VOIP, Discussion, questions and answers

Saeed

I have been using MySipSwitch to switch calls and it has worked very well. However recently it has become more and more unstable due to the switch to sipSorcery! I have deceided to use an old PC for a sipserver based at home. This means everything is under my control. No more my mum telling me the phone does not work etc....

I am using an application called MiniSipServer. It is a windows based sip server, has an extremely small footprint, I run it on a P2/350MHz/128MB/4GB HDD!

All I used MySipSwitch for was simple routing via multiple VoSP's and multiple incoming VoIP DID's. MiniSipServer handles this needs well and is extremely simple to set up and use. I had it set up within an hour!

Will use it atleast until SipSorcery is established and then consider my options.

If anyone know any similar windows based apps that can do the above then please let me know.

So far I have tried:-
Axon - looked promising but it is no good at routing calls.
3CX - seems fully featured but did not like my P2 computer:rolleyes:, looks like it needs a resonable P4. Will try with a P3 I have lying about and report back.

Others Linux to consider:

PBX in a Flash - seems to get rave reviews on the internet, but not tried it yet
Elastix - again well like and fully featured, but not tried it yet.

tonyhamm

Yeah my Linksys ATA could only have 1 service on each port which for me meant two seperate phones - 1 for incoming calls and 1 for outgoing calls. Thought mysipswitch would be a solution and just use one phone - but its just too unstable.

Too much jerryrigging.

Now have minor drawback of two phones instead. But at least its reliable.

Saeed

tonyhamm wrote: »

Yeah my Linksys ATA could only have 1 service on each port which for me meant two seperate phones - 1 for incoming calls and 1 for outgoing calls. Thought mysipswitch would be a solution and just use one phone - but its just too unstable.

Too much jerryrigging.

Now have minor drawback of two phones instead. But at least its reliable.

You can have that functionality, all you need to do it cross flash the PAP2 with the sp1001 firmware IIRC

waterman3

Hello

I've been using Voipcheap for a few months now but sometimes the other person's voice distorts or it sounds like they're talking really slow or it just cuts out altogether.

I'm not sure if that's a problem with Voipcheap or if maybe its my phone. I don't think it should be the phone as i have with the echo cancellation etc.

Was thinking about trying Skype and seeing if that would be any better. Just wondered if anybody else has had similar problems

Thanks

tonyhamm

Hmm..My guess is that your router is causing the distortion.

The main problems when you have an ATA are usually concerned with echo. Peoples voice echoing back to them is still the main problem for me. From researching the issues with distortion and VOIP a major part of the problem is the router (and traffic management). The rest; settings in the ATA and the handset used.

I got a better 2nd hand router from an auction site, it made a very big difference to the call quality, but as its old, it only has a QoS precusor, called Bandwidth Management. This only allows you to prioritise a port, not the IP address of the device.Still its made a massive, massive difference to the distortion and voice breakups I used to get regularly.

What you ideally want is a router with QoS - this lets you easily setup the VOIP IP to override all other IP traffic (iplayer downloads, gaming etc..) and this will solve any distortion coming from IP conflicts concerning the router.

tonyhamm

Saeed wrote: »

You can have that functionality, all you need to do it cross flash the PAP2 with the sp1001 firmware IIRC

Couldn't find any reference to doing this on google. I have a PAP2-NA with Linksys 5.6.1 (LS) firmware, (unlocked) and it only allows you to set up a SINGLE VOIP service on each phone port. So, if you have a service provider for incoming calls and a seperate provider for outgoing calls, you have to use 2 phones - one on each port!
:eek:

Saeed

tonyhamm wrote: »

Couldn't find any reference to doing this on google. I have a PAP2-NA with Linksys 5.6.1 (LS) firmware, (unlocked) and it only allows you to set up a SINGLE VOIP service on each phone port. So, if you have a service provider for incoming calls and a seperate provider for outgoing calls, you have to use 2 phones - one on each port!
:eek:

keep looking, it is possible to flash it with spa 1001 firmware and use 1 port for 2 voip line;)

pardal51

I use a linksys SPA-3102 firmware 1.1.5 - justvoip. I do not have any echo problems or anything else. It is hooked to my basic O2 Thomson router.

tonyhamm

I am using OLEG openWRT operating system on a (£30) 2nd hand ASUS WL500g router (this free OS http://wl500g.info/ comes with bandwidth management). I have dumped my other router as there was too much trouble with it and the ATA when under load.

I have found the trick to solve my severe problems with peoples voices echoing back tothem, was to use bandwidth management to assign my Linksys PAP2 NA ATA IP a minimum 100kbit download and 40 kbit upload on port 5060 (and leave the download ip port entry blank so all traffic is prioritsed from this ip).
You must be able to prioritise *all* ip traffic on *all ports* going TO the ATA's IP address (i.e. Download), and set the ATA IP 5060 port an min upload bandwidth. Anything else didn't cut out the echo problems for me.

There are tears in my eyes as I am writing this...At last, after many months of struggle, touch wood everything is fine with the ATA two phone setup I have now, even under the load of iplayer streams and family ip traffic.
It seems nearly all the problems I experianced with my ATA are router traffic dependant.
I would advise getting a router with QoS or very good bandwidth management if your getting a ATA. Its not worth the hairloss any other way.

Saeed

tonyhamm wrote: »

I am using OLEG openWRT operating system on a (£30) 2nd hand ASUS WL500g router (this free OS http://wl500g.info/ comes with bandwidth management). I have dumped my other router as there was too much trouble with it and the ATA when under load.

I have found the trick to solve my severe problems with peoples voices echoing back tothem, was to use bandwidth management to assign my Linksys PAP2 NA ATA IP a minimum 100kbit download and 40 kbit upload on port 5060 (and leave the download ip port entry blank so all traffic is prioritsed from this ip).
You must be able to prioritise *all* ip traffic on *all ports* going TO the ATA's IP address (i.e. Download), and set the ATA IP 5060 port an min upload bandwidth. Anything else didn't cut out the echo problems for me.

There are tears in my eyes as I am writing this...At last, after many months of struggle, touch wood everything is fine with the ATA two phone setup I have now, even under the load of iplayer streams and family ip traffic.
It seems nearly all the problems I experianced with my ATA are router traffic dependant.
I would advise getting a router with QoS or very good bandwidth management if your getting a ATA. Its not worth the hairloss any other way.

Thanks for contributing to the thread. My personal experience with ATA is poor, I have a Dlink VTA ATA unlocked, a PAP2 ATA unlocked, a 3 Netgear TA612Vs, and 2 Linksys RT31P2. I had been using a Netgear TA612V for 2 years without problems, but thought I would give some other other kit a go. I found the PAP2 performed poorly via a router especially as my wireless router does not QoS, and even if it did, I don't think it would be perfect.

The best bit of kit I have found is the Netgear TA612V's which are voip ROUTERS and therefore have QoS built into them and they have performed faultlessly over the past 2-3 years. Infact I now have 2 TA612V's installed, one at my house and another at my brothers and they have been rock solid - no echoing and hardly any voice dropouts. I would never use a ATA unless I had a router running DDWRT or Tomato firmware with QoS enabled. The Linksys RT31P2 which is very similar to the TA612V also do QoS and are a good bit of kit, but strangely the PAP2's are more expensive than the RT31P2's or TA612V's.