Chop Outgoing on DSL Westell.PAP2/Belikin PreN

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 30, 2008 Posts: 2

Here's the info:
1.Location - Marietta, GA
2. ISP - Bell South - DSL
3.Upload - 326 kbps Download-2602 kbps
4.Modem- Westell C90-610030
5.Adapter -PAP2
6. Setup- Modem -->Belkin Pre N -->PAP2--> v-tech 6.00 DECT
7. Issue: Can hear incoming fine. Outgoing - choppy and broken on all calls. Constant complaints from clients. I have to use my cell phone to call back. This has been going on for months. I bought new DECT 6.0 phones. I put in new and shorter Ethernet cables.
When I run from modem to PAP2 direct it "seems " to improve quaility. There is no way to work around the modem - router - PAP setup. Modem only has 1 ethernet port so I have to use Belkin router first.

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 2489656 bps
Upload speed: 328808 bps
Quality of service: 87 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 158 ms
Average download pause: 14 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 49 ms
Average round trip time to server: 235 ms

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 0.6 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 3.4 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.1 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported VoIP lines: 5
Estimated MOS score: 3.9

Ideas on how to have my clients hear me??
Thanks

Posts: 293 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 293

What else is on your network?

My guess would be that other things going on while you are on the phone are causing this, specifically things that eat up your upstream bandwidth.

Have you setup QoS to give your Vonage device the highest priority? If you haven't this is the first thing you want to do.

Plugging the PAP2 directly in to the modem in a way confirms this since nothing else would be using up bandwidth in this configuration.

Posts: 4694 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4694

Your test results don't really look all that bad. Nevertheless, I suspect your internet service, since even plugging the PAP2 directly into the modem didn't fix the problem. If possible, take the PAP2 somewhere- a friend's place perhaps- and try it with another broadband service. That will confirm or reject my suspicion.

Posts: 204 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 204

Steve48 wrote:

Nevertheless, I suspect your internet service, since even plugging the PAP2 directly into the modem didn't fix the problem.

Actually, the OP did say that connecting the TA directly to the modem did improve the audio quality.

Belkin routers typically contain a SPI firewall (of dubious quality) that plays havoic with VoIP, specificlly causing dropped packets, leading to choppy audio. Try disabling the firewall on the router and see if that clears the issue.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 30, 2008 Posts: 2

OK. Your response has helped some. I'm looking at the Belkin Pre N router and in the QOS area I have these choices:
Immediate, Burst, No Ack and Auto. It is set at immediate. Is that best?
Also there is a QOS enable/disable option. It's enabled.
I do not see any options that allow me to make the PAP2 "first in line" Is that auto?

Oh, I disable the firewall on the Belikin. First try seemed to improve the line chop.

Are the newer Belkin N1 routers any better at dealing with Voip issues?
Thanks guys. Looking for any other fixes that solve this phone chop.

Posts: 293 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 293

Depending on which Belkin device you have you could consider loading DD-WRT firmware on there. This has excellent options for setting up QoS.

You can see more about DD-WRT here: http://www.dd-wrt.com

I use a similar, slightly simpler firmware called Tomato on my Linksys, but I'm fairly sure that it isn't supported on the Belkin routers.

Its a little geeky to setup (Tomato is a good bit easier in my opinion) but it would give you the ability to setup clear QoS rules to give Vonage the top priority on your network.

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

dennisg wrote:

OK. Your response has helped some. I'm looking at the Belkin Pre N router and in the QOS area I have these choices:
Immediate, Burst, No Ack and Auto. It is set at immediate. Is that best?

Well, the users manual I looked at seems to say that the burst might be more helpful. try that. btw, these qos options are not very good. as butterman has suggested getting another router that has better capabilities with qos would be far more beneficial to you. you have very limited upload bandwidth.

also consider lowering your bandwidth to 50 or even down to 30 on your vonage web account. it's in the bandwidth saver mode. I never have mine on 90 since that is overkill.