VoIP router Vs ATA + router

BigMoose

Hi all,

I currently have a Sipura SPA-2000 connected into one of the LAN ports of my wireless router, which connects to the IBB box via the WAN interface. I have used Blueface VoIP since Jan/Feb and have found call quality generally good. But recently (past couple of months) have noticed annoying delays while on calls to the in-laws (in Co Wexford, so not a million miles away!). Their landline is UTV which may or may not make a difference. But to be honest I dont think it's just them I get the delay with, calls to the UK also.

I dont use the thing much for outgoing as I dont pay for calls on my mobile, so it's hard to say when the delay started to get worse.

I am on IBB and am well aware of all the negative threads on the broadband forum so have keept a look at my stats and seem to get at least 512kbs each way (which is crap for a 2Mb/s connection, but well more than needed for the GSM codec).

So I wonder about the ATA and router. Would I notice a difference if I got a VoIP Router all in one that did QoS on the VoIP traffic? I have one PC on permanently which is sometimes downloading, although rarely hogging the full connection. And wireless devices that use the connection from time to time.

Does anyone have experience with going from an ATA on a LAN to something that does QoS for the VoIP packets? Is it worth the investment in a new router? I cant put this ATA on the WAN side of the router as it only has one LAN port...

Any advice welcome!! Thanks!

dam099

What are your pings like? Bandwidth is one factor but high pings/latency will hurt VOIP calls too.

bhickey

BigMoose wrote:

Does anyone have experience with going from an ATA on a LAN to something that does QoS for the VoIP packets? Is it worth the investment in a new router? I cant put this ATA on the WAN side of the router as it only has one LAN port...

What make/model of wireless router do you have? Assuming there's no QOS facility available in it then your best bet would be to get something like a Linksys WRT54G (about ST£42 + delivery from Amazon). As long as you're connecting your IBB cable to the router's WAN interface and you use the latest firmware (or one of the open-source firmwares like Sveasoft)then you'll get all the QOS you'll need.

BigMoose

bhickey wrote:

What make/model of wireless router do you have? Assuming there's no QOS facility available in it then your best bet would be to get something like a Linksys WRT54G (about ST£42 + delivery from Amazon). As long as you're connecting your IBB cable to the router's WAN interface and you use the latest firmware (or one of the open-source firmwares like Sveasoft)then you'll get all the QOS you'll need.

I hadn't thought of getting a router that does QoS using my existing ATA! Thanks for that! I currently have a Netgear WGR614v1 which doesn't do QoS.

dam099 wrote:

What are your pings like? Bandwidth is one factor but high pings/latency will hurt VOIP calls too.

Currently:

Pinging sip.blueface.ie [213.168.225.133] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 213.168.225.133: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=54
Reply from 213.168.225.133: bytes=32 time=108ms TTL=54
Reply from 213.168.225.133: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=54
Reply from 213.168.225.133: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 213.168.225.133:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 32ms, Maximum = 108ms, Average = 64ms

Which I guess is a little iratic for VoIP?

bhickey

BigMoose wrote:

Ping statistics for 213.168.225.133:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 32ms, Maximum = 108ms, Average = 64ms

Which I guess is a little iratic for VoIP?

Try using :

ping -t sip.blueface.ie

and let it run for 10-20 pings at several different times during the day for more meaningful everage ping times. A maximum of 108ms is fine but an average of 150+ms would become noticeable.

BigMoose

Pings seemed to average out around the 90ms mark. So I gave the Netgear to the parents and bought a Linksys WRT54G. Just using the QoS feature in the firmware that came with it seems to make a difference, however is there a particular firmware people would recommend?

NutJob

BigMoose wrote:

Pings seemed to average out around the 90ms mark. So I gave the Netgear to the parents and bought a Linksys WRT54G. Just using the QoS feature in the firmware that came with it seems to make a difference, however is there a particular firmware people would recommend?

Qos is vital for this kinda stff makes all the difference.

I would recommend openwrt but it may not be worth the headaches if u dont uses linux on a regualr basis.

Once its a good quality router like your Linksys WRT54G (couldnt have done much better than that unless u fancy some Cisco megabucks gear).

Dell truemoble 2300 also good since its essentaily a Linksys


The Netgear WGR614v1 does not have an openwrt flash though so expect laggy stuff
and that weird distort that sounds like your talking to the matrix