These two bugs are really starting to piss me off.
Whenever I open my web project, it has two funny unicode characters in the virtual path box (under project properties -> web), which stops debug mode from working (it actually throws an error and causes the built-in webserver to hang, requiring the visual studio process, devenv.exe, to be manually terminated). Everything works when it’s changed back to a forward slash, though close and re-open the project, and it’s back to having weird characters.
VS2005 is refusing to automatically generate the designer.cs file for aspx pages, throwing the error ‘Generation of designer file failed: the relative virtual path is not allowed here’. This is an absolutely useless error message offering nothing in the way of finding out what’s wrong.
The first time it occured, it went away once I added ID’s to a couple of server controls that were missing them, though this isn’t the case now. My second thought was that this was linked to the error above, but even with the forward slash or empty value in the ‘Virtual path’ box, this error still occurs. So for now, I’m stuck manually creating the code references to server controls so that they are accessible from the code-behind file.
It doesn’t look like this is a common problem; Google returns very little help with this which hopefully means that many people aren’t experiencing it, though nevertheless, it’s very frustrating and really starting to become an annoyance.
Update: these problems don’t seem to occur when using IIS instead of the built-in webserver, so if you’re also experiencing this problem, you might want to try that. Under Project Properties -> Web -> Servers, choose ‘Use IIS WebServer’ and click ‘Create Virtual Directory’ (it’ll automatically try and create one, but if it’s in use already, simply change the auto generated value in the box and click the button again).
I’ve been using Vonage for many months now, and although it works, it’s not without problems – mainly poor call quality and people often unable to get through. In addition, the Linksys WRTP54G wireless router is crap, and certainly not worth $100, though fortunately it was free after rebate (though I know a few people who never received their rebates from Vonage). Can’t blame that entirely on Vonage though, anything made by Linksys tends to be rubbish, and I’d recommend steering clear of their products.
After speaking to several friends using Lingo, I decided to give it a try. Although it seems to have less features than Vonage, with a less appealing website and equally bad web-based account management area, their call quality and uptime is supposedly quite good.
After waiting for a couple of days for the Lingo box to arrive, I was quite excited when it came, and eager to get it up and running.
Out the packaging, it uses an IP address of 172.25.25.1 with the DHCP configured to use this range. My network is using the 192.168.15.x range. As the Lingo box was going to replace the Vonage box, I figured I’d configure it with the same settings and do a straight switch-over. Managed to change the IP address, but changing the gateway or DNS servers in the DHCP settings and pressing save, and the page reloads with the old settings! No error message, nothing. Just the old settings.
Leaves things quite messy, as when the box reboots, it assigns an IP address in one range (192.168.15.x), with the gateway (172.25.25.1) in another, and you end up being unable to access anything – not even the Lingo web admin interface. Had to do a couple of hard resets and try, though the DHCP settings refused to save, despite my best efforts.
Being the piece of rubbish that it is, the Lingo box doesn’t have a hard reset button, and instead needs to be reset by plugging in a phone to the Line1 jack, and dialling *#26845#. Annoyingly, this information isn’t in the manual, and I had to find it online. Even the technical support dude didn’t know (when I called him, as described below), and told me I had to dial *#486987* which doesn’t seem to do anything. They need to sort their act out.
After looking through the manuals and online Lingo support, eventually resorted to calling tech support… who answered quickly, though I somehow doubt the Indian voice at the other end of the line was really called Dominic. Although polite, he wasn’t really much help, telling me to change the device into bridge mode to change the DHCP settings, despite me telling him that most routers disable the DHCP server in bridge mode.
Got off the phone, plugged in handset, reset the Lingo box, changed into bridge mode, tried to change DHCP settings… and it didn’t work, as expected, throwing an error about the DHCP server being disabled in bridge mode.
Eventually, I decided to put changing the IP address and DHCP settings on hold, and just try out the Lingo box for voice calls. Done another resetm plugged it in, accessed the web admin to enable MAC cloning (which is required by Roadrunner), waited 10 minutes as specified by the manual, and voila, there was a dial tone. Made some test calls, and the call quality was significantly worse the Vonage. Lots of static and background noise.
That being the last nail in the coffin, I called Lingo and cancelled. No point of going through all the hassle of getting it working with my network if the call quality is going to be worse than Vonage.
Gotta send the box back to get a refund (though I still lose $10 for account activation or something). For now, I’m just going to stick with Vonage. They might be a little unreliable, cost a little more than Lingo, and be involved in a patent row with Verizon, but at least it works and integrates with my existing network.
Gotta find a better VOIP solution though.