Austad, Jay wrote:

>>Maybe we should set up a test program to spew 5060/udp packets to 
>>someone and see if they get received. Maybe they have it 
>>setup for just 
>>going vonage?
>>    
>>
>
>Possibly, I haven't tested it to anywhere else, or tested using different
>udp ports.  The packets make it to vonage, but vonage packets never make it
>back.  They just implemented this NAT device last week, and I'm unable to
>find out why.
>
AT&T might claim that the Cisco box is a Server, and therefore not 
allowed on their network.
I had a friend in St. Paul that couldn't accept incoming connections for 
game hosting. Called AT&T, they wouldn't help us. We weren't supposed to 
be doing that. Apparantly AT&T wants us to use broadband for just Web 
surfing, instant messaging, and email.
Email and Instant messaging are both low bandwidth.
HTTP is tons of small connections bursting every so often (you take time 
to read the web pages) and is easily cacheable. (Lots of people going to 
yahoo,cnn and such) Everyone isn't retrieving data at the exact same time.

These support their profits quite well. They dump a ton of users on a 
smaller pipe, pretending to give the all this bandwidth.  Then, when 
they really want it (like broadband SHOULD be used) they create a big stink.

Think about the things they don't like:

VOIP (with Vonage apparantly)
VPN's
GAMING servers

All things with constant high bit rates.

>
>  
>
>>I did speed test with their online speed test and I was 
>>getting 814 Kbps 
>>down, 184 up.
>>    
>>
>
>Vonage uses the g711 codec, which takes up 64kbps.  I don't know why they
>don't use g723 or something which uses lower bandwidth.  g723 uses about
>5kbps, and the quality is pretty much indistinguishable through a phone
>speaker.
>  
>
My experience with g723 was that it sounded terrible. It may have a 
difference depending on the quality of of your phone.
Seriously, I would say with bandwidth is important for VOIP, but its 
easy to obtiain (64kbps is uncompressed basically).
Its harder to get the latency low enough so that it doesn't seem like 
your are talking to someone in Russia or China (or any place far away).


>Jay
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>  
>