Incoming calls lose sound in 10-15sec intervals

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 01, 2007 Posts: 3

1. New York City
2. Earthlink Cable
3. Download speed 7046 Kbps (socket test)
x Upload speed 487 Kbps (socket test)
4. Motorola Surfboard SB4100 Cable Modem
5. RTP300
6. Modem --> Vonage Adapter --> PC
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --> Wireless Router (Linksys WRT54GC) --> PC
7. Phone line suddenly gets really silent for 10-15 seconds at a time while other party is speaking. Happens frequently during a call. Other party can hear everything from my side of the line but we can't hear everything from other party's line. People we usually call do not use VoIP.
8.

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 7143608 bps
Upload speed: 484856 bps
Quality of service: 97 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 49 ms
Average download pause: 2 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 21 ms
Average round trip time to server: 25 ms

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 3.5 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 8.3 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: 8
Estimated MOS score: 3.9

==========================================

The test results look very good to me. I'm not the one who uses the phone, my mom does, and I'm always hearing complaints on how she suddenly can't hear what her friends are saying. Would anyone happen to know what is going on?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 2:23 pm Post subject:

Results look good, and the SB4100 is a little old but a good modem from what I understand.

The first thing I'd check is the firmware on the Vonage adapter. Have your mom go to 192.168.15.1, and on the logon screen in the upper right corner it will have " Firmware Version: " and a number. My WRTP54G (which is identical to the RTP300 except it has wireless) reads " Firmware Version: 5.01.04".

Two things:

1. If that reads 5.anything, you may want to contact Vonage. A lot of people have had trouble with the 5. releases if they actually use the router for anything other than Vonage use.

2. If that is older than 5.x, it is probably 1.00.62. If it is older than 1.00.62, it needs to be upgraded to that version.

Failing that, I'd try unplugging everything but the phone from the Internet connection and do another call. So you want:

Modem -> RTP300 -> Phone.

That way, you can make sure that it's not some other activity going on in your network that's hogging download bandwidth. Pretty unlikely with a 7 Mbit connection, but you never know.

Finally, don't rule out a defective telephone. Again, this is unlikely, but try plugging a simple wired telephone directly into the RTP300. Also, is she using home wiring, or a 2.4GHz cordless phone (which can have trouble with a wireless network like the one on the WRT54GC)?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 01, 2007 Posts: 3

NateHoy, thank you for your response.

My vonage phone adapter's firmware is the same as yours: Firmware Version: 5.01.04.

I just called Vonage's customer support. The representative, John, said that he "changed some settings" and asked me to make a phone call. I called a neighbor of mine and we are experiencing more problems than before. The representative is also no where to be found (I 'flashed' back on the phone line and he isn't there anymore). I logged into my Vonage account and realized that the representative changed the Bandwidth Saver properties: we originally had it on 90Kbps and he changed it to 30Kbps. Now, our phone calls keep having beeps every once in awhile. We hear our neighbor on the phone well, but she said she hears a lot of interference which disrupts her ability to clearly understand what my mother is saying. I changed the Bandwidth Saver properties to 50Kbps hoping it might help. The representative took down my cell phone number in case our call gets dropped and still has not called me yet.

The phone line seems to be fine on 50Kbps so far... it's been 10 minutes or so. The only thing is that we hear beeps from time to time on both sides of the line and we can hear each other pretty clearly. We also thought the beeps were call-waiting but it's not.

I do not know if I should call Vonage back. They do not seem too helpful.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:57 pm Post subject:

Do the "beeps" sound like someone pushed a button on one of the phones? If so, that's not all that unusual a "sound artifact", especially at the lower-bandwidth settings. You shouldn't hear them OFTEN, but they do occur from time to time.

Basically, that's a result of how VoIP handles DTMF tones (the sounds you hear when you push buttons on your phone handset, like when you are making a call). Since VoIP frequently cannot reproduce the tones perfectly, your local VoIP adapter is programmed to listen for them and, if it hears one, reproduce it locally. Sometimes it makes a mistake and "hears" a tone that isn't there.

But you should NOT be getting them all the time. And they should be rare to nonexistent on the "non-VoIP" side of the call.

Try restarting the Vonage adapter, sometimes that makes a difference when changing voice quality settings.

