VOIP SunRocket Internet Phone Service $199 for 15months = $13.27/month

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: Ensign
Anyone have problems when downloading large files and using SunRocket at the same time? Can this reduce the quality?

For some reason, even when not using the computer, my brother's SunRocket service seems to break up like a cell phone at times. It's quite annoying. Is this common?

I'd like to save money, but I'm not willing to settle for a vastly inferior service that will conflict with my other internet activities.

Thanks for the help.

Yeah, same as ttown said, I've got my gizmo behind my router and have never noticed a drop in quality or bandwidth while downloading files, gaming, or gaming and chatting over Teamspeak while my fiancee uses the phone simultaneously.

 

[mindblendeR]

Sept. 12th

SunRocket service is down AGAIN. 845AM here in New york City.

No dialtone, no "voice" light on the gizmo. I am sick of these outages.

Time to ditch Sunrocket and find an alternative.

 

[Ensign]

Thanks for the info.

My brother is currently out of the country on his honeymoon, so I'll have to wait until he gets back. Our parents are house/dog sitting for him, and I noticed the "breaking up" on the phone. The Gizmo is sitting in front of the router though, so we'll have to try moivng it behind the router. Anything special you have to do to set it up behind the router? Opening of any ports?

He's also got the Uniden phones. It seems to happen on calls with anyone though. It sounds pretty much like a cell phone signal being lost, even when no cell phone is involved.

Thanks again!

Originally posted by: ttown
I've had no problems using Sunrocket and downloading very large files simultaneously.
However... I have "the gizmo" set up behind my router. I've heard of people having issues with the gizmo in front of the router -- so if your brother has his set that way, you might suggest he place it behind the router. Depending on how much effort he want to put into it, the issues might also be resolved by logging into the gizmo and tweaking the quality settings. (I haven't had to do that, so I don't have specific suggestions)
If he already has it behind his router, then there may be settings in the router that could be tweaked in a similar way.
A phone call uses suprisingly little bandwidth (relative to cable/dsl) -- so "normal" web usage is unlikely to affect quality.
I think what you are describing is uncommon. I know myself and many others have commented that sound quality is excellent -- even when downloading large files from fast servers. I have "average" cable service (1.6mbps down, 250kbps up) and sound quality is excellent.
To get more suggestions on fixing your brothers issues, more info is needed.
Get him on here to post specifics -- how his hardware is set-up, if it's only certain calls, if it's only when using the wireless unidens, etc. There's lots of people here that can help.

 

[ttown]

Ensign -- the first thing I'd try is a putting in a wired phone instead of the Unidens. It's possible that the uniden wireless phones are getting interference from something.
If you can't do that, maybe move the base unit around and see if the quality changes.

As for moving te gizmo behind the router -- probably nothing special needs to be done. On my router, I did need to adjust the firewall Denial of Service detection settings.
The symptom is: outgoing calls work fine, but inbound calls make the phone ring -- but "dead air" when answered. If you get that affect after moving the gizmo behind the router, then you'll need to up the DoS threshold within the router.
(Most people don't need to do this.)

The other thing that needs to be done when switching devices around is that all the devices (router, gizmo, and probably any PC's) need to be RESET in the order they string off the modem -- delaying a minute between each device so they have enough time to acquire its settings from the device in front of it. (adjust cables, reset router, pause, reset gizmo, pause... etc)

 

[georgepa]

In my house the microwave in the kitchen is on 2.4 GHz. It does interfere with the Uniden phones, which have the same 2.4 GHz frequency. So, when I heat up some grub in the microwave, call quality diminishes. That does not happen on non-2.4 GHz phones, of course (i.e. 900 MHz, 5.8 GHz.)

The way I understand it the frequency spectrum goes further down some digits, so for instance someone's microwave frequency could be 2.401 and the phone happens to be on 2.399, and then the two devices don't interfere. Mine happens to match, so I have to take my microwave into account when using the Undens.

