New customer with choppy audio - very frustrated!

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 17, 2006 Posts: 3

1. Newark DE
2. Comcast Cable
3. Upload 270kbps Download 2.12Mbps
4. Toshiba PCX2200
5. PAP2
6. Modem---->Linksys Wireless router ---->Vonage Adapter----->Uniden 2.4ghz (4 extensions)
7. Choppy audio
8. MOS Analysis From You TO Boston

Degradation Sources
Codec 0.58 14.4%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.01 0.2%
Packet Loss 3.40 85.3%

Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps,
20ms RTP payload,
80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip
Latency 105 ms
Packet Discards 0.1%
Packet Loss 47.2%
Loss Periods Min: 20 ms
Avg: 440 ms
Max: 520 ms
Burst Loss

Jitter Min: 0 ms
Avg: 8 ms
Max: 64 ms

Signaling Quality Post-Dial Delay 62 ms
Call Setup Time 78 ms
Media Delay 203 ms

MOS Analysis FROM Boston To You

Degradation Sources
Codec 0.58 14.4%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.01 0.2%
Packet Loss 3.40 85.3%

Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps,
20ms RTP payload,
80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip
Latency 105 ms
Packet Discards 0.1%
Packet Loss 47.1%
Loss Periods Min: 20 ms
Avg: 440 ms
Max: 500 ms
Burst Loss

Jitter Min: 4 ms
Avg: 7 ms
Max: 73 ms

Signaling Quality Post-Pickup Delay 111 ms
Call Setup Time 76 ms
Media Delay 145 ms

I've only had the service for three days.. as soon as we got it the wireless connectivity amongst our computers suffered... I replaced my old Linksys wireless router with a more powerful one today & the connecitivity is back up to par but now we have VERY choppy calls, to the point that the phone service is useless.. have tried all the steps in Troubleshooting with no luck whatsoever... Should I upgrade my Cable Modem.. it is ancient?

ETA: Just got off the phone with their "Customer Service".. the first outsourced individual didn't even attempt to assist just took my info & transferred me to a guy who sounded like I awoke him from his nap... I had to PRY the answers out of him.. He said that some data was mismatched on their end, then proceeded to contridict himself & said my ISP isn't providing me with enough bandwidth... which is it I ask... well umm both... GRRRR!!
Christine

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

I see two issues here. First, your 2.4 GHz cordless phone could be interfering with your wireless router causing all sorts of problems. Try plugging in a corded phone and see if that clears things up.

The second issue is that you have truly huge packet loss in both directions. Try plugging your computer directly into your modem and repeating the Voip test. If the results don't improve dramatically, you have an issue to discuss with your ISP. If they do, we'll have to troubleshoot your equipment. The first step in that is always to re-boot the whole setup, powering up in the correct order- modem, wait, router, wait, adapters and PCs- so you can try that first.

By the way, what were the test scores? They got cut off in your post.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 17, 2006 Posts: 3

Already tried the corded phone... no luck.
This score? 1.0 / 5.0(Best with G.711 is 4.4)
I'll try rebooting everything... while I'm on hold with my ISP!

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 17, 2006 Posts: 3

OK Comcast said everything was OK.. but suggested I put the Adapter in between the cable modem & the wireless router.. the adapter doesn,t have an in/out for the Ethernet cable so I connected it straight to the modem & rebooted everything (did it before but without the reboot) & the connection was clear as a bell... do I need a different adapter? or is there something I can buy to accomodate this set up?

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

The normal solution is a router- but you already have one. Just to be sure of the diagnosis, plug your computer directly into your modem and repeat the Voip test. From what you've discovered so far, the results should be good. Then put the router back on line, plug the computer into it, and repeat the test. Presumably the results will be bad again.

If all the results are as expected, then we would conclude that there's a problem with your router or with how you have it set up, and go on from there.

Posts: 193 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 193

Which router did you buy to replace the old one?

Is there a setting to: Block Anonymous Internet Requests and Filter Multicast.
If there is, try disabling it.

http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic11454.html

Posts: 350 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 350

A couple questions about your setup.

1. When you ran the testyourvoip.com test, was the computer you tested from using a wireless connection?

- If YES then the packet loss could be attributed to the 2.4ghz cordless phone and wireless router interfearing with each other. Try running the same test using a wired (non-wireless) connection to your router or directly to the cable modem.

2. What is the exact model number (including a version, if applicable) of your Linksys wireless router?

- Many newer Linksys wireless routers have a technology called Stateful Packet Inspection in them. This will cause problems with Voip services because it delays the data packets that go through the router. Try turning off the SPI firewall by selecting "Disable" in the Security section of the router setup page.

The 2.4ghz cordless phone and your wireless router may never be able to co-exist together. Both use the same radio frequency (2.4ghz) and can cause problems with each other. You can try changing the wireless network channel on your router, usually the highest or lowest channel number but it may take some trial-and-error to find one that works acceptably. However, since the cordless phone changes its channel frequently, even if you get them working together, the same problem may re-occur. Your best bet may be to just replace the cordless phone with one that operates outside of the 2.4ghz range, usually 900mhz or 5.8ghz.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 14, 2004 Posts: 3

I have to agree with the comments about the 2.4GHz cordless phone. I dealt with choppy audio for months and finally switched to a set of 5.8GHz phones. The improvement was astonishing. If there is even one phone nearby at 2.4GHz you will not see an improvement.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 4:47 pm Post subject:

drgnfly30 wrote:

OK Comcast said everything was OK.. but suggested I put the Adapter in between the cable modem & the wireless router.. the adapter doesn,t have an in/out for the Ethernet cable so I connected it straight to the modem & rebooted everything (did it before but without the reboot) & the connection was clear as a bell... do I need a different adapter? or is there something I can buy to accomodate this set up?

The problem is your router. If you are losing 50% of your packets in both directions through that router then it is a serious problem.

You can try plugging a computer directly into the cable modem and do a testyourvoip test that way to be absolutely sure, but if your phone adapter was crystal clear when plugged directly in, you obviously don't have any significant packet loss.

You mentioned it is a Linksys wireless router. Do you know what model, and the first four characters of the serial number printed on the bottom of the unit?