Improving Softphone Voice Quality

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 26, 2009 Posts: 8

I have a the Vonage V-Portal at home and use the softphone when I travel. Sometimes the softphone provides good voice quality, but often the quality is poor. I might sound poor to me or it might sound fine to me and poor to the person I’m calling. Effects like time lag or crackling on the line. I assumed the uneven quality was the result of poor network quality when I’m on the road.

However, today I performed a test that gave me second thoughts. I called someone on a v-portal connected phone and the quality was good. I called them on the softphone using the same wired network connection and the quality was very bad. I made a few more calls to the same person with similar results. I switched between 3 headsets on the softphone and had the same problem.

How can I improve the voice quality on the softphone? Am I better off switching to another softphone like Express Talk (http://www.nch.com.au/talk/)? Do I need to change something in my network set up? I need to make business calls while traveling and the softphone is very convenient for that, but I can’t afford to sound unprofessional.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Posts: 227 · Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:35 pm Post subject:

What hardware and software platform are you using under the softphone? How is that platform connected to your ISP?

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 26, 2009 Posts: 8

For the test I describe above I'm using a Win 7 notebook (Dell Studio 14z, 5 G RAM) which I have plugged directly into my router (to rule out possible wireless issues). The network connection is cable broadband (10 Mbps download/512 Kbps upload). This is the same connection I have my V-Portal hooked up to and that works fine.

I have had similar issues with my older Dell laptop running XP SP3 on this and other networks.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 06, 2011 Posts: 1

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The quality of the internet connection seems to have an impact on the sound quality being sent by the calling party. The upload capability of the current broadband connection will affect how the receiving party hears your voice. Broadband providers must be held responsible to allow this type of traffic to flow unimpeded over network transmission equipment. My home Vonage IP phone has worked flawlessly for years using Comcast high speed internet service. I love Vonage and just recently started using xsoftphone on a Verizon 3g netbook connection. The quality has been on and off. Indeed not a professional solution for $9.99 a month. My connection bars indicate two to three bars when the voice quality gets to be unbearable. Placing another call often results in the same poor quality. I believe the xsoftphone solution can be an alternative communication method, but I won't be giving up my cell phone.