intermittent audio when calling out

[johnboykw]

Actually bridonca....zakhanz has a valid point.

After all of my actions based on yours (and others) suggestions, my current setup is with the TL-WR1043ND with dd-wrt firmware and I was STILL having issues! I hadn't posted back in awhile as shortly after the last one, my wife gave birth to my new son and this became a secondary issue....

The finally update though is through all of the firmware discussion, router changing, port forwarding, blah.... it's actually working now.... but none of the previous fixed it.... it was the voice codec being set to G.729a instead of G.711u that finally seems to have solved the problem. I'm glad I was able to make it work, but I must say I am now very disappointed in the sound quality difference between the two and I'll be looking at other providers now that can deliver a proper service using G.711u.

[bridonca]

If you are getting bad audio from G.711u. but passable audio with G.729a, I would say it is a good bet you have a problem with your internet connection, very likely caused by your ISP's sloppy traffic shaping software which is adding an unacceptable level of jitter. Run this test regularly to prove me right or wrong. http://myspeed.visualware.com/servers/n ... erate.com/

As for me being an evangelist for DD-WRT, a good router is not good only for decent VOIP. The ability to predictably direct packets, makes for better throughput. The extra features are nice also.

[johnboykw]

Not that I want to argue, but I wouldn't take that bet if I were you - Teksavvy does not traffic shape at all on their cable internet connections. Here's the test result right now: jitter - 1.3ms, packet loss - 0%, MOS score 4.1

I've noticed you posted this test in previous posts as well and have tried this exact test several times and never received a jitter above 4ms and never showing any percent packet loss.

As to the router/firmware, I'm not saying it's bad to have dd-wrt, but I am saying it's not the magical fix here....

[bridonca]

Not that I want to argue, but I wouldn't take that bet if I were you - Teksavvy does not traffic shape at all on their cable internet connections. Here's the test result right now: jitter - 1.3ms, packet loss - 0%, MOS score 4.1

I've noticed you posted this test in previous posts as well and have tried this exact test several times and never received a jitter above 4ms and never showing any percent packet loss.

As to the router/firmware, I'm not saying it's bad to have dd-wrt, but I am saying it's not the magical fix here....

I am just going with the odds. I am not saying I am always right. I still believe you have jitter issues, and I still believe they are on your side of the connection.

That test result is nice, and I suspect your VOIP would work just fine if it stays that way. Sadly jitter is intermittent, thus me asking you to regularly use this test.

In any case, I am running out of reasons your VOIP does not work. I won't blame the carrier, because freephoneline VOIP works just fine with me, and most other people, so why would freephoneline have a hate on you?

[TheHardy]

If you are thinking it is a ISP issue, why not take your hardware and plug it in on someone else's box/connection and see what happens when you do it away from your regular ISP? May be evil to try, but it would isolate that issue. Must be a friend around that you could bug for the 10-15 mins that it would require to play around with that.

Not elegant, but sometimes the only way to troubleshoot is process of elimination.

That is one way that I know that the FPL software is crap and my 'barely acceptable' internet connection is not to blame. Hooked my laptop to other ISP connections and my software is still trash ... even on wired direct business class cable ....