Callers can't hear reliably

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:56 pm Post subject:

4.30.5 is the latest Linksys firmware for that unit, but you might also try one of the excellent aftermarket firmwares, like HyperWRT ( http://www.thibor.co.uk/ ), DD-WRT ( http://www.dd-wrt.org/ ) or my current favorite, a new beta product called (oddly enough) "Tomato" ( http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato ).

All three have much more robust QoS and are significant improvements over the native firmware.

HyperWRT is the easiest to get started on, because it looks a lot like the native Linksys firmware. Tomato has a really, really nice view of how each outbound packet gets classified by the QoS engine, making it easy to optimize. DD-WRT is the most capable and flexible of all of the aftermarket firmwares listed, but is also the most complex.

Posts: 14 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Aug 28, 2006 Posts: 14

Thanks for the suggestions on the aftermarket firmware. I ended up disabling the QoS on the Linksys and callers don't seem to have a problem hearing me anymore. If I have problems again, I'll either end up moving the 2442 in front of the Linksys or try one of the firmwares you mentioned.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:13 am Post subject:

Quote:

I ended up disabling the QoS on the Linksys and callers don't seem to have a problem hearing me anymore.

That tells me you had your upstream data rate set way too low, and it was actually slowing down your connection (preventing you from using your full upstream data rate).

But, regardless, glad you got it sorted for now.

Posts: 14 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Aug 28, 2006 Posts: 14

NateHoy wrote:

That tells me you had your upstream data rate set way too low, and it was actually slowing down your connection (preventing you from using your full upstream data rate).

I don't recall doing anything like that. Where would that setting be?

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 8:18 am Post subject:

Under QoS settings.

Actually, if you didn't adjust that manually, it could simply be that the "AUTO" setting (which does not work well at all) simply calculated a number that was way too low.

If you haven't read it yet, this is worth reviewing: http://vonage.nmhoy.net/qos.html

To set the upstream number correctly:

1. Turn off QoS and on a quiet Internet connection run a few speed tests.

2. Turn on QoS and set the "upload speed" setting from AUTO to MANUAL.

3. Take the average or lowest (your choice) number you get for the UPLOAD speed and enter 90% of it into the "Upload Speed" field.

Then do some testing. Upload a large file to an FTP server or something while calling someone. If they report bad audio, hang up, adjust the number down a bit, wait 5 minutes for the QoS engine to settle on the new setting, and call again.

If the other end reports complete drops, then you might want to adjust the number by 10-20kbps at a time. If they report "robotic", tinny, or "toilet bowl" (echoey) audio, try dropping the number by 5kbps at a time.

EXAMPLE:

My ISP-claimed upstream is 256k. In testing, I found I was getting about 220k, plus or minus about 10k. Automatic QoS was calculating 2,070k, which was over ten times what it should be, rendering QoS useless.

I set my QoS to 210k, and started testing, reducing the number by 5k each time. When I got to about 190k, the person I was testing with was astonished. They said my voice sounded better than many land line conversations. It's been a year since I've needed to adjust QoS settings, and I never get any complaints about voice quality.