Have you tested your broadband?

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 09, 2007 Posts: 1

Here's mine:
Download 9,229,336 bps
Upload 609,680 bps
QOS 98%
RTT 45 ms
MaxPause 14 ms

Says it can support 8 simultaneous high quality Voip connections. However with only 1 connection, I am suffering from poor quality calling overseas (China). Had no problem calling US & Canada.

Posts: 241 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Mar 17, 2006 Posts: 241

gxq1980 wrote:

However with only 1 connection, I am suffering from poor quality calling overseas (China). Had no problem calling US & Canada.

Then the problem isn't at your end.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 13, 2007 Posts: 1

I have never had problems with sound quality or service being on the phone and downloading huge files while surfing the internet but these test results are very random at times even on a good connection.sometimes it shows i should have crappy service but this is what i got out of the test. I have Bresnan cable which claims to have a 8MB connection

3,430,640 bps
Upload 396,456 bps
QOS 94%
RTT 140 ms
MaxPause 90 ms

says I can support up to 6 quality Voip lines

Posts: 25 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jun 16, 2007 Posts: 25

Funny is that I am seeing the same 500+ ms. I have Comcast and live in Chicago. Every friday night I have poor service. Cant make a phone call. I actually plugged my cable modem directly to my computer and the problem has Dissipated . Then I reconnected my Voice gateway Motorola VT2442. It took longer than normal to sync up. Everything is ok now.. I notice I must reset my Cable modem for the Vt2442 to finally come online. I also noticed that the VT2442 always pulls down the same IP address. Why does that happen? I heard something about a "Clone the MAC Address" setting on my VT2442, but can't seem to find that option. Does anyone??

I've spent many friday nights on the phone with Comcast support. They can't help me.. Mad

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 14, 2007 Posts: 10

Speedtest with Comcast are always kinda tricky, since their routing is pretty weird. I got around 14Mb dl to Texas, but same distance to an Arizona server is at 6Mb.
My quality is excellent for US calls and incoming calls from overseas, but do not try to call a European cell phone. I think the bridge from Voip to oversea calls is the cheapest they could get, judging by the delay, is has to be a satelite connection.
Anyway, my numbers are...

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 7174536 bps
Upload speed: 2652416 bps
Quality of service: 80 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 69 ms
Average download pause: 5 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 77 ms
Average round trip time to server: 81 ms

Voip test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 2.8 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 8.2 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: 45
Estimated MOS score: 4.0

Posts: 43 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 11, 2004 Posts: 43

Comcast is my ISP, Philadelphia area, and while most of my scores on the speed test are excellent, the QOS is almost always in the 30's. This baffled me for a while until I visited the Visionware site and read about how it is calculated and the reasoning behind it.

The consistency of the throughput is considered above all else, as they feel it is more important to have a consistent speed than a high speed.

Since Comcast has a feature they call "Powerboost" which increases the download speed considerably when you are downloading, that would tend to cause the speed test to see an inconsistent throughput. My rated download is 6 Mbps, though I usually appear to be running at 8 Mbps. However when I start downloading the download speed can get as high as 14 - 15 Mbps. The speed test shows this by indicating a D/L speed of 6 to 8 Mbps, and then another test right after that shows 14 Mbps. I would think that with the Powerboost feature, the QOS test becomes much less critical.

BTW, even when my QOS is at 31 or 32, the voice and connection quality is fine.

Others seeing this same thing?

(If this is already mentioned/discussed earlier in the thread, I didn't see it; I got through the first 8 or so pages before giving up!)

Posts: 25 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jun 16, 2007 Posts: 25

I found that using the Bandwidth Saver feature is quite helpful. As stated above, Comcast bandwidth fluctuates so much that using the the highest quality (90kb) actually makes the phone call more "choppy". When I changed the setting down to lowest (32kb), I noticed a much clearer quality call. This is really helpful with international calls when the call is "one way". What I mean by this is:

When you speak you cant hear the party on the other line.Viceversa. When they speak if make a noise or say a word they're voice cuts out.

There probably is an official term for this type of call that I am not aware of.

Posts: 43 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 11, 2004 Posts: 43

larry77 wrote:

I found that using the Bandwidth Saver feature is quite helpful. As stated above, Comcast bandwidth fluctuates so much that using the the highest quality (90kb) actually makes the phone call more "choppy". When I changed the setting down to lowest (32kb), I noticed a much clearer quality call.

Really? As I mentioned, I haven't had any problems at all with call quality. I was just curious at first as to why the QOS score is always so low, despite the call quality seeming to be just fine.

I don't think I would ever try setting the Bandwidth Saver to the lowest setting to try and get better quality calls. If it works for you, then I guess you should keep it that way.

Posts: 25 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jun 16, 2007 Posts: 25

gxq1980 wrote:

Here's mine:
Download 9,229,336 bps
Upload 609,680 bps
QOS 98%
RTT 45 ms
MaxPause 14 ms

Says it can support 8 simultaneous high quality Voip connections. However with only 1 connection, I am suffering from poor quality calling overseas (China). Had no problem calling US & Canada.

I am seeing the same poor quality when trying to call the Philippines. I think Vonage is using the cheapest routing channels to Asia.

I know this isn't a problem with my internet because when I use a calling card the connection is as clear as a local call.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 15, 2005 Posts: 1

Comcast - having problems with choppy calls - wonder why?

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 3914680 bps
Upload speed: 209096 bps
Quality of service: 15 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 149 ms
Average download pause: 8 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 98 ms
Average round trip time to server: 445 ms

Voip test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 165.4 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 8.6 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.7 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported Voip lines: 3
Estimated MOS score: 3.5