VOIP lag on outgoing calls

[bilal]

I've sent this off:

To: support@dynalink.com.au
Cc: residentialsupport@exetel.com.au

To Whom It May Concern,

I'm with a VoIP provider (Exetel), using RTA1046VW for SIP calls.

What happens is that some times when I call particular type of numbers, the person being called cannot hear my voice for any duration up to approximately 40 seconds.

Most of the time the person just gives up and hangs up, and we have to resort to using alternative calling methods.

I purchased a Linksys PAP2T and wired it up behind tha RTA1046VW, and have no such issues.

There are many other clients who are complaining of the same problem and currently no pointers have been provided to resolve the issue from any party.

I'm aware that there could be many factors from either side (device / provider) and urge some collaboration / testing effort to be coordinated to resolve the problem.

Exetel is still advertising the modem for purchase, and I think this is a positive thing that Dynalink should contribute to maintain.

It would be a shame for an otherwise solid performing device not to have this issue sorted out.

Thanks,

Bilal

[jpm]

Lets hope that will at least gets some response.

For my part, i've seemingly had some small improvement. Lag not as long and occassionally no lag.

Hopefully, someone at exetel or dynalink will take some interest in retifying this problem.

jpm

[bilal]

After I sent that email, Exetel Support's been chasing things up with me for testing, etc.

I guess I was expecting some follow-up through the forums. We'll see what happens with the troubleshooting.

Also, like you mentioned, I've noticed that lag's down to about 10s on average. Still enough to make people shut the phoen in your face, though...

So far some config settings have been made. I've been asked to try a different handset and let the machine sleep for 15 minutes and try again. It'll take some time to get a phone...

Lets hope that will at least gets some response.

For my part, i've seemingly had some small improvement. Lag not as long and occassionally no lag.

Hopefully, someone at exetel or dynalink will take some interest in retifying this problem.

jpm

[robytseng]

Lets hope that will at least gets some response.

For my part, i've seemingly had some small improvement. Lag not as long and occassionally no lag.

Hopefully, someone at exetel or dynalink will take some interest in retifying this problem.

jpm

Has there been any developments on this?

It's great that telemarketers aren't able to get through but I do want this issue resolved without having to buy additional equipment.
.

[bilal]

I've finally gotten my hands on an alternative wired phone.

Done some testing / observation. No difference in phone type.

Currently it seems that lag is down to between 3s to 6s.

Dynalink/Netcomm's gotten back to me suggesting to try and re-update the firmware on the box, sighting the possibility that the previous update could've had some corruption artifacts (in my own words). (something tells me there is no problem here, but oh well...)

Still waiting on feedback from Exetel support though, before doing any firmware ruffling. I only just sent them test results noon today.

[jokiin]

Dynalink/Netcomm's gotten back to me suggesting to try and re-update the firmware on the box, sighting the possibility that the previous update could've had some corruption artifacts (in my own words). (something tells me there is no problem here, but oh well...)

I would agree, one user having a problem then maybe corrupt firmware but there is too much of a pattern to it for them to be that lucky, they really need to look at it and get an updated firmware out to resolve this issue

[basshead]

I have had my 1046VW connected for 35 days continuously (basically since it arrived from exetel), and only in the last couple of weeks I have noticed similar problems as experienced by numerous other users in this thread. However I have been experiencing the same thing on INCOMING calls. The phone rings perhaps 3-4 times and I answer it and hear dead silence. The first time I heard it I assumed they'd hung up on me at the same time as I answered the phone, but a glance at the phone's display showed the timer counting, then I heard them start talking as if I'd just picked up the phone. The silence seems to be getting longer and longer. I receive regular calls from a relative, and the highest the timer on the phone has got was 38 seconds before hearing the caller. I asked her if she could hear me (I just kept saying "hello" every 5 seconds or so) and she said that she was just about to hang up as it kept ringing on her end and she thought we weren't home. So that would indicate that the caller isn't getting the "pickup" signal to say that I've answered the phone.

Before reading everyone else's comments and suggestions, I had already thought of trying the usual restart modem and check all connections routine, but most responses have been that it was unsuccessful. I'll give it a try anyway. I have all the settings as instructed (IP address as proxy and SIP server, instead of URL).