In general: Look at your brothers internet speed. If it is something like 768 up/128 down he will have problems when trying to make a phone call while downloading files. The codec SR uses eats up 90K. Does not leave much room for anything else as far as the upload is concerned (Upload is you speaking into the phone receiver - basically you are SENDING a packet over the internet - Download is you RECEIVING a packet from the internet (voice coming from the other party.) Both up and down have to be decent to make this VOIP thing work.

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: georgepa
In my house the microwave in the kitchen is on 2.4 GHz. It does interfere with the Uniden phones, which have the same 2.4 GHz frequency. So, when I heat up some grub in the microwave, call quality diminishes. That does not happen on non-2.4 GHz phones, of course (i.e. 900 MHz, 5.8 GHz.)

The way I understand it the frequency spectrum goes further down some digits, so for instance someone's microwave frequency could be 2.401 and the phone happens to be on 2.399, and then the two devices don't interfere. Mine happens to match, so I have to take my microwave into account when using the Undens.

Thankfully I don't have that issue. I have enough wireless-type stuff in my apartment that I oughtta be sprouting tumors already. My Unidens thankfully don't get interference from any of them, be it the wireless router, AirPort connection for my printer/stereo, microwave, cell phone, neighbor's wireless router (unsecured ), etc.

Question--is there a channel-change button on the Unidens that I'm missing? All my previous wireless handsets had them. Is that a thing of the past?

 

[Robor]

I just got the explanation/apology Email from SunRocket. It's nice that they tell us what happened and apologize for the outage but at this point it's a broken record. I really don't care why the service went down anymore. What I do care about it the fact that the service has not been stable for the past several weeks. I don't want to hear anymore excuses or explanations.

I got so frustrated I disconnected my Sunrocket gizmo last night and hooked my phone back up to my Verizon line. Unfortunately, I ported my POTS Verizon number over to SunRocket last month so I can only make outgoing calls on it now. I've got my SunRocket number forwarded to my cell phone for now.

I'm not sure if I'm going to hook the gizmo back up or dump SunRocket and find someone more reliable. I really wish I had not ported my number to them. In fact, considering all this happened after I did it you all can probably blame me for it. That's my luck!

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: Robor
I just got the explanation/apology Email from SunRocket. It's nice that they tell us what happened and apologize for the outage but at this point it's a broken record. I really don't care why the service went down anymore. What I do care about it the fact that the service has not been stable for the past several weeks. I don't want to hear anymore excuses or explanations.

I got so frustrated I disconnected my Sunrocket gizmo last night and hooked my phone back up to my Verizon line. Unfortunately, I ported my POTS Verizon number over to SunRocket last month so I can only make outgoing calls on it now. I've got my SunRocket number forwarded to my cell phone for now.

I'm not sure if I'm going to hook the gizmo back up or dump SunRocket and find someone more reliable. I really wish I had not ported my number to them. In fact, considering all this happened after I did it you all can probably blame me for it. That's my luck!

Here's my take on it, Robor. Yes, it's frustrating that we had a major outage.

We've been told by customer service that a failover solution is in the pipeline for the next month or so. A solution is coming. It doesn't make sense to me to cut and run now that a fix is on it's way.

This is so darned cheap for what it is, and to be honest, I feel like SunRocket is the most proactive company I've ever done business with in terms of keeping me apprised of what's going on. I don't know how many times I've had things like my internet or cable go out and never heard from my ISP or cable company about why. If I'm lucky it'll be back up before I get angry enough to call, but if not, I'll likely never get an answer as to why. I can call and email until I'm blue in the face and I'll get the transfer runaround or never get past the machines.

With SunRocket, on the other hand, we've gotten, what, three emails since Friday? Moreover, in the latest one they've created a special email address just for dealing with folks who are still having troubles. When's the last time you heard about a competitor of theirs, or any other company that provides a similar service doing something like that?

My suggestion is to stick it out a bit longer. I really do think that SunRocket has nowhere to go but up, and with things like the failover it will only get better.

