DrayTel VigorTalk

Hello All,

I am having major problems with the said subject.

The first unit I received had a poorly moulded UTP port for which the cable wouldn't lock in place correctly. This was quickly replaced.

However DrayTel have been "trying to fix" the reported issues on my replacement unit since 09/11/06 & it's now driving me crazy ! It's been backwards & forwards at least every other day since. They've now even got to the point of sending me through settings I've already tried.

My set up :

NTL Cable Modem connected to Netgear WGT624v3 Wireless Firewall Router (physical cable).
DrayTel VigorTalk unit connected to the Netgear (physical cable).
PC connected to the Netgear (physical cable).

I have a 2nd PC in the house connected wirelessly to the Netgear.

Both my Netgear Router & VigorTalk are fully firmware updated.

On receiving the DrayTel unit it was literally a 5 minute setup to get up & running - great - the first month or so appeared fine. However since then I have been experiencing the following problems (in no particular order or frequency) :

No-one can call in > callers either get an answer phone message, engaged tone, or nothing at all.
Unable to get an outgoing dial tone.
If able to get a dial tone, the attempted call just doesn't connect.
If able to get a dial tone, I get an engaged tone at the other end (when I know it's not - i.e my standard NTL land line or my mobile phone).
If an outgoing call does connect, the line may drop on answer, or after a few seconds.

The answer phone email notification service is working fine as I get a constant stream of emails containing recorded wav files !

Where dialling out is concerned, maybe 1 call in every 10 attempts connects. Whether this stays up for the whole duration of the call is another matter. Friends & family have given up calling me on the VOIP connection. Lucky I kept my NTL land line & have a mobile !

I have ran & submitted the logs of 3rd party ping tests, as well as applying some advised STUN settings. With the STUN settings applied, I get no calls in at all.

So that's the background, after these months their first line email support appear to have no further ideas or suggestions & my case has been "passed to their Engineers", however I'm still to hear anything from them.

Has anyone experienced anything like this with regards VOIP services ?

I'm told that there is no SIP restriction/throttling on NTL cable broadband that could be causing these issues.


Many Thanks, Gavin.

Hello Gavin,

One thing to try - swap out your router for another manaufacturer other than NETGEAR, they are famous for NAT transversal issues which can cause problems for SIP - VOIP traffic. A friend of mine had a similar problem, he normally uses Draytek routers with integrated VOIP support.

Also, as a note I've been using VOIP on NTL cable for months with no issues.

Speedy

Thanks for your reply & info Speedy, though I gave up on this in the end. I'd not the spare cash (to try alternative routers), further time, or patience to see this through so have stuck with my NTL, sorry, Virgin Media (!) land line !

I understand the saving money thing over a period of time, but I'll put it down as a bad do for now & revisit later this year.

My Netgear's doing exactly what I want it to at this moment in time so I'll stick with it.

I'll bear the Netgear/VOIP side of things when I try VOIP again. Fingers burnt for now though I'm afraid !

Thanks again :0)