[WXC/VFX] Fusion quality feedback in Auckland (& other areas?)

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maibeestar

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Wannabe Geek

Topic # 26882 6-Oct-2008 17:32

Please advise your experiences with Xnet Fusion (especially if you're in Auckland CBD, not sure if location matters...)

Just been on another forum & people have been saying the phone cuts off regularly & it's unclear.

I haven't officially signed up with Fusion yet because I was told I needed a modem first. Now that I've spent $200 on a modem, I was told I needed a full installation as well. So all up thats $350.

With the comments on the other forum (which were only a couple), I'm unsure if I want to spent another $150 until I've heard what others think.

I'd rather cut my losses & sell the modem rather than spend $350 on something that doesn't even work properly.

So any comments regarding the phone/sound/calling quality would be appreciated.

Also what does the full installation cover? On the website it just says a technician will visit your premises.

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Wannabe Geek

Reply # 169362 6-Oct-2008 18:18

this is what i want to know. everything on the website sounds awesome, duh why wouldnt it, its their website.

when i rang xnet to join they told me i needed the equipment & full install as well.

telecom & vodafone has been screwing me around for 3 weeks so thats how long ive been without phone & internet at home.

feedback on the voIP PLEEEEASE

akawoz

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Reply # 169367 6-Oct-2008 18:24

I was an early adopter of Fusion (Naked DSL with VFX). I had a lot of problems, some seem to have been to do with the Linksys VOIP adapter I was using.
We had strange problems the modem detecting human voice (mostly female) as DTMF tones, so loud beeping sounds when my partner was talking to her mum.
To their credit various Xnet people tried over a period of 3mths to fix the issues.
We also had very bad call quality.
We are still using Naked DSL (Fusion) but don't use Xnet's VFX service, we use 2talk.co.nz - it's been fantastic with better call quality than a landline.

coffeebaron

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Reply # 169373 6-Oct-2008 18:56

maibeestar:
I haven't officially signed up with Fusion yet because I was told I needed a modem first. Now that I've spent $200 on a modem, I was told I needed a full installation as well. So all up thats $350.

What modem did you buy?

What did you find out from your enquiries with you landlord / corporate body re: the apartment's cabling / broadband setup?

Chorus has spent $1.4 billion on making their xDSL broadband network faster. If your still stuck on ADSL or VDSL, why not spend from $150 on a master filter install to make sure you are getting the most out of your connection?
I install - Naked DSL, DSL Master Splitters, VoIP, data cabling and general computer support for home and small business.
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sumzitup

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Reply # 169377 6-Oct-2008 19:14

I have been on Fusion since the service came out at the beginning of the year. We had a few problems with call quality in the first two months, though now the service works with no hic cups at all.

The only lost calls were a result of our broadband going down (telecom tech disconnected the wrong wire at the roadside cabnet)

The technician from telecom came to connect broadband to the telecom roadside box, other than that we only had to buy the phone hardware and modem to get up and running.

We are in the centre of town (Whangarei) so our broadband is fairly stable, I have noticed my mates VFX line been dodgy where he lives so im guessing the quality of your broadband connection will have a lot to do with it.

sema4

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Reply # 169401 6-Oct-2008 20:26

Hmm - been running with Fusion for about 3 months and pretty pleased overall. Key issue is WAF factor - tends to plummet to 0 (bad) when the net goes down, so have to be on the toes to spot it and do whatever it takes to get the net back up again.

Phone quality is fine - including international to countries where their phone service is dodgy.

Had a few line issues with downstream S/N flapping between 5 and 10db, but that is a physical line issue. Less than impressed at the Telecom solution which is to change the profile to get a higher S/N - at the cost of download connection speed. Was unimpressed to see it at 2100Kbits today, but note that it has gone up to 3300Kbits tonight, so presume T/com is fiddling. We are some distance from the exchabge though so roll on ADSL2.

Overall - very happy. Internationalk speed could be better after 12am - no I'm not on torrent but often connect to international customer sites for remote config / admin after 12am

Setup is Linksys AM300 (current firmware) and SP2102AU - note - am on the second - the first had a fit and stopped connecting, so rapid replacement to return WAF to closer to 1 (good) was required. I'll get around to reflashing the dodgy one at some stage.

