Two router setup, 1.0 on TestYourVoip! Help!

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 03, 2006 Posts: 16

Hey guys, it's me again.

Well my original problem here was the quality was insanely choppy, being an owner of a WRTP54G and a heavy downloader, this seemed to have been expected by the lot of you. I would average about 3.0 on TestYourVoip.com.

So I followed Nate's instructions, begrudgingly ordered a SECOND router to pipe it through, the ol' WRT54GL (much cooler looking might I add) and upgraded the firmware with tofu. I followed the instructions on the site and for awhile... I was doing great. 4.0's and up! The other people here said it sounded great. No more weird echoes, etc...

However, come the next morning... I can't get past 1.2 on TestYourVoip! My torrent traffic has actually been LESS than it was when I was hitting 4.0, and I cap my upstream.

I followed the QoS instructions but nothing seems to work now. Help!

Here's the detail of my setup:

Issue: Echoes, other side says we get choppy audio. Can't get over 1.2 on testyourvoip.com.

Setup: Earthlink via RoadRunner/TWC (3m down/256k up) -> RCA DCM425 -> WRT54GL + tofu (latest) -> WRTP54G

Setup In Detail of Routers:

1. WRTP54G with wireless turned off and security off plugged into Port 1 on the WRT54GL.
2. WRT54GL QoS: Upstream Cap at 200 (after trying a bunch of numbers, my highest best time on internet speed tests was over 300k up. My worst was around 250up, so I tweaked it to be below.)
3. Port QoS: 1 Highest witih Flow Control on. Other machines are on Low.
4. Device QoS: One entry for Vonage, listing it as the Highest.
5. Application QoS: Gaming Optimizations On, uTorrent for 32549 on Low, Voip for 5060 on High. Previously set Low Ports to Highest, and High Ports to Lowest (but then figure this could backfire since RTP traffic hits a random port above 1024). Now set to everything being Default.

Detailed results from testyourvoip:

From You TO Boston:
---------------------------
Media Quality:
MOS: 1.0 / 5.0
Degradation Sources: Codec: 0.58 14.4%, Latency: 1.39 34.9%
Packet Discards: 0.93 24.5%, Packet Loss: 1.04 26.2%
Codec: G.711 (PCM at 64kbps, 20ms RTP payload, 80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip Latency: 1636ms
Packet Discards: 5.7%
Packet Loss: 6.1%
Loss Periods: Min: 20ms, Avg: 40ms, Max 260ms, Burst Loss
Jitter: Min: 1ms, Avg: 39ms, Max: 274ms

Signaling Quality:
Post-Dial Delay: 63ms
Call Setup Time: 63ms
Media Delay: 235ms

FROM Boston to You:
----------------------------
Media Quality:
MOS: 2.7 / 5.0
Degradation Sources: Codec: 0.58 25.0%, Latency: 1.68 73.1%
Packet Discards: 0.04 1.8%, Packet Loss: 0.00 0.0%
Codec: G.711 (PCM at 64kbps, 20ms RTP payload, 80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip Latency: 1636ms
Packet Discards: 0.1%
Packet Loss: 0.0%
Loss Periods: Min: 20ms, Avg: 20ms, Max 20ms, Random Loss
Jitter: Min: 4ms, Avg: 6ms, Max: 26ms

Signaling Quality:
Post-Dial Delay: 147ms
Call Setup Time: 86ms
Media Delay: 183ms

----------------------------

ANY Ideas please help! I was wondering if maybe I can fine tune QoS if I port forward anything above that may be Vonage to go to a certain port and QoS THAT specifically (I could have sworn I thought tofu allowed you to set QoS on a RANGE of ports).

This is seriously getting ridiculous. And I've tried the site at different times as well as different locations.

Any help would be appreciated.

-gary

Posts: 185 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 18, 2005 Posts: 185

5060 is just the SIP port, the actual sound comes on an available port between 10000 and 10150, that range should be high. I keep telling people to put the Vonage adapter first, but a lot of people keep arguing with that. also, your upstream shouldn't be capped, even if you have your codec on 30k you need at least 120 k for one Vonage line alone.

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

Gary, the first step is to try to localize the problem. Since you had it working well, I doubt that changing the settings on your equipment is the answer. First try re-booting everthing.

Assuming that doesn't fix the problem, try connecting your computer directly to your modem and re-running the Voip test. If that doesn't dramatically improve your scores, then you have an issue to discuss with your ISP. If it does, then we need to look at your router and possibly your Vonage adapter.

By the way, is your computer currently plugged into the first router or into the adapter?

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:32 pm Post subject:

Your QoS setup sounds like a fine starting point. But it's obviously not working.

