M
Matth3w
Guest
About three months ago my wife and I bought a Network Extender (NE) through Verizon to combat the zero or no bar problem we have here where we live (the area itself is great, just for some reason inside our house we couldn't get reception).
We got it in two days, plugged it in, 10 minutes later and up until last week we never messed with it again. No settings, no nothing. Four to five bars at all times no matter where we are in the house or in the driveway with the NE.
Rewind to last week around Wednesday....worked in the morning up until about lunchtime. After lunch I attempted to make a call and I got a message "All circuits are busy."
I thought, boy that's odd. Figured it was the number I was trying to dial, until I realized I couldn't make any calls.
So I unplugged the extender and immediately it worked again. So I called tech support, who had me reboot all my hardware (Linksys WRT54G, the NE, etc) and as soon as the NE came back online it automatically shut us out of the call and I couldn't make or receive calls again.
Talked with tech (again) and eventually he decided to replace the NE and overnighted it to me. Got it overnighted, didn't really make too many phone calls this weekend. Had one phone call that lasted about 50 minutes and didn't notice a single problem. Started to make some calls this morning, and no one could understand me. They said it sounded like I was either breaking up, or that I was echoing or in a tunnel. The most common response was that it sounded like I was in a tunnel. The odd thing is, is that I can hear the person perfectly with absolutely no issue.
So I unplugged the extender and had no problems.
Called tech and they told me to take my phone to a Verizon store. Once I got there I demonstrated that I could make calls no problem with one of the CS reps. I then called the same CS rep from home with the NE turned on and he couldn't understand me at all.
So far the only two potential solutions have been the router and some problem with my cable company (Cox Communications) where I get my internet from. The router shows no indications of being broken or malfunctioning, and I am getting the same download speeds (18.5-19 megabytes per second) and upload speeds (steady at around 2.85 megabytes per second) whether my cable modem is plugged directly into my computer or through the router.
One Verizon tech had me go to MySpeed VoIP connection test, VoIP test, test VoIP performance, test VoIP quality to test my quality of connection. I only scored a 65-69% on average on the overall quality (Verizon says they require 90% which I only achieved twice) but 98% consistently on upload, and solid green on every other part of the test, to include a very low latency (like 0.4ms) and 0% packet loss.
What I don't understand, is, this would make perfect sense if this was day one of me trying to use this NE. But I used it for three months, approximately 600 minutes each month from home just on my phone (not including my wife's), with ZERO issues. It was amazing. I recommended it to every single person that had Verizon service in the area, and all over the internet whenever I could.
Now all of the sudden it stops working? I have changed absolutely NOTHING on my end. Same modem, cables, router, internet, no programs running in the backround etc etc etc.
I have also tried the *228 option 1 and 2 and it didn't do anything, nor did a factory reset on my phone. This clearly seems to be an issue with the NE.
Any suggestions?
We got it in two days, plugged it in, 10 minutes later and up until last week we never messed with it again. No settings, no nothing. Four to five bars at all times no matter where we are in the house or in the driveway with the NE.
Rewind to last week around Wednesday....worked in the morning up until about lunchtime. After lunch I attempted to make a call and I got a message "All circuits are busy."
I thought, boy that's odd. Figured it was the number I was trying to dial, until I realized I couldn't make any calls.
So I unplugged the extender and immediately it worked again. So I called tech support, who had me reboot all my hardware (Linksys WRT54G, the NE, etc) and as soon as the NE came back online it automatically shut us out of the call and I couldn't make or receive calls again.
Talked with tech (again) and eventually he decided to replace the NE and overnighted it to me. Got it overnighted, didn't really make too many phone calls this weekend. Had one phone call that lasted about 50 minutes and didn't notice a single problem. Started to make some calls this morning, and no one could understand me. They said it sounded like I was either breaking up, or that I was echoing or in a tunnel. The most common response was that it sounded like I was in a tunnel. The odd thing is, is that I can hear the person perfectly with absolutely no issue.
So I unplugged the extender and had no problems.
Called tech and they told me to take my phone to a Verizon store. Once I got there I demonstrated that I could make calls no problem with one of the CS reps. I then called the same CS rep from home with the NE turned on and he couldn't understand me at all.
So far the only two potential solutions have been the router and some problem with my cable company (Cox Communications) where I get my internet from. The router shows no indications of being broken or malfunctioning, and I am getting the same download speeds (18.5-19 megabytes per second) and upload speeds (steady at around 2.85 megabytes per second) whether my cable modem is plugged directly into my computer or through the router.
One Verizon tech had me go to MySpeed VoIP connection test, VoIP test, test VoIP performance, test VoIP quality to test my quality of connection. I only scored a 65-69% on average on the overall quality (Verizon says they require 90% which I only achieved twice) but 98% consistently on upload, and solid green on every other part of the test, to include a very low latency (like 0.4ms) and 0% packet loss.
What I don't understand, is, this would make perfect sense if this was day one of me trying to use this NE. But I used it for three months, approximately 600 minutes each month from home just on my phone (not including my wife's), with ZERO issues. It was amazing. I recommended it to every single person that had Verizon service in the area, and all over the internet whenever I could.
Now all of the sudden it stops working? I have changed absolutely NOTHING on my end. Same modem, cables, router, internet, no programs running in the backround etc etc etc.
I have also tried the *228 option 1 and 2 and it didn't do anything, nor did a factory reset on my phone. This clearly seems to be an issue with the NE.
Any suggestions?
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