Switched from Vonage and my troubles started

[christcorp]

Voipo went with the voip adapter/router combo to make the "Plug and Play" capability easier for customers. And overall; that works perfectly fine. That allows it to be widely accepted.

Now; just like with any other network/internet service/configuration; you can make it any way you want to. The overwhelming majority of internet users have no need, desire, etc... to increase their bandwidth, talk QOS, port forward, etc... If I died 5 years ago, my wife would have still been using 1.5mb/896kb DSL with one wired computer and a wireless router for the laptop. But things evolve. As for being "Widely Accepted" the majority of people don't evolve. They couldn't care less. The fact that you are even using/discussing voip puts you into a totally different category compared to the majority of the country. The majority of the country uses POTS or ONLY Cell phones. And in time; even Voip may disappear in the shadow of Cellular/4G/LTE technology.

But currently, there are 3 types of people who use voip. 1) Those who don't know they're using it; via their cable or wireless broadband provider. (They call it Digital Phone). 2) Those who bought Vonage or MagicJack because they saw it on TV. 3) Those like many of us, who are geeks and actually researched a little bit of this. Some started with vonage or digital phone and progressed to better voip.

So people like me, and some of you, who have 30mb/5mb or similar, needs self educate yourself when it comes to wanting voip. Voip is another application for your computer/home network. Do I use a voip adapter/router ahead of my regular network router for plug and play? No way. BUT, if I want it better, then that's my responsibility to learn some basic networking. If I want to use my gigabit "n" routers and bonded Cable internet; that's my responsibility. But VoipO's basic configuration; if done accordingly; will allow you voip phone service and simultaneous internet connection. And for 90+% of customers, that's perfectly fine. But for the less than 10% of customers who know the difference between 10 and 20mb bandwidth; who visit these types of forums; etc... they/you/we need to be able to reconfigure out network, and be responsible for it, to work with both voip and our more specific bandwidth/network needs. That is not Voipo or your internet provider's responsibility.

Then again; that's what "FORUMS" are for. The provider gives you the basic working connection. Come to the forums; ask questions; learn; and you'll be able to make your network work anyway you want it to. I have 30+mb/5mb internet service. I have 3 voip adapters connected. I don't slow down in ANY internet activities. And my voip adapters are behind my routers. Just like they were another PC. For the basic (Majority) customer, the voipo equipment works perfectly. For the niche crowd, you need to be more involved and responsible yourself. I.e. It's not up to Ford or GM to help me "TWEEK" my Mustang or Corvette because I want to do "OTHER" things with it compared to simply just driving it. If I want to tweek and have fun, then I guess I need to learn a few things..... Or pay someone who knows how to do it. NOT Ford or GM.

[Tooth]

Voipo went with the voip adapter/router combo to make the "Plug and Play" capability easier for customers. And overall; that works perfectly fine. That allows it to be widely accepted.

Now; just like with any other network/internet service/configuration; you can make it any way you want to. The overwhelming majority of internet users have no need, desire, etc... to increase their bandwidth, talk QOS, port forward, etc... If I died 5 years ago, my wife would have still been using 1.5mb/896kb DSL with one wired computer and a wireless router for the laptop. But things evolve. As for being "Widely Accepted" the majority of people don't evolve. They couldn't care less. The fact that you are even using/discussing voip puts you into a totally different category compared to the majority of the country. The majority of the country uses POTS or ONLY Cell phones. And in time; even Voip may disappear in the shadow of Cellular/4G/LTE technology.

But currently, there are 3 types of people who use voip. 1) Those who don't know they're using it; via their cable or wireless broadband provider. (They call it Digital Phone). 2) Those who bought Vonage or MagicJack because they saw it on TV. 3) Those like many of us, who are geeks and actually researched a little bit of this. Some started with vonage or digital phone and progressed to better voip.

