I've been told by some cable techs that not all cable operators use IP for their transport medium. I'm not sure how many of those still exist, but I seem to be doing OK with my Arris EMTA at home on Spectrum service in NC. At my office, we also have Arris EMTAs on Comcast that do OK as well. Certainly not as well as we got with copper, but they aren't bad.

My biggest problem is with the customers using fiber-based products, where we know they are using IP. Most of the IP service providers have mentioned that we can request G.711 compression on numbers that are used for analog devices, such as modems and they will configure their routers to accommodate this. It is the traditional compression rate at G.729 that causes the issues. Of course, you're not going to get someone from the cable company's customer service to understand this, but if you're able to talk to one of their technical support people, they will understand and accommodate. Usually, if you mention a modem, fax, alarm system or even better, heart monitoring equipment, they will do what they can. I know for a fact that this can be accomplished if the customer is using an Adtran 900 series router.

I also use TeamViewer for situations where an on-site PC can be connected. Customers aren't willing to pay for a dedicated public IP address for us to have remote access. They don't recognize the value, and since many ISPs charge as much as a phone line for a static IP, it's not often an option to use adapters.

For maximum flexibility, I have a desktop PC with a VERY tolerant modem that I keep running 24/7 at home. It uses an analog extension on my system that accesses my POTS line from Spectrum. I then use TeamViewer from my cell and laptop to access it from anywhere. It's nice to be able to dial into a system's modem while I'm sitting at the bar to change system programming.

Ed Vaughn, MBSWWYPBX