If a change from 90 to 50 makes a positive difference, then it sounds like you may have some issue with download speed. I'm not sure how to do a more sustained speed test, though you may want to try a few tests to various cities (Boston is a good one, being closest to Vonage HQ) on www.testyour voip.com - a second opinion never hurts.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 31, 2005 Posts: 8

Hey,

I'm having a similar, if not the exact same problem.

I pretty much have the same set up as you. RTP300, 7MB cable modem connection on Earthlink in NYC (RCA modem), etc... I'm not sure of the firmware; I'll have to check when I get home

My sound cutouts are not limited to inbound calls, but I would estimate them to be 5-8 seconds at a time. The other party always says they can hear me, so I think it is only on the "listen" end for me.

These started a few weeks ago. I noticed it most on conference calls... At first, I thought it was someone else's cell phone, but when everyone on the call said they had no problem, I realized it was my connection. I used 2 different phones in the house with the same problem, so that's not it.

I tried rebooting the cable modem and vonage router, and that seemed to clear it up, but the cut outs were back shortly.

I do have the router as the 1st hop from the cable modem, and typically, I'm not doing anything major on the internet when the cutouts happen. I've used vonage before while downloading, and even using bittorrent with no problems, so I don't think that's it, and I haven't been having other troubles with my Internet connection.

I guess we'll have to see if others report this same problem. I see we both are on Eartlhlink in NYC, so there could be something there.

Anyone else with this problem?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 01, 2007 Posts: 3

@NateHoy:
Leaving the bandwidth saver quality at 50kbps was just slightly better than at 30kbps so I brought it back to 90kbps. My mom still complains about the loss of sound. I'm not sure what to do since the Vonage representatives keep having me do tests which cut me off from them and they do not bother calling back.

@galla47:
I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing the same problem. But from what you've described it's exactly that my mother has told me: the missing sound & that it started a few weeks ago. We've also tried rebooting the router & cable modem and nothing seems to work.

I thought it was because of using bittorrent or running computer programs that connect to internet that caused interference but I found out that the problems still existed even when no computer in the network was on. I have a feeling it is a problem with Vonage and not with our ISP.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 31, 2005 Posts: 8

Actually...

I checked my router. It's RT31P2 and I have firmware 1.30.01. I wonder if that changes anything?

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 7:08 am Post subject:

vitang wrote:

@NateHoy:
Leaving the bandwidth saver quality at 50kbps was just slightly better than at 30kbps so I brought it back to 90kbps. My mom still complains about the loss of sound. I'm not sure what to do since the Vonage representatives keep having me do tests which cut me off from them and they do not bother calling back.

A lot of people had a lot of complaints about the 5.x firmwares on both the WRTP54G and the RTP300. Call Vonage and tell them you want your firmware reverted back to 1.00.62 to see if that helps the problem.

As far as BitTorrent, yes that will wreak holy havoc on a router like the RTP300, and it is quite possible that the effect will last for several hours after all of the computers are turned off. Peers could still potentially be trying to connect to you, especially if you use a popular tracker site. I use BitTorrent for Linux distros and other open source software, and with a popular Torrent I see connection attempts happening long after I shut down my client.

The RTP300 and WRTP54G are quite excellent Vonage adapters, but as routers, they aren't anything to write home about. If you have a spare router lying about somewhere, you may want to put the RTP300 behind it as an experiment. When you put VoIP *and* routing load on that series, the voice quality drops. My Vonage experience improved immensely (even ignoring the BitTorrent issues) the very day I put my WRTP54G behind a Linksys WRT54GL and relieved it of the job of routing my network traffic.

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 10, 2005 Posts: 28

I also started getting 3 sec dropouts every 2 minutes or so. I am with earthlink also, from the NY Newburgh area.

For years vonage was great - this just started a week ago.

Plus all my internet speed tests worked out ok - although the tests may night capture the delay that happens on the phone every 2 or 3 minutes.

It is causing my telephone to be unusable. It's VERY distractiong and makes me want to throw the phone against the wall.

Any help here?

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 10, 2005 Posts: 28

I found this on the LINKSYS website:

Click link below
Getting a Choppy Line while Making a Call using Linksys Router

I'm trying it out now!