I have a LINKSYS 2102 VT in front of my router and am wondering what the optimal Maximum Uplink Speed is under the QOS Settings using high speed cable internet service in Edmonton. The default value is 256 kbps. I think it should be higher but no sure what impact that would have. Thanks in advance!

I have just registered as a new CIA customer. Trying to install system I am trying to call to CIA ( 1-877-743-8242) several days with no results. Empty offices? No offices? No connection? No power? Bancropcy? Elliens?

Answering system responds that no problems reported.

Is it real CIA style? If it is I should try to avoide such service.

I would be glad to get your respond, while I have time to change my horse.

Might be you know reliable cable Internet provider in Toronto?


Still Asking ...

Well since my posting on 2007-10-24 11:41 AM everything is working fine, my Panasonic phones light up when someone leaves me a message, no more guessing about that. It takes 4 - 5 rings for the answering system to kick in which is OK, I have 3 phones strategically placed around my house.

Today I had a small glitch, the phone light on my Linksys SPA2102 was off. Unpowered it for 30 seconds and plugged the power back in and it started up the way it is supposed to.

Maybe I'll relocate the SPA2102 to a location on the wall for better air circulation, it seems to get awfully warm/hot and I guess sitting on top of my router does not help it much.

I had some help from CIA Cybersurf in the beginning to set up the VT box but have not contacted them since. Maybe I am more persistent in trying to solve some problem than others are, guess you have to be when you work around computers which sometimes calls for a lot of patience.

All I can say is this, regardless what the product is, it is not easy to reach service people by phone in any field or industry. For example I am not able to update the firmware in my SPA2102 and Linksys refers me to the dealer where I bought it, the dealer has nothing to do with it other than having sold it to me, Linksys was absolutely no help at all. Updating firmware is an easy task normally.

Asking:

If you want to talk to a real human at 3web cia cybersurf igs or whatever they are call the toll free you listed and follow the buttons for sales don't follow the buttons for help. There is a guy named Jared and a guy named Mark there.

I really regret using this company. I've been double billed as well. I'd get out now. I'd recommend sending a written signed letter to

Paul Mercia
1144, 29th Avenue N.E. Calgary, AB
T2E 7P1

This company defies business logic as it doesn't care about it's reputation.

Things have gone from bad to worse for me since my last post.

After my phone call to CIA about my bill my phone went completely dead. No calls in, no calls out.

Well, I found out that they 'accidentally' gave my phone number to somebody else. How the hell can you accidentally overbill me for three months, then not reimburse me the total cost for your so called accident, AND!!!...then accidentally give my telephone number to somebody else? Not only that...I lost my phone number and ability to call or recieve calls for an entire week before CIA actually gave me what they call a 'temporary' phone number. During that week both my wife and I called them twice or three times daily (waited for hours on speakerphone both while at work and at home) and every time once the rep read our file and found out we had real problems...they'd say "we'll have someone call you back on your cell phone"...AND EVERY F******G DAY those *******s never called us back.

I hope they rot in hell for this.

I'll tell you i have had no problems with my internet through 3web untill i got the Voip system through them. My internet speed has gone to this http://www.speedtest.net/result/201977455.png (http://www.speedtest.net). So i tried to phone the cia no ring and busy signal after five seconds. tired a couple more times and the same. So went to my account to see if i could tec support and it was down. Then with to email it was also down. So i used my old rogers acount which still works for some reason and email Paul Mercia about problems. Having to keep reboot voip termial and modem. For i also keep having my phone line going dead for no reason. Thank god they have voice mail other wise i would never know who has phoned since phone line has been dead for who knows how long. I do do gaming and it keeps having warning connection problem and disconnects,along with phone if someone else is talking on phone at the same time. So sure enough with the email that i sent to Paul the next which is today at 8:30 exactly a tec for ottawa phones me ask me what problems is i tell him. He tell me it must be sometime must be the problem with the voip box which is a motorola vt1005 and he will be sending a brand new linksys which they don't use the motorola anymore. Which is odd because i have only had it since the beginning of September 2007. And to return the motorola back cod. when the new one comes phone him (the tec that phone me) direct when i get it and it should b here friday or even monday morning. To add to this i have been told by some else at cia i needed a dry loop because they have asked me to do a tracer and it came up no good. The tec says to me that is still in the process but it really isn't so much the prblem he think it the motorola. Any thoughs on this would be help thank-you.

My thought would be to switch to a better service provider

djino
"sorry, but I believe this to be best choice then any other suggestions that may follow"

Hi,

Starting mid-September, I started having trouble with my VOIP connection with CIA. People who I would call would have trouble hearing me (despite the fact I could hear them quite well), and the upload speed dropped from the usual 800kbps before to only 200kbps.

After many tests, CIA was unable to find the problem and denied having problems with their network. They sent me to linksys to troubleshoot my voice modem. Unfortunately, and despite what CIA says, the unit is locked and CIA would not give me the username and password saying that they never lock their units.

