Any suggestions on Network Optimizers for QOS?

Posts: 20

Does anyone have feedback/reviews for using Network Management devices to help with voice quality? I've read some literature that suggest improvement in quality when using Voip:

1) Linksys OGV200 Network Optimizer
2) Hawking HBB1 Broadband Booster
3) D-Link D1-102 Broadband Internet-VoIP Accelerator

One better than the others?

My setup right now is Comcast (8/784) --> Motorola SB5100 --> VTech ip8100 --> computer.

The VTech broadband phone doesn't have any QoS management that I'm aware of.

Posts: 323 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 323

Jon,

I believe that the Hawking and the D-Link use the same imbedded technology.... I'm not sure about the Linksys device.

They do help to prioritize upstream traffic. This in turn can help outgoing call quality.

I have the Hawking Device and I've been happy with its performance.

The other thing you could consider is to buy a separate router to put in front of both the Voip device as well as your computer. You would want to get one with QoS in it which performs similar functions as the devices you mention in your post above.

I bought the Hawking device when I was using a router that didn't have QoS available on it.

Search for some of NateHoy's posts on this forum. He has a web site that talks in some detail about QoS and how to setup a system with a router like this.

Posts: 881 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Nov 05, 2005 Posts: 881

I use the Hawking HBB1 and I'm very satisfied with it's performance. It's virtually a plug-n-play device that sits between my cable modem (Motorola SB5120) and my Vonage/Linksys adapter (WRTP54G).

Posts: 20 · Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:21 am Post subject: Improvement with Hawking HBB1

Did you notice an improvement in quality even if you're not placing high demands on your bandwidth? I've seen some posts that insist these devices only help if a person wants to talk on the phone while playing XBox or downloading/uploading big files, etc. We rarely do anything but surf the Net, maybe watch some movie trailers online, but we still have some quality issues with our phone calls. I'm wondering if these devices will help in our situation?

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 01, 2006 Posts: 1

I also have comcast and Vonage. I had issues with outgoing voice breakup during any sustained upload activity (sending large email attachments, ftp transfers, idisk transfers, etc).

I added the D-Link DI-102 to my setup as follows:

Comcast (6/384) --> Motorola SB5120 --> DI-102 --> Linksys Router BEFW11S4 --> D-Link VTA-VR Vonage Adapter --> Phone

At first the DI-102 did not alleviate the outgoing call breakup using the default settings in the DI-102. So I used the web-based setup of the DI-102 to change the upload speed from autodetect (which it detected as 392k) to 256K. Once I set the upload speed setting in the DI-102 to a lower number (lower than my true upload speed), it alleviated the call breakup problems completely. 256K is actually lower than my real upload speed (which is 384K), but for some reason the DI-102 wasn't prioritizing Voip packets properly until I lowered this setting. Using this setting for this purpose appears to be undocumented, but it seemed like a logical thing to try (ie. tell the DI-102 my speed was lower than it really was so that it would kick in earlier).

Now I can upload files, play XBox live, etc. and the call quality is perfect. A controlled test using the website http://www.testyourvoip.com, with and without the DI-102 inline, confirmed my observations. With the DI-102 inline and setup properly, my MOS score was just as high as when I am not doing any uploads.

Remember, this device is not designed to affect the quality of the incoming voice, only the outgoing voice quality is improved.

BTW, I did not see any discernable difference in upload speed and Xbox live quality when I am maiking a call.