SpeedEngine Device helps with QoS/Voice Quality

Posts: 54 · Full Forum Member Joined: Aug 07, 2004 Posts: 54

I've been using a Linksys WRT54G for a long time now. I heard some good reviews of a chipset from this company called Ubicom (www.ubicom.com) that does a good job of QoS for Voip and gaming.

I initially was going to purchased a device that goes between a cable modem and router. Hawking and Dlink make them with the Ubicom chipset. These devices were around $70.

I ended up finding a great router for a cheaper price.

Trendnet TEW-611BRP. This thing has the Ubicom chipset in it for QoS. It is also 802.11g MIMO, so my wireless range has been better. It was only $49 after rebate (free shipping) until 3/31 at Newegg.com.

QoS on it has been great. Better then my Linksys device. Nothing much to set up. It automatically measures bandwidth and does QoS by checking packets. No Voice Adapter IP addresses to enter or anything. Great device so far.

BTW.. This Trendnet device is identical with small minor exceptions to the Zyxel X-550 and Dlink 634M routers. I've open the case and compared it. They are probably oemed from the same place.

Just thought I'd let other Vonage users know in case you were looking for a good QOS router.

Posts: 282 · Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 1:47 pm Post subject:

Edit: I did some searching and confirmed that this router uses the Ubicom chip set. Make sure you flash the current firmware, as the January update apparently addressed a WAN throughput issue. Great price for the features.
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Do you know if they are actually using the Ubicom StreamEngine chip? It doesn't mention that specifically anywhere, but if they are, that's a great deal on the router. All the Trendnet info says is:

"For bandwidth intensive applications, the MIMO wireless router offers intelligent stream handling and automatic traffic prioritization."

You said you opened the case, did you find a labeled Ubicom chip in there? If so, I'm ordering one today! Newegg is a great place to do business with.

Posts: 54 · Full Forum Member Joined: Aug 07, 2004 Posts: 54

Yes.. I saw that the Ubicom chip is there. I actually took a picture and posted it in the Zyxel forums on DSLReports. Someone wanted to compare it to the Zyxel x-550 which is the same box. The Zyxel is around $125, Trendnet is $50 including free shipping from Newegg.

Also, the firmware I am using is the newest one from Trendnet's web-site version 1.04.

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

thanks mogulman for your very insightful and well investigated experience. I will definitely keep this for my own records in the event I will need better QoS. At this point, with young children, it's not a big issue but I know once they hit middle school or even later elementary, I will need better QoS. Thanks a bunch...

Posts: 282 · Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 11:43 pm Post subject:

Well here is an interesting bit of information (to me at least Lol

) ...I have a Linksys WRT54G v4 router and the Hawking HBB1 that I've had good results with. I'm running a 3rd party firmware and have a simple QoS that sets priority to the port that my PAP2 adapter is on. Without the Hawking HBB1 I was having bad outgoing quality when streaming my Slingbox. After adding the HBB1, I couldn't tell that I was streaming - works impressively for this particular setup. My ISP is TWC RR with their Premium service 8M down / 512K up.

I purchased the Trendnet TEW-611BRP because it has the same Ubicom StreamEngine QoS chipset built in and is a MIMO router. I was happy to spend the $47 net that this cost, thinking I could eliminate one box from my LAN (the HBB1). Surprisingly, this setup has performed very poorly for me - lots of choppy voice, particularly outgoing (with nothing else significant running on the network), but even some incoming, which I've never experienced before - after all I have an 8M pipe down.

Swapped back to the WRT54G and HBB1 combo, and it is completely better.

I'm a little stunned at the difference the router combo can make. If you have the Trendnet TEW-611BRP working well with Vonage, I'd love to hear how you've set up the QoS - I simply selected the option to turn it on and let it automatically setup the StreamEngine. That is clearly not sufficient for my setup. Are there any extra settings that make this router work better? I want to use this router as it is sleek looking and eliminates yet another network device, but I can't with the QoS I'm getting.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 7:58 am Post subject:

ChrisFix wrote:

Are there any extra settings that make this router work better? I want to use this router as it is sleek looking and eliminates yet another network device, but I can't with the QoS I'm getting.

In all QoS, the important bit is having the QoS engine determine how much upstream bandwidth is available. Is there any way of manually setting that in the Trendnet?

Posts: 282 · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 8:18 am Post subject:

Hi Nate,
Yes, you can manually select settings at 256, 284, 512... or let it auto detect and set itself. This is how the Hawking is set up as well. I did have it manually set at 512 which is my connection speed, and I've verified that I have close to this in speed tests.

I might give it a try on auto and see if that makes any difference.

-Chris

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 8:20 am Post subject:

You've probably read this already, but: http://vonage.nmhoy.net/qos.html

You always want to try QoS set to something lower than your actual measured speed. Try the next-lowest setting to see if it makes a difference.

Posts: 282 · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:54 am Post subject:

Nate,
I retried the TEW-611 with several different settings for the StreamEngine QoS. First, re-trying automatic upstream bandwidth detection. It detected and set the connection speed as 519KB. Made 3 minute test call to my voicemail and had dropouts about twice a minute.

Tried manually setting for 384 KB, made 3 minute test call and had dropouts about twice a minute.

Tried it with the QoS turned off, same result. This was all done with no other traffic on my LAN, so there really shouldn't be any need for QoS for a good call in these tests. My Voip test calls to Boston measured with the WRT54G this morning are 4.4 both ways.

Re-connected my now trusty WRT54G and the Hawking HBB1, made 3 minute test call - sounded like landline - perfect. BTW, the HBB1 also auto detects and set the upstream at 521KB.

So I've convinced myself that it really is the Trendnet TEW-611 that's at fault here.

A curious thing I observed in this testing is that with the Trendnet, the ringing I hear when making a call is off - I get an extended ring, almost two rings, per ring cycle, and the ringing sound is a little broken up. It seems that this router may just not play nice with the PAP2 ATA. With the WRT54G, the audible ringing sounds completely normal. How strange is that!

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:01 am Post subject:

Based on your findings, I would say that the TEW needs a new model number. I'd suggest "POS". (grin)