Dropping calls, wife is furious

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 06, 2005 Posts: 3

We finally got our number transferred to the Vonage line a few weeks ago and now are experiencing excessive dropped calls. My wife appears to be blessed with the skill at making this happen, as almost every call she's made or received drops within 2-10 minutes (given the call history on vonage.com). I'm at wit's end and ready to cave to my wife's demand to dump Vonage and go back to our old provider.

My configuration:
Comcast as my ISP
3Com Home Connect cablemodem
Linksys RT31P2 Phone Adapter
Linksys WRT54G wireless-G router (I've elimated the WRT54G from the equation and now have the RT31P2 connected directly to the cablemodem).

I started experimenting last night after working with Vonage support to no avail. I left pingplotter running on a PC connected directly to the RT31P2 and noticed occasional packet loss ranging from 10-50%. After much more testing, I found that these events correlated closely with Vonage calls and more specifically dropped calls. I found no packet loss issues when connected directly to the cablemodem and very few if any when connected to the RT31P2 with no active calls. Also, if I called my cell from Vonage and left it on the table (with no dialog between the phones), it didn't have any problems either. As soon as conversation started on the calls, packet loss resulting in choppy audio started to become a problem.

I have a call into Comcast, but I fear that I will pay for a pointless visit without more substantial evidence that this is their problem. Any suggestions?

My testyourvoip results:

OUTBOUND
MOS
4.3 / 5.0
(Best with G.711 is 4.4)

Degradation Sources
Codec 0.58 86.1%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.09 13.9%
Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%
Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps,
20ms RTP payload,
80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip
Latency 87 ms
Packet Discards 0.4%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods
Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 20 ms
Random Loss
Jitter
Min: 0 ms
Avg: 2 ms
Max: 12 ms
Signaling Quality
Post-Dial Delay 40 ms
Call Setup Time 80 ms
Media Delay 150 ms

INBOUND
MOS
4.4 / 5.0
(Best with G.711 is 4.4)

Degradation Sources
Codec 0.58 100.0%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.00 0.0%
Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%
Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps,
20ms RTP payload,
80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip
Latency 87 ms
Packet Discards 0.0%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods
Min: 0 ms
Avg: 0 ms
Max: 0 ms
No Loss
Jitter
Min: 0 ms
Avg: 0 ms
Max: 20 ms
Signaling Quality
Post-Pickup Delay 77 ms
Call Setup Time 90 ms
Media Delay 108 ms

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 8:54 pm Post subject:

Have you tried lowering the QOS setting to the lowest level? Also what type of upload speed do you get?

Also remember that the RT31p2 is a male so it is just getting overheated hearing your wife on the phone! Very Happy

That is why it doesn't drop with you on the line....

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 06, 2005 Posts: 3

Vonage support had me disable the QoS upstream rate, which was previously 512Kbps. Didn't seem to make any difference. I'm getting 330 Kbps and 1.9Mbps downstream.

Perhaps his and her phones are in order.

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:14 pm Post subject:

Are you doing anything else like using bittorrent, uploads, etc at the time? I know that may sound basic but you would be surprised how many people don't think of it...

Is there anything she might be doing on the computer when she is talking as opposed to when you are?

Also, was it always like this or did it just start? How do the other people here you vs you hearing them? Can they hear you fine but you hear the bad quality?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 06, 2005 Posts: 3

I've tried to make sure that nothing like that is running. I've thought about having her run a whole day with the computer off just to be sure. I've witnessed the dropped calls on a few occassions and we weren't using the computer at all. I'll plan on unplugging my WRT54G tomorrow so that the only thing on the network is the RT31P2 and the cablemodem.

As for how long this has been happening, we got our number transferred on 6/17 and the problems started right away. The reason its gone this long is that we went on vacation for 10 days so its really just this week that we've been using it to any degree.

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:24 pm Post subject:

If you can also post some pingplotter results as I saw you used it to see where the loss is coming from...

Posts: 24 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Aug 17, 2005 Posts: 24

GLJ

Did this issue every resolve for you? I have the same dropped call / poor quality issue, have now disabled QOS but am not passing the spousal test.

T.

Posts: 1715

Alfisti wrote:

GLJ

Did this issue every resolve for you? I have the same dropped call / poor quality issue, have now disabled QOS but am not passing the spousal test.

T.

Moto SB5100-->Linksys BEFSR41 V2 Router--> Netgear FS116 Switch-->Linksys 8 port switch-->RTP300-->Phone

Could you post ALL of the equipment you have connected to that cable modem? 1 router, 2 switches, then the RTP300? Something doesn't sound right. Could you try placing the RTP300 immediately after the cable modem? The BEFSR series of routers lack QoS, but the RTP300 does have QoS, which will make sure the voice packets get priority. If you have that many switches, it sounds like you have too many computers and not enough bandwidth, especially if you run anything like eMule, BItTorrent, Limewire, or similar.