I did a daignostic test and it came back with all pass except
Test ATM OAM F4 segment ping: FAIL
Test ATM OAM F4 end-to-end ping: FAIL

I don't understand how everything would be working fine for a couple of weeks, then all of a sudden the lag randomly appearing (and more often than not). My first thought was perhaps the memory in the modem was fragmenting (if it's even got memory to fragment) thus a restart may solve it...

I guess I'll contact dynalink as previously suggested if a modem restart doesn't fix it, and wait for them to come up with a solution, seeing as no-one else seems to have a known one (apart from buying new hardware, which I'm not keen to do after only buying it just over a month ago). I also hardly think it's a warranty issue as alot of others are experiencing the same problem.

Just one last thought - my modem is sitting on it's side (ie: standing vertical). Is everyone else's the same orientation? Perhaps it's an overheating issue (we are getting warmer weather now, but not likely hot enough to cause problems such as this!).

[mvs]

Just one last thought - my modem is sitting on it's side (ie: standing vertical). Is everyone else's the same orientation? Perhaps it's an overheating issue (we are getting warmer weather now, but not likely hot enough to cause problems such as this!).

Mine's horizontal but raised slightly at the front for better air flow. The problem's been happening for me over the winter months so I doubt that an overheating modem would be the cause.

Here's the reply I received from Dynalink Tech Support:

Hi there

At this stage, I would suggest you to update/reload firmware just in case the current firmware is outdated or interrupted.

Please find and download the firmware from this link:

http://kb.netcomm.com.au/kb/default.asp?id=2712&Lang=1

To upgrade the firmware, please:

--- Select the country you are in

--- Now you are expected to see two download links. One of them is for the actual firmware file and the other is for the instructions file.

--- Please download both, read and follow the instructions to upgrade the modem.

Thanks for the inquiry.
Regards
Technical Support_RL
NetComm and Dynalink LTD



and my reply:

Thank you for your reply and suggestion.

I did have current firmware loaded but I have reloaded it as suggested and manually re-entered all settings.

Unfortunately, the problem is still occurring. As I have indicated below many other users of this device are also experiencing this.

It would be appreciated if your technical support would investigate this further.

[mvs]

However I have been experiencing the same thing on INCOMING calls.

This has always happened for me but the lag on incoming calls is only about 2 secs, so when its been ringing, you pick up, answer it and you would need to say hello twice. I'm used to this now and wait until I hear the callers background noise before speaking.

[bilal]

I would suggest starting a new thread not to confuse the problems.

[the_aph]

I have 3 of these modems. The lags has decrease to about 5 -10 seconds since I first started the tread, but this still isn't acceptable. Is there some way we can return our modems and receive a refund?


Rob

[jimbob]

We haven't been Exetel customers for long, by just during the last week we've also started to notice the same problem with outgoing calls. The delay is long enough that people have been hanging up on us because they think we are telemarketers! We have a RTA1046VW.

[bilal]

I suggest you log a ticket and go through the official support lines as well as following this thread.

That way we up the anti, "officially".

I haven't recieved any recent feedback on my ticket from Exetel since I sent them my test results back.

I wanted to act upong Dynalink's advice so I could progress the issue from their side as well, but I'm waiting for Exetel to do their stuff, first.

[basshead]

I did a modem reboot (NOT to factory default settings) and also checkmarked the "Enable Voice Activity Detection" in the VOIP SIP Extension settings (as shown in a screengrab of that settings page abit earlier in this thread) - I previously had it uncheckmarked.

I haven't had many calls in or out to know if it's solved the problem but will report back in a week or so after we've had some time to trial it...

[jaymes1]

I'm approaching the end of my second month with naked adsl2 now relying on it for my phone. Since the beginning I've had this 10s lag on outgoing calls and very scratchy intermittant talk during the call itself (although this isn't as persistant as the lag).

It's taken this long to go through exetel support, doing all the things they wanted me to (isolating the line, using another router to check speed issues, changing the cord to the router, etc). They passed it on to optus who sent out a tech to check the line. Apparently there was a fault there but it didn't improve anything.

I contacted Dynalink support 2 weeks ago and still no response from them.

Still I'm getting voip that is almost unusable. My mobile bill has tripled because I've had to use it so much. Looks like the huge savings I was hoping for by dropping line rental etc were a dream. I hope this issue gets fixed soon or I'll have to throw this rta 1046vw in the bin and hope i get lucky with the next brand I choose.

It's a shame because everything else about this plan with exetel is working great.