I can't talk! Outbound breaks up (QOS) - VT1005V, WRT54Gv4

Posts: 3

I have talked to both Vonage and Linksys about this issue, and have gotten nowhere!

System: Roadrunner (usually get 5MBPs down, 384kbps up, or pretty close to it); VT1005V; WRT54G v4 (running latest Linksys firmware).

Cable Modem (Motorola SB5100) -> Router -> VT1005 - I have to do it this way to use my company's VPN.

When I am doing a presentation over Netmeeting, or uploading mail (can be multi-megabyte attachments), I will break up until the upload is complete. It isn't good when you are doing a presentation!

Talking to Vonage about the problem (have been using Vonage for over 2 years), the guy told me I could buy a new box, since it was outside the first year of support (kind of a crummy answer!). The thought was to put a new Vonage box that will support VPN
s (VT1005V doesn't - I tried).

Linksys sent me instructions on how to set up QOS - which I had already done:

In the Linksys firmware, on the QOS page, I have the following set:
Priority is set by MAC address - set my Vonage box at highest. I have port 4 (where the Vonage is plugged in) set to high priority, and flow control is enabled on that port (all other ports are set at low). I also have gaming optimized - with ports 5004 and 5005 set to high.

Is there anything else I can set on this, or do I have to switch firmware?

Thanks,
Brandon

Posts: 35 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Aug 26, 2006 Posts: 35

Is Flow Control also enabled for your ports set to low priority?

Posts: 414

jbwhite99 wrote:

I also have gaming optimized - with ports 5004 and 5005 set to high.

Why do you have 5004 and 5005 set to high? Vonage does not use those ports at all.

The following ports are needed for OUTGOING Internet communications from the Vonage device to the Vonage servers.

DNS: Port 53 UDP

TFTP: Port 21, 69, 2400 UDP

HTTP: Port 80 UDP

NTP: Port 123 UDP

SIP: Port 5060-5061 UDP (used for older Vonage devices provisioned before 2005)

The following ports are needed for INCOMING and OUTGOING Internet communications from and to Vonage devices and servers.

RTP (Voice) Traffic: Ports 10000-20000 UDP. When a call is made, a random port between 10000 and 20000 is used for RTP (Voice) traffic. If any of these ports are blocked, you may experience one way or no audio.

Posts: 35 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Aug 26, 2006 Posts: 35

xcrunxc wrote:

jbwhite99 wrote:

I also have gaming optimized - with ports 5004 and 5005 set to high.

Why do you have 5004 and 5005 set to high? Vonage does not use those ports at all..

For gaming.

By giving the VT device priority by MAC, all VT traffic will be prioritized.

Posts: 3 · Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:34 am Post subject: Thanks!

I turned off 5004 and 5005 (I had read somewhere that those were ports to use for Vonage - at least that's how they were tagged - they may have been for Netmeeting). I enabled the first 4 ports in your message to try.

I don't have any ports blocked - so 10k-20k are still ok.

I can talk, and I can hear fine - the problem occurs only when I am uploading text - which is a pain when you are running a netmeeting, or replicating mail while speaking on a conference call (I work from home a lot). There have been many times I have had to give up on Vonage and use my cell phone because the signal is too bad!

Thanks for your great advice - will try it out this afternoon!

Posts: 35 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Aug 26, 2006 Posts: 35

Also try reducing the amount of bandwidth used by Vonage. Try setting the 'bandwidth saver' in your account features to reduce the bandwidth from 'highest'(90 Kbps) to 'higher' (50 Kbps) or 'normal' (30 Kbps).

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 31, 2006 Posts: 5

If you reduce the bandwith wouldn't that automatically make his or her calls of lower quality .... which translates to more in call problems?

Posts: 414 · Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 10:16 pm Post subject:

Not necessarily. The first troubleshooting step in choppy/one way audio is to reduce the bandwidth because 9 times out of 10 the issue lies with the fact that the Vonage device is trying to use more bandwidth than the persons Internet connection has available. Anyway, lowering the bandwidth doesn't really effect the voice quality as much as people think anyway. You are simply increasing the compression of data as it leaves the Vonage device, which in theory should have very little to no effect on the voice quality. I have used all three settings on my Vonage devices and I could not tell the difference between them.

Posts: 35 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Aug 26, 2006 Posts: 35

I'm using the middle setting 'higher' and the voice quality is very good. I can tell the difference when my wife is answering at home on a corded phone versus cordless.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 31, 2006 Posts: 5

Thanks I'll try that on my own problem.. I appreciate u posting to it btw. Also thanks for the explanation, it's kinda misleading for new people like myself