Echo with WRTP54G

Posts: 192 · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:45 pm Post subject: Echo with WRTP54G

I'm surprised that I don't see more about echo on this forum. Since my phone number was ported last week, and I wired the WRTP54G to my house, I have noticed considerable echo whenever I call my own number to talk to my wife. Sometimes she also notices it at the other end.

I have called Customer Support twice and they claim to have made adjustments to the router, but the problem is still there.

Does anyone have any advice? Is there some sort of filter I can put on my end that would help with this? We are just about ready to cancel Vonage and go back to Verizon. I'd rather not do this, but there is no way we can make the people we talk to endure this.

Thanks in advance.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:56 pm Post subject:

Could you post more about your configuration? Phones used, wiring used (if just a cable between the phone & phone adapter or are you using house wiring?), types of phone numbers called where you get echo (residential, small offices, larger corporations, cell phones, etc?)

I know my Cingular cell phone has echos occasionally when I've called some of the larger companies with older PBXs.

Posts: 192 · Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 6:36 am Post subject:

VonageTPA wrote:

Could you post more about your configuration? Phones used, wiring used (if just a cable between the phone & phone adapter or are you using house wiring?), types of phone numbers called where you get echo (residential, small offices, larger corporations, cell phones, etc?)

I know my Cingular cell phone has echos occasionally when I've called some of the larger companies with older PBXs.

This is basic residential phone wiring. House built circa 1989. Four phones, 3 of which are basic analog phones and 1 wireless GE phone. The echo exists regardless of which phone is used.

Having said that, I really don't think that my home wiring or phones should be relevant. Vonage advertises this service as something that anyone can put into their home, with no special wiring or upgraded telephones required. Are they engaged in false advertising?

I'm willing to make some minimal effort to solve this problem, such as filters, as mentioned in my first post. But rewiring the house or replacing all the phones is out of the question.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 14, 2005 Posts: 11

Does the echo still exist if you plug a phone directly into the Telephone adapter? If not, that indicates that the problem most likely exists in the wiring of the home. Most echo problems can be traced back to the phone, phone cord, or a splitter.

If the echo exists when you plug directly into the phone adapter, try a different phone.

Posts: 192 · Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 12:04 pm Post subject:

dale8 wrote:

Does the echo still exist if you plug a phone directly into the Telephone adapter? If not, that indicates that the problem most likely exists in the wiring of the home. Most echo problems can be traced back to the phone, phone cord, or a splitter.

If the echo exists when you plug directly into the phone adapter, try a different phone.

Unfortunately, the echo exists from any phone AND when I have a phone directly plugged into the adapter.

Also, since I forgot to mention it before, I have 5 MB up and 2 MB down on my cable connection, so I doubt that bandwidth is a problem.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 14, 2005 Posts: 11

Sometimes the echo is also caused by user feedback. Usually turning down the volume on the handset will cure this. If it doesn't you may want to check the latency on your connection by using one of the online tools that are freely available.

Posts: 192 · Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:32 am Post subject:

dale8 wrote:

Sometimes the echo is also caused by user feedback. Usually turning down the volume on the handset will cure this. If it doesn't you may want to check the latency on your connection by using one of the online tools that are freely available.

I've tried turning the volume all the way down until I couldn't hear anymore. It didn't help. Here is the data from TestYourVOIP.

MOS Analysis from You TO Boston
Media Quality MOS 3.9 / 5.0
(Best with G.711 is 4.4)

Degradation Sources
Codec 0.58 53.5%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.50 46.5%
Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%

Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps,
20ms RTP payload,
80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip
Latency 97 ms
Packet Discards 1.7%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 40 ms
Random Loss

Jitter Min: 0 ms
Avg: 2 ms
Max: 25 ms

Signaling Quality Post-Dial Delay 210 ms
Call Setup Time 220 ms
Media Delay 290 ms

MOS Analysis FROM Boston To You
Media Quality 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 97 ms
Packet Discards 0.4%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 40 ms
Random Loss

Jitter Min: 0 ms
Avg: 0 ms
Max: 20 ms

Signaling Quality Post-Pickup Delay 52 ms
Call Setup Time 60 ms
Media Delay 83 ms