David H

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Reply # 169409 6-Oct-2008 20:52

I've been running Fusion + 2 VFX lines for some time now. I'm using them all day as I work from home. I have the very occasional hiccup but overall I would certainly recommend the service.

(Not Auckland based mind you)

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JayADee

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Reply # 169447 6-Oct-2008 22:47

How peeved does your family get over hiccups?

I have a tempremental husband (when it comes to tech) and boy does he get snarly when the phone conks out! We've had as I recall two outages when the broadband went down. Plus another if you count the time the handset plug wiggled out, lol. Plus at least once power fluctuations in the area somehow affected the phone adapter but that cleared up with a reboot.

Also if I'm downloading something I slam the breaks on the download if the phone rings because it definitely affects call quality and can in fact cut it off almost entirely; in a way that's my fault because I don't have a router with QOS (quality of service settings) which you really should if you aren't buying one of those all in one devices that have QOS built in. Sounds like you're buying one of the all in one devices.

I bought one of those $99 phone adapters instead of the all in one device because I love my router and we don't use the phone all that much so it isn't any trouble if we're downloading something to manually throttle it back. If I had kids or someone not too tech literate at home or if we used the phone a lot more I wouldn't go the route I did though. Better to get something you set and forget.

We have a cell phone as an emergency backup. We bought it primarily for car trips before switching to xnet voip so it wasn't an additional outlay.

It was dead easy to set up. Plug the phone adapter and it autoconfigures. Total additional hardware cost: $99. plus the additional fee for the fusion per month but minus the telecom phone fees. :) Since we were already on FS/FS it made financial sense too. One annoyance is not being able to see the settings on my phone adapter (a Linksys Pap2t). I'm not used to being locked out of my own gear.

Works for us. Probably not for everybody.

Edit: Call quality is great, even overseas. Just as good as a regular phone. The exception being if we're downloading. Get one of those devices with QOS that priotise your voice traffic though and I think you'd be fine.

maibeestar

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

Reply # 169453 6-Oct-2008 23:28

coffeebaron:
maibeestar:
I haven't officially signed up with Fusion yet because I was told I needed a modem first. Now that I've spent $200 on a modem, I was told I needed a full installation as well. So all up thats $350.

What modem did you buy?

What did you find out from your enquiries with you landlord / corporate body re: the apartment's cabling / broadband setup?

The building managers/body corp couldn't tell me much. They just said everyone use whichever providers they wanted. They weren't sure whether it was copper or fibre feed.

As for the modem, I got the Linkseys WAG54GP2. Should get it in a couple of days.

coffeebaron

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Reply # 169484 7-Oct-2008 09:21

maibeestar:
The building managers/body corp couldn't tell me much. They just said everyone use whichever providers they wanted. They weren't sure whether it was copper or fibre feed.
As for the modem, I got the Linkseys WAG54GP2. Should get it in a couple of days.

The WAG54GP2 should work fine. It has been around for a while now and is well tweaked. If you do have any issues, here are a few things to have checked out:
- ADSL connection, this is the most common issue if you are on a bad DSL line, far form exchange etc. The Linksys devices do tend to have a few DSL stability problems, but this can be solved with a tweaked profile at the exchange.
- Voice quality. If you have issues here, request a codec change to G711
- QoS, these handle this ok, but not as good as the newer models. Basically don't thrash your connection (e.g. with P2P) whilst on the phone.

I have a couple of these devices out there, and on a good DSL connection, they work very well.

As for the full install, yea just one of those things if there has never been a line. You'd be up for $50 connection anyway if you got a Telecom landline connected (maybe more due to no previous). So think of the $150 install as really being $100 install.

Need help in Auckland, Waikato or BoP? Click my email button, or email me direct: [my user name] at geekzonemail dot com

daralee

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Reply # 169491 7-Oct-2008 09:50

coffeebaron:
maibeestar:
The building managers/body corp couldn't tell me much. They just said everyone use whichever providers they wanted. ?They weren't sure whether it was copper or fibre feed.
As for the modem, I got the Linkseys WAG54GP2. ?Should get it in a couple of days.

The WAG54GP2 should work fine. It has been around for a while now and is well tweaked. If you do have any issues, here are a few things to have checked out:
- ADSL connection, this is the most common issue if you are on a bad DSL line, far form exchange etc. The Linksys devices do tend to have a few DSL stability problems, but this can be solved with a tweaked profile at the exchange.
- Voice quality. If you have issues here, request a codec change to G711
- QoS, these handle this ok, but not as good as the newer models. Basically don't thrash your connection (e.g. with P2P) whilst on the phone.