So people like me, and some of you, who have 30mb/5mb or similar, needs self educate yourself when it comes to wanting voip. Voip is another application for your computer/home network. Do I use a voip adapter/router ahead of my regular network router for plug and play? No way. BUT, if I want it better, then that's my responsibility to learn some basic networking. If I want to use my gigabit "n" routers and bonded Cable internet; that's my responsibility. But VoipO's basic configuration; if done accordingly; will allow you voip phone service and simultaneous internet connection. And for 90+% of customers, that's perfectly fine. But for the less than 10% of customers who know the difference between 10 and 20mb bandwidth; who visit these types of forums; etc... they/you/we need to be able to reconfigure out network, and be responsible for it, to work with both voip and our more specific bandwidth/network needs. That is not Voipo or your internet provider's responsibility.

Then again; that's what "FORUMS" are for. The provider gives you the basic working connection. Come to the forums; ask questions; learn; and you'll be able to make your network work anyway you want it to. I have 30+mb/5mb internet service. I have 3 voip adapters connected. I don't slow down in ANY internet activities. And my voip adapters are behind my routers. Just like they were another PC. For the basic (Majority) customer, the voipo equipment works perfectly. For the niche crowd, you need to be more involved and responsible yourself. I.e. It's not up to Ford or GM to help me "TWEEK" my Mustang or Corvette because I want to do "OTHER" things with it compared to simply just driving it. If I want to tweek and have fun, then I guess I need to learn a few things..... Or pay someone who knows how to do it. NOT Ford or GM.

So I guess what all that means is that you've set a static IP address on your VoIPo ATA and set your router to forward that huge port range to the ATA because you didn't want the HT502's routing capabilities (or lack thereof) to slow down your network.

[christcorp]

So I guess what all that means is that you've set a static IP address on your VoIPo ATA and set your router to forward that huge port range to the ATA because you didn't want the HT502's routing capabilities (or lack thereof) to slow down your network.

Not completely true. 1) I've had voip for a very long time. 2) I am using a PAP2 voip adapter, because that's what I was issued by VoipO. (No integrated router). 3) I have over 30+ years of networking experience/degrees/etc... in the computer/telecommunication world. It's what I do for a living. I even manage a complete telephone system with thousands of lines. In other words, I have the capability and knowledge to make my network exactly the way I want it to work.

My point was that for the 99% of normal computer/internet users, who want to get voip, and integrated voip adapter/router is the best solution for getting voip and internet. If you are more knowledgeable about the internet; which most people who come to a forum are; then there are a number of ways to use the HT502 without affecting your internet speeds. Again; I'm talking about the "Minority". As a business, voipo has to look at the mass demographic of their customers. But for the more knowledgeable, there are plenty of ways to make your network work. But you have to be willing to do a few things and be willing to learn.

The problem is: For the vast majority of customers, true plug and play works fine. No problems. For the very knowledgeable, plug and play isn't a consideration, because we have pretty extensive networks, and we're going to customize it with static IP addresses, separate routers, switches, wireless access points, firewalls, etc... The problem is with the middle group that has the basic home network with the traditional linksys/belkin/dlink type of combo wireless router/switch; who want the Plug and Play capability that the majority customer has, but with the extra capabilities that a person with a lot of networking experience has.

This is not to say you need to buy a bunch of hardware. There's plenty of ways to set up the traditional home network to give your computers full bandwidth and still have the HT502 give you good voip service. It also depends if you are running a network that provides server capabilities and has outbound traffic where ports are an issue. I.e. if you don't have an email server, web server, IP cam, or something else where an external source is trying to connect to you, then ports aren't important at all. You could DMZ the voip adapter and not even worry about ports. There are some concerns, but those are easy to address. Bottom line; the vast majority of internet users aren't worried about ports, bandwidth, qos, etc... And for them, the company and their products are perfect. For the others, that's what "FORUMS" are for. To learn how to do the unique things you want to do.

[barthold]

Voipo went with the voip adapter/router combo to make the "Plug and Play" capability easier for customers. And overall; that works perfectly fine. That allows it to be widely accepted.

Fact is that Vonage, with my sophisticated and evolving network setup was just plug and play. It worked for 5+ years without me doing anything at all network wise for my Vonage adapter. Plus it was super reliable. When I switched to voipo, it wasn't plug and play, and definitely not reliable, until a long email conversation with tech support. Maybe I am the unlucky exception, but I think voipo can learn something from this. That is the whole point why I started this thread.