unclear outgoing voice quality

[lisi891]

Hi,

I have FPL linksys ATA and CIK internet cable (1M upload speed). However, my friends could not hear me clearly during the past a few months. Then I tested I-talk BB and gmail, and the outgoing voice quality is much better.

I don't know what happened to my FPL service. Is possible the parameters of my ATA incorrect?

Thanks a lot for help.

[bridonca]

Ultimately, the problem is with your internet provider. They are not providing you with a clean, jitter free, upstream internet connection. I would have some choice words to give them.

If you are running torrents on the same internet connection, that is going to cause you an issue, since your internet provider is likely shaping the upload, which causes problems with VOIP.

The reason other VOIP providers appear to provide better voice quality is that they use more fault tolerant voice codecs. Even with the better codecs, you will still have problems with VOIP, so it is best that you fix the problem at the source.

To test out your VOIP quality, try this test, and try it regularly. It will give you an idea if your connection is suitable for VOIP
http://myspeed.visualware.com/servers/n ... erate.com/

[lisi891]

Thank you for the above information.

However, I am disappointed that other service providers could provide better voice service than FPL , based on the same home internet condition.

I have to discard FPL.

[FONGO_mike]

considering you are using an older ATA device, (We have not sold that model in a couple years) it is very hard to say what could be causing it. I am in agreement with bridonca, i would be on the phone with choice words to my provider and running through making sure nothing is being blocked or "capped" on their end.

[dibsmft]

What ATA are you using .... PAP2? In what way is the sound bad? I would expect the sound quality from FPL to be better than the two providers that that you mention so something is not quite as it should be. How are you testing the other two carriers?

[lisi891]

I used linysks phone adapter. The outgoing voice quality of FPL is pretty unstable affected by internet jam condition. Sometimes my friends could hear me pretty well, but sometimes not. The problem frequently happened.

I never tested the voice quality with any special equipment.

I set up a I-talk BB, and never heard any complain from friends. Even at sometime my friends could not hear me well by FPL. I use i talk bb immediately, and voice quality is much better from my friends' response.

BTW, the problem bother mw long time ago. The outgoing voice has been frequently poor, but not always.

[lisi891]

Ultimately, the problem is with your internet provider. They are not providing you with a clean, jitter free, upstream internet connection. I would have some choice words to give them.

If you are running torrents on the same internet connection, that is going to cause you an issue, since your internet provider is likely shaping the upload, which causes problems with VOIP.

The reason other VOIP providers appear to provide better voice quality is that they use more fault tolerant voice codecs. Even with the better codecs, you will still have problems with VOIP, so it is best that you fix the problem at the source.

To test out your VOIP quality, try this test, and try it regularly. It will give you an idea if your connection is suitable for VOIP
http://myspeed.visualware.com/servers/n ... erate.com/

I totally agree with you. I did test internet at home and noticed the outgoing voice quality is related to internet connection. However I was upset that i talk bb provides excellent voice quality while FPL does not, at the same internet connection conditions.

[FONGO_mike]

Fongo's voice is run a little differently then most other providers. When the internet connection is good, the quality of voice transmission and reception is extremely difficult to beat. Unfortunately we have no control over ISP's and what they deem to be a quality connection with their service (or other company's modems/router and firmwares.

[dibsmft]

Hi,

I have FPL linksys ATA and CIK internet cable (1M upload speed). However, my friends could not hear me clearly during the past a few months. Then I tested I-talk BB and gmail, and the outgoing voice quality is much better.

I don't know what happened to my FPL service. Is possible the parameters of my ATA incorrect?

Thanks a lot for help.

Do you have the use of i-Talk BB tv? From a little searching it seems that it can interfere with other services. I know nothing about your ISP is but I doubt if the ISP* is the problem since I get the impression that FPL used to work OK so you should investigate what is running on your network and what I-Talk BB might be doing.
*The ISP does offer its own voip service so it is possible that it could cause some problem.

