Comcast - Static, Popping and Disconnects

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 11

1. Your location - just south of San Francisco

2. Your ISP - Comcast Cable

3. Upload and download speeds - ~2Mbps / ~400k

4. Modem make and model - Motorola SB5101

5. Type of Vonage adapter used ie RT31P2 or PAP2 - VT2442

6. Setup of Network ie Modem---->Vonage Adapter-->PC

NOW: Modem -> Vonage -> PC (hardwired of course)
LAST NIGHT: Modem -> WPN824 -> Vonage

7. Issue you are experiencing ie dropped calls, choppy audio etc

Any and everything. Dropped calls and line instability (i.e. just not there when I pick up the phone).

It's much, much worse with the "NOW" setup I listed above. Last night at least when the calls went through it was clear. Now it's just a mess of static, pops and drops. And that's while listening to the dialtone.

8. Run this VoIP Test: After the test has fully completed, in the Advanced Tab, click on "View Text" in the lower right hand corner. Copy-N-Paste that data into your post.

TEST 1
Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 811768 bps
Upload speed: 358664 bps
Quality of service: 57 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 104 ms
Average download pause: 25 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 91 ms
Average round trip time to server: 99 ms

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 3.4 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 8.4 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported VoIP lines: 4
Estimated MOS score: 4.0

TEST 2
Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 906392 bps
Upload speed: 357544 bps
Quality of service: 33 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 101 ms
Average download pause: 23 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 89 ms
Average round trip time to server: 91 ms

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 3.5 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 8.4 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported VoIP lines: 4
Estimated MOS score: 4.0

TEST3

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 906392 bps
Upload speed: 357544 bps
Quality of service: 33 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 101 ms
Average download pause: 23 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 89 ms
Average round trip time to server: 91 ms

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 3.5 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 8.4 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported VoIP lines: 4
Estimated MOS score: 4.0

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 11

QoS - It wasn't configured but it was enabled. Disabled it in the Vonage adapter just now and the dialtone is crystal clear... let's hope it sticks. I wonder if I need to enable/configure it? Or is it better to just leave it off?

I wanted to see if it affected the results of the Vonage tests, but I hit my max test limit for the day Lol

I should also note that after setting everything up to be using Vonage as the router, testmyvoip dropped a full point from 4.2 to 3.2.

Rob

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

rslifka wrote:

QoS - It wasn't configured but it was enabled. Disabled it in the Vonage adapter just now and the dialtone is crystal clear... let's hope it sticks. I wonder if I need to enable/configure it? Or is it better to just leave it off?

I wanted to see if it affected the results of the Vonage tests, but I hit my max test limit for the day Lol

I should also note that after setting everything up to be using Vonage as the router, testmy voip dropped a full point from 4.2 to 3.2.

Rob

You say it dropped from 4.2 to 3.2 when using Vonage as the primary router, but all 3 of the tests you posted are 4.0. Please run a comparison test at www.testyour voip.com with the NOW setup and also with your computer plugged directly into your modem. Post the detailed results.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 11

Steve48 wrote:

You say it dropped from 4.2 to 3.2 when using Vonage as the primary router, but all 3 of the tests you posted are 4.0. Please run a comparison test at www.testyour voip.com with the NOW setup and also with your computer plugged directly into your modem. Post the detailed results.

Hi Steve,

You're correct, the numbers I reported were from testyour voip but I didn't paste the results here - I only said what I remembered. The estimated numbers from Vonage are approximately 10% better (on average) than testyour voip.com.

I'll hook the machine directly up to the modem in a few days when I have a chance to teardown the setup again. In the meantime, here are the testyour voip numbers in the NOW setup. Looks like the route from me to boston is significantly worse. Does this tell us something?

TEST1:
TO Boston 3.7
--Codec 0.58 43.0%
--Latency 0.00 0.0%
--Packet Discards 0.76 57.0%
--Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%
FROM Boston 4.4
--Codec 0.58 93.0%
--Latency 0.00 0.0%
--Packet Discards 0.04 7.0%
--Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%

TEST2:
TO Boston 3.6
--Codec 0.57 41.6%
--Latency 0.00 0.0%
--Packet Discards 0.81 58.4%
--Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%
FROM Boston 4.3
--Codec 0.57 79.5%
--Latency 0.00 0.0%
--Packet Discards 0.15 20.5%
--Packet Loss 0.0 0.0

TEST3:
TO Boston 3.4
--Codec 0.58 35.4%
--Latency 0.00 0.0%
--Packet Discards 1.05 64.6%
--Packet Loss 0.00 0.0
FROM Boston 4.4
--Codec 0.58 100.0%
--Latency 0.00 0.0%
--Packet Discards 0.00 0.0%
--Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%

It looks like the outbound is pretty poor in comparison... Not quite sure where to go from here.

Rob

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 11

Here is a line status test I ran on dslreports. The bandwidth tests pass however I have a few failures I'm not sure how to interpret.

http://www.dslreports.com/quality/nil/2050914

Rob

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

Outbound is clearly getting the worse score, but it's not bad enough to explain serious difficulties. Unfortunately, you're not posting the detailed data. It looks like you're posting the degradation sources and not the actual packet loss and discard percentages. Please post the detailed results.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 11

Hi Steve,

Thanks for sticking with me here!

All results are FROM me to BOSTON (vice versa is perfect).

TEST1
Round-Trip
Latency 156 ms
Packet Discards 2.7%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods
Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 40 ms
Random Loss
Jitter
Min: 0 ms
Avg: 3 ms
Max: 42 ms

TEST2
Round-Trip
Latency 156 ms
Packet Discards 2.3%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods
Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 20 ms
Random Loss
Jitter
Min: 0 ms
Avg: 3 ms
Max: 31 ms

TEST3
Round-Trip
Latency 155 ms
Packet Discards 3.1%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods
Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 20 ms
Random Loss
Jitter
Min: 0 ms
Avg: 3 ms
Max: 23 ms

Also a smokeping from dslreports, indicates what looks like near perfection of the outside network.

http://www.dslreports.com/r3/smokeping.cgi?target=network.728cbd1929ffca0f17d85baafd6da2ef

Rob

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

OK. To me, packet losses over 2% are definite indicators of possible problems. You have one test with 3% losses. Now we need to get a comparison test with your computer plugged directly into your modem. If that test still shows high losses, then you have an internet service issue (with internet service including your modem). If the losses go way down, then we need to look at your local equipment.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 11

Hi Steve,

Plugged my PC directly into the 5120 to no avail - numbers are relatively unchanged. Ran 3 tests, all well over 2%.

GOOD: Having the Vonage as router next to the cable modem adds 0.2-0.3% packet loss compared to my machine, so if that's the price I have to pay for being able to complete a phone call, I'm prepared to pay it.

BAD: Not sure where to go from here. Because I'm on a Mac I can't use PingPlotter, which from what I've read will tell me which device is losing packets. I've read several "I got my Comcast fixed" threads here but they all revolve heavily around PingPlotter output to help pinpoint the issue.

Rob

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 11

A bit of sleuthing and I found one that's pinpointed the routers with issues.

Rob