Incoming Audio Problems...all of the sudden??!!

Posts: 30

I've had Vonage now for just over 3 months. Overall my audio quality has been ok. I have experienced problems with the audio being a bit too loud, but I've just dealt with that.

I'm using a V-Portal, and all of the sudden this morning (Sunday) I've got a lot of stuttering and even a DTMF tone or two being heard when talking on the phone. I'm the only one hearing it, not the other party. There's also just what I'd describe as extraneous noise surrounding the voice of the other person. Again, this all appears to be on my end.

Here are two test results from just now...

#1
Download speed 2569 Kbps (socket test)
Upload speed 435 Kbps (socket test)
Quality of service 99 %
Maximum delay 128 ms
Round trip time 41 ms
Upstream jitter 2.3 ms
Upstream packet loss 0 %
Upstream packet order 100 %
Upstream discards 0 %
Downstream jitter 8.5 ms
Downstream packet loss 0 %
Downstream packet order 100 %
Downstream discards 0 %

#2
Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 2570840 bps
Upload speed: 434288 bps
Quality of service: 99 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 29 ms
Average download pause: 4 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 44 ms
Average round trip time to server: 63 ms

Voip test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 3.7 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 10.3 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: 7
Estimated MOS score: 3.9

And from TestYourVoIP.com, I'm getting a 3.8 downstream and 4.4 upstream. I get those results consistently, so nothing appears to have changed on my connection. I'm wondering if it is a V-Portal or Vonage problem??

Anyone else having trouble, or able to offer some throughts on it? Thanks in advance!!

Lars

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

Hard to say. It certainly doesn't seem to be your internet service. What does the rest of your network look like? Any wireless routers and cordless telephones?

I'd try changing ports on the V-portal and seeing what that does. Also, change phones if you can and eliminate house wiring if you're using it.

Posts: 47 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jun 13, 2007 Posts: 47

Your downstream jitter is three times worse than upstream. That can explains some stuttering that you hear but not the other end. I am not sure what could cause false DTMF tones...

I think you might want to play with your bandwidth settings to see
if that helps.

Posts: 30 · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 3:33 pm Post subject:

I did try dropping my bandwidth setting to the lowest setting. While I didn't experience any stuttering, it sounded like a not so great cell phone. I've now set it to the medium setting, so we'll see how that works. I guess if lower quality results in no stuttering issues, then I'll have to keep it there.

It's really surprising anyone has good service with all of the variables related to having good solid Voip service. I have what I'd consider good DSL with AT&T, and still am having trouble. No wonder Voip hasn't caught on as widely as it could.

Thanks for the advice regardless.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 7:53 pm Post subject:

ok wrote:

Your downstream jitter is three times worse than upstream. That can explains some stuttering that you hear but not the other end. I am not sure what could cause false DTMF tones...

I think you might want to play with your bandwidth settings to see
if that helps.

DTMF tones are caused by the nature of Voip.

When someone remote presses a button, simply sending the DTMF signal as-is over the connection is not sufficient. Generally, the DTMF tone is not reproduced perfectly enough to be understood by local equipment that is programmed to recognize a really, really precise sound.

Voip gets around that by detecting a DTMF tone in the signal and reproducing it locally, overlaying the original tone with a perfect one. Problem is the detection - sometimes the Voip adapter "hears" something that sounds like a DTMF tone and faithfully (but incorrectly) reproduces what it thought it heard locally.

Sometimes, a marginal-sounding connection can get stutter artifacts, and when a few sounds are laid on top of each other it can produce what a local adapter thinks is a DTMF tone. It can also happen with ambient noise. When I used to telecommute, occasionally I'd be on a con call and the phone at the other end would be placed too near a projector or other fan-equipped device. The combination of the fan sound and other electronic noises would occasionally generate a DTMF tone.

Some firmware upgrades to my WRTP54G over the years have pretty much made it go away, though I still get them, very rarely.

