Audio cutting out intermittently

[tred]

Last week I ported my home phone number to FreePhoneLine and I have been having issues ever since. Before porting my number I had setup my ATA and tested it thoroughly using the FPL assigned phone number. I had used this setup for a couple of weeks and everything was working perfectly. Since getting my number ported last Wednesday July 17 I am now experiencing the following issue:

While on a call the sound will intermittently cut out very briefly. It sounds like the party on the other end is getting a call waiting alert but they're not and it does not happens at regular intervals. Sometimes it happens 2 or 3 times within a 10 second span and other times it won't happen for 20, 30, 40 seconds or more. I even get this when listening to the automated voice on the FPL voicemail system.

I have tested my connection with several different online tools and they always indicate that my connections is very good. I have tried altering settings on my ATA to no avail and besides it was all working fine before.

I have searched the forum for similar issues and I came across this thread:
"Sound Cuts Out for Half a Second Randomly" http://forum.fongo.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1887&p=10633
The original poster (brentw) describes exactly the issue that I am having. The audio samples that he attached (recordings of the voicemail system) sound just like what I hear. But this post is from over 2 years ago and it wasn't resolved until FPL upgraded some hardware on their end.

I can't understand how porting my number could affect this. Perhaps the timing of it is just a coincidence. Is anyone else having this issue?


ATA: Cisco SPA122
ISP: Cogeco
Location: Oakville

[Fongo Support]

Last week I ported my home phone number to FreePhoneLine and I have been having issues ever since. Before porting my number I had setup my ATA and tested it thoroughly using the FPL assigned phone number. I had used this setup for a couple of weeks and everything was working perfectly. Since getting my number ported last Wednesday July 17 I am now experiencing the following issue:

While on a call the sound will intermittently cut out very briefly. It sounds like the party on the other end is getting a call waiting alert but they're not and it does not happens at regular intervals. Sometimes it happens 2 or 3 times within a 10 second span and other times it won't happen for 20, 30, 40 seconds or more. I even get this when listening to the automated voice on the FPL voicemail system.

I have tested my connection with several different online tools and they always indicate that my connections is very good. I have tried altering settings on my ATA to no avail and besides it was all working fine before.

I have searched the forum for similar issues and I came across this thread:
"Sound Cuts Out for Half a Second Randomly" http://forum.fongo.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1887&p=10633
The original poster (brentw) describes exactly the issue that I am having. The audio samples that he attached (recordings of the voicemail system) sound just like what I hear. But this post is from over 2 years ago and it wasn't resolved until FPL upgraded some hardware on their end.

I can't understand how porting my number could affect this. Perhaps the timing of it is just a coincidence. Is anyone else having this issue?


ATA: Cisco SPA122
ISP: Cogeco
Location: Oakville

Hi there,

Please open a support ticket for this issue. See Jake's signature for details.

http://forum.fongo.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... ket#p52248

On the other hand, after July 17 if you experienced a power outage, you should verify the modem/router for high latency.

Thanks,

[tred]

Thanks. I've opened a ticket.
How should I "verify" the modem/router for high latency? Would a power outage somehow cause subsequent latency?

[Fongo Support]

Thanks. I've opened a ticket.
How should I "verify" the modem/router for high latency? Would a power outage somehow cause subsequent latency?

Hi there,

Lets work on the ticket for now and we'll update the thread once the issue has been resolved.

Thanks,

[tred]

Well it turns out that you were on the right track when you mentioned high latency caused by the modem. A day after opening a ticket my connection went down completely. Unfortunately I had to wait 3 days for a service call from Cogeco (brutal customer service but that's another story). Anyway, I now have a new modem and everything is working perfectly.

[pkumar]

Hi,

I have a paid FPL account and recently the voice quality has become so bad that the caller hears chirpy voice at their end and not able to understand anything.