The Linksys tech guy suggested I should reset my voice modem to factory defauts, upgrade the firmware, and ask CIA how to reconfigure the voice modem. CIA provided me with a web link in order to reprovision the voice modem (which also locks back the unit).

While doing all these steps, I checked my download and upload speeds and noted the following: when the voice modem is reset to defaults, the upload speed goes back to 800kbps. When it is reconfigured with CIA's voip configuration file, it drops back to 200kbps.

The reconfiguration and firmware upgrade seem to have resolved the voice quality issue, but the upload remains a slow 200kbps.

As linksys could not have access to CIA's configuration data, they also suggested I should try to connect to another VOIP called FWD. With them as well, the upload speed is 800kbps. Linksys seems to think that the unit is fine, but that CIA has a network problem.

While a slow upload speed is not the end of the world as long as the voice quality is OK (which seems to be the case for now), is there any suggestion out there as to the source of the problem and whether CIA has indeed a network problem (at least on the voip side), despite the fact they deny it? Is there anything I can do on my end? Could the cable modem cause this issue?

Thank you in advance for your help,

Olivier

Well i have just recieved the new Linksys 2102 and my internet works but i have no phone. I recieved the voip Linksys box last nite and contacted the tec. But this morning no phone i just don't know what to do they have billed me twice so i am stuck with them for another two months.

I signed up with CIA Home Premium at the end of Oct and the Cable service installation went quite well. A Shaw cable tech came on the date that I had specified with CIA during my sign up and the tech installed my cable line without a hitch. However, Shaw took their time provisioning my cable modem, but that was expected. I had to wait about a week... High speed internet service is currently working great.

As for the VoIP service from CIA, I am still waiting for my phone number from Telus to be ported over. It's been 3 weeks now and I've read it could take up to 5 weeks. I guess I just need to exercise a bit more patience. I've been testing out my temp phone number from CIA by phoning some family members in the states and the VoIP service seems pretty solid.

As for CIA customer service, it SUX! I've tried to get a hold of a customer service rep for the last 4 days and, if I'm lucky enough to get through to be put on hold, I continue to wait on hold for over an 1 hour. I haven't been able to get a live person yet. Extremely frustrating. Moreover, I've never recieved an email reply from CIA.

$40 a month for bundled high speed and VoIP is pretty cheap but so is the customer service. You get what you pay for... I'll continue to stick with CIA until something better comes along.

*** ofankhau check your private messages please ***

** How to upgrade Linksys SPA2102 Firmware **

When I received my Linksys SPA2102 terminal I noticed, via the terminal's administrative web page, that the firmware was 3.3.6. I checked Linksys.com (http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_CASupport_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1169671598077&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=9807760256B08&displaypage=nodata) and discovered that the newest released firmware is 5.1.12. That's quite a variance! Apparently, firmware 5.1.12 provides for some important updates/fixes. I phoned CIA tech support who advised that they did not allow for manual firmware upgrades, which I suppose is understandable since some users would likely mess things up royally and destroy their SPA2102 .

I decided to attempt a firmware update nonetheless and was, surprisingly, successful and my VoIP service seems rock solid (I've only been testing it for a day,though). So, if you're willing to try a manual upgrade then here are the steps I took (if your SPA2102 is working fine as it stands, maybe just leave well alone)...

1) Download the latest firmware release from Linksys.com (http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_CASupport_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1169671598077&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=9807760256B08&displaypage=nodata) I had simply done a search for "SPA2102 firmware" and selected the first search result. The previous link should get you to the proper download page for your SPA2102 terminal. My terminal is version 1.0. After downloading firmware 5.1.12, unzip it to a local folder on your PC. There should be a .BIN file as well as a .EXE file.

2) Reset the SPA2102 to factory defaults (note that reseting your terminal will completely disconnect you from CIA's services until you resync with CIA in step 6). Using your phone dial ****, upon hearing the female's voice dial 73738# and wait a second to start hearing your options, then dial 1 (which will confirm that you want to reset the terminal to factory defaults). If all is successful, the female voice with say "Option Successful". Hang up your phone.

3) Temporarily disable any firewall programs you have running on your Windows PC.

4) Directly connect your Windows PC network adapter to the Ethernet port of the SPA2102 and let your PC automatically receive a DHCP address. Make sure you can connect to the SPA2102 terminal by launching a browser from your PC to the terminal's web administrative address: http://192.168.0.1. The default user name and password are simply "user" and "user".

5) If you can connect to the terminal, then run the .EXE upgrade program: upg-spa2102-5-1-12.exe and follow its directions (the IP address of your SPA2102 terminal should be 192.168.0.1). You MUST allow the program to completely finish the upgrade otherwise you will brick your terminal and may render it completely USELESS! The upgrade process only take about a minute.

6) Once the .EXE has stated it has successfully upgraded your SPA2102's firmware, you will now need to resync the terminal to load CIA's VoIP settings into the terminal. Simply open a web browse and click on the link below:

http://192.168.0.1/admin/resync?http://voip.cia.com/provision.php?MAC=$MA

This will resync your terminal and advise you that the changes will take place once the SPA2102 is not active (or something to that effect). I simply unplugged my SPA2102, waited 30 seconds, and plugged it back in. My SPA2102 booted up fine and I logged back into http://192.168.0.1 and confirmed that all my CIA settings were back.