Posts: 30 · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:00 pm Post subject:

What you described is exactly what I experienced, and your explanation of the DTMF tone issue makes a lot of sense. Maybe as the V-Portal continues to age, Vonage will continue to improve the firmware and get it to a point where your adapter is now and those types of issues will be minimal.

Thanks for the insight!!

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:01 pm Post subject:

luv2fly3 wrote:

I did try dropping my bandwidth setting to the lowest setting. While I didn't experience any stuttering, it sounded like a not so great cell phone. I've now set it to the medium setting, so we'll see how that works. I guess if lower quality results in no stuttering issues, then I'll have to keep it there.

It's really surprising anyone has good service with all of the variables related to having good solid Voip service. I have what I'd consider good DSL with AT&T, and still am having trouble. No wonder Voip hasn't caught on as widely as it could.

Thanks for the advice regardless.

If lowering the bandwidth helps, then there are two possible problems:

1. Insufficient bandwidth.

OK, we can eliminate 1 based on your test results.

2. Something is interfering with the bandwidth.

Possible suspects:
- Router. Someone else had asked at one point what the rest of your network looked like.

What model DSL adapter do you have?

What IP address is it assigning your V-portal (if it looks like 192.168.x.x, then your DSL modem has a router built into it, which could simply not like Voip and get overloaded trying to route so many packets so quickly, or have some sort of firewall that is examining packets too closely and gets overwhelmed).

- Overall connection

The test results make this somewhat unlikely, but not impossible. Voip speed tests only test for a call lasting maybe 15 seconds, while an actual call frequently isn't even answered that fast.

It could also be that your ISP is throtting traffic coming from Vonage. This isn't too likely any more, but Comcast made a big, and eventually publicized, habit of doing this. Now they're resticting such shenanigans to P2P and other "low-priority high-bandwidth" services.

Posts: 831 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 831

luv2fly3 wrote:

I did try dropping my bandwidth setting to the lowest setting. While I didn't experience any stuttering, it sounded like a not so great cell phone. I've now set it to the medium setting, so we'll see how that works. I guess if lower quality results in no stuttering issues, then I'll have to keep it there.

It's really surprising anyone has good service with all of the variables related to having good solid Voip service. I have what I'd consider good DSL with AT&T, and still am having trouble. No wonder Voip hasn't caught on as widely as it could.

Thanks for the advice regardless.

I have my bandwidth set to the lowest and it still sounds better than my POTS line and Cell phone. At the risk of stating the obvious, I hope you have reset your Vonage router (use the HARD reset button).

"It's really surprising anyone has good service with all of the variables related to having good solid Voip service" - - -I agree and if you use other Voip services (I use two "free" services from time to time), you will realize the issues that are out there. Vonage has been very good, probably as a result of somehow minimizing these issues.

Posts: 30 · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:11 am Post subject:

NateHoy wrote:

What model DSL adapter do you have?

What IP address is it assigning your V-portal (if it looks like 192.168.x.x, then your DSL modem has a router built into it, which could simply not like Voip and get overloaded trying to route so many packets so quickly, or have some sort of firewall that is examining packets too closely and gets overwhelmed).

I have an AT&T 2Wire Wireless Gateway/DSL modem (2071??). It is using DHCP and assigning the DNS for my network devices and my V-Portal is set to a 192.168... address.

Quote:

- Overall connection

The test results make this somewhat unlikely, but not impossible. Voip speed tests only test for a call lasting maybe 15 seconds, while an actual call frequently isn't even answered that fast.

It could also be that your ISP is throtting traffic coming from Vonage. This isn't too likely any more, but Comcast made a big, and eventually publicized, habit of doing this. Now they're resticting such shenanigans to P2P and other "low-priority high-bandwidth" services.

If this is the case, there's probably not much chance of getting AT&T to change their setting to fix it.

I have found that at medium bandwidth setting, I'm still getting a more solid connection, so I think I'll just have to keep it there. However, if you have some further suggestions I could try to test my router setup further or something to tell if it's the problem, I'd be grateful and willing to go further.

Thanks!!