I'm curious if people having issues are dealing with jitter or dropped packets somewhere along the path between them and FPL's servers.
Test pings and jitter (you want little to no variation between pings) to the specific Freephoneline SIP servers you plan on using.
Use winmtr:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/winmtr//. Ping about 200 times to each server.
My pings to
-voip.freephoneline.ca average 11 ms.
-voip2.freephoneline.ca average 12 ms
-voip4.freephoneline.ca average 27 ms
If you're using a Macintosh, maybe this helps:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TagPro/comment ... tr_on_mac/
When using WinMTR, look at the very last hop or line. Look at your average ping and then maximum ping. Although WINMTR doesn't provide a jitter value, you can get an idea of what yours is by subtracting maximum ping from your average. Jitter is the difference between each successive ping. The bigger the difference, the bigger the problem.
Same with ping, which represents lag or delay. The lower your ping and jitter, the better.
You do not want high pings and lots of jitter (you do not want a lot of variation between each ping). If you get horrible results (pings over 200ms), to any server, you probably don’t want to use that server. So you would want to give that server the lowest priority.
I get between 11 (voip.freephoneline.ca and voip2.freephoneline.ca) and 24ms (voip4.freephonline.ca) on average, depending on the server I'm testing to. Preferably, you want pings below 100ms.
Anything over 200ms is unacceptable.
What you don't want to see is 40, 45, 50, 35,
500, 40, 30, 45,
700. That's bad jitter.
You want relatively consistent pings without a lot of variation.
One reason why jitter can occur is due to other devices on your LAN (local area network) using bandwidth. That’s why properly enabling QoS in your router for your ATA is always a good idea.
Bad jitter can produce broken-up audio or choppiness during phone calls. Severe jitter can cause calls to drop. Ping affects delay.
I recommend testing pings/jitter between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. to see if local congestion is a factor (this often is your ISP's fault). [Edit: Ignore that. Test now; if you're having problems.] Sundays are the best days to test (because that's when most people in your area will be home). 8 p.m. - 11 p.m. is prime time. During prime time (between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.) cable internet nodes may be oversubscribed in your area and face congestion issues (and congestion can also exist with DSL). So I suggest testing services between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., particularly on Sundays, when everyone in your area will be home.
Ping is a measurement of data packet transmission, and ping does affect delay or lag. All gamers know, almost inherently, that lag affects them negatively. A PC gamer will pound his or her keyboard in hope that a character will respond on his or her monitor, quickly, but when there's a delay or lag, reality doesn't meet expectation. A gamer can see this problem visually. Over VoIP, anything over 200-210 ms, you will typically start to encounter crosstalk due to increased delay, even if the untrained ear doesn't notice. All VoIP services are subject to the same scientific principles including the fact that speed of transmission affects delay, and Freephoneline is not some magical service that is somehow exempt from issues arising from high pings and jitter. When pings and, especially, jitter are high, it's a pretty horrible experience, just as it would be with any other VoIP service.
Lastly, anyone using any communication service (or even when playing online games or using other online services) should understand that the longer the path to the server being used, the greater the potential exists for a problem to occur somewhere along that path. Freephoneline’s SIP servers are located in Southern Ontario.
