Outgoing Calls Garbled -- At my wits end

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:17 am Post subject:

I know what Time Warner claims... and I know what the traceroutes show. It goes over the same clogged neighborhood routers & trunk lines that Vonage calls must endure. Of course, Time Warner replaces cable modems with better ones when they come out, as they know how bad some of their cable modems really are, but it's still the same cable line as everything else.

Posts: 30 · Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 10:39 am Post subject: problems...

jharrisx, I feel your pain. It may simply be that your ISP isn't giving you the upstream bandwidth you should be getting.

I'm a big believer in reducing your settings, and if your bandwidth is the issue (if you're with a cable ISP it probably is), then you can troubleshoot from there. The pingplotter test IS good ammo to take to your ISP; I did, and they even listened! They came and fixed lines! It could happen to you... lol

- Get the G.729 codec installed to your RT31P2 router, as it uses less
bandwidth.

- adjust the QoS to 30 (if it's 50 or 90, it may cause choppy audio)
This should help, and if it doesn't take another look at your speeds.

http://www.wugnet.com/myspeed/speedtest.asp

http://reviews.cnet.com/Bandwidth_meter/7004-7254_7-0.html

http://www.testyour voip.com/

Try each one three times in a row. Yes, it's a lot of work, but if you want to get this corrected, you'll have to do it yourself. I'm no expert, but I sure have learned a lot about this since my ISP was crappy cable with slow speeds, faulty lines, etc, etc.

Good luck!

L8R

Posts: 18 · Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 9:06 pm Post subject:

I've had this same issue twice in the past year where I could hear the caller fine, but they couldn't make out what I was saying. Both times, my results on www.testyour voip.com would come back as a 1.0/5.0, though speedtests were usually decent.

You basically need to tell RoadRunner you want them to send someone out to check everything. That's exactly what I have done and both times the tech has been able to find something and correct the problem. The first time it was a simple as replacing the cable modem, but this last time wasn't quite that easy. The tech basically started testing the line at my cable modem and worked his way back until if got to the box in the yard and found a corroded connector. After replacement, Vonage was once again better than any POTS I've ever had.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 9

What should I tell them? They've already come, checked the upload speed, replaced the cable in my apt, w/a new modem and have checked the speed themselves to see it's okay.

Can I tell Time Warner they need to check the whole system because my VoIP, which isn't theirs, is having problems?

I mean, even the Vonage rep told me not to mention Vonage when dealing with the cable company.

Posts: 18 · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 11:43 am Post subject:

I guess my next question for you is have you ever had good quality VoIP or has it been this way since you started? I did in fact tell RoadRunner both times that the reason I was calling was two fold. One issue was that I was using a VoIP solution (not theirs) that had previously been flawless that was now having issues and of course I told them I was having connectivity problems with slow surfing. Had to get their attention somehow! Wink

Basically, not only was I getting 1.0's on www.testyour voip.com, but my speeds for upload/download had dropped off some from what they had been....though numbers still acceptable as far as the ISP was concerned and within their guaranteed speeds. From there I basically had to work with the tech they sent to the house every step of the way and have my computer ready to test both www.testyour voip.com as well as the different speed tests.

Fortunately I've been lucky to this point with RoadRunner and they have been able to find the problems. I've also felt it worth the time to work with RoadRunner because it's been in my best interest economic wise and broadband speed wise to continue to use both RoadRunner as my ISP and Vonage as my phone provider.

You mention in a previous post that you are in an apartment and I guess that could potentially play into this based on how many users there are because they probably all tie into the same subnet and/or link back to the ISP, where in my case I'm in a smaller neighborhood and probably don't have as many potential users on the same link at any one time.

Finally, based on one of your earlier posts, since you appear to be using the RTP300 as your primary router, try playing with your QoS settings as another poster has mentioned. This may help, though I don't use the router as my primary and have never used the Qos.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 9

It had worked, more or less, okay for months... and didn't start acting up until I had to disconnect the modem, router and my wireless router to move to another room. Nothing odd happened, that I can recall, but this phenomenon has occured ever since... and that's after apt cable was re-lain, modem and vonage device replaced, etc.

So odd, it's maddening.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 31, 2005 Posts: 4

I understand that the cable in your APT was replaced but have you tried moving the modem back to the room/jack where it originally was to see if you get the same quality of service as before you moved it? It seems silly bit they might have replaced a cable but not all the cables and it still might be a bad cable in your apt.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 2:21 pm Post subject:

Could be a bad downtap or splitter as well. They should have replaced these as well, but the people who pull cable aren't always knowledgable about how CATV signals actually work, as I found out with Comcast. They sent out a few "cable monkeys" to pull wire, then let the techs come in afterwards to terminate the lines. The poor tech ended up having to re-pull quite a few wires because the cable pullers before him had used a bit too much force on the wire, damaging it.

Posts: 69 · Full Forum Member Joined: Aug 21, 2005 Posts: 69

I'm having the same darn trouble with my RT31P2. Some numbers I call will work perfectly. Others are unintelligible. My Comcast service is working perfectly and the testyourvoip.com is impeccable. The response from Vonage could be rephrased as, Duh! I'm not getting anywhere and I'm getting quite frustrated with Vonage's lack of ability to deal with what seems to be an increasingly common problem. To make things even more complicated, one of my Uniden phones will work while the other doesn't only for certain calls. What gives? Rolling Eyes

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 9

Tech support has (finally) replied after emailing the dslreports address... I've sent them my pingplotter results (no easy task since I'm on macs now and had to dust off a pc to do it) and I'm awaiting their thoughts.