Configuring Telo for QoS Control Behind Router

[EA PA]

I was using it on CAT5e and never noticed any problems. I would assume crosstalk might cause speed issues or dropped packets, but I never saw anything like that. CAT6 is higher quality than CAT5e but I don't expect you would have any problems.

Great thanks again, this solution never occurred to me, so easy though now that its out there. Why didnt I think of this? One idea, make 10,000 in China for a buck ea, sell for 10 bucks each, done. Oh well.

Now when I fire all of the conductors in my Cat 5 Ill find out how good my RJ45 connector termination skills are for sure!

[lbmofo]

Cat6 are pretty cheap at Fry's. http://www.frys.com/product/5979844

[EA PA]

Cat6 are pretty cheap at Fry's. http://www.frys.com/product/5979844

I just installed a bunch of Cat 6 downstream of my GB switch for gaming. Its really, really nice cable. It took a few minutes to figure out the connectors, but after some trial and error, it went in smoothly. The next gen of game boxes should be much faster so Im trying to stay ahead of the curve. Unfortunately when I built, cat 5e was the standard and Im too tired to run new cable through the walls. Now all I need is for my sloooooooow cable provider to step up and get me some fiber. Ill get to the modem in a hurry but after that Im bottleneck limited by service unfortunately. My OOMA will be bleeding packets all over the floor

[kenhenningsen]

Thanks for all the quick suggestions; this obviously will be a useful forum. To respond:

To help with dropped calls:
Turn off MAC address Spoofing, which may cause problems because of conflict between modem or router and Ooma device...

Is this on by default? I temporarily hooked up to the Telo and made a quick tour through its management pages yesterday, but don't recall this setting. Also, I'm unclear why such a conflict wouldn't cause a consistent problem, not the occasional dropped call I've had.

The echo problem:
Turning off MAC address spoofing may help, but probably won't. See if there is echo when using the Ooma Telo handset. Many times echo is not present when using the Ooma Telo handset, but will be when using your other phones.

Unfortunately, the echo occurred with a Telo Handset, and has happened on two successive calls to the same number (from Minneapolis to a Yuba City, CA landline/cordless) a week apart. This hasn't happened on any other calls (including with our Uniden cordless and hardwired phones), so I'm not sure Ooma is the culprit. I'm going to have the other party try a different, hardwired phone next time.

...You can buy two network cable splitters, put one at each end of the network cable going from the media closet to the wall jack feeding your Telo, and add a couple of short patch cables at each end. This will allow you to use the single CAT5 cable running between your media closet & wall jack as if it were two separate ethernet cables.

I was aware that 10/100 uses only two of my four pairs, and thought about splitting them, but didn't realize there was a plug 'n play solution—thanks. (BTW, I have several 5-port switches of various brands and vintages—one of which is a gigabit model. It seems to work fine, so I assume it's just wasting its gigabit capability and auto-negotiates down to the 10/100 of the rest of my system—as do my three Macs.)

I guess my only reservation about splitting that run is that I'll be introducing an extra 150 feet of Cat 5 between modem and router (which are physically side-by-side and close-coupled now), with possible attendant QoS issues. However, the solution is cheap and easily undone, so I'll give it a try. OTOH, several people have reported no problems with a downstream Telo, and I hadn't thought about the possibility of managing QoS in my router (a Belkin N1 Vision); I'll have to look into that.

However, the responses I've seen so far suggest that neither of the only problems I've had (echoing and dropped calls) are QoS problems that could be solved by moving the Telo ahead of the router. (Does anyone have a contrary view?) I have yet to see any classic QoS problems such as stuttering and lag, so maybe I actually fall into the "works fine downstream" camp and am chasing a solution in search of a problem.

For that matter though, I'm becoming less averse to moving the Telo to my wiring closet; is there any routine (e.g. voicemail) stuff I can do from its panel that I can't do from a Telo Handset? (I have two.) I once thought the Telo was a speakerphone, but it's just a speaker, and the only thing I think I'd lose is the ability to monitor a call without picking up a handset.

