Poor Call Quality - What to do?

This forum includes tips for maintaining the best audio quality possible with the Ooma System. If your Ooma system is having issues with dropped calls, static audio or echo, look here for assistance.
wildthing
Posts:7
Joined:Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:02 am
Poor Call Quality - What to do?

Post by wildthing » Fri Jul 30, 2010 2:53 pm

Hello,

The first couple of days that we had our Ooma Core unit up and running with the hub and scout I thought the call quality sounded pretty good. The only thing I noticed is that if we were online on the computer doing something then the call quality would really drop off and you could barely hear what the other person was saying at times. It seemed to slur their speech and drop parts of the words. I figured it was probably due to us having just the basic dsl speeds of 768/384. We have gotten pretty consistant results from speedtest.net for over a year now indicating that our speeds are usually always around 650/330. I tried adjusting the QOS settings to see if I could improve things, setting downstream anywhere from 500-650 and setting the upstream to 250-330, but this didn't seem to fix the problems. So I just figured that we would either have to stay off the computer while on the phone or upgrade our dsl speeds. For the past couple of weeks I've made sure that if we were going to make a call or someone called us that we were off the computer. Unfortunetly we still have noticed problems at times with words being dropped and with speech coming from the other end being muffled at times.

I've run the VOIP speed test many times at whichvoip.com and everything looks really good. The only thing that wasn't great on the test I noticed was the Max Tcp Delay. Which was in the 200-300ms range. I ran PingPlotter many times to see what the results would be to Ooma's servers located at myxprov.ooma.com and the average latency is in the low-mid 70's. The server on hop #12 that is located just before Ooma's server at 74.217.77.122 (ooma-3.border1.sje005.pnap.net) I noticed was showing around a 5% packet loss however. Which maybe was causing these problems, I don't know.

Now, just two days ago I upgraded our dsl to the highest speed service 6000/768 and today it went into effect. So I was very interested in calling some people to see if the quality of the calls were any better now with the higher speeds. I've called two people today and each time after about 30 sec. their speech just drops right off and you can't hear anything anymore. The call isn't disconnected or anything like that and the ooma device still has its blue light on. So I don't understand whats going on now?

My settings for Ooma are QOS upstream 384, downstream 0, reserved bandwidth 130. Modem Port MAC address is set to: Use Built In. We have our dsl modem connected to the Ooma hub which is connected to our computer.

I ran the VOIP speed test again just now and it looks good (see results below). The Max Tcp Delay is way down now with the faster speeds. I ran PingPlotter again and am seeing problems again with dropped packets. On hop #12 there is a different server this time that has around a 6% packet loss. Server is located at: 66.151.144.13 (border1.pc1-bbnet1.sje005.pnap.net)

I don't know what to do at this point, if anyone has any suggestions or if someone from Ooma could look into this I would really appreciate it. I am getting fed up with all the call quality problems and having to apologize constantly to people because of it. If this isn't resolved by next week I will have to return Ooma before my 30 day return window closes and look at going with a different VOIP provider.

Below is the latest results from the VOIP speed test.

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 0.1 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 3.5 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: 4.0

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 2106984 bps
Upload speed: 659072 bps
Download quality of service: 96 %
Upload quality of service: 99 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum TCP delay: 42 ms
Average download pause: 5 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 72 ms
Average round trip time to server: 72 ms
Estimated download bandwidth: 4560000bps
Route concurrency: 2.164231
Download TCP forced idle: 0 %
Maximum route speed: 7281664bps

oom101
Posts:95
Joined:Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:57 pm

Re: Poor Call Quality - What to do?

Post by oom101 » Fri Jul 30, 2010 3:08 pm

Try setting up to 0. I run best with down 0 and up 0.

User avatar
lbmofo
Posts:9337
Joined:Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:37 pm
Location:Greater Seattle
Contact:

Re: Poor Call Quality - What to do?

Post by lbmofo » Fri Jul 30, 2010 3:39 pm

VoIP test result looks good. Maybe the modem is having intermittent problems. Consider getting your ISP to replace your modem.

User avatar
bw1
Posts:1781
Joined:Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:06 am
Location:MI

Re: Poor Call Quality - What to do?

Post by bw1 » Fri Jul 30, 2010 6:05 pm

You have no router or firewall in the mix at all, correct?

Did you try disconnecting your computer when you make calls? I don't see how that would affect it, but what the heck.

Did you try rebooting the Hub?

Is it the same number or numbers that are getting dropped? It's possible an issue with routing or a local carrier. You could keep a log of the calls that drop and submit them to Ooma CS.

You could try setting your upstream QOS to 80% of your calculated upstream/upload bandwidth, but that shouldn't make any difference either if you're not on the computer when the calls are being made.

wildthing
Posts:7
Joined:Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:02 am

Re: Poor Call Quality - What to do?

Post by wildthing » Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:58 pm

Ok, after some more testing I found the trouble maker - the Scout.

