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Russell
Shaw at ZDNet is reporting on increasing rumblings in the Vonage user community that the quality of VoIP calls for customers of broadband
Internet giant Comcast is starting to suck. That's where the conspiracy theories start, because Comcast has just
launched its own competing—and more expensive—VoIP service in some markets. So, is this foul play by
Comcast, just a myth or concidence, or are they withing their rights to throttle Vonage? Toss your theories around in
the comments.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
R Phoenix said 12:33AM on 2-25-2008
I was walking around the neighborhood today and the thought of Comcast throttling Vonage for us to switch immediately popped into my mind. We are in the midst of switching from Vonage to Comcast because of the problems we've had with Vonage and after reading this, I'm now going to stop the order.
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E Moore said 5:28PM on 3-06-2008
I have just had 2 day of back and forth between Comcast and Vonage. It started on Monday the 3rd, when I stopped receiving e-mails forwarded to Comcast from my voice mail on my Vonage account. I attempted to update my Vonage settings, just in case something had inadvertently changed. I did not receive any confirmation from Vonage regarding the changes to my Comcast account. I subsequently called Vonage customer service. I confirmed the Comcast e-mail address with their representative, who in turn attempted to send an e-mail, which was also not received. I then asked to have the e-mail sent to an address through another service provider. I received it immediately. I have since added a second e-mail forwarding address to my Vonage account through Hotmail. I have received all of the messages from Vonage through this account and still not any through Comcast. Comcast has denied blocking the Vonage e-mails, and can not explain the discrepancy.
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Textbook Seller said 5:59PM on 3-02-2006
I suppose they're within their rights to do anything that fits the contracts we sign, but it still kind of blows. I'll probably switch, as people should if they're unhappy. That's the only response that gets any notice from a business.
They've been pestering us to make sure we change our DNS settings to dynamic to use their DNS, and I can't help but think it's part of this, theat they'll start throttling BitTorrent or VoiP traffic.I've been putting it off as long as I can, but March 12 or 16 is the final date.
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Shichae said 2:25AM on 3-03-2006
OK, if this turns out to be true, then Comcast is in for a world of hurt. While I'm sure that it's totaly legal for Comcast to do so, I don't think that it's very ethical seeing that the service they are offering a is us the customer and should be blind to whom ever we choose to use it with. Pretty bad move, considering that DSL in my area is going for more than half the going price as Cable Modem service. This could also be a case of high bandwith usage causing all around bad performance or servers acting up at Vonage, or some bird shit on a major cable thus creating major interferance, etc. etc. etc. Until it's proven one way or another, I guess that Comcast has me by the short and currlies. I will tell you that I have been experiencing some really shitty quality with Vonage, even with no load placed on my line. Either way, we need some legalee's to get pissed off and do the american get rich plan so that we can get some resolution on this.
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David said 8:26AM on 3-03-2006
I just switched from Comcast to Verizon FIOS and my Vonage connection is much better now. I don't know whether it's due to the higher FIOS speed or not, but it is certainly better.
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x24 said 1:27PM on 3-03-2006
Comcast's frequent short outages (short like 2-3 hours a day, and at least one day a week) got me into looking for other ISP's. Switching over to Vonage to save money, This really hurts my phoneline. Unfortunately I can only get Comcast HSI where my house is (other than Direcway, which isn't an option for me). If they are gonna go through with "sabotage", then I might really consider moving somewhere else that has ISP services other than Comcast.
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Willie Collins said 3:14AM on 12-06-2008
Hello!
It would be greatly appreciated if someone could either direct me, or put me In contact with someone who has dos dragon anti throttle.
Thank you:
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Mat Carpenter said 8:58PM on 12-18-2006
It has come to my attention that Comcast.net has been throttling users by intermittently shutting off a PC's access to the internet. This throttling is intentional, it does not slow the connection but actually HALT or shut off the connection for up to five minutes at a time. I believe they are doing this to prevent flooding, bittorent, down-loaders or VPN access. Though Comcast's terms of service prohibit the use of a VPN on a non-commercial account, their actions are hurting innocent customers. The intentional shut off of a user's account can also effect Internet Telephones such as Vontage. These actions could disconnect an important call like 911. After studying the problem I found Comcast is storing MAC address's from personal PCs. This is a gross invasion of privacy and can land the cable company in court. I have provided software for users with a router that allows spoofing the MAC address and restores the connection. The software can be run manually or automatic to detect the loss of internet connection then reset your Network interface card with a new Spoofed MAC address restoring your connection within seconds. You may download the software here http://www.dosdragon.com/antithrottle.zip
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Mark Adams said 4:44PM on 5-23-2007
I am having the problem with Comcast as described by previous posters. I have tried to download anti-throttle, but the link is broken. Is there a mirror somewhere? If not, would someone be willing to send me a copy?
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Rich said 6:19PM on 7-01-2007
I had the identical experience when Charter Communications when they introduced their Voip service. Suddenly the Vonage router would not acquire a DNS address.
I can bypass the router and still connect, however am convinced the cable company is deliberately blocking Vonage.
It is scary, really. I don't have a land line because Vonage, until this point, has been reliable. What if I had the phone bypassed and had to dial 911?
Vonage jumped though hoops to enable emergency services. Now it is the cable companys putting lives at risk.
- Rich
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