 

[RideFree]

I hate to say it but, the excuse I got in today's e-mail from S/R is either really flimsy or someone doesn't give a $hit.

1. How can you run a mission critical server and not have redundancy?
2. What part of the term "server farm" seems to be missing here?
3 Either Windows and Apache can be configured to roll right over a "software" or "hardware" malfunction so as to nearly be undetectable.
4. Maybe the farm was located in or near New Orleans? (Oh, there's a good excuse! )

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: ttown
As for moving the gizmo behind the router --

I moved mine behind the breadmaker, does that count?

 

[NaughtyGeek]

Dear "Naughtygeek",

I wanted to provide a further update on the progress regarding recent service disruptions. Last Thursday evening, network congestion issues required us to perform an emergency upgrade to the SunRocket system, swapping out a critical component for a higher capacity device to handle the increased traffic. On Friday morning, a problem resulting from the upgrade materialized, causing another service disruption. Interim restoral measures were implemented to bring most of service back online Friday afternoon. A software update was applied on Friday evening, fixing the problem that caused Friday's disruption.

Since Friday evening, there have been isolated disruptions affecting inbound or outbound calling for some customers, which were quickly diagnosed and corrected. We are confident that the major issues have been addressed, though isolated degradations remain possible over the next few days.

Our top priority is to ensure that all our customers are back in service. At this time, our system is fully operational, and your service should be working. If the Voice light on your Gizmo is not lit, you may need to reboot (power on and off) to reestablish service. Due to heavy call and email volume into SunRocket Member Services, a separate email box has been established for those customers requiring immediate assistance in restoring service. If you are unable to either make or receive phone calls and cannot get through to Member Services, please send an email to priority@sunrocket.com describing your issue, specifying your SunRocket phone number and the name on your account, and we will respond as quickly as possible.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience. Later this week, I will update you with our progress.

Sincerely,
Kevin Bennis
Chief Executive Officer

 

[ImSeeker]

So, do most people want to bolt, or most want to ride it out. We need a poll!

At the moment, I'm riding it out, but I must admit I'm not happy with whats been going on.

 

[RideFree]

I'm paid up 'till 12/25

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: ImSeeker
So, do most people want to bolt, or most want to ride it out. We need a poll!

At the moment, I'm riding it out, but I must admit I'm not happy with whats been going on.

I think it'd be pretty foolish to jump ship now, just before they get their failover system in place. I'll be riding it out.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: astrosfan90

Originally posted by: ImSeeker
So, do most people want to bolt, or most want to ride it out. We need a poll!

At the moment, I'm riding it out, but I must admit I'm not happy with whats been going on.

I think it'd be pretty foolish to jump ship now, just before they get their failover system in place. I'll be riding it out.

I hooked my Gizmo back up. I'm giving SunRocket one more chance. If we get an extended (24 hours or more) outage in the next month I'm gone just out of principle alone. I'll get by with my cell phone until I find another provider.

 

[jjm]

I understand that people want to give SR another chance, but I would not do it if SR is your only land line. Their record is not good enough to warrant that kind of trust.

 

[mindblendeR]

Service is down again in New York City as of 12:18PM today Sept. 13th.

No dialtone for third time in 3 days.


UNREAL.

 

[MisterMe]

So back in March I signed up for a year of phone service...$200...heck of a deal!!! $436 off of what I used to pay Verizon throughout the year. I knew that it was an emerging technology so i figured on having some outages. I have a cell phone standing by. But overall a pretty damn good deal!! Yes it should be 100% and I'm sure that as a company, this is their focus. But we don't live in an ideal world - things happen so we have to roll with it sometimes.

If I went into this thing knowing that for $16 a month I would have bulletproof service, I would have been fooling myself. Sunrocket can have problems. My ISP can have problems. Who knows what other unforseen problems could happen with something as new as this. We "should" have been prepared to a tee for something like Katrina...but we weren't. So letthe lawsuits roll and next time we'll be more worried about doing something wrong..but anyway...

