Voip cable box?

[tygeezy]

My girlfriend recently upgraded her connection from 15mb to 5.0 mb. She returned her cable modem because it wasn't capable of her new speed. We went to frys and picked up a surfboard sb6141. Everything is great except their is no voice over ip on that modem which she has with comcast. Do they have a separate voip box that would work with xfinity? We really don't want to return this new modem.

 

[wirednuts]

afaik the xfinity cable modems are proprietary... they do a little of everything, and nothing that well. just my experience.

 

[Krazy4Real]

You would need to return that modem and buy a telephony modem. It is the same thing as a regular cable modem, but it has two phone jacks on it as well.

You can also rent a docsis 3 telephony modem from Comcast.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Comcast voice service is not strictly VOIP. CDV uses its own bandwidth allocation from the head-end, on Comcast's network, and is not simply packetized and sent with the customer's data over the normal CPE data-channel(s).

If you are a CDV (Comcast digital voice) customer, then AFAIK, you MUST rent the box from them, you cannot simply purchase your own cable modem. Sorry.

 

[Cabletek]

My girlfriend recently upgraded her connection from 15mb to 5.0 mb. She returned her cable modem because it wasn't capable of her new speed. We went to frys and picked up a surfboard sb6141. Everything is great except their is no voice over ip on that modem which she has with comcast. Do they have a separate voip box that would work with xfinity? We really don't want to return this new modem.

So you can use a separate emta, but your still paying the $7+/month rental fee for it, so it really does not make sense to do this. Some Best buys will sell the eMTa [phone + modem box], but its only a few here and there, and they are the only place that I know if that sells a VALID box for use with Comcast, whom I work for.


The additional issues comes with do you have the signal to add another split and keep both the modem and emta in spec for their services, this is basically a domino effect that is not going to be the easiest to accomplish unless she just plans to drop the phone soon.


Comcast voice service is strictly VOIP, the difference is it does not go across the internet, it stays on the CRAN [comcast regional area network, think fiber ring], so it is not like third party providers in that sence, the truth is its really not any better, I had vonage when the company wanted me to pay full price for CDV, when they switched to a $1 service cost, I picked it up becasue they were cheaper than vonage.

The sales pitch is we can do QoS on our network not the internet, but seriously I never had a problem with vonage unless I had problems with my internet. The whole packets arriving out of order scare tactic never was a problem.

 

[wirednuts]

Cocmast voice service is stricytly VOIP, the difference is it does not go across the internet, it stays on the CRAN [comcast regional area network, think fiber ring], so it is not like third party providers in that sence, the truth is its really not any better, I had vonage when the company wanted me to pay full price for CDV, when they switched to a $1 service cost, I picked it up becasue they were cheaper than vonage.

good info. thanks

 

[tygeezy]

Thanks for the info guys. She went and bought this Obi 100 voice over ip box. The phones all get a dial tone, but when you try to dial out I get an error message guy that tells me i don't have service. Looks like we will take this surfboard back and get one of those telephone modems. Can anybody recommend a telephone modem that is at least 50 mbit and works with comcast?

 

[nsafreak]

You will need one of the Arris modems, it used to be that you could only rent them but they are available for purchase. Best Buy might stock them but they've been out of stock in my area (Denver, CO) for a while now. The model that you're looking for is the Arris TM822G, it's available on amazon here.

 

[styrafoam]

Keep the surfboard, cancel the Comcast phone and get an ooma or a magic jack. Hopefully she isn't under contract.

 

[Cabletek]

Thanks for the info guys. She went and bought this Obi 100 voice over ip box. The phones all get a dial tone, but when you try to dial out I get an error message guy that tells me i don't have service. Looks like we will take this surfboard back and get one of those telephone modems. Can anybody recommend a telephone modem that is at least 50 mb/s and works with comcast?

Arris makes a TM-722 that best buy carriers in SOME locations. Again this is not the easiest thing to find. However, it is indeed a docsis 3.0 device that bond up to 4 downstream channels which will run you to well over 100Mb/s just fine. Since she only has 50mb/s its more than enough for her. They are also about to update that device in the near future, probably to an 8 bonding channel device, but its not that big of a deal to be honest. Comcast may also have a third party vendor that sells them, you shoudl ask and see. IF you have a cable store near you I recommended that over calling 1-800-comcast as the company third parties phone support and there is no telling who or what you will get over that any more. Generally some under a dollar an hour third world country sweat shop employee, who really does not know anything about the service as they are in a third world country. Sad but true.

And apparently the new model is already out lol, TM-822 and is 8 channel bonding.