call recipient gets garbage

[sciencemagic]

Hi Robek,

Thank you once again for your reply and help! I have taken screen shots of what you asked, you can see them in my attachments. But, I need help in performing or knowing what I'm doing in your last paragraph instruction. "Show the Windows command "tracert networkcheck.ooma.com" latency results. Compare that with the 'Route' tab's client-to-server route latency results." How do I go about performing what you ask, Robek? How do I access tracert networkcheck.ooma.com? Can you please explain.
I did contact Ooma support and they want to put the problem with my ISP. My ISP says my signal is fine no problem. Ooma support says a jitter of more than 5 is a issue? Is it really? I did 2 Ooma speed tests and one shows a 5 jitter another shows a 3 jitter. I've done numerous Ooma tests that seem to show there are some problems, but you seem to discount some of those problematic results as possibly not causing my specific issue as you stated before hand.
In your opinion, Robek, could my land line telephone be a issue? Again, I can hear the caller but the caller can't understand my words which are skipping or garbled. It seems I can only send 3 attachments at once so bear with me here when you see 2 emails. You can probably see my dilemma. My ISP says they are not to blame, but Ooma seems to imply they are. Just would like to solve this problem so I can use my Ooma phone. Certainly appreciate your help, Robek. You're the only one to help and without you it seems I'm at a dead end? So, appreciate your help AND patience. Thank you!

[sciencemagic]

Robek, remaining attachments. If you need more test results please explain. Thank you, Robek.

[Robek]

Run the "tracert" command on the command line. For Windows, click the 'Start' or 'Search' icon, type "cmd" to open up a command window, and then type "tracert networkcheck.ooma.com". For MacOS, Linux, or Unix, open up a terminal window, and type "traceroute networkcheck.ooma.com".

In the 'Graph' tab of the network check Speed and Route test, there are four graphs; click the left/right arrows on either side to scroll through the different graphs. The upload/download transfer speed and delay line graphs displays the performance over time.

Jitter should be less than 5 ms, but anything less than 20 ms is usually tolerable. The ISP speed test shows a fairly consistent upload and download speeds, and a reasonably low latency and jitter. But that's just the performance between the ISP and a nearby server, not the end-to-end performance between ISP and Ooma.

To show the actual mean/max jitter and other statistics for that last 10 phone calls, connect the computer to the Telo HOME port, and browse to "setup.ooma.com", then navigate to Tools -> Call Statistics. The 'RmtNum' column displays private phone numbers, so don't publicly post that column.

In the last set of screenshots, the 'Speed' tab shows that the "Achieved download speed" is 14.6 Mbps (on average), out of a possible 69.1 Mbps. The 'Graph' tab shows that for 66.8% of the time, the actual download is only 2.7 Mbps. That suggests a bottleneck somewhere between the ISP and Ooma.

In the 'Route' tab, the Ooma networkcheck tool provides no information at all about the 'Route' tab's client to server route. Maybe the installed BCS program wasn't launched correctly; for Windows, it needs to "Run As Administrator". Alternately, the "tracert" (or "traceroute") command can provide similar information.

The route from server to client appears to go through Astound four times (including a detour through Sweden?), before it reaches the client: Ooma --> Zayo (Denver) --> Astound --> Arelion Twelve99 (Sweden?) --> Astound --> Wave/360/etc. -> Astound -> Wave -> Astound.

If the server to client route is accurate, then that's a routing bug that the ISP needs to investigate. If not, then that's a bug in the test tool, which Ooma needs to investigate. If an intermediate gateway is misrouting traffic (for example, Zayo --> Arelion), then Ooma needs to help investigate that, too.

[sciencemagic]

Hi Robek,

Thank you for your reply. I will run the test you suggest, "tracert networkcheck.ooma.com" in Windows and follow your instructions as you have stated. I'll get back to you later with the results. Your comment "Jitter should be less than 5 ms, but anything less than 20 ms is usually tolerable." evidently says that while 5 jitter is preferable 20 can actually work, should say that if my Ooma connection is maybe between 5-20 then jitter is probably not the problem? I don't recall the jitter being higher than 20 and usually in the single digits, so maybe the jitter count is not where the issue is? Just guessing here.

I will do the test you also suggest, "To show the actual mean/max jitter and other statistics for that last 10 phone calls, connect the computer to the Telo HOME port, and browse to "setup.ooma.com", then navigate to Tools -> Call Statistics. The 'RmtNum' column displays private phone numbers, so don't publicly post that column." and see what that shows.

Where you comment, "In the last set of screenshots, the 'Speed' tab shows that the "Achieved download speed" is 14.6 Mbps (on average), out of a possible 69.1 Mbps. The 'Graph' tab shows that for 66.8% of the time, the actual download is only 2.7 Mbps. That suggests a bottleneck somewhere between the ISP and Ooma. Maybe the bottle neck is the problem?