You should be able to get away with about 225 on that setup, but I have a lower upstream than yours and keep mine at 195 and it works fine.

I'd turn off Flow Control, and drop the Ethernet Port 1 priority. As long as the MAC address is set properly on the Vonage adapter, that should be enough. No sense adding more rules that say the same thing.

I'd also take the computer that is running BitTorrent and set that to LOW, then override all of the Web surfing, Telnet, SMTP, POP, etc, TCP/IP ports to be MEDIUM.

You may also be overloading your cable modem. How many connections do you have your BitTorrent client set to use simultaneously?

What modem do you have?

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 03, 2006 Posts: 16

Alright guys...

Datahazard: Well I heard something about the adapter/router not handling QoS well. And this all started because when I only owned the single adapter/router, I had very very bad calls.

Steve: I tried rebooting everything, several times. And yes, I waited the full few minutes for each or whatever it was. How do I plug the computer directly into the modem and have Voip? Don't I need an adapter somewhere? Right now, my computer is plugged into the router that's closest to the modem. The Vonage Adapter/Router is doing nothing but holding on to the phone line.

Nate: Alright well I changed it to 225 as you said, Turned off flow control on Port 1 where the Vonage Adapter is plugged into (Why by the way? All of the other ports are set to Enable Flow Control), and I dropped the Ethernet Priority.

I put in the MAC address to my main computer (the one running uTorrent) and set that to Low.

I set all of my Low ports to Medium.

uTorrent by default put my maximum Global Connections to 200 (!?). I just changed it to 150.

I have an RCA DCM425.

No changes yet. Oy. This is driving me nuts. I'm going to try to reboot everything again.

Thanks again guys.

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

sigterm wrote:

Steve: I tried rebooting everything, several times. And yes, I waited the full few minutes for each or whatever it was. How do I plug the computer directly into the modem and have Voip? Don't I need an adapter somewhere?

You don't need an adapter, a Voip provider, or anything except a computer with a broadband connection to run a test at testyourvoip.com . Naturally, you need those other things for telephone service, but testing by plugging your computer directly into the modem will help to pinpoint the problem.

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

I'm not sure if you did this::> Use the mac of the wrtp54g in the QoS of the wrt54gl set to high.

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 03, 2006 Posts: 16

Hrm I might have a clue, or something odd, that makes things explode.

So I was chilling at 4.0+ again. After doing all the things you guys recommended. Then, I load up uTorrent, I thought this would make it blow up, but it was fine. Even got 4.2 once or twice.

Something that happened before was I lowered my global upload maximum from 16 to 8 earlier. Didn't think this would be a big deal, but at that point I was desperate.

My torrent DOWNLOADS slowed to a CRAWL. So, just tinkering around with the settings, I decided to put the upload rate back to 16, since everything seemed fine. My downloads skyrocketed, my Voip test went back down to 1.0.

Why is this happening? I've tried picking a number inbetween but making the jump from 12 to 16 seems to make a huge difference (something about letting leechers download, and if I upload at this rate at least, I'm not a leecher, so I get more access?).

Voip is the most important, but I don't want Torrents to be ridiculously slow either. And the weird part is in either case, my uploads still barely increase in size or anything.

Isn't QoS supposed to be smart about this and whenever I make a call, everything slows down to accommodate it?

Sigh. Any ideas?

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

Post your www.testyourvoip.com with modem>pc.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:06 am Post subject:

sigterm wrote:

Hrm I might have a clue, or something odd, that makes things explode.

So I was chilling at 4.0+ again. After doing all the things you guys recommended. Then, I load up uTorrent, I thought this would make it blow up, but it was fine. Even got 4.2 once or twice.

Something that happened before was I lowered my global upload maximum from 16 to 8 earlier. Didn't think this would be a big deal, but at that point I was desperate.

My torrent DOWNLOADS slowed to a CRAWL. So, just tinkering around with the settings, I decided to put the upload rate back to 16, since everything seemed fine. My downloads skyrocketed, my Voip test went back down to 1.0.

Why is this happening? I've tried picking a number inbetween but making the jump from 12 to 16 seems to make a huge difference (something about letting leechers download, and if I upload at this rate at least, I'm not a leecher, so I get more access?).

Voip is the most important, but I don't want Torrents to be ridiculously slow either. And the weird part is in either case, my uploads still barely increase in size or anything.

Isn't QoS supposed to be smart about this and whenever I make a call, everything slows down to accommodate it?

Sigh. Any ideas?

It is supposed to. It does for me. However, there are a number of factors at work here. How many MAX global connections do you allow in uTorrent?

Can you post a screenshot of your QoS screen and device list, or Private Message me and I will reply with an email address so you can send it to me if you'd prefer not to post it here?