Fongo Community Forums

Hi,

I'm preparing to move my home number to FPL. This is my setup:

cable modem: Huawei MT130U
router: Linksys WRT54GL v1
ata: SPA112

The router runs the latest Linksys firmware. Should I replace it with DD-WRT? Tomato? Something else?

If DD-WRT is the way to go, should I pick the build optimized for VOIP?

Thank you.

Yes, replace the firmware. I hear Tomato is good, but I do not use it, but I am comfortable with DD-WRT. the VOIP version will not suit your purposes that much, standard version is just fine.

Your biggest potential trouble is the SPA112 ATA. Make sure the ATA's RTP ports are forwarded to the router, and all should be good.

bridonca wrote:Make sure the ATA's RTP ports are forwarded to the router, and all should be good.

At least with Tomato firmware, this will not be required. I suggest you test your service without port forwarding, and then reduce security only if necessary to make things work.

Thank you, guys.

I did some reading on DD-WRT and Tomato. I have hard time deciding. It sounds that you can't go wrong with either one.

Mango wrote:At least with Tomato firmware, this will not be required. I suggest you test your service without port forwarding, and then reduce security only if necessary to make things work.

Is this a strong enough reason to choose Tomato over DD-WRT?

I suspect (but do not know for sure) they both use a similar iptables-based firewall, so would perform in a similar fashion.

For your consideration: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r282679 ... r-VoIP-use

Of course, you can always try them both out and see what works better for your specific situation.

Thank you. That poll seals it. I will try Tomato first.

I installed Tomato on the router. My FPL line is up and running. So far so good.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Should I enable QoS in Tomato right away? My understanding is, it's only required to solve the choppy voice issues. I'm thinking I can keep QoS disabled for now.

2. What tests should I run before porting my home number?

I plan to test the basics. Call and receive calls:
- local landlines
- VOIP numbers
- cell numbers
- long distance

Any other tests?

Thank you.

For the most part, QOS is a waste of time and effort. If the ISP is shaping the traffic, there is nothing QOS can do to help. If you torrent a lot, reduce the upload slots to 2. That does more for the quality of VOIP than QOS.

Thanks, good to know.

EliG wrote:1. Should I enable QoS in Tomato right away? My understanding is, it's only required to solve the choppy voice issues. I'm thinking I can keep QoS disabled for now.

I can make people I talk to complain that my voice is choppy just by using a web browser while on a phone call. However, my upstream and downstream bandwidth is rather low. If you have a lot of bandwidth, perhaps you're not saturating it. You can always wait and see if anyone complains about audio quality. If audio quality is not perfect, then you can set up QoS. Basically, your VoIP should perform just like a landline.

Here is how I configured mine: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r27576528-

bridonca wrote:For the most part, QOS is a waste of time and effort. If the ISP is shaping the traffic, there is nothing QOS can do to help.

I have yet to see any evidence suggesting any Canadian ISP manipulates VoIP traffic. Shaping torrents, yes - but they have an argument for that (albeit a weak one). If they shaped VoIP, I suspect it would be grounds for an anti-competitive lawsuit. So far, everyone I've seen complain their ISP is shaping VoIP had their audio quality problems magically disappear after I helped them to set up QoS.

As you can imagine, I frequently see people saturating their internet connection and leaving no room for VoIP. In this case, I think QoS is definitely not a waste of time and effort. Your options are 1) don't use your internet when you're on the phone (not practical for most people), 2) spend more money on faster internet that you won't saturate much (nice if you can afford it), 3) live with crap audio quality (no one wants that), or 4) use QoS.

The problem is, when the telco shapes the torrent, they introduce an unacceptable amount of jitter in the connection. I have no idea if that is accidental or purposeful, but the result is the same.

That is unfortunate. If that happened to me I would downgrade my internet connection and rent a seedbox with the money I saved.

Mango wrote:That is unfortunate. If that happened to me I would downgrade my internet connection and rent a seedbox with the money I saved.

That is exactly what I do. I pay $15 a year for a VPS, do the torrents on that, and then download at my ISP's maximum speed. Much faster than direct torrenting.

Getting back on topic, EliG: Your setup should just work, I would not mess around with anything until you encounter a real problem first.

I have been using this firmware for years.very good.

http://tomato.groov.pl/?page_id=81