Ma Bell has been at it for 100 years or so...voip how long? 5 years max? Until Voip has been around for a while, be prepared for things like this. My previous Vonage had the same probs once in a while...I'm sure all the other providers have had or will have probs sometime too...

One thing they should focus on however is getting an option available so calls can roll to an alternate number in the case of a network outage....ie my cellphone...which is spotty sometimes too...

 

[ttown]

Sunrocket selects XO Communications press release dated yesterday

<credit to RockyBB at BBR for the link>

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: MisterMe
One thing they should focus on however is getting an option available so calls can roll to an alternate number in the case of a network outage....ie my cellphone...which is spotty sometimes too...

Yeah, that's the failover system they're working on. We've been told it'll be up within a month or two.

 

[jjm]

I would agree that we should expect glitches with new technologies and start-ups, but SR's problems appear to be partly their own bad management. It seems that they probably grew too fast (gotta keep the cash rolling in) and skimped on setting up backup plans, at least initially.

Having a cell as a backup may be fine, but for anyone with a business who needs reliable communication, SR is not yet a good answer.

By the way, one virtue of the local phone service is that a corded phone usually keeps working, even during a power failure. Without extensive battery backup capability, your SR phone would probably be off-line during a local or regional blackout, and many cell towers go off-line too.

 

[laketrout]

Originally posted by: RideFree
Still down here at 10:55am

Lake,
On a side note, did you mean Lakewood?
Not sure I know where Lake City is...

Well, the outage is unfortunate, can't deny that. Personally, I think I am in for the long hall. The reason for that is that the company consistently proves to me that it is dedicated to us (the consumer) and is honest (with e-mail updates) and admits responsibility (free points and priority e-mails and who knows what is next). This is technology is still in development across the board but as noted there are good times where the money for the quality is almost too good to be true, but then there are some down times. However VOIp is a new and emerging technology still as evident with all VOIP competitors pretty much experiencing outages at one point or another. However, sunrocket allows you to get in and out without being charged, like I know Vonage does not with activation and cancellation fees. So in my book, Sunrocket as a company is something I wish to support and help through these growing pains so that in the future I deal with a company who respects my business and my money as opposed to the alternative models of contract agreements and hidden fees. But that is my stance and I hope and trust for now that service will be restored and more reliable soon.

Ridefree - Oh, defintley Lake City... I quickly googled it and its logo is, "...Another Day in Paradise." Hah! It is a beautiful little spot where i got to go ride ATVs fish and hike around. Wonderful area out there.

 

[RideFree]

I don't blame some for jumping from S/R to something else, whatever they deem it to be. There has to be twenty-five thousand great reasons other than the one(s) obvious to me and/or to you.

Going into this, we all obviously knew S/R to be something less than the all-encompassing, perfect utility POTS we :roll:all knew and loved:roll:, however, it (S/R, VoIP, whatever) ain't gonna go away just because of a few (or lot) of hiccoughs along the way.

If they manage to get a few things right between now and Christmas, I?ll renew. It?s as simple as adding the fallover routine and to all appearances, a UPS !!!
I say ?UPS? with tongue-in-cheek, as you all know what it implies. I?ve fumed about it in a previous post.

My $.01.1941

 

[TheCoop]

SunRocket has experienced a service degradation. Our engineers are actively
researching the exact cause and are committed to preventing similar problems in
the future. Thank you for your continued patience in this matter.

Currently SunRocket is evaluating the situation that you experienced and will
release more information on how you will be compensated on Monday.

Thank You,

Melissa
SunRocket Member Services
1-800-786-0132


I received this on the 10th. Guess what, no explanation on how WE are going to be compensated for down service and Monday has come and gone. Great way to keep customers believing in you. Promise something and then no follow through.

 

[RideFree]

Oh, that Lake City!
The one out in the middle of nowhere.