The Vonage Chop - Hudson Valley Region in NY

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:11 pm Post subject:

So you were at the 90kbps upload originally?

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 20, 2005 Posts: 16

No,, I have a "256/90" connection which guarantees me a "minimum". In actuality, I achieve a consistent 400+ down/ 700+ up. My response to Logical is "yes" on the hardware, and "maybe" on the speed upgrade. I already have good up speed (and voice quality) so I'm not looking to pay more. My quality issues are on the download side. They do sell a 750 ish down and 90 up (I assume I'll Still get 700 up like I do now). I told them "lets test it 1st ... If it works I'll buy. " I'm hoping the hardware upgrade alone will do the trick.

Posts: 10 · Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 9:51 pm Post subject:

FWIW, I'm in Albany, NY and I'm also having the same "chop" problem. And it seems to be getting worse. I'm on Earthlink Cable 5000kbps down/384kbps up (Time Warner Cable). I'll run tests tomorrow. I had two calls completely dropped tonight and no dialtone for a while.

I had to call back with my cell phone to get a better connection! Now, that's a first!

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 03, 2005 Posts: 2

This is my first post.
First, I am not that technical, so I don't know if people mean the same thing by jitter, chop, and hiss. What I do know is that every few seconds the sound goes out on my Vonage line, and when that happens I can't hear what is being said. My callers tell me they have the same problem hearing me. Is that chop? Jitter? Something else?

Today on the phone a tech guy from Netopia described it as a digital burst. Sad

I have had this problem from Day One with Vonage. I am in Los Angeles, a very long way from the Hudson Valley.

Terminology aside, I would like this fixed. I cannot go back to SBC because I am in an old apartment building and when Covad installed my sdsl they had to rip out the phone line.

I saw in another thread on this forum that the solution was to open certain ports. Frankly, that sounds risky. Besides, the phone works, albeit with chop/hiss/jitter, so why do I need to open another port?

Then I saw the activity in this thread (I found it by searching on 'latency', which is what I was told my problem was) and decided to post here, especially since I see the Site Admin was on here.

I also took the hint and ran the test on the test your Voip site people keep referencing. Here are my results:

Quality Between You and Boston
Forget the phone, try Pony Express

Your score: 2.1

Like tin cans and string

As bad as a crummy cell phone call

As good as a decent cell phone call

Like calling next door

Better than being there!

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1.0
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2.0
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3.0
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4.0
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5.0

Test Details

The information below explains why your call quality score (MOS) was less than perfect.
Find the results that you want more quickly...
Jump to: Media Quality Signaling Quality Voip Traceroute

MOS Analysis from You TO Boston
MOS analysis chart
Media Quality
MOS
2.6 / 5.0
(Best with G.711 is 4.4)

Degradation Sources
Codec 0.57 24.4%
Latency 1.06 44.9%
Packet Discards 0.72 30.6%
Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%
Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps,
20ms RTP payload,
80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip
Latency 743 ms
Packet Discards 3.1%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods
Min: 20 ms
Avg: 140 ms
Max: 380 ms
Burst Loss
Jitter
Min: 0 ms
Avg: 6 ms
Max: 333 ms
Signaling Quality
Post-Dial Delay 141 ms
Call Setup Time 141 ms
Media Delay 291 ms

MOS Analysis FROM Boston To You
MOS analysis chart
Media Quality
MOS
2.1 / 5.0
(Best with G.711 is 4.4)

Degradation Sources
Codec 0.58 20.0%
Latency 1.10 38.4%
Packet Discards 0.98 34.3%
Packet Loss 0.21 7.2%
Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps,
20ms RTP payload,
80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip
Latency 743 ms
Packet Discards 2.5%
Packet Loss 0.5%
Loss Periods
Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 40 ms
Random Loss
Jitter
Min: 0 ms
Avg: 29 ms
Max: 331 ms
Signaling Quality
Post-Pickup Delay 138 ms
Call Setup Time 150 ms
Media Delay 171 ms

So what do I do now? Thank you.

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jul 07, 2005 Posts: 27

Latency 743 ms

There is your problem, try downloading pingplotter and trace one of the voice servers, see where you are losing packets.

The past few days my Vonage has been great, even while hogging my bandwidth with bittorrent. I swear there must be a bad router in the line somewhere, and the path goes that route somedays.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 03, 2005 Posts: 2

Ok, so:
1. how do I know which ones are voice servers?
2. And once I know where the packet loss occurs, then what?
3. Packet loss seems to be all over the place, and quite a few don't have DNS names.

Thanx.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 30, 2005 Posts: 3

Since my last posting, the service quality has improved a lot in my case (no more dropped calls!).
Could anyone else from the Albany area share their experience for the last two weeks? Better than before or same?