Anyone got a Zoom 5567?

gerryo

Looking to get one of these, good price over on digidave.ie.

However, in a review here http://www.voipuser.org/review_9.html it gets 2 bad marks.

1. No UPnP

Not sure how important that is to me, some might say it should be disabled. I could probably live without it.

2. Speed reduction

It seems to reduce the net connection speed , the reviewer had a 5 mb/S cable connection, this dropped to ~ 2.5 Mb/S when the 5567 was introduced.
Not sure if that means it always drops the connection speed by half (i.e. 2Mb/S-> 1Mb/S or 1Mb/S -> 0.5Mb/S ), but it's a black mark anyway.

So, anyone got one?

How well does it work, maybe these issues have been fixed , review was back in Jan 2005, but problem was still there in June 2005 on newer fw?

Also, Zoom tech support seems to introduce a fair amount of bugs, see http://www.zoom.com/techsupport/voip/voip_5567.shtml. That bug which prevents IP to IP (no SIP server) dialing is a bad one.

There appear to be no fw upgrades since end '05 (& that was for USA models only), so looks like a product Zoom don't really care about (about to or already discontinued/heavily discounted.

If it's dud, can anyone recommend a device with similar features?

Do-more

Hi Gerry I have the Zoom X5v 5585 purchased from digidave in April. I've been very happy with it. AFAIK it's the same as the one your looking at with the addition of a DSL modem. I have it running on a 1 meg Eircom connection configured with voipcheap. Don't use the router at all as I have just the one PC. I believe there is a wireless router version available also although dave doesn't appear to stock it.

Plus points - QoS for VoIP gives bandwidth priority to VoIP traffic so no choppy or dropped calls. But sometimes it means that if VoIP is in use I have no upload bandwidth and cannot browse!

Bad points - Can only be configured for one VoIP provider at a time. Not an issue if you are only using one, but some will want the option of multiple providers for best lowest cost call routing.

Check the VoIP forum on www.dslreports.com for more opinions.

gerryo

Do-more wrote:

Hi Gerry I have the Zoom X5v 5585 purchased from digidave in April....Don't use the router at all as I have just the one PC.

Ok, I did not know the router could be switched off, or do you mean you just used the Zoom box to route VoIP only? If that's the case, how did you connect up the PC & the Zoom box to the internet at the same time?

Do-more wrote:

Plus points - QoS for VoIP gives bandwidth priority to VoIP traffic so no choppy or dropped calls. But sometimes it means that if VoIP is in use I have no upload bandwidth and cannot browse!

This sounds wrong, VoIP should be ~100Kb/S at worst, so there should be reasonable amounts left for browsing (assuming you have more than 128Kb/S upload speed). Can you clarify?

Do-more wrote:

Check the VoIP forum on www.dslreports.com for more opinions.

Had a look, but did not find much to go on, it's a huge site. Found more reviews in some UK forums. Looked at a Zyxel router/ATA, very similar to the Zoom, but it had only one Lan port.

Do-more

gerryo wrote:

Ok, I did not know the router could be switched off, or do you mean you just used the Zoom box to route VoIP only? If that's the case, how did you connect up the PC & the Zoom box to the internet at the same time?

I mean that I have only one PC connected, not multiple

gerryo wrote:

This sounds wrong, VoIP should be ~100Kb/S at worst, so there should be reasonable amounts left for browsing (assuming you have more than 128Kb/S upload speed). Can you clarify?

My upload normally clocks at 109kbps, I'm sure if I changed the codecs in use it would solve the problem, but don't want to go messing with it! Now that Eircon have reduced price on the 2 meg package I'm going to upgrade now anyway.

gerryo

Do-more wrote:

My upload normally clocks at 109kbps, I'm sure if I changed the codecs in use it would solve the problem, but don't want to go messing with it! Now that Eircon have reduced price on the 2 meg package I'm going to upgrade now anyway.

Do you have a 1 meg down 128kbs up, is that the case?

If so, then it's no surprise your browsing stops, the upload limit is almost reached, only a few kbs left. And this is good, as I assume if there was more bw available, you could continue browsing. Looks like the Zoom is able to manage the bw & keep enough in reserve to maintain good voice quality.

Sounds like you are using G.711 (A or u law) codec, which is best quality (if you have a good connection & the bw for it). The Zoom only supports G.711 or G.729A, which is a bit limiting, ideally it would support G.723 & G.726, but G.711 is best quality, probably the closest to regular POTS.

Thanks for the feedback, I really like the features of the Zoom 5567 & if I could be sure it did not throttle the connection I'd snap one up right away. However, losing 1/3 to 1/2 bw through a router (perhaps because it's too slow) is a major big deal.

