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Skype problems on my end

  • 26-06-2009 1:07am
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,598 ✭✭✭


    Installed Skype about three months ago when we finally got broadband.
    The problem is when having a conversation, although I can hear the other person fine, I can only be heard in bursts. For maybe a minute they'll hear me absolutely fine, then I'm gone for maybe 2 minutes, replaced by white noise.
    Then I'll be heard again for a minute and gone again etc...

    I thought it may have been the webcam but I've also used a mic and it's the same.
    I'm wondering if it may be an issue with the broadband connection.

    Wondering if anyone has any ideas or experienced something similar?


Comments

  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 191 ✭✭malachy47


    My first thought is that based on the symptoms you describe it is most likely your broadband connection.

    Many VOIP call issues have to do with NAT/Port Forwarding where only one side of a conversation is heard. The fact that both sides are present, albeit one is of poor quality in your case rules those types of issue out. So does the fact that it's Skype.

    Who is your BB provider? What download speed, and more importantly, upload speed do they promise to deliver? Are you running any other program that is sending data back to the internet? Torrents e.g.?

    What kind of result does www.speedtest.net give you? Esp. the upload speed?

    If everything still looks ok you may have a contention issue with other users sharing your ISP's backhaul. If the ISP can't help, you may be better off trying another provider.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 220 ✭✭esskay


    Voip quality is very dependant on good/low latency. A simple test is to open a command window (Start->Run->cmd) and type

    ping -t www.google.com

    this will send 32 bytes of test data to the google server and measure the time it takes to get there and back.

    You will see results as follows

    Reply from 216.239.59.104: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=249

    The time= part is the one your interested in. If its under 100 that good, anything over 170 is heading towards trouble. check to see if it goes up and down at random and it you see "Request timed out" that's definitely going to be causing you trouble.

    Hope this helps,

    Esskay


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,598 ✭✭✭cashback


    I did that speedtest and the results seem very poor. I don't know if this is because I live in the midlands and the nearest server I could choose was in Dublin.
    I don't download much but certainly don't notice a major issue when watching youtube videos etc.
    BB is by IFA telecom. AFAIK it's a 1mb connection but was meant to be upgraded to 2mb by now, maybe it is.


    505722884.png

    esskay i tried that. It kept repeating over and over but the average was 21ms to 25ms. Now and again though it went up to 225 or even over 1000ms then back to low twenties. Not sure if that is significant.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 191 ✭✭malachy47


    I suspect you're in 48:1 land.

    Anyways, youtube can't be used as a reference for VOIP, as video employs a mix of buffering and bursting before and during playback. If you used those tricks for voice, while you might get full sentences of speech, the conversation would not be in sequence, nor would it be spontaneous. Or seen another way, video is a one way conversation, human conversation is not. So a smooth youtube experience in and of itself is no guarantee of a smooth voice conversation (as you've found out :().

    More relevant here are your ping response times. I would venture that what you describe as "now and again" times of above 200 correspond to those moments that the other person gets garbage on their end. And even if there are only "now and again" the VOIP protocol still has to renegotiate after each occurrence, so even a small timeout can produce significant conversation outages.

    I don't know anything about IFA telecom, but given that ESAT shows up on your speedtest.net result I guess they are a virtual operator using BT Ireland infrastructure. In any case I would contact IFA telecom support and ask them to investigate from their end.

    If IFA telecom say it's normal SLA for your particular plan you may have to upgrade to a higher level offering, which would cost more but should have less contention. But if you are contended at 48:1, you've now found the "catch" in the "unbeatable deal" :eek:.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,598 ✭✭✭cashback


    Well I suppose the best thing to do is get onto my ISP and see if they have any ideas. Maybe I'll consider switching to someone else. Thanks for the replies.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,598 ✭✭✭cashback


    Just to wrap up this thread, I got onto the ISP who got Eircom out to check the line. There had been a bit of a crackley noise on the line alright and the Eircom guy fixed the fault today. Just had an uninterrupted 40minute Skype call!
    Thanks to those who posted...


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