I have a couple of these devices out there, and on a good DSL connection, they work very well.

As for the full install, yea just one of those things if there has never been a line. You'd be up for $50 connection anyway if you got a Telecom landline connected (maybe more due to no previous). So think of the $150 install as really being $100 install.

so whats a good modem with a built in phone adapter thing if what maibeestar got was just ok? there arent many options listed on the xnet sit. as for anything tweaked at the exchange does that happen during the full installation or do you ring the tech line or telecom? anyone know what the charges are for this kind of thing? as for the codec change to G711, what is that exactly?

alikaz

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Reply # 169688 7-Oct-2008 20:52

I've in Herne Bay, have the WAG54GP2. The only problems I've had were fixed after a new line was installed to our property. Connect now at around 3.5Mbps, quite a distance from the exchange I think. Phone quality is completely acceptable, even when downloading. No complain of product.

coffeebaron

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Reply # 169699 7-Oct-2008 21:26

daralee:

so whats a good modem with a built in phone adapter thing if what maibeestar got was just ok? there arent many options listed on the xnet sit. as for anything tweaked at the exchange does that happen during the full installation or do you ring the tech line or telecom? anyone know what the charges are for this kind of thing? as for the codec change to G711, what is that exactly?

I've deployed a few WRP400 + Draytek ADSL routers. This is my preferred config, but obviously at a price premium. The WRP400 is an excellent device. Currently there is no all in one device (VoIP / ADSL / WLAN) that is based on the WRP400, but there will be in due course. Guess it's like driving a BF Falcon, its a good car, but now there is the new G series, which you'd expect to be better still.

I've also deployed a few AG310's and they seem to be going well to, so that is another option.

As for tweaks at the exchange etc, that's only if there is problems with DSL, dropping out, packet lose etc. The Linksys ADSL modems just seem to be a bit more sensitive, that's all. There is no charge for this, it's just part of fault resolving (unless the issue is your own house wiring).

G711 is an uncompressed voice codec, and is better quality than the standard G729. However, it uses more bandwidth, and can be an issue on a variable broadband connection. G729 is better suited for ADSL. The problem is, with such a miss match of analogue & digital technology; G729 can produce more variation in speech quality.

On a good DSL connection, average household Internet usage, the WAG54GP2 will do the job well.

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marmel

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Reply # 169769 8-Oct-2008 08:07

I had fusion for a couple of months.

Most of the people we spoke to over the phone always asked if we were calling from a cellphone. The call quality sounded OK at our end but there was an issue for people at the other end.

We also had 2-3 dropped calls per week which didn't worry me too much but my wife got p****d off no end and me suggesting that it was xnet's way of telling her to stop her 1 hour calls to her sister/mother etc didn't go down very well.

I think the dropped calls was our modem losing the adsl though so not much xnet can do about that.

I did go through the helpdesk and they had telecom change my profile and changed the codec to improve call quality but it didn't help sadly.

I think a lot has to do with the router you are using as well and the quality of your wiring. My speeds improved when I connected the cable coming into the house directly to our modem. I was using a pap2t and belkin router.

The technology and features are great though and no doubt we will be all using voip in the near future.

sbiddle

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Reply # 169774 8-Oct-2008 08:21

At the end of the day the quality of your voice service will depend on your hardware and internet connection.

Over a rock solid internet connection with no congestion such as fibre or TCL cable voice and a good quality VoIP phone or ATA with good analogue phone the quality of a voice call over VFX will be the same (or better if you're calling VFX<->VFX) than a regular PSTN call.

What you can't control here is your ADSL connection which can vary from great to poor depending on your home wiring, local exchange, and your ISP. If you have a poor quality ATA or router you'll also run the risk of issues as well. If you have poor hardware and a poor internet connection your VoIP connection will not be great and dropouts will happen.

KShips

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Reply # 169850 8-Oct-2008 13:12

I may have been one of the recent posts you mentioned about problems with voice. We have (hopefully had) issues where some calls would cut in and out of us hearing the other person. Overall (had xnet about 8 months) have been impressed with the system so I would not let that comment discourage from moving to VOIP systems.

Since I posted that message we have had no issues (go figure!) but seems that issues with the system are pretty rare.

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