I tried making some calls again off from the scout and the voice just keeps breaking up really badly and then after about 30 sec. the voice from the other end just drops right off. Sometimes after I dial the phone # it will just remain silent for awhile and not even ring. I went upstairs where my computer, hub, and modem are located and noticed whats happening is that after about 30 sec. when using a phone on the scout the modem losses sync. On the modem the green light for Internet turns off and the Dsl light starts blinking red. Never had this problem with the Scout before with the slower dsl speeds. I assume it because of the much lower Signal-to-Noise (SNR) ratio now with faster internet. SNR now shows as being 6.0db to modem and 11.0db to internet. Before it used to be double that. I have the motorola 2210-02 modem which has a router built in. Its only around 6 months old, my previous modem died and AT&T replaced it. I don't know if a different modem would make any difference or not? I will probably just have to sell the Scout.

If the Scout is unpluged and I try to make calls off from the hub it does seem to be working really good. Call quality is very clear now with the faster dsl. Even if I'm online while on a phone talking to someone there doesn't seem to be any issues with peoples speech being slured or words being cut off anymore. The faster speed does seem to really help things.

One strange thing I noticed after I had problems with the scout and I unpluged it and then called out on the hub, a guys voice came on the line and said "If you would like to test speech press 1. If you would like to test ETF press 2." It happened like 2 or 3 times after I dialed a #. The first time I heard it it kind of startled me at first since I thought it was a real person. :)

wildthing
Posts:7
Joined:Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:02 am

Re: Poor Call Quality - What to do?

Post by wildthing » Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:02 pm

oom101 wrote:Try setting up to 0. I run best with down 0 and up 0.
Thanks, I've never seen it recommended before to set the QOS up to 0. I'll give it a try sometime and see what happens.

User avatar
southsound
Posts:3519
Joined:Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:31 am
Location:Harstine Island, WA

Re: Poor Call Quality - What to do?

Post by southsound » Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:59 pm

wildthing wrote:Ok, after some more testing I found the trouble maker - the Scout.

I tried making some calls again off from the scout and the voice just keeps breaking up really badly and then after about 30 sec. the voice from the other end just drops right off. Sometimes after I dial the phone # it will just remain silent for awhile and not even ring. I went upstairs where my computer, hub, and modem are located and noticed whats happening is that after about 30 sec. when using a phone on the scout the modem losses sync. On the modem the green light for Internet turns off and the Dsl light starts blinking red. Never had this problem with the Scout before with the slower dsl speeds. I assume it because of the much lower Signal-to-Noise (SNR) ratio now with faster internet. SNR now shows as being 6.0db to modem and 11.0db to internet. Before it used to be double that. I have the motorola 2210-02 modem which has a router built in. Its only around 6 months old, my previous modem died and AT&T replaced it. I don't know if a different modem would make any difference or not? I will probably just have to sell the Scout.)
By any chance is the scout using the same wire pair that feeds DSL to your modem? The hub and scout communicate via HPNA, a protocol that does not play well with DSL. If you are running them on the same pair, try separating the signal from the WALL port on both the hub and scout so they are on a clean pair of wires.
ooma customer since February 2009
VoIP hardware: 2 Telo w/3 handsets & Linx / ooma core
Total Lines: 8 / Numbers: 11 / Handsets: 20
Lifetime Premier Member
Friends don't remember what Landline Integration was or why we did it.

oom101
Posts:95
Joined:Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:57 pm

Re: Poor Call Quality - What to do?

Post by oom101 » Sat Jul 31, 2010 10:39 pm

Also I think you are supposed make sure any house or other wires used for the hub to scout are not connected to anything else, such as the phone company, and are not plugged into by the Hub "phone" port either. The wires are either for the "phone" port or the scout connection. I believe there are videos on how to set up the scout. Look on the site.

wildthing
Posts:7
Joined:Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:02 am

Re: Poor Call Quality - What to do?

Post by wildthing » Mon Aug 02, 2010 10:15 am

southsound wrote: By any chance is the scout using the same wire pair that feeds DSL to your modem?
Yes it was on the same pair. I see now why I was having problems with the scout. Thanks for the information.

I was hoping that the call quality issues were gone now with the higher dsl speeds, but unfortunetly there not. The last couple of days we have had even more problems when making calls out on the hub. Some of the calls the person on the other end has sounded like they were very distant. Also we have had calls where there was an echo, where you could actually hear your own voice talking like a sec later. Very annoying. I think I will probably just return the devices and buy a VOIP adapter and try one of the pay-as-you-go VOIP services. One that has a server located in the midwest-eastcoast area which would be much closer to me and hopefully provide better voice quality. I appreciate everyone trying to help me with this. Hopefully the Ooma service works much better for you then it did for me.

lentheman
Posts:1
Joined:Sat Aug 07, 2010 4:01 am

Re: Poor Call Quality - What to do?

Post by lentheman » Sat Aug 07, 2010 7:38 pm

QSO question from a 81 year novice, I have just set up my hub and in contacting my son he said there were drop outs in my signal.(Phila to Atlantic city). I have run speed tests and received the following Comcast numbers ( which I haven't the slightest idea of what they mean).

21.03 mbps down and 4.53 mbps up

my question is what should my settings in the advanced page (upload download) be? Thanks in advance. :( ;)

Post Reply