Calls sometimes get dropped after 5-10 seconds

Posts: 8

Over the past month or two, I've been having problems with occasional dropped calls. It usually occurs after about 5-10 seconds of talking to someone - could be inbound or outbound, but more often inbound calls. This occurs maybe one out of every 20-30 calls . I'll be talking to them, hear a click, then hear myself talking with an echo coming back to me. Often if they call right back, it rolls over to my cell phone as if the call was still connected. The link light is usually still blinking on my Linksys RTP300 router as well. If I wait for another 15-20 seconds, then I can call them back and no problems.

I was having a lot of voice quality problems with this router until Vonage support got me updated to firmware 5.01.04 last year. These issues just started happening in the last month or two. Any ideas?

Here's my setup:
Phone <-> RTP300 <-> D-Link DI-624 <-> Arris cable modem

Thanks,
David G.

Posts: 1147 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1147

Do you have any computers connected to your DI-624? If so, then this could be your problem. If I remember correctly, DI-624 cannot control which device gets priority so if you are using your computer and surfing the net, your computer can get priority and therefore block out your vonage call. This in turn will result in poor call quality and also dropped calls. In other words, if your vonage device is not getting any signals b/c it cannot send signals, it will drop the call.

I used to have the DI-524 so I know it does not have QoS capabilities. Although I'm not 100% sure about the DI-624. Double check, if it does have QoS, then you need to turn it on and give your rtp300 the highest priority. But if memory serves me correct, I do not believe it has QoS.

Qos by the way means Quality of Service which gives the router instructions on which devices get priority in sending out traffic through the router.

Posts: 8

Correct, the DI-624 has no QoS features - having helped design Ethernet switches that incorporated 802.1p prioritization, I understand the impact this can have, but I have my doubts in this case. I have one laptop with a wired connection to it as well as a Canon printer, plus one laptop that connects via wireless when it's turned on. I have had calls dropped when none of them were turned on as well as when I was using them. I tried switching the Linksys and D-Link devices around and that created havoc with my Internet access in general.

I rarely have voice quality issues during a call anymore - just some occasional echo since I upgraded the firmware on the RTP-300 last year. As I said, the dropped calls just started to happen a month or two ago. My suspicion would be that it's either an ISP issue (my local cable company isn't the brightest star in the sky) or something that may be systemic with the Vonage service itself. Just wondering if anyone else was experiencing this...

Regards,
David G.

Posts: 1147 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1147

netgreen, glad to know that you are more than network literate. if as you say you have issues with none of your computers on, then you might be spot on and see this as an ISP issue. I think PingPlotter is the one favored by alot of high speed folks.

My reading of the forum tells me that the rtp300 is no better than the cheapest routers out there so your experience only confirms what I have read.

Mind you, the DI series of DLink routers are not the brightest in the sky either.

I have not had any issues with dropped calls the last week or so. I did have a couple back about a month ago. But b/c I do not use the vonage line that much, I cannot be the best sampling.

Again, consider getting pingplotter or some other bandwidth/connection monitoring software to figure out if it is indeed your isp.

Posts: 8 · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 12:20 pm Post subject: Intermittent call drops

I thought I might have found the problem, but no so: my phone line connects through my Canon MX700 multifunction printer/fax/scanner, and Canon released a firmware update that fixed a problem with their fax function grabbing phone calls unexpectedly. I applied the update, but afterwards had another call get dropped when the printer was shut off. Same story - I call a business, go through the automated greeting, hear the phone ring and someone picks up , then BAM! - no one there and if I talk, all I get is an echo. The phone adapter shows an active phone call (light blinking), but it's dead. Hang up the phone, pick it up again and dial, and everything goes through fine next time.

I ran the Speedtest.net speed test to a nearby test server and got 3387kb download and 509kb upload speeds - can't complain about that! Again, we seem to get very intermittent hiccups with our ISP, especially lately: I often click on a link to a website and it can't find the server; I hit F5 to reload the page and it finds it and shows the site fine.

Welcome to the South, I guess ...

Posts: 1147 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1147

wow, that sounds like you do have some connection issues with your ISP. I think it will require you to contact them and have them check out your connection.

Most ISPs will not correct occasional hiccup issues so having some type of pingplotter program that shows clearly those hiccups will be to your advantage.

Hope it works out for you.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 16, 2008 Posts: 4

Netgreen is the vonage device connected to a surge protector? if it is, in that case try with the vonage device without the surge protector. Also try to made a long ping to google. Check if you get any packet lost and also try with the vonage device connected directly to your isp modem, I mean without te router. If for some reason you still has dropped calls in that case call tech support for vonage because maybe there is an issue with your vonage device. And tell the agent all the steps that you made.

Posts: 8 · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:56 pm Post subject: Intermittent call drops

All of my equipment is connected to an APC BackUPS for power regulation and protection. Why would I want to take the Linksys router/phone adapter off that protection? These problems started about 2 months ago - everything was working fine prior to that. It may be several days before the problem shows up again.

Pinging www.google.com for almost a minute showed the following:

Ping statistics for 74.125.45.104:
Packets: Sent = 52, Received = 52, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 33ms, Maximum = 55ms, Average = 38ms

No problems there, but it is a Saturday evening, so not a lot of traffic now ...

Posts: 21 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 09, 2006 Posts: 21

latency or 2.4 ghz phones interfering with wifi

Posts: 8 · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:46 am Post subject: Intermittent call drops

I'm using Uniden 5.8GHz DSS phones. My D-Link router with Wi-Fi is under my desk - my Linksys router/telephone adapter is over 5 feet away inside a cupboard next to the cable modem.

Latency could be an issue, but why would a call drop several seconds after I begin talking to someone or after being on hold for awhile and then having someone pick up their phone? Why would the Linksys router show the call as still active (phone line light blinking) after it goes dead for me?

Just wondered if anyone else was experiencing this intermittent call drop issue or if it is local to me and my wonderful ISP ...

Cheers,
David