Another Report of Incoming Choppy Audio

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: May 01, 2006 Posts: 7

Hello,

I posted in another topic, but I figured I would start one with all of my relavent information.

So, I have had Vonage for about 3 months now. I am in the Chicago area with Comcast as my ISP. My current Vonage setup is:

ISP -> Motorolla SB5120 modem -> Linksys WRT54GS DD-WRT 23sp1 -> Linksys WRTP54G Vonage

I have all services but Voip turned off on the Vonage router (including wireless). I have QOS defined by MAC on the firewall Linksys.

My TestYourVOIP MOS scores were 4.3 TO Boston with pacekt discards of 0.09 13.9% and 4.4 FROM Boston with no packet discards. More detail is at http://www.testyourvoip.com/details.html?id=PQMR6A

My dslreports speed test are regularly reported as 5591 DOWN and 322 UP.

As I mentioned in my other post, this problem is almost exclusively with incoming calls (I say almost because I know I shouldn't over generalize, but I can't remember ever having the problem with an outgoing call), and most regularly with incoming mobile calls (there are a few people who call from a landline that exhibit this problem). The incoming audio is very choppy, while the outgoing audio is apparently fine (according to the other person).

Most recently, we got a voicemail from a mobile caller and the voicemail audio was choppy. The voicemail prompts were not though. Isn't the voicemail recorded on the Vonage servers? If so, this would indicate, to me, a problem with their equipment, and not anything in my house.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this issue.

Tim

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

It's really odd given the good results on your Voip test and your good speeds. As a shot in the dark, I'd try plugging your WRTP directly into your modem (i.e., eliminate the WRT temporarilyj) and see how it works.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: May 01, 2006 Posts: 7

I'll give that a shot.

Though with the voicemail also being choppy, is it possible that the problem is not at my house?

Tim

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

The business with the voicemail makes it even odder. I can't explain it. Your conclusion that it's outside your house seems reasonable, but I wouldn't be surprised by anything. If that voicemail file is still available, it would be interesting to get it to customer service and see what they say.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: May 03, 2006 Posts: 2

funny thing was that service was fine up until about 2-3 weeks ago... of course my wife complained and since i do not use the phone often, i did not experience the same -- but now i have serveral times...

my scores were also great...

i added 54GS and also turned off all functions on my Vonage equipment, but the Vonage support.

i also experienced crystal clear voicemail prompts with almost unintelligible voicemail recording from a friend.

also almost always on incoming audio...

comcast or Vonage? any insight would be helpful...

Vonage tech support was not very helpful -- making me repeat the basics before they delve more into it.

i will keep you posted.

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

In this case I see no reason to fault Comcast.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: May 03, 2006 Posts: 2

Hi,

I'm new to this forum but I have been experiencing a similar problem. I have been using Vonage for my home office line for over a year now and have not had any problems until recently. Just 2 weeks ago (April 20th to be exact), I was traveling and a coworker called me to tell me my voicemail was choppy and that he could barely understand the greeting. The following Monday, when I was back in the office, I noticed that about 30-40% of incoming calls had choppy audio (sounded like people were talking underwater). Additionally, more people have also told me that my voicemail greeting is choppy and incomprehensible.

I called Vonage today and spent well over an hour with customer support, having gone from Tier 1 to Tier 2 and now being directed to "Advanced Service". We discovered that calls made to me from a Vonage phone were fine, but calls made from a landline were the ones that resulted in choppy audio.

When a landline phone calls my Vonage phone and gets voicemail, the greeting will be choppy and hard to understand. From a Vonage phone the voicemail greeting is fine. When I do pick up an incoming call, I have trouble with the audio when the call is made from a landline, but not if it is made from another Vonage phone. In both those situations, the caller can hear me just fine, but I cannot hear them well.

I was told that the two issues were unrelated, but it seems to me as if the problem lies at the pont where a landline phone reaches Vonage, since the voicemail issue means that it can't be something with my hardware or internet provider. This issue seems to baffle everyone at Vonage, so not sure how quickly it will be resolved.

Comcast is my ISP, Motorola Surfboard 5100 modem, Linksys WPRT-54G2 Vonage-enabled router, zip code 60640. Anyone have any ideas as to what's going on? Vonage doesn't seem to...

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: May 03, 2006 Posts: 2

just got off the phone with elevated support (new jersey) and he tweaked my "delay" Initial results are positive...

I will keep you posted -- 60510 is my area --

it sounds like it may be a localized Vonage issue (regional setting???)

who can say.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: May 01, 2006 Posts: 7

Ok, so I called Vonage "support". After telling the rep what problem I was experiencing, he said that since the problem was not with all calls it must be a problem with the caller's phone line. Even though the problem only occurrs with incomming calls. After spending some time talking with hime and doing all of the tests he wanted to determine that my Internet connection is actually doing pretty good, he finally made a change to my account. He called the setting the "packetization" (sp?) setting and he was changing it from 30 down to 20. Whatever that means.

I have yet to test the results, so we'll see if this works. Otherwise, he said to maintain a log of times and phone numbers when we experience the problem and call the support line again. Though I don't expect that it will be much help.

Since it seems that several people noticed this problem start within the past few weeks, I wonder if Vonage made some mass setting change to lessen the load on their servers. Hoping that most people would not have problems with the change.

Just a thought.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: May 01, 2006 Posts: 7

Additionally, it seems that the people responding in this post are all in the Chicago area. Maybe they made a change to something here, that wouldn't effect other areas of the country.