Voice Is Not Received At Called Party. - Problem Solved

Posts: 492 · Last edited by mbhn5204 on Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:15 pm; edited 1 time in total

I've searched the forum and found only conjecture and hard work in several attempts to tackle this difficult problem. It is strange, indeed, that a full duplex packet transfer would initialize the call and then fail to send the remaining packets. This is not a packet loss of a few packets, it is the cessation of all outgoing packets. Here is the answer to the first anticipated question:

DSLReports

There is nothing wrong with my bandwidth here. As other testing shows a normal operating computing environment. I have to conclude that there is a strange bug, yet undiscovered in either our ISP's, Vonage itself, our computing environment, or even our phone adapters (ATA). I don't know how to go about separating these four so that the source of this intermittent problem can be narrowed down to one device. I have noticed that the particular type of ATA does not matter, they all have demonstrated this unusual behavior at one time or another. Therefore, the ATA's are eliminated, or they all have a common flaw causing a failure to construct and transmit the digitized voice packets. Intermittent problems are the worst. You either have to wait for a failure, or try to encourage it by heating and cooling the suspected unit until it fails, if it fails.

A strange problem, indeed, and one that will take more than just our feeble attempts to track down. I would like to eliminate Vonage as the source first, ISP's second in conjunction with our respective computers and the ATA's. It would be of great assistance if the Vonage Engineering department took on the problem.

Any suggestions out there? Has anybody come to a solid conclusion as to the cause of this? No conjecture please, just the facts. This problem won't soon be resolved. Perhaps it's just as reebok put it, "Could just be a hiccup in the system". Thanks all.

Mike

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 09, 2005 Posts: 18

Same problem here. Tests show bandwidth is not a problem. Works on third attempt. Would sure like a solution, or at least direction to go in.

Posts: 492 · Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:07 pm Post subject:

It is becoming quite annoying. I have a dial tone, I can dial out, I can hear the other person say Hello? Hello? Is there anyone there? Click!

I thought that upload latency would be the most likely source. I immediately run a test and I have 4.7Mbps down/384kbps up. Further, tests show that out of 100 packets sent, 100 packets were received. Everything looks 100% OK. I double check the speed and again, Hello? Is there someone there?......Click.

I can't find any use for one way communications so does anyone out there have any ideas?

Mike

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 09, 2005 Posts: 18

I have these ports forwarded on the Linksys...

5060-5061 UDP
10000-20000 UDP

I read somewhere in the forum, though I can't find it now, that there were other ports that could cause your system to not work properly if you don't forward them. If you have any idea what those ports are, we could try to open them and see if that improves the situation.

For my money, I have not had problems up til now, and my parents, who are on Vonage, starting getting the problem at the same time. That tells me that it is upstream from us or hardware that is failing at the same time.

I am thinking about trying a WRT54G-P2 or PAP-2 to see if the problem fixes itself. That will tell me if there is something wrong with the RT31P2. Although I have more of a hunch that is has nothing to do with us and everything to do with the Vonage network.

Posts: 3

Hi all! I've had the same problem with those I call not hearing my voice. I hang up and try again - sometimes it works on the second or third attempt.
I was beginning to consider purchasing a new phone but would most likely have a similar problem after reading this forum. We have in our condo old lines running our broadband, but this can not be the problem as we rarely loose internet connection or cable.

Is Vonage looking into this matter? Have they seen rapid growth in a certain area?
Confused

Posts: 492 · Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 4:04 pm Post subject:

I ran the http://www.testyour voip.com program several times and got mixed results. There is some packet loss, but not enough to explain why no one can hear me. There are periods of massive losses of data (not packets). There are also serious delays in transmission of over 3 seconds. This is the problem! With a 3 second delay, the server assumes that there is no more data. Thus, no one can hear you because your data stream never made it past the server and died. I had the worst score possible on the first test. The second test was completely normal. Terrific, this thing is intermittent!

I'm running the http://www.pingplotter.com right now. I'll think that I will close all programs and let it run for about 24 hours or so. I've got to get to the bottom of this. Some insist that it has to be the ISP. Others say it must be the phone adapter, and others still believe that Vonage itself is the cause. I don't know, but if I find out, you will be the first to know.

Mike

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 09, 2005 Posts: 18

Well I am looking at what's common between the two of us. We both are running Comcast and we both have RT31P2. I ran the voice over IP a couple of times and got the same results up and down in the 3.5 range on the scale. I may call Vonage later tonight or tomorrow to see if this is something they are aware of and whether its them or not.

Posts: 492 · Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 10:49 am Post subject:

Before everyone goes off to rail at Vonage, perhaps you would care to hear my PingPlotter results! 1) It's not the RT31P2; 2) It's not Comcast; and 3) It's not Vonage, although, Vonage is where the problem takes place.

From Denver, it takes 15 server hops to reach the Vonage Gateway in New Jersey. Not too oddly, my packets are sent first West to California via 4 hops to Los Angelos and an 8% loss in data. They are then spirited away, by satellite assuming, to the East coast. There is a 40% degradation in data at this point. The satellite is a killer. There is a further loss in data of 5% from New York City to New Jersey and then to Vonage.

So, who's fault is it? The internet is not as impeccable as we would like to believe. The greater the distance, the greater the packet loss. The largest jumps in packet loss are through East Coast AT&T servers and Sprint.

Just for the record, Comcast remained at 100% through the entire test. Not a single glitch. Vonage can not be held responsible for the bad data sent it. Finally, there is nothing we can do about servers with which we have no control over. Perhaps the VoIP journalists are correct after all, "The internet is a medium that is not yet ready for mature use".

Mike

Posts: 50 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 06, 2005 Posts: 50

I've only had the service one day, but had 2 of my conversations terminated by the other party saying ... "I can't hear you... hello ... are you there ...." while I'm talking to them. I could hear them fine. And this was after at least 18 minutes into the call of "next door like" quality. I was really impressed with the service until the 2 drops of my outgoing voice.. Anyway, after the other party hung up, I redialed back to them and continued the conversations ... again with good quality.

I have the RT31P2 behind another router/firewall (Netgear) and I also use the Motorola 5100 Surfboard modem. Charter service is point 5M up, 5M down. VoIP Traceroute shows 17 hops, 190ms latency, with degredation reported from me to server as:
Codec 0.58 93.0%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.04 7.0%
Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%
scoring 4.4 out of 5.0 where 4.4 is best with the G.711 codec

TestYou VoIP shows no difference with sip ports forwarded or not forwarded at my end.

Anyway, for what its worth.... And remember, I've had the service only about 24 hours so far, so consider me a real newbie at this VoIP stuff.

Posts: 492 · Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:32 pm Post subject:

I have been busy with testing. Some good results with my ISP and my own systems. A conclusion, I hope at:
vonage-forum.com/ftopic5067.html" target="_blank">http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic5067.html

The PingPlotter is a great tool for examining what goes on on the internet. Takes a while to figure out. A bit more to readjust to your needs. Even longer to figure out what the results mean. After using this tool, I wouldn't be without it.

I am not having any dropped calls lately. I hope that it was only a short trend. Finally, I had a very poor experience with technical service. I am very disappointed and wrote a post that was bad. I used to defend Vonage from the whiners and complainers. Now I had reason to whine and complain myself. It felt good.

Mike