I have made changes on the sip on Linksys SPA 2102 as follows:-

Handle VIA received: Yes
Handle VIA rport: Yes
Substitute VIA Addr: Yes

RTP Packet Size: 0.020

Please advise and help me to resolve this issue asap.

Thanks,

Prashant

[Liptonbrisk]

Hi,

I have a paid FPL account and recently the voice quality has become so bad that the caller hears chirpy voice at their end and not able to understand anything.

This is likely due to a lack of QoS (are other people in your household using the internet while you're trying to talk on the phone), poor routing to the voip sip server, or internet congestion.

A) You should be setting up QoS in your router for your ATA.

B) Contact your ISP. You will likely need to provide pathping results to the SIP server you're using (voip.freephoneline.ca, voip2.freephoneline.ca, or voip4.freephoneline.ca).
Here's how to use pathping: https://us.battle.net/support/en/articl ... hping-test

C) If the problem is occurring typically in the evenings, let's say between 8:30 p.m. - 10 p.m., that typically indicates internet congestion issues (unless a SIP server is overloaded, but that's not happening because I'm not having call quality issues on any of them during that time frame). This is an ISP problem.

I have made changes on the sip on Linksys SPA 2102 as follows:-

Might as well double check your settings: http://forum.fongo.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=16160

[Mango]

The most common cause of this problem is some other device on your network using too much bandwidth. To test for this, disable the wireless features of your router, and physically unplug all devices except your VoIP ATA. Make a test call. If the problem is solved, it can be solved permanently by setting up the QoS features of your router, or upgrading your router to one that supports QoS. (I recommend a router on which you can install Tomato firmware.)

If that did not solve the problem, the next thing to consider is the quality of your internet bandwidth. Connect a computer to your router for the following test. If you're using Windows, from a command prompt, run ping -n 100 voip.freephoneline.ca

Look at the number beside time=. If you see large variations in these numbers, this is known as jitter. If you see "Request timed out", this is known as packet loss. Both could be causing your problem. Jitter and packet loss are commonly caused by:

- Poor quality WiFi bandwidth.
- Your ISP is oversold in your area.
- You ISP is having a partial outage.
- Some other device on your network using too much bandwidth.
- Physical damage to cables.

Finally, you may wish to test to see if the problem happens only when you make calls to certain geographic areas. This is significantly less likely, but it's theoretically possible the issue could not be with your equipment.

[bridonca]

Here is a reasonably good VOIP quality test, to give you an idea of the quality of your internet connection. http://www.voipqualitytest.com/

Are you torrenting by any chance? If you are don't if you are taking VOIP calls, but if you have to, reduce the upload slots to 2 and the connections to 50. That should improve your VOIP quality, and likely your torrents, as there is a good bet your ISP is shaping your traffic, and VOIP quality is one of the casualties.

[pkumar]

Hi,

Thanks everyone for your valuable suggestions. Below are the attached results attached:-

1. Ping Test
2. Path ping test
3. Ping test -n 100

Please advise what you think is causing an issue. FYI, I have also changed the ATA SPA 2102 with a new one, new ethernet cable, new telephone cable, new modem router dlink 2750U.

n100ping.PNG

pathping.PNG

ping test.PNG

I was getting packet loss when I was ping voip.freephoneline.ca. I changed proxy to voip2.freephoneline.ca, the results are all attached. Voice has become slightly better but again the caller hears broken voice and I can hear them clearly.

Please guide and suggest...

Thanks,

Prashant

[Fongo Support]

Hi there,

re->Please guide and suggest..

If your Internet provider is Distributel or Acanac- they had major issues this weekend.

https://www.distributel.ca/en/networkstat

let me know.

regards,

[Mango]

I see that path ping is reporting a round trip time of 153ms. This is very high. I'm concerned that you have 164ms to the first hop. This suggests there is an issue with your internet service. You can confirm this by pinging some other server such as toronto.voip.ms or montreal.voip.ms.

Ping seems to be reporting a RTT of 300+ ms. This is crazy high and surely a contributor to your problem.