Suresignal V2 Audio quality issues - outbound

[prg350]

Hi,

Ive havent had much success with Voda CS so thought id try here.

Basically ive had a SS v2 working fine until I moved house and changed ISP to Vfast (Wimax) as the ADSL speeds here are terrible! Basically since then Ive had audio quality issues when using my Sure Signal. I can hear the callers fine, but they cant hear me clearly. Its badly distorted and inaudiable on every call.

Ive spoken at length to CS and my ISP who have checked speed/latency/jitter etc whithout finding problems.The last person in Voda CS suggested the problem was because I have a 4G phone (I pointed out it supported 3G too and I was registered correctly anyway as had full bars of 3g when the SS was working!! - not much use). My ISP have changed traffic settings, moved me to a new transmitter and done latency/speed tests etc all of which are ok.

I get on average 18-24Mbps down, 6-10Mbps upstream. 

Ive tried resetting my SS (reset button) a few times and waiting 6-24 hours for it to re-register, tried opening the inbound ports as per Sure Signal Network Setup Guide - Vodafone, and even changed the router its plugged into. 

It seems odd that eveyrthing else inc Skype works ok, but not my Sure Signal. Ive read there are compataibility issues with Wimax sometimes, but is there anything at all I can do to get this working? As ADSL is rubbish here (circa 1Mbps) and im on the edge of 2G coming and going im feeling a bit unconnected!!

Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

Hi

Run a traceroute from your PC or Mac to the IP 212.183.133.177 which is Vodafone's Sure Signal server cluster

To do this

Windows:

Press and hold the Windows key (in between Ctrl and Alt) and press R

In run type cmd and click OK

At the prompt type tracert 212.183.133.177 and press enter and wait for the command to finish.

Right-click in the box and left click Select All and press Enter to copy it

Open a reply and paste it into the biox by pressing and holding Ctrl and pressing V

The first three sets of numbers on each line  indicate the round trip average (how long it was before the router or other device responded, measured in milliseconds), if these are 100 or more your audio quality will suffer and this means either something like a heavy download, stream or torrent is active on your connection or your connection has issues that need to be addressed by your ISP, there is nothing Vodafone can do for you.

To eliminate the first, shut down any other devices on your network that are linked to your router via wired or wireless links and make sure your PC is not downloading/uploading anything and then run the trace route again, if the figures are lower try a test call.

If you are sure there is no heavy load on your network but the figures are still high you'll need to talk to your ISP.

[prg350]

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

Traceroute as follows.

traceroute to 212.183.133.177 (212.183.133.177), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

 1  192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)  4.615 ms  1.003 ms  0.787 ms

 2  no-dns-yet-assigned.orbital.net (80.88.211.66)  126.136 ms  140.271 ms  134.513 ms

 3  no-dns-yet-assigned.orbital.net (80.88.211.65)  163.948 ms  139.820 ms  77.108 ms

 4  no-dns-yet-assigned.orbital.net (80.88.212.25)  122.397 ms  89.114 ms  83.184 ms

 5  ge0.ln3.thn.orbital.net (80.88.216.116)  65.164 ms  73.908 ms  60.688 ms

 6  ldn-s10-rou-1041.uk.eurorings.net (134.222.146.14)  61.456 ms  227.482 ms  22.308 ms

 7  ldn-s2-rou-1101.uk.eurorings.net (134.222.231.25)  124.976 ms  73.973 ms  73.591 ms

 8  195.2.22.229 (195.2.22.229)  81.155 ms  75.216 ms  98.661 ms

 9  195.2.30.61 (195.2.30.61)  93.409 ms  70.854 ms  74.095 ms

10  * * *

11  * * *

12  *^C  

This is with no utilisation from my side Ive raised this with my ISP who after changing transmitters I was attached to, making changes in their network basically came back and said (and I quote!) "We have found the Vodaphone Sure signal boxes to be very hit or miss on our network. Vodaphone have confirmed the Sure signal has issues with PPPoE."

I'm in a 2 year contract with them recently started and aside from the SS everything else works well/seems quick. Do I have any other options? Is there a suresignal which does work ok with PPoE?

[Anonymous]

Those response figures are way too high, particularly between your router on the first line and your ISP's edge router on the second.

To get good quality voice on the sure signal on both inbound and outbound the response figures (meansured in milliseconds) need to be below 100 ms.

Your ISP seems to specialise in wireless links and specifically WiMax so I presume this is what you have?

If the signal is weak this would explain the high figures so you need to talk to them about what can be done to try and help with this.

I'll be quite honest and say my knowledge of the technicalities of WiMax is limited but as I support an audio conferencing system as part of my day job I do know the effect of latency on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications.

[markh17]

I've got exactly the same issue Suresignal v3 though with VFast. I can here people on the call crystal clear but I'm distorted to them when I talk. I called VFast and they checked the upload when performing a call and it looked fine.

Also I run voiptalk (VOIP) via granstream voip adapter and it works perfectly 100% of the time. Video conferencing works fine as well only Vodafone Suresignal has a problem.

Given other communication audio and video technologies work fine with VFAST (WiMax technology) and I'm the second person to report this in a different area can you get technical engineers to properly investigate and test the SureSignal technology with WiMax (VFast)?

[prg350]

To be honest in the end I gave up trying to use the sure signal with vfast. As you say everything else works, just not the SS. Nothing vfast or Vodafone could do would fix it so I just signed up a fixed telephone line with free ADSL just for the Sure Signal. I only get 1 Mbps but it works fine and use Vfast for everything else.

You can try and chase Voda/Vfast and see if you have better luck than I did!

[DaveCD]

@markh17 

The Sure Signal isn't compatible with WiMax and this isn't something we'll be able to support.

DaveCD

[runrep]

Weird!!! I have had SS for 4 yrs and it worked well. Switched to plusnet fibre and it went AWOL. Spent 4 days reading blogs till my eyes popped out and pressing buttons/reconfiguring modem/SS....rang Voda (useless)....rang Plusnet (Sorry SS not supported...useless). Finally spoke to 2 helpful Plusnet guys and asked them to read the flaming blogs (dont know if they did but they promised to escalate....?). The blogs say this wont work with PPoE only PPoA. So I gave up......Four days later I looked at SS. Blow me down, four lights and working like a charm!!! So doesnt work with PPoE.....WRONG...it is!!!
Did Plusnet change something meanwhile; Dunno? All I can tell you is, it CAN work with PPoE, coz it IS as of now.
The ONLY thing I can suggest is that VODA say it needs a static IP. So for the princely sum of £5 plusnet gave me my own IP. Stuffed it in...nada. 4 days later....it works?
Frustrated but v happy. GL all.