It appears my ISP routing is usual? Going through countries like it evidently does? And, you seem to suggest there could be a issue there, and if so, my ISP will have to investigate.

Let me go though your test procedures as you have helpfully suggested, and I will get back to you. Robek. Once again, certainly appreciate your help.

[sciencemagic]

Hi Robek,

Several things have happened since we last talked. First, I did do the tracert networkcheck.ooma.com test as you suggested. I have attached the results for that. It seems that test result goes to about line 17-18 and then the test screen disappears. I did several tests.
I contacted Ooma support again. They looked at my Ooma test results and said there's no problem with my internet connection. And, they wanted me to contact "our advanced technical team" by phone, which I did. Speaking to the rep she looked at some of my Ooma speed tests results and said my jitter was to blame for my problems. She said the jitter HAS BE LESS THAN 5 JITTERS. She was rather emphatic about it actually. Actually thought she was over reacting to be honest. She had me run a Ooma speed test while we talked. I ran 4 tests. And, it showed my download and upload were fairly consistent, my jitter was inconsistent. It ranged from a high of 17 to a low of 3. She said the inconsistency was to blame for my phone issues.
But, I'm sort of thinking the jitter isn't always going to be consistent. After all, the download and upload speeds can be somewhat inconsistent depending on the time of day so why wouldn't jitter be somewhat inconsistent? Nonetheless, she was essentially saying if a jitter of 5 or less is NOT present, Ooma has no liability for the problem. Not sure I agree with that? I believe a higher jitter can still work.
I guess the question then becomes, how high can it be before it causes a problem? But being Ooma says it has to be LESS THAN 5 and my ISP is at fault and they need to fix the problem, how does my ISP lower my jiiter readings? Or, at least how do they make my jitter consistent? Do you have any suggestions I can relate to my ISP, Robek?
From my phone call with Ooma's advanced technical team, until my jitter is LESS THAN 5 they aren't getting involved. Seems sort of harsh but that seems to be their stance as of now.
So, would you have any suggestions I could explain to my ISP tech rep that my jitter and it's inconsistent high readings are a BIG problem with my internet phone service, Robek? You certainly seem to know quite a bit about internet phone service, Robek.
Would performing certain Ooma tests as maybe you have suggested, and then presenting them to the ISP tech help???? It does seem tough until my jitter is less than 5 Ooma support or advanced technical support isn't doing any more for the problem. I do certainly appreciate your help and the patience you have given me. Thank you, Robek!!!!

[Robek]

Ooma's network check tool seems buggy. It doesn't properly trace the (download) route from Ooma to ISP, and it doesn't trace any (upload) route at all from ISP to Ooma. Only Ooma can explain how their tool works. They can also help interpret the test results, to narrow down where any problems might occur.

Ooma can quibble over how much jitter is too much, but based on the posted screenshots, their tool assigns a "yellow" color code to a jitter as high as 20.4 ms: "it is relatively unpredictable, but should nonetheless be able to maintain a constant flow of data. As such, VoIP conversations should not be broken."

The underlying problem is that the upload capacity is not consistent; it fluctuates from 21 Mbps down to 500 kbps, and sometimes drops so low that the network check tool can't even measure it. The jitter is an indirect consequence of that. Finding out why it is inconsistent requires tracing the route from ISP to Ooma.

How does the test screen disappear, exactly? Does the command window itself close, or does something clear the window contents? The "tracert" command may take a while to finish, but the window should display a prompt when it's done. The screenshot doesn't show the complete "tracert" output.

From the screenshot so far, it looks like the first 12 hops (lines 2-12) is only for Astound/Wave Broadband hosts. That seems like an awful lot of hops just to get out of Bothell, Washington. The next 3 hops (lines 13-15) are for Cloudflare, in San Francisco. The output stops there, so no further analysis is possible.

Use the Windows Start/Search to launch the "cmd" command window, and then inside that window, type the "tracert" command again, and wait for it to complete. Post the entire output, including the command prompts. If that doesn't work, then please describe in greater detail what happens instead, from start to finish.

Make sure that the installed BCS tools are running locally with administrative privileges. If Ooma's diagnostic tool still can't display a complete route from ISP to Ooma, then ask Ooma to explain why not. Also ask Ooma to explain why their tool seems to display multiple routes from Ooma (server) to ISP (client).

Ask Astound whether it's normal to route traffic through so many of their hosts before reaching the outside internet, and whether that many hops can cause latency or capacity issues. Also ask Astound why there seems to be multiple routes from Ooma (server) to ISP (client), including one apparently through Sweden.