I'd love to know if the guy who reviewed the zoom 5567 way back in early 2005 was using SPI, that might explain why it slowed down.

If SPI causes the slowdown, I'd probably not use this feature & could live with it just doing regular firewall/port blocking stuff.

Then again, I'd be surprised of the 5585 fw is that different (in the router section) from the 5567 & you've reported no speed throttling.

The Zoom is a top 3 selling product on Digidave.ie., must be ok, or we'd have heard something by now.

lzbones

I use the zoom V3 with Esat BT and freespeech and it's a great little router, I also use a GXP 2000 behind the router now and the V3 provides quality of service. I get occasional delays when surfing and on the phone.

The only downside to this router I see is there is no visual indication on the router if it de-registers but since I use it with the GXP 2000 most of the time this is not realy an issue.

gerryo

lzbones wrote:

I use the zoom V3 with Esat BT and freespeech and it's a great little router, I also use a GXP 2000 behind the router now and the V3 provides quality of service. I get occasional delays when surfing and on the phone.

Great feedback thanks!
What is your upload speed?
Have you tried the speed test @ www.irishisptest.com ?

Just wondering if the (only twice reported) speed reduction problem was ever fixed, if you see little or no difference with the Zoom 5567 in/out of the path, then I guess there are no problems.

lzbones

I tried this one - http://voiptest.freespeech.ie:81/ apparently it's a trial (perhaps I shouldn't be posting url )

anyway my results were

Speed test statistics

---

Download speed: 2569920 bps
Upload speed: 317256 bps
Quality of service: 99 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 9 ms
Average download pause: 4 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 91 ms
Average round trip time to server: 232 ms

VoIP test statistics

---

Jitter: you --> server: 2.7 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 8.7 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported VoIP lines: 5
Estimated MOS score: 4.0

gerryo

lzbones wrote:

...
Download speed: 2569920 bps
Upload speed: 317256 bps

Great results!
I'm guessing you have a 3Mbs/512Kbs service?

If so, looks like there are no problems, except maybe with really fast , as in greater than 5 Mbs services, which I don't have.

I think I'll order one.

Do-more

Hi Gerry

I've now had my package upgraded to 2 Meg. But they don't appear to have increased my upload speed, it's exactly the same as before. In testing my line I tried my old Netopia modem to be sure it wasn't the Zoom that was causing the problem. Turns out that my speeds are marginally better with the Zoom compared to the Netopia! Zoom = 1780 kbps down, 110 kbps up, Netopia = 1747 kbps down, 106 kbps up. Thought this might be of interest to you. Now hopefully Eircom BB support can get my upload speed sorted!

gerryo

Do-more wrote:

Hi Gerry

I've now had my package upgraded to 2 Meg. But they don't appear to have increased my upload speed, it's exactly the same as before. In testing my line I tried my old Netopia modem to be sure it wasn't the Zoom that was causing the problem. Turns out that my speeds are marginally better with the Zoom compared to the Netopia! Zoom = 1780 kbps down, 110 kbps up, Netopia = 1747 kbps down, 106 kbps up. Thought this might be of interest to you. Now hopefully Eircom BB support can get my upload speed sorted!

There's not much in it & it might be due to network variations, but the Zoom sounds like a good box for the money, so I'll see if digidave has any left in stock.

Do-more

gerryo wrote:

There's not much in it & it might be due to network variations, but the Zoom sounds like a good box for the money, so I'll see if digidave has any left in stock.

There's absolutely feck all in it!

The info was only to alay your fears posted earlier about the Zoom knocking back the connection speed considerably.

Best of luck, let us know how you get on!

gerryo

Do-more wrote:

There's absolutely feck all in it!

The info was only to alay your fears posted earlier about the Zoom knocking back the connection speed considerably.

Best of luck, let us know how you get on!

Thanks for the info.

Ordered the zoom 5567 on 19th October, still awaiting delivery from supplier (Digidave.ie). Looks like they sold out fairly quickly, hope they do get stock.

They have not given me a delivery date, if it falls through, the prices elsewhere are higher, so I might go with a Dlink 1402S from Komplett.

Although, I heard bad things about Dlink reliability.

gerryo

Got the Zoom 5567 late last week, have only just set it up for Voip (freespeech). Still have it behind a linux server, want to configure it properly before I let it out into the big bad internet.

So far, VoIP works fine, had to do a DNAT rule to get incoming RTP stream through the linux box to the Zoom, but that's only temporary. Freespeech's autoconfigure option did not work, had to do it manually, probably 'cos it's behind a server.

Have used the Zoom's USB port as a network connection, worked just fine, no speed loss. I see there is new firmware available from the home page, not sure what it fixes/what is new, but I'll consider upgrading in the near future, might get some more features.

Good to see it is still supported even though it's getting on a bit now.