You can also log into your CIA account, http://myaccount.cia.com, and then change the URL to https://myaccount.cia.com/accounts/voip/ataConfig.jsp?brand=linksys and follow the instructions to resync. They are very self explanatory.

So, that's about it. I've reconnected my network cabling as how it was before the upgrade (i.e. back into my wireless router from my terminal). My upload/download speed is about the same as before the upgrade. So, no noticeable improvements with the firmware upgrade in relation to speed tests. My VoIP with CIA is working fine. I trust the firmware upgrade improved my VoIP service. Time will tell...

Thanks to ofankhau for his recent post that got me curious about upgrading the firmware.

Has anybody else had similar success in upgrading the SPA2102's firmware???

** I assume no responsibility for any problems encountered with your firmware upgrade. I simply got it to work on mine and wanted to post how I did it. If you mess up, tough luck:(. You will likely have a heck of time getting tech support from CIA to fix the problem, especially if you brick your terminal! **

Hello there,

I have been having a similar problem to a few people here (where everything works fine for an hour or 2 and then a reboot of the voip terminal is required to restore service), to the point where I can guarantee that if I come back to my computer after having been away from it after several hours, there is no internet service, nor dial tone on the phone. A reboot of the voip terminal gets things running again until the next crash.

I initially tried to get the voip box (Moto VT1005) behind my router (older USR), but had no luck with that. The only way I got anything working at all was just:

Cable modem -> VT1005 -> ethernet switch -> computers

This is clearly not ideal since theres not even a firewall in this setup anymore.

Anyhow I have read all 28 pages of this thread but am still somewhat confused as to how to solve my problem.

I notice mrg_ott found a possible config reset problem for the spa2102 (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=607869&postcount=384) but I do not know how or if this can apply to the VT1005...

Others suggested you need to buy a switch and have that between the modem and the router/voip box.

Leon22 also suggested just buying a Linksys WRTP54G-NA and starting over.

Frankly any of these solutions would be fine if they could be made to work, I'm just looking for help as to how to apply them to the VT1005 if possible.

I've been trying a bunch of things lately with no luck and if anyone has some insight it would be much appreciated, thanks!

if anyone wants to private message me

Hey codetwo,

Thanks for the instructions to update the firmware... I have Hardware Version 1.2.5(a) and was able to update my firmware from 3.3.6 to 5.1.12! It's only been a couple of hours so far but all seems to be fine so far. One improvement/fix I did notice was the addition of "QOS Policy - Always On / Turn on when phone in use." Previously this was always on so your upload speed was always cut in half even when the phone wasn't being used... Now i get my full 508k upload and then it drops to about 173 during a call.

Thanks again codetwo

Its beyond me why so much attention is given to this company.

It is unreliable, period.

Discuss more about VOIP that DO work.

Enough already.

Well "holy", I don't agree with you. I find it very reliable. My internet speeds are close to 7megs most times... occasionally dipping into the 2meg area but most times 6.7-6.9megs and with the firmware upgrade my upload speed is back to what it was when I had Rogers. So for the $40 a month for both phone and HS internet I'm very pleased with CIA. Beats shelling out $47.95 a month for Rogers Express Internet and about $30 for Bell land line.

Hi to all in this forum
I am using cia phone since nov 06, working good some time have to reset and now i upgraded firmware to v 5.1.12 successfully today working great so for.

I have a question regarding wireless router ?
I want to place before the voice terminal? to reduce load on voice terminal.
which Router is good to use but I have delink DIR 655 and DI 624
Can any body help to
Paul
Taradale
Calgary NE

paulkkl, D-Link's DIR-655 is a very good wireless router, IMO, and has QoS functionality to allow for proper bandwidth allocation to your Linksys VT. I would think that you must use a router that provides QoS to avoid dropped calls.

I would simply use the DIR-655 and see how it goes. I was actually thinking of getting a DIR-655 to replace my old WRT54G.

Try blabber666's instructions of how to set up your VT behind your router via http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=597944#post597944 . Honestly, I haven't tried it yet but will be shortly. I'll provide an update if everything goes well. If you get it to work, let the board know! Good luck!

I had a problem with 3Web double-charging me for my services. 1 charge direct-withdrawl for internet service, then another charge on my credit card for the internet/voip service. I had this problem for 3 months. I emailed 3web as soon as I noticed (Yeah I'm a lazy *******:o ) So after a month I get a reply asking for my account info....ok.....another month later I send another email asking about my billing, 2 days after that I get a email stating a refund for "2" months. So Ok I'm a slacker, can't be helped but the fact that they only refund the amount it cost me while WAITING for them to fix the issue?????? I don't think so.

Other than that I'm happy with the service, but I'm still having trouble ironing out my QOS settings so my phone calls don't cut out. Any thought would be appreciated.