Would there be advantage to me trying Modem-Ooma-Router

[lite1]

Been on Ooma for about 8 weeks and have only had a couple of calls a month with brief echo, or garbled voice, for several seconds, and a few other minor issues. I hadn't realized that I had done only the very basic setup of Modem-Router-Ooma, but am more than happy to try Modem-Ooma-Router yet am not sure there would be advantages. Since it isn't broken might make sense to just enjoy life, on the other hand I might be missing out on even better call quality.

Fairly consistently, checking over days and different times of day at Speedtest.net pingtest.net:
Upload 1.15MB
Download 5MB
Ping Test usually A or A-
Ping 24 - 28ms
Jitter 8 to 12ms
No packet loss
MOS about 4.1 to 4.3

I live by myself, and it is rare that I am on an Ooma call and simultaneously sending email with large attachment; or streaming Netflix (would put it on pause). I do work from home at times and VPN connect to office computer and might simultaneously be talking to office on phone; these calls have not been problematic.

It seems like it is only the very last situation where allocating bandwidth to Ooma might make for a better and more consistent experience.

If it is recommended that I experiment, I understand where to set things at initially 80% of upload/download. Is the 80% to be multiplied by a) the lowest/highest speed test number; b) the median/average speed test number.

As usual thanks for cutting my learning curve.

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My Ooma system is very simple - Telo and cordless Panasonic phone plugged into Telo; all into battery backup. No fax, or whole house wired connection, server, or anything else like that.

[lbmofo]

Your jitter is high...should be less than 5ms but that doesn't necessarily mean you have issues. Mine measures higher than 5ms often but no issues.

Check out the following optimal setups for your reference:

Before the router: viewtopic.php?t=9536#p66155
After the router: viewtopic.php?t=12403

[lite1]

@lbmofo thanks for response. Would you go out on a limb and suggest that I simply make sure my existing Modem-Router-Ooma setup has been correctly optimized and call it quits; OR would you suggest that trying an optimized Modem-Ooma-Router is preferable. You nicely avoid giving an opinion, and clearly you have a lot of exp. based on your helpful fourm posts. I do appreciate knowing from those that it is 80% of the average speed values.

[lbmofo]

I prefer Ooma before the router but plenty of veteran folks here like after the router as well. In my opinion, if you have QoS with router, then do the after router. If not, put it before the router. It wouldn't take too much effort to try both so check it out and decide for yourself; I doubt you'll notice much difference but I just feel more comfortable with before the router config.

[lite1]

Thanks for your opinion and exp. I think I will play with both configurations and see if there is any significant difference - might not be but at least I will have my own direct exp. Again thanks.

[Cyberchat]

@lbmofo thanks for response. Would you go out on a limb and suggest that I simply make sure my existing Modem-Router-Ooma setup has been correctly optimized and call it quits; OR would you suggest that trying an optimized Modem-Ooma-Router is preferable. You nicely avoid giving an opinion, and clearly you have a lot of exp. based on your helpful fourm posts. I do appreciate knowing from those that it is 80% of the average speed values.

I've been an OOMA customer (Telo and Handset) for almost two years with very good to excellent quality and service. For about the first year my setup was "Modem-->OOMA-Telo-->Router". Since then, my setup has been "Modem-->Router-->OOMA-Telo". My experience of very good to excellent quality and service has been the same under both configurations. My one issue with OOMA's products/services was that after about 19 months my Telo died. OOMA replaced it (under extended warranty) within two days including shipping time.

My main reason for switching to the "Modem-->Router-->OOMA-Telo" configuration was that there are a few scenarios wherein I need to connect from a remote location to my home LAN (local area network) and its easier to manage and execute these remote connections if my router is directly exposed to the internet rather than having to connect through the Telo. Also, on those few occasions wherein the Telo and/or OOMA'a network are having problems, having the configuration of "Modem-->Router-->OOMA-Telo" minimizes or eliminates any impact on my internet connectivity.

[lite1]

@cyberchat Thanks for sharing and pointing out one of the situations when their is a unique advantage to Modem-Router-Ooma. I would probably add as an advantage to that config is that one never has to deal with the nagging question of whether you have really tweaked the 80% of bandwidth assigned guideline to really optimize phone calls AND all other simultaneous internet usage. Basically, there is an advantage with simpler and less places for user tweaking.

As always this forum is very helpful, and without it I never would have chosen Ooma. So again thanks to all ...

[Cyberchat]

@cyberchat Thanks for sharing and pointing out one of the situations when their is a unique advantage to Modem-Router-Ooma. I would probably add as an advantage to that config is that one never has to deal with the nagging question of whether you have really tweaked the 80% of bandwidth assigned guideline to really optimize phone calls AND all other simultaneous internet usage. Basically, there is an advantage with simpler and less places for user tweaking.

As always this forum is very helpful, and without it I never would have chosen Ooma. So again thanks to all ...

As a footnote, if your Telo is installed as Modem/Router/Telo, to get to the Telo's Home setup screen use a LAN cable (Cat-5e) to hook up your PC directly to the Home Network port of the Telo and then go to: http://172.27.35.1. (Note: make sure that your wireless network is turned off in your laptop PC when you hook it up to the Telo)

Also, to avoid this recurring hassle of having to hook up a PC to the Telo's home network port, you can access the Telo's setup screens directly from your LAN PC by making a one-time configuration change within the Telo's setup screens. On the Advanced Settings panel, at the bottom of the panel Add a New Rule to forward Port 80 to 172.27.35.1

Then you will be able to directly access the Telo setup screen by entering the static IP address assigned to your Telo in your router, for example: http://192.168.1.xxx