Voice delay when calling a cell phone

[Studly]

I've been trying out Ooma for about 10 days now, and often when I'm talking to people on their cell phones, there's a noticable voice delay (latency problem). I know this can sometimes be on the cell user's network, but this has happened when I talked to numerous people in different parts of the country on different networks. The delay also sometimes happens when talking to people on landlines, but not always.

Anyone else experience this problem? It's distracting because when talking to someone, there's a noticable pause before you hear them talk back, which often leads to talking over each other if the delay is really bad. My ISP tests check out good, with latency typically being under 100 ms, so I don't think the problem is with my connection.

When I first hooked up Ooma, I connected to the hub and didn't notice the delay. I'm now running the phone off the scout (so my cordless phone base doesn't interfere with my wireless computer mouse, since my hub is near my PC). I was wondering if running off the scout can add to the delay, possibly because of the extra time it takes for the hub and scout to communicate, compress and uncompress signals? Anyone notice more of a delay when using a phone plugged into a scout?

[lohertz]

Most delay's in VoIP are for jitter and QoS problems

Have you measured your VoIP quality.
Try the http://www.whichvoip.com VOIP tool to measure out you statistics

http://www.dslreports/tools

that link can help you clean up and tell you where your problems may lie.

Finally changing DNS servers can increase server response times

http://www.opendns.com

[Studly]

Thanks for the advice, Loherts. When I do the various VOIP tests, it says I should have very good line quality, and shows minimal packet loss and jitter.

That openDNS site looks interesting. Can you explain how that works and why it increases server response time? If I try it and it doesn't improve it, is it reversible? I just don't want to mess up anything with my Internet connection.

Thanks again for the help!

[WayneDsr]

Simply add open dns numbers in place of your dns numbers in your router.

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Wayne

[lohertz]

The main theory for support open dns is this...

when packets of data are sent over the backbone internet, the header in the data has the destination IP address. OpenDNS servers are suppose to be faster at finding your particular connection then the ones used by your ISP...which can be true for folks on DSL that are either 1 far away from the CO or 2 are a great distance to tier 1 router on the backbone.

Basically the packets of data dont bounce around the internet as much.

It also can add an additional layer of security for inbound and outbound traffic.

like Wayne said, just add the dns address in your router or ooma, which ever is front faced to the internet.

[Studly]

Thanks for all the info on openDNS. Would it be faster for cable internet, or mainly just DSL? I'm on cable.

[WayneDsr]

Open DNS works for both dsl and cable. The best way to find out if it works for you is to change the dns in your router. You can always write down the old numbers and put them right back in.

Using their servers (ODNS) vs cable's dns makes for faster connections in general, but I use it to avoid any restrictions (or tracking) that my ISP may decide impose.

Wayne

[lohertz]

I use it to avoid any restrictions (or tracking) that my ISP may decide impose.

Does this avoid bandwidth caps? Such as limiting to 100GB of data transfer?
(I don't transfer that much data, unless I start slinging by tv)

Just curious, I thought you are still "seen" by your ISP.

Honestly, I don't know that much about ODNS, but have heard that a lot of people use it for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

I'm try to get it to work on my cell phone, but havent had the time. My DSL is very reliable and never ran into problems. I plan to experiment this weekend.

But...Comcast has a special going on that I might switch to..12/2 for $60 (business plan)

[WayneDsr]

I'm not sure if you can avoid "caps" or not. That would be something to look into. If you just want to add the dns numbers, that's all you need, but if you want a more featured service, it's free to join. If you join you can monitor your network, block sites and see where all requests are going. Very kool free service.

Wayne

[number9]

It's free to try. So why not. I've been playing with it for a few days and things seem to be much smoother.

http://www.opendns.com/

Wayne, thanks for the info and diagram!!