Touch tones during most calls?

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 21, 2005 Posts: 2

We've had Vonage for almost a year now and other than an incredibly long wait to port our number, we've been happy.

I have been annoyed with intermittent touch tone sounds during many calls, on one side of the call or the other. It wasn't so bad until my Mom decided to say "beep" every time she heard one. Rolling Eyes

I've seen bits and pieces here about beeps, but no real info and certainly no resolution. Any update?

Posts: 646 · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:47 pm Post subject:

That's a known problem, caused by the DTMF tone detection algorithm. When you push "2" for example, Vonage sends "2 was pressed" as data, instead of just passing on the sound of that button.

However, some voices (mostly female) are too close to the DTMF tones, and they get mistakenly converted into a real tone at the other end.

I think it's pretty stupid, since Vonage could probably get away with disabling DTMF detection for the highest (90k) audio quality setting.

Posts: 605 · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:33 am Post subject:

It may be possible that you have a squeeky voice that triggers the DTMF tones.

Posts: 63 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 63

geekette wrote:

I have been annoyed with intermittent touch tone sounds during many calls, on one side of the call or the other. It wasn't so bad until my Mom decided to say "beep" every time she heard one. Rolling Eyes

I've seen bits and pieces here about beeps, but no real info and certainly no resolution. Any update?

I do some work with LMRS radio systems that are controlled with DTMF tones. Some women (and young boys Lol

Have a problem when using the system(s) where weird things will start to happen, i.e. they will be chatting and bring up a telephone patch, or some other control function.

One young man, knowing the problem was associated mostly with women is not real happy with the situation!

The problem is your voice "geekette" and the tone detection capabilities of your phone adapter. With a little training (maybe a voice coach) you could do away with the keypad on the phone! Rofl

Keep smiling!

Posts: 646 · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:16 am Post subject:

The thing is, why are they using DTMF regeneration in the first place? It seems like the uncompressed 90k setting would be clear enough to transmit the raw tones without distortion.

I wonder if you can call customer service to have them disable DTMF regeneration?

Posts: 63 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 63

[quote="paul248"]The thing is, why are they using DTMF regeneration in the first place? It seems like the uncompressed 90k setting would be clear enough to transmit the raw tones without distortion.

I wonder if you can call customer service to have them disable DTMF regeneration?[/quote

Paul... Would this cause a problem with using things like phone banking, or controlling answering machines, etc?

Posts: 646 · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:42 am Post subject:

mbkerk wrote:

Paul... Would this cause a problem with using things like phone banking, or controlling answering machines, etc?

Best way to find out is to try it... that is, if CS is able to make the change.

I would guess that if G.711 is good enough to send a fax (usually), then it should be good enough to pass a simple dual-frequency tone. I could understand there being issues with the 30k and 50k settings, because those actually run lossy compression on the audio.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 21, 2005 Posts: 2

mbkerk wrote:

The problem is your voice "geekette" and the tone detection capabilities of your phone adapter. With a little training (maybe a voice coach) you could do away with the keypad on the phone!

Heh. Considering I've been called "sir" on the phone more than once, I'm surprised. I'm also disappointed that there's no resolution other than changing my voice when the problem originates in the phone system.

I'll have to start noticing whose voice triggers it on my end as well, since it's not just me. Most Vonage customers apparently don't hear these tones so there should be something I can do other than reducing the quality of the call. Since our PAP2 is a router and a switch away from the cable modem, some rewiring may be in order. Fun. Only not.

Posts: 63 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 63

geekette wrote:

Heh. Considering I've been called "sir" on the phone more than once, I'm surprised. I'm also disappointed that there's no resolution other than changing my voice when the problem originates in the phone system.

I was trying to be cute.. not trying to insult you or anything...!

I'm not familiar with the PAP2, but I have my RT31P2 right after the cable modem, and then the BEFW11S4 Wireless Router. I read this was the best setup for QoS issues. Perhaps moving your PAP2 might help.

Good luck!

Posts: 216 · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:50 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure that it will help. I have my WRT54GP2 connected directly into my cable modem and I still get these tones from time to time.

"Luckily" for me I only seem to get them when speaking with my mother. Very Happy