New user with choppy sound

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2007 Posts: 5

I'm in Middle Tennessee using Comcast internet with a Motorola SB5120 modem and a Motorola VT2542 wireless Vonage router. I removed my Linksys router and have just been using the Motorola included. Just started using this today. I can hear whoever I call fine, but I drop out quite often and they think we've been disconnected.
Here's the results from my test:
Download speed 2533 Kbps (socket test)
Upload speed 360 Kbps (socket test)
Quality of service 50 %
Maximum pause 141 ms
Round trip time 49 ms
Upstream jitter 1273.2 ms
Upstream packet loss 47 %
Upstream packet order 100 %
Upstream discards 0 %
Downstream jitter 0.0 ms
Downstream packet loss 100 %
Downstream packet order 99 %
Downstream discards 0 %

I have no idea what any of that means but I'm sure some of you do. Any help would be appreciated.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

Your jitter and packet loss numbers are absolutely awful. Remove the router, plug your computer directly into the modem, and repeat the test. If the results are similar, then you have a problem with your modem or with your internet service.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2007 Posts: 5

Here's test results without router:

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 9306712 bps
Upload speed: 362256 bps
Quality of service: 52 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 161 ms
Average download pause: 3 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 46 ms
Average round trip time to server: 47 ms

Voip test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 2.5 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 0.0 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 100.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported Voip lines: 6
Estimated MOS score: 3.5

I also ran the yahoo ping test and it shows lost packets.

Ping statistics for 216.109.112.135:
Packets: Sent = 50, Received = 49, Lost = 1 (2% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 34ms, Maximum = 46ms, Average = 36ms

My wireless signal with this router isn't near as good as I had with my Linksys. Do you think it would help at all to have that hooked up behind the Motorola?

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

It might help the wireless function, but it won't do anything about the poor phone service. Also, you would need to be sure that the wireless function is turned off in the Motorola if you want to use the Linksys for that.

Meanwhile, your packet losses are still bad, so it looks as if you have an internet service issue. The test report also seems to be different from the first time. Did you run the same test?

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2007 Posts: 5

I ran this ping test today and then called Comcast to question them about it.

Ping statistics for 216.109.112.135:
Packets: Sent = 50, Received = 47, Lost = 3 (6% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 36ms, Maximum = 49ms, Average = 37ms

They said it was absolutely nothing to do with them and it must be something on my end. This was after I had ran the tests without the router hooked up and still showed packet loss.

I just don't know very much about all of this and have only learned by trying different things suggested on this forum. At this point I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I have a neighbor down the street who has had Vonage for over a year and had no issues.

If it makes any difference, here's the speed test I just ran a minute ago.

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 198848 bps
Upload speed: 361480 bps
Quality of service: 68 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 1129 ms
Average download pause: 211 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 69 ms
Average round trip time to server: 1047 ms

Voip test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 2.8 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 0.0 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 100.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported Voip lines: 3
Estimated MOS score: 3.5

I have no idea what to try now and Comcast hasn't been any help at all.

Posts: 433 · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject:

Except for the first three numbers of the speed test, the higher the numbers the worse it is. If you are getting these sort of results without any router in between your comcast modem and computer, the problem is most definately with comcast. Those numbers are horrible and you will probably never get Vonage to work right until comcast fixes your problem.

Before you really **** to comcast, I would try a new ethernet cable to make sure that isn't the culprit. I'm sure its the wiring coming to your house or a bad splitter or they used the old wiring instead of running a new line for your modem. Your line for the modem should be off the first two way splitter. So you have the drop coming to the house feeding a two way with one leg going to your modem and the other leg going to feed another splitter to feed the cable outlets. Have your friend down the street run the test and compare your results. If he hasn't had any problems, I'm sure his will look much better than yours.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

This isn't important to the issue at hand, but I'm still curious about the formatting of the test results. In the first posted set of results, some things were listed as "upstream" or "downstream" this or that. In the other results, these words are missing. Was the forum test run in both cases?? I've seen similar slight variations in test results in a lot of recent postings. Most presumably came from the forum test.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2007 Posts: 5

They were both run from the Vonage site somewhere. I think the first one is one I'd found on a Google search that linked me to a Vonage page and the second one is the one that's linked by the sticky at the top of the forum on what to do post when you have performance issues after I'd joined and started reading around here.

I've pretty much determined it's my internet service that's causing the problems and that Vonage just isn't going to work for me. I guess you don't know if you don't try, and I feel I've tried really hard and learned a ton about things I'd never even heard of before.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

Thanks for the information about the test.

I agree that the problem appears to be your ISP. Do you also get television service from Comcast? If so, are there any complaints there? Sometimes an issue will affect both cable television and internet, and the provider may be more responsive to complaints that don't involve other business entities..

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2007 Posts: 5

Well, I have basic cable, just because I have cable internet, but I use DirecTV because who else has Sunday Ticket?

They probably would be more helpful if I used them for everything, but the $60 I'm paying per month for internet ought to be enough for them to at least admit responsibility. I've just decided to go with DSL and bundle it with phone and DirecTV and call it good. I really am anti-Bell, but that just seems to be the best option at this point.