Ken

[I_Ooma_2]

However, the responses I've seen so far suggest that neither of the only problems I've had (echoing and dropped calls) are QoS problems that could be solved by moving the Telo ahead of the router. (Does anyone have a contrary view?) I have yet to see any classic QoS problems such as stuttering and lag, so maybe I actually fall into the "works fine downstream" camp and am chasing a solution in search of a problem.

For that matter though, I'm becoming less averse to moving the Telo to my wiring closet; is there any routine (e.g. voicemail) stuff I can do from its panel that I can't do from a Telo Handset? (I have two.) I once thought the Telo was a speakerphone, but it's just a speaker, and the only thing I think I'd lose is the ability to monitor a call without picking up a handset.

Ken

I don't think there is anything that can be done at the Telo base that cannot be done from a Telo handset or at My Ooma, other than register a new handset to the base of course (or if you plan to use any BT devices with the base). You can screen voicemails as they come in on the Telo handsets, so since you have those you won't lose that completely. I don't have any Telo handsets (yet?), so I moved my Telo from the basement near the modem/router/switch to my living room upstairs for the sole purpose of screening voicemails as they come in. My Panasonic Dect 6.0 cordless phone system automatically screened messages on all handsets as they came into the built-in answering machine. I will kind of miss that, so may get a couple Telo handsets at some time, assuming they automatically screen voicemails as they come in. Can anyone confirm that? Or do you need to push a button first? From the way you are talking, you need to actually pick it up and do something. In that case, I may never bother with the Telo handsets (well, maybe one for the instant second line). Is it perhaps an option that can be turned on in the handset?

I would also be curious to hear others' input on your question regarding QoS. I haven't had any dropped calls, but on a very rare occasion I can hear a slight echo (only on my end) and while I usually don't really notice much delay, on some rare occasions it is more noticeable. I have looked all around this forum as well as other forums and pages on the web and as best I can determine, these aren't really indicative of QoS problems. For example, an obvious QoS problem would be garbled sound due to dropped packets.

[thunderbird]

Thanks for all the quick suggestions; this obviously will be a useful forum. To respond:

To help with dropped calls:
Turn off MAC address Spoofing, which may cause problems because of conflict between modem or router and Ooma device...

Is this on by default? I temporarily hooked up to the Telo and made a quick tour through its management pages yesterday, but don't recall this setting. Also, I'm unclear why such a conflict wouldn't cause a consistent problem, not the occasional dropped call I've had.

Spoofing is on by default. It doesn't say MAC Address Spoofing; it’s on when MAC address is set to Automatic. To make things short, the call is dropped when MAC address Spoofing occurs, (a random attempt is made to change the Ooma device's MAC address in mid conversation).
The next thing that helps add call stability, (to be used only if the Ooma device is connected behind the router), is to reserve a static IP address in you router for the Ooma device.

The echo problem:
Turning off MAC address spoofing may help, but probably won't. See if there is echo when using the Ooma Telo handset. Many times echo is not present when using the Ooma Telo handset, but will be when using your other phones.

Unfortunately, the echo occurred with a Telo Handset, and has happened on two successive calls to the same number (from Minneapolis to a Yuba City, CA landline/cordless) a week apart. This hasn't happened on any other calls (including with our Uniden cordless and hardwired phones), so I'm not sure Ooma is the culprit. I'm going to have the other party try a different, hardwired phone next time.

The echo can be caused by the other party.

For echo elimination testing, just unplug the phone line from the Ooma device, testing using Only the Ooma Telo Handset. For this test the Uniden cordless phone base must be also UNPOWERED. Certain cordless phone systems can and have caused an echo when using any or all phones that are connected to the Ooma devices phone port. This problem will occur even if the phone line to the cordless phone base is disconnected and the cordless phone base is still powered. The cordless phone base must be unpowered for this test.

[I_Ooma_2]

The next thing that helps add call stability, (to be used only if the Ooma device is connected behind the router), is to reserve a static IP address in you router for the Ooma device.