[justme]

I planned to use DellVoice as a cell plan replacement while visiting end of august. I've never been able to place an acceptable, only very short talk forcing the other party to repeat constantly. I tried on a Bell 3G service, or through a 15mbit Videotron cable service via Wifi. Both worked just fine with another free voice service, just not with Fongo/DellVoice. And not only the voice quality was poor, there was a noticeable lag on top of it (around 1s). I guess I had my money's worth, but I don't understand how paying customers can bear such a poor quality.
Sorry for the rant, I feel better now (and I am back in a country where cell service is affordable, data included )

[FONGO_steve]

I planned to use DellVoice as a cell plan replacement while visiting end of august. I've never been able to place an acceptable, only very short talk forcing the other party to repeat constantly. I tried on a Bell 3G service, or through a 15mbit Videotron cable service via Wifi. Both worked just fine with another free voice service, just not with Fongo/DellVoice. And not only the voice quality was poor, there was a noticeable lag on top of it (around 1s). I guess I had my money's worth, but I don't understand how paying customers can bear such a poor quality.
Sorry for the rant, I feel better now (and I am back in a country where cell service is affordable, data included )

Have you tried the most recent release of Dell Voice that came out just a few weeks ago? We've made huge improvements to call quality and are using over 50% less bandwidth now which has resulted in much higher quality calls and call performance, especially in areas where 3G signal/speed may be weak.

[lisi891]

I planned to use DellVoice as a cell plan replacement while visiting end of august. I've never been able to place an acceptable, only very short talk forcing the other party to repeat constantly. I tried on a Bell 3G service, or through a 15mbit Videotron cable service via Wifi. Both worked just fine with another free voice service, just not with Fongo/DellVoice. And not only the voice quality was poor, there was a noticeable lag on top of it (around 1s). I guess I had my money's worth, but I don't understand how paying customers can bear such a poor quality.
Sorry for the rant, I feel better now (and I am back in a country where cell service is affordable, data included )

Have you tried the most recent release of Dell Voice that came out just a few weeks ago? We've made huge improvements to call quality and are using over 50% less bandwidth now which has resulted in much higher quality calls and call performance, especially in areas where 3G signal/speed may be weak.

I never tried.

It means I wasted $50 for FPL configuration file.

[lisi891]

Hi,

I have FPL linksys ATA and CIK internet cable (1M upload speed). However, my friends could not hear me clearly during the past a few months. Then I tested I-talk BB and gmail, and the outgoing voice quality is much better.

I don't know what happened to my FPL service. Is possible the parameters of my ATA incorrect?

Thanks a lot for help.

Do you have the use of i-Talk BB tv? From a little searching it seems that it can interfere with other services. I know nothing about your ISP is but I doubt if the ISP* is the problem since I get the impression that FPL used to work OK so you should investigate what is running on your network and what I-Talk BB might be doing.
*The ISP does offer its own voip service so it is possible that it could cause some problem.

There is I-talk BB tv at home. However I didn't unstand that gmail talk is unaffected. Anyway, thete should be compatability issue of FPL.

[dibsmft]

Gmail talk (I use it) operates differently and uses different protocols to those used by SIP voip. I have also found that gmail talk works better than SIP voip when the internet is busy/congested and something like the data being passed to allow network TV could certainly soil SIP/voip but will nor affect gmail talk quite so severely. You could try giving SIP/voip priority over I-talk by configuring QOS or possibly limiting the bandwidth available to i-Talk. The service offered by your ISP should be giving very high quality SIP/voip calls.

[lisi891]

Gmail talk (I use it) operates differently and uses different protocols to those used by SIP voip. I have also found that gmail talk works better than SIP voip when the internet is busy/congested and something like the data being passed to allow network TV could certainly soil SIP/voip but will nor affect gmail talk quite so severely. You could try giving SIP/voip priority over I-talk by configuring QOS or possibly limiting the bandwidth available to i-Talk. The service offered by your ISP should be giving very high quality SIP/voip calls.

Anyway, I am disapointed with FPL. I don't care how it operates, and just need better voice quality which is not affected by internet connection. It is obvious that other service providers have better service.

Thank you for reply.

[seagame2001]

I used FPL on my iPhone and Linksys ATA device never have any problem at all sometimes the router cause the problem.

Play around with your router you may have better result.

Flash router with DD-WRT

[dibsmft]

I have been using voip in one way or the other for about nineteen years and before that cut down reel to reel tape recordings by airmail for 20 years before that! The regular POTS (now Bel-Aliant) service used a dedicated copper wire and and a standard phone and the user had very little to do other than making the calls. Calls on POTS that I used to make cost about $4.50 for 3 minutes (to UK) and the connection was often very, very bad but there was very little that I could do about it. Then came computers and eventually primitive voip, that required a certain amount of work on my part but I could make calls (using a dial-up connection and mostly free at the time). Now we have many choices for voip, some are very easy to set up but have limitations (eg. Skype etc), some require little effort but attempt to make it easy by restricting the devices used (voip services such as Vonage and similar), some require more effort on the part of the user but are very inexpensive or free (like FPL and DellVoice) and then there are the services that you build for yourself. Lots of choice that was not available 20 years ago and that in my opinion is good.