the router. I’ll bet I don’t have 10 clients I have NEVER had to do THAT with. ARRRRGH.

Hello Mark,
It was my first Belkin router. I also noticed the fixed anteena like you mentioned.

Heh Chuck,
Thanks for sharing your experience.

Hi David,
I agree 100%. Routers are a pain and replacing is quick and easy.

Mike,
Thanks for the corrections.

I’ve been a Vonage customer since 11/1/2003. In that time I have had only one issue with the service which was not related to either the router or my cable service … the voicemail stutter dial tone would not clear after all voicemail was deleted. This was traced to my original Cisco 182 ATA and the unit was replace immediately at no cost.

Admittedly I’m a geek and electronic gadgets are not a mystery to me. However, there is ZERO learning curve to the Vonage system.

Tip for Teens:

The simple trouble shooting path is to plug the Vonage device directly into your cable/DSL modem. If the problem goes away … it isn’t a Vonage problem.

I have been a Vonage customer for over 2 years. Service is excellent and who can beat that price? I do recommend to ANYONE who uses their internet much while on the phone to grab a Hawking Broadband Booster (look on eBay). I was having a few issues with poor telephone sound, and/or very slow surfing while using internet. I couldn’t even surf to a website while using the phone at times. I bought The Hawking Broadband booster when it first came out and wouldn’t give it up for anything!! Ever since I started to use it, I can now use my Vonage connection, watch online video’s on comcast, and even have my bit torrent machine running in the background, all with no problems at all.

Five little words SKYPE. It’s a nearly-free internet phone system that first appeared in Europe, then USA. Businesses have been relying on it for years.Why in the world people here are wlling to pay $30 a month for Vinage phone service is beyond me.  Skype.com

[...] may be trying to cover up the fact that their routers leave much to be desired. I recently wrote here about the problems I had with a new Belkin wireless router and how it screwed up my Internet and [...]