For echo elimination testing, just unplug the phone line from the Ooma device, testing using Only the Ooma Telo Handset. For this test the Uniden cordless phone base must be also UNPOWERED. Certain cordless phone systems can and have caused an echo when using any or all phones that are connected to the Ooma devices phone port. This problem will occur even if the phone line to the cordless phone base is disconnected and the cordless phone base is still powered. The cordless phone base must be unpowered for this test.

T-Bird: If you don't mind, I will take the static IP address a bit further (for anyone who might stumble on this thread). By setting it in the router, you are referring to DHCP reservation, which forces the device (Telo) to always have the same IP address. While this is ideal (always having the same IP address), this means that the Telo is still using DHCP to get its IP address assigned to it, and thus it is "leased". While DHCP renewal is almost always flawless/seamless, I have heard of some devices 'glitching' upon renewing the lease. What I do (and would recommend instead) is to set a static IP address in the device itself (in this case, the Telo). Using this method, the Telo is telling the router, "This is my IP address" when it first connects to the router, and there is no IP lease to ever be renewed, thus eliminating any potential for DHCP lease renewal to ever cause a problem. The downside to this approach is that, should you ever decide to put the Telo in front of the router or maybe even use a different router, etc, then it will likely not automatically work until you remove the static IP setting from the Telo first (or change it as necessary). Just a thought. I only use DHCP reservation with our mobile phones and notebook computers to connect to our WAP while at home. Everything else is on a static IP address as set in the device itself. I've never had any network glitches or problems in any device except our mobile phones on a rare occasion, which may or may not be related to DHCP.

On echo problems due to cordless phone base interference, since my echo problems are only occasional, I would assume that my phone base likely isn't the problem. Would you agree? I would think that if my Panny phone base were causing interference that it would echo more frequently (i.e. all the time). I'm not trying to high-jack the thread, but since it's related to the OP's question I figured it'd be okay.

[thunderbird]

On echo problems due to cordless phone base interference, since my echo problems are only occasional, I would assume that my phone base likely isn't the problem. Would you agree? I would think that if my Panny phone base were causing interference that it would echo more frequently (i.e. all the time). I'm not trying to high-jack the thread, but since it's related to the OP's question I figured it'd be okay.

If your Wi-Fi router is automatically set to select frequencies, you may have echo sometimes and than other times you don't because of the Wi-Fi is using a different frequency at different times. When a wrong Wi-Fi frequency is being used, it will conflict with the Ooma device and/or the cordless phone system. That's why in this forum you will see posts to deselect Automatic and choose one Wi-Fi frequency in you router's Wi-Fi setup page.

I used to tell people to use the IP address in the Ooma device, but a lot of people have trouble setting this up, so instead I tell them to reserve a static IP address in their router for the Ooma device. People seem to understand this and it seems to work out better. For myself at home I do both for a quicker Ooma connection. Neither router nor the Ooma device has to "think" about what IP address to connect to.

I_Ooma_2:
This forum is a group effort and that's the way I like it. I notice myself forgetting to mention just one little thing in a post the causes all sorts of problems for the person that is having the problem. Lucky most of the time someone else will pop up with what's missing or a better solution. Than let the Ooma phone user that is having the problem choose what's best for them. The main focus, while providing as wide of a verity of practical solutions as possible, is to get the Ooma phone Customer's Ooma system operating back to normal service.

[Ely]

kenhenningsen:

I and many others use their Ooma Telo behind my router with no problems at all. For Quality of Service settings with the Ooma device connected behind the Router, I set my downstream and upstream Quality of Service settings in the Ooma Setup pages to zero, as Ooma suggests. Some people, because of a "Bug" have to set their QoS settings to double the measured Download and Upload speeds as measured by http://www.speedtest.net/. If you make QoS changes, reboot your Ooma device after making changes

I also have my Telo behind the router, even though I have not experienced any dropped or low call quality calls by default I noticed QoS was set to 384, If I understand you right I should set that to zero, is that OK? I then went to my router and setup QoS rules on it to prioritize the Telo's MAC address and another rule for the LAN port where the Telo is connected to, is it ok to have two rules, or is one rule either for the MAC or the LAN enough? I have both rules with the "Highest Priority" setting.