Poor Call Quality - but 5 bars signal and 3G

[tyzer007]

ISSUE:

Full signal including 3G - all normal lights - plenty of bandwidth but the call quality is terrible after 1-3 minutes.  Voice becomes garbled - more often we can hear the other party (download) but they cannot hear us (upload) - sometimes both are garbled.

I've been reading this forum for the past few days and I'm impressed that there are people who actually read the forum comments and make an effort to find solutions - I hope that I'm as lucky as so many others.

I have the original SureSignal and have had the device for over 2 years now - and frankly it has never worked well for me.  I always blamed the problem on BT (my Internet provider) and some crazy load-balancing/throttling they were doing.

My SureSignal S/N:  VSS:  21196937060

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

Recently I moved home and I'm now on BT Infinity with the latest BT Home Hub.  When I run a SpeedTest I get plenty of speed (http://www.speedtest.net/result/2006854273.png) and a reasonable ping test time.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\>tracert 212.183.133.181

Tracing route to 212.183.133.181 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 15 ms 3 ms 3 ms BTHomeHub.home [192.168.1.254]
2 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms 217.32.146.161
3 10 ms 11 ms 13 ms 217.32.146.206
4 11 ms 10 ms 15 ms 213.120.156.146
5 13 ms 11 ms 11 ms 217.41.168.239
6 11 ms 13 ms 11 ms 217.41.168.109
7 11 ms 13 ms 11 ms 109.159.249.192
8 17 ms 13 ms 21 ms core1-te0-7-0-16.faraday.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.
249.137]
9 16 ms 13 ms 16 ms 213.131.193.22
10 13 ms 21 ms 42 ms peer1-xe1-0-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.2
54.98]
11 16 ms 16 ms 13 ms LNDGW2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
12 13 ms 14 ms 16 ms 85.205.116.2
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

C:\Users\>

PHYSICAL LOCATION

I have positioned the SureSignal 1.5M away from the BT Home Hub and the BT Infinity box to minimize interference.

ween...)

DEVICES

We have 2 iPhone 4 devices and a Nokia C7 - and the experience is the same on all of the devices:  1-3 minutes of a good call and then one or both sides of the conversation become completely garbled.  i.e.; the voice compression just falls to pieces.

When we look at our phones we always see a full 5 bars of signal - so the phone sees the SureSignal well enough.  

SURE SIGNAL DIAGNOSTIC LIGHTS

And as for lights - I see lights 1, 2 and 4 on solid - and light 3 flashes.  This is the normal configuration I understand.

My partner was on the phone just now and as he entered the house the phone obviously shifted to the SureSignal and immediately the call quality became so poor that he had to drop the call and use the landline (there was a lot of swearing inbet

I've read through troubleshooting and checked for all of the obvious things - but we are having no joy.  And in this house there is only partial regular signal due to being on the ground floor and having very thick wallls.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Troy

[Ben_H]

Hi gruf,

Can you try running a speedtest and traceroute at the time the signal drops for me? This will help us to see if the connection is being throttled in some way causing the Sure Signal connection to drop.

Traceroute

On a PC:

Click on Start and select Run
Type CMD into the Run box and press enter/click ok
A black box will appear.
In this box type tracert 212.183.133.177 press Enter
Paste the output of this command into your reply.

Also, can you see if there is any change to the light pattern when this happens?

Cheers, Ben

[gruf]

what is going on with the sure signal, it seems we are all having trouble, mine was gurgaling voices now its gone to wont connect.

and the website is playing up is it all linked and dont give me all that solar flare business

[Nabs]

Whenever I get gargled voices it usualy indicates my internet connection is running slowly or i have high latency.

Can you run a speedtest and post the results. 

Nabs

[gruf]

cheers for reply nabs but ive done this on a couple of other theads for the same thing.

100mbs.

[Retired-Lee]

Hi gruf,

Please take a look at our Sure Signal Troubleshooting thread. If this doesn’t resolve your query, please post your reply either below, or in the relevant thread, together with the details requested, including the following information.

Your speed test results from here.
Your ping test results from here.
Your external IP address from here.
The results of a traceroute.

Your Sure Signal serial number:

VSS Traceroute command

On a PC:
Click on Start and select Run
Type CMD into the Run box and press enter/click ok
A black box will appear.
In this box type tracert 212.183.133.177 press Enter
Paste the output of this command into your reply.

This will help us get the quickest possible resolution for you.

Thanks

LeeH

[brummieflymo]

Hello,

I have an Iphone5s, and no one has been able to hear me on my phone, I am in my office and have the sure signal plugged in by me. The phone states 5 bars. I can normlly hear the other party, but sometimes its get garbled

I am also a BT user, and due do my location in the house I have a wireless booster (Edimax) located next to me.

I work from home, so not being able to make calls is a real issue.

[Retired-James]

Hi brummieflymo,

As we can’t support the Edimax booster, we’re limited by what we can say on this one other than to check your general coverage in the area.

If you let us know your full home postcode, we can get this checked.

In regards to the call quality in the office, please perform a speed test from here so we can see if this is causing the problem.

James

[willc01]

Ive recently moved to Sky from BT and have been suffering from this even when nothing else is connected to the router. suffering with me breaking up the other end but i hear them fine.  All seemed finewhile I was with BT

My hub is the new Sky black device

Serial Number *    40133634531

Postcode NE61 6T*

C:\Users\swillcox>tracert 212.183.133.177

Tracing route to cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk [212.183.133.177]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms     2 ms     1 ms  SkyRouter.Home [192.168.0.1]
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3    22 ms    23 ms    15 ms  ip-89-200-132-195.ov.easynet.net [89.200.132.195
]
  4    17 ms    16 ms    26 ms  ae51.edge6.london1.level3.net [212.113.9.53]
  5    16 ms    18 ms    19 ms  vl-3515-ve-129.csw1.london1.level3.net [4.69.166
.74]
  6    16 ms    15 ms    16 ms  ae-118-3504.edge3.london1.level3.net [4.69.166.1
42]
  7    20 ms    18 ms    18 ms  cable-wirel.edge3.london1.level3.net [195.50.124
.26]
  8    19 ms    19 ms    36 ms  ae22-xcr1.lns.cw.net [195.2.30.61]
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Download speed 28.35

Upload Speed: 3.47

 Ping Latency 42.88

[Retired-Simon]

Hi willc01,

Although you have a missing hop at step 2, your tests look fine.

Please could you take a look here for more help on poor audio quality - Sure Signal - Call Audio Quality Issues

Thanks,

Simon