CABLE UPGRADE: WILL IT HELP?

[chiplatham]

i have been having a few issues with my voice dropping out to the other caller (like i am getting a call waiting beep) which may be because of a low (70's-80's) upstream qos.

my isp (claims) 5 Mbps x 512 Kbps with my current service. i can upgrade to the next level and get 7 Mbps x 768 Kbps.

i really have no clue what this will translate to. am i likely to see an improvement with my ooma service?

[WayneDsr]

Could be, if you have a busy network while you are calling, that could help. But there is a lot more to it than bandwidth. The quality of the connection is the key. If you could do a test at http://www.whichvoip.com/voip/speed_test/ppspeed.html and post the results here, we can tell where your weakness is.

Wayne

[chiplatham]

i do think traffic is part of the issue. last night my test results were much worse than during the day yesterday. here are my current results:

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 0.5 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 0.7 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Estimated MOS score: 4.2

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 1697832 bps
Upload speed: 491152 bps
Download quality of service: 49 %
Upload quality of service: 85 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum TCP delay: 80 ms
Average download pause: 19 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 75 ms
Average round trip time to server: 75 ms
Estimated download bandwidth: 35200000bps
Route concurrency: 20.732323
Download TCP forced idle: 81 %
Maximum route speed: 6990400bps

[scottlindner]

Your test scores seem fine. What is your configuration? Do you have the modem -> Ooma Hub -> router, or modem -> router -> Ooma Hub?

You mentioned QoS. Can you post your QoS configuration if you are using something other than the default Ooma Hub configuration.

Cheers,
Scott

[chiplatham]

modem>hub>router

qos is:

395 upstream
0 downstream
185 reserved bandwidth

[ggilman]

Download quality of service: 49 %

That seems pretty bad, but it would affect what you hear from someone else, not what they hear.

Reserved bandwidth is set to 185 but the default 130 is good enough for 2 simultaneous calls and you aren't buying yourself anything by going higher from the way I understand it works. Of course, going to 185 also doesn't hurt your voice calls in the least but after you get the other issues ironed out, I'd go back to 130. No harm in leaving it at 185 for now though.

The only real control you have in voice quality is to adjust your QoS settings. Since your hub is not behind a router, it is the one controlling QoS. This is not a very scientific approach but if you are having voice issues, reduce your speeds in the QoS settings until they are straightened out. For the benefit of your other network traffic, you want these numbers as high as possible, without having voice issues. "Upstream" speed affects how well the other party hears you. "Downstream" speed affects how well you hear the other party.

Generally, downstream is less important since downstream speeds are much greater than upstream speeds to begin with. That's why it is disabled (0) by default. However, if you have issues hearing other people, you can adjust this as well. Generally speaking though, Upstream QoS is more important. This seems to hold true in your case as well since Upstream affects what the other caller is hearing.

Aside from adjusting QoS on your hub, your other option is to move the hub behind your router. Only attempt this if you have a router with QoS settings, since once behind the router, the ooma's QoS settings become useless. Some people have actually had better results with this configuration, having the ooma hub behind a router.

[ggilman]

By the way, the general rule of thumb most here seem to use for QoS settings is to multiply the measured speed by .8 and take that. In your case, 491152 bps = 479 Kbps * .8 = 383Kbps. This is what you should set in your "Upstream Internet Speed". But this is just a rule of thumb. If you continue to have issues, reduce the number until you achieve decent quality.

[niknak]

The problem with cable isp vs dsl /fios isp is that you are sharing your available bandwidth with potentially 254 other persons in your neighborhood, if everyone is on-line at prime times doing bandwidth extensive tasks, then your performance (and every else's will suffer).
On the other hand dsl and fios are "home runs" back to the CO so that you always get consistent performance.

Try running the speed tests at 3 or 4am when there are sure to be very few people on-line and see if your numbers improve