PAP2 wobbly audio-should I rtp300 in front of router?

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 12, 2006 Posts: 7

I have been struggling since July to get audio quality good enough to consistently use my phone. I received an rtp31p2 at sign-up and kept getting dropped calls. I went out and bought a pap2, replaced the rtp31p2 and fixed the dropped calls problem, but now most of the time the audio is so wobbly on the caller end that I have forwarded my home calls to my cell phone and have doubled the cost of my cell service. A neighbor a few blocks away gave me his RTP300 to use (he had no problems with it, but was able to eliminate one device when he ordered a second Vonage line), and I figure it can't hurt to put the Vonage service in front of my wireless router, but before I go swap the PAP2 out, I thought I should post here first to see if anyone can spot a different problem. I've turned off any filesharing programs and games and the quality is still awful. Any help would be really appreciated - I'm ready to cancel, but am frustrated since my neighbor a few blocks away has gotten great quality from the start and it was my idea that we sign up for this! Here's my info:
1. Chicago IL
2. Comcast cable
3. Upload 372kbps and download 916kbps (from Vonage upload test on its site)
4. Linksys BEFCMU10 v3 cable modem
5. PAP2
6. Linksys BEFCMU10 v3 cable modem---->Linksys wrt54g wireless G router----> PAP2 and PC
7.wobbly calls on the caller's side - so much that we can't talk
8. MOS Analysis From You TO the Target Location
Media Quality MOS 3.8 / 5.0

Degradation Sources
Codec 0.58 49.7%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.58 50.3%
Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%
Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps,
20ms RTP payload,
80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip
Latency 152 ms
Packet Discards 2.0%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods
Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 100 ms
Burst Loss
Jitter
Min: 0 ms
Avg: 7 ms
Max: 66 ms
Signaling Quality
Post-Dial Delay 94 ms
Call Setup Time 110 ms
Media Delay 250 ms

MOS Analysis FROM the Target Location To You
MOS analysis chart
Media Quality
MOS
4.4 / 5.0

Degradation Sources
Codec 0.57 89.7%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.07 10.3%
Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%
Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps,
20ms RTP payload,
80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip
Latency 152 ms
Packet Discards 0.5%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods
Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 40 ms
Random Loss
Jitter
Min: 4 ms
Avg: 7 ms
Max: 43 ms
Signaling Quality
Post-Pickup Delay 119 ms
Call Setup Time 121 ms
Media Delay 153 ms

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 1:24 pm Post subject:

your packet discards are high, that is almost definitely your problem.
hard to troubleshoot that. you can check your signal values from your cable modem to make sure they're within range or try running www.pingplotter.com for a day or two to try to pinpoint the loss.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 12, 2006 Posts: 7

Thanks much for replying - you've saved my the I would have spent on hold with customer service to swap out the PAP2 today.

I checked my modem page and here's what I found:
Downstream power -6.9 dBmV; SNR 34.0 dB
Upstream power 53.3cBmV (no SNR reading)

According to other posts here, upstream power is up near the limit of 55, but I am assuming that it will take more than that to get Comcast out here. My neighbor's reading is 48.

I will go check my splitters after finishing this note, but I had one question about running pingplotter. What am I looking for? (I know, not exactly a focused question!) Pinpoint the loss? I'm not sure I know what that means.

Thanks bunches - really appreciate being able to ask knowledgable people and avoid the "now unplug your modem and router in this order" routine with the level one helpdesk.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 19, 2005 Posts: 6

My audio quality was very poor-good enough for me, but wife wanted to go back to land line.

The best thing I found was moving my RTP300 to be fed from modem directly rather than my router. My wireless is 802.11b and pretty old....

Once the RTP300 was moved, call quality improved drastically. I am still waiting for the new firmware to correct having to wait for 2 rings to answer to stop static on the line. Keep the wife happy, and we keep Vonage!

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:05 pm Post subject:

I think you're over the upstream power level, even if just slightly, as far as docsis 2.0 goes.
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/5862
you're looking for packet loss. run it and you'll see.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 12, 2006 Posts: 7

Point taken. I've been running pingplotter for 30 minutes of so (addictive little bugger, isn't it?) and since the jitter is in red, (it's averaging 20 right now), I figured I'd post it. Can you help me interpret it please? Is it bad, doctor?

Target Name: www.google.com
IP: 64.233.167.104
Date/Time: 1/12/2006 5:13:18 PM to 1/12/2006 5:40:25 PM

Hop Sent Err PL% Min Max Avg Host Name / [IP]
3 618 0 0.0 11 54 14 [68.86.114.109]
4 618 22 3.6 11 57 14 [68.87.230.93]
5 617 18 2.9 11 53 14 [68.87.230.254]
6 618 22 3.6 13 65 17 [12.118.104.65]
7 618 37 6.0 14 54 18 tbr2-p011801.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.6.62]
8 618 38 6.1 13 60 16 ggr2-p390.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.6.37]
9 617 33 5.3 14 223 21 so-9-1.car4.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.68.127.165]
10 618 35 5.7 14 258 21 ae-22-52.car2.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.68.101.163]
11 618 35 5.7 14 88 18 [4.79.66.138]
12 510 34 6.7 16 87 22 [72.14.232.57]
13 352 28 8.0 16 80 25 [64.233.175.42]
14 253 9 3.6 16 58 24 [64.233.175.26]
15 617 31 5.0 15 152 27 [64.233.167.104]

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 12, 2006 Posts: 7

I neglected to notice you told me to run the pingplotter for 24 hours. Disregard last post. I will continue running and post again tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for your help today.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 12, 2006 Posts: 7

Attached is results from this afternoon when my voice was wobbly for callers. I've been saving 30 minutes of reports after losing last night's work when my laptop crashed this morning, but they pretty much all look similar to this one. I pretty much can only use my phone after midnight these days.

I read around in the forums that i shouldn't pay attention to the first two hops (router and modem), but I have included them anyway.

Possible next steps?

1. I checked my splitters. It does seem that the connection to my cable modem is on the second 3 way splitter after it enters the house. Should I reconfigure it to be on the first splitter?

2. Does it make sense to test the connection next with my modem directly connected to the cable box attached to the house?
3. My modem is only Docsis 2.0 compatible (even though i just bought it a couple months ago, it says it is a Docsis 1.1). Do you think I should replace it anyway?

Thanks for taking a look at this

Target Name: www.google.com IP: 64.233.167.147
Date/Time: 1/13/2006 1:17:45 PM to 1/13/2006 2:20:16 PM

Hop Sent Err PL% Min Max Avg Host Name / [IP]
1 1501 1496 99.7 3 3 3 [-]
2 1501 1496 99.7 3 3 3 [-]
3 1501 3 0.2 12 312 18 [68.86.114.109]
4 1501 9 0.6 12 465 20 [68.87.230.93]
5 1501 12 0.8 13 351 22 [68.87.230.254]
6 1500 20 1.3 15 403 24 [12.118.104.65]
7 1500 23 1.5 17 485 27 tbr1-p011801.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.6.58]
8 1500 54 3.6 15 340 24 ggr2-p310.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.6.65]
9 1500 89 5.9 16 366 26 so-8-1.car4.Chicago1.Level3.net [209.0.227.77]
10 1500 103 6.9 15 496 26 ae-22-52.car2.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.68.101.163]
11 1500 102 6.8 15 287 21 [4.79.66.138]
12 1058 73 6.9 17 308 21 [72.14.232.57]
13 545 43 7.9 17 165 25 [64.233.175.42]
14 886 42 4.7 16 204 25 [64.233.175.26]
15 1500 48 3.2 16 526 31 [64.233.167.147]