Voipbuster - unusable over last month or so

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Stix

81 posts

Master Geek

#48878 17-Nov-2009 09:10

Hi,
I am wondering if anyone else using Voipbuster has been experiencing really poor quality calls to the PSTN/landlines in Europe over the last month or so? We have been using Voipbuster to call landlines in Austria with no problems for some years now. However the service has degraded so much as to be unusable over the last month or 2.

Calls are not connecting, some with one way speech etc.

Complaints via their email support have not really helped.

Looks like QOS/routing/capacity issues or general poor call quality when accessing from downunder broadband ISPs as i had the same problesm in Australia recently using 3 ISPs there?

I am running TCL cable broadband in Christchurch - Skypeout still works fine, so it seems to me that it has to be a Voipbuster issue or the possible downunder international links to their servers in Europe??
Cheers

kiwiscoota

237 posts

Master Geek

#274078 18-Nov-2009 00:00

While I do not use Voipbuster, I do use voip (2Talk) to call Europe, specifically Germany, France & Italy and I have not had any issues what so ever with call quality recently.

This suggests to me that your issues are more likely to be Voipbuster related.

Stix

81 posts

Master Geek

#274399 19-Nov-2009 08:21

Thanks kiwiscoota for your feedback. Certainly agree that it does appear to be a Voipbuster access or server issue. Another possibility is "traffic shaping" by NZ ISP to delay VOIP traffic with sevices like Voipbuster (hopefully they are not doing this though). I am still interested to hear if any other NZ/Aust Voipbuster users are experiencing similiar problems in calling Europe. Cheers

diedaar

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#274626 20-Nov-2009 00:29

Hi Stix,

I'm a long time user of VOIPBUSTER, and recently switched from the Telecom PRo plan to Big Time.
When I was on the PRO plan 95 plus procent of my calls to Europe (Holland) and America were fine, sometimes a bit choppy to start but during the call they became nice and clear. (usally much better then calls made via Telecom to Holland)
Upto now I do not notice a difference after the plan change, made some really lengthy calls today with, I would say, less then two miniutes choppy sound on a total call time of plus 3 hours and no echo to speak off.

I don't use the VOIPBUSTER client but connect with VOIPBUSTER via an Asterisk server and SIP.
I have QOS set on my home router (Linksys WRT54Gl with Tomato firmware)which really made a difference.

I also noticed that inetrnet traffic on Telecom broadband to Europe is routed via America, when I was using Slingshot the traffic was routed via Asia and I had noticable lag (delays) during my calls, not so now.

I also have found that there is a big difference in call quality to Holland depending on the telco operator of the person on the other side, usually the cheaper operators have really bad call quality (less then cheap cell phones). On occasion when people from Holland call me on my Telecom connection over a landline connection the quality is so bad that I offer to call them back(via VOIPBUSTER) and 9 out of 10 times the call quality is more then good.

I know VOIPBUSTER has more then their fare share of problems and customer service has never been great (reading the complaints on the internet) any email send just ends up in a black hole (again complains on the Inetrnet and the VOIBUSTER forum), but they do have a forum (
https://forum.voipbuster.com/ )they sometimes look at.

BTW just checked, there is a VOIPBUSTER forum topic about contacting customer support, you have to use this link (no more email):
http://www.voipbuster.com/en/feedback.html

Cheers,

Stix

81 posts

Master Geek

#274788 20-Nov-2009 17:57

Hi There diedaar,
Thanks very much for your feedback and insight on your experiences. Like you we have had great peformance for 7 years or so until recently calling Austria (the landlines we call are with Telecom Austria so is good quality PSTN grade connections at that end). We get some of that choppiness at start of a call as well, but overall the European and Canadina calls have been good. It is interesting that your service is via Telecom broadband, and your note re comparison to Slingshot asian routing. I suspect that TelstraClear may be now be mucking about with their European routing at times, resulting in higher latency, and also more congestion at times too. My Traceroutes show some evidence of this in Auckland with their international traffic. The service has improved again in the last few days, so will see where it goes. We may be forced to switch back to Telecom again at some stage if the TCL cable network is problematic - time will tell Concur re their Customer Service being poor as well, do appreciate the Voipbuster forum info too.

Thanks Again & Regards

Stix

81 posts

Master Geek

#274790 20-Nov-2009 18:00

Ps - Fyi have been using the Voipbuster web client for years successfully, but may try using them via SIP on a port on my Linksys WRP400 (taking your WRP / Asterisk lead Diedarr).

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#274892 21-Nov-2009 08:02

Stix: Thanks kiwiscoota for your feedback. Certainly agree that it does appear to be a Voipbuster access or server issue. Another possibility is "traffic shaping" by NZ ISP to delay VOIP traffic with sevices like Voipbuster (hopefully they are not doing this though). I am still interested to hear if any other NZ/Aust Voipbuster users are experiencing similiar problems in calling Europe. Cheers

TelstraClear do not have any traffic shaping in place that would affect VoIP quality.

Stix

81 posts

Master Geek

#277683 30-Nov-2009 08:58

Hi - An update for those interested - We have now been accessing voipbuster via their SIP server and my Linksys WRP400 for about 5 days now. This certainly improves the performance with the more b/w efficient G729a codec than the web soft client method. However last night we were back to un-useable performance over our TCL cable broadband when trying to call Europe - had to revert to the PSTN to call.

I still think the performance of TCL international links have been degrading over the last few months and this is impacting Voipbuster? I note similiar international peformance grumbles/issues from some users in the TCL GZ forum; Youtube Users (buffering) and gamers (ping times and disconnects) with TCL Cable int'l broadband. I see that Olof/TCL IP team have been working to try and rectify this, putting in some caching for Youtube. I see that there is now a consistent significant time out showing up in my Tracert to Voipbuster.com particularly in the 3rd routing hop at from TCL cable to their international gateway and in Europe (see copy of my trace routes if below you are interested). This 3 hop timeout is not evident in national/NZ traffic request (this tracert incl below), so my guess it is something to do with TCL's international traffic management ??

I also see that TCL/Reach are now using different transit carriers on their routes to Europe - there appears to be significant congestion on route?? I think I will open another posting in the TCL section and see if Olof will comment on Voip international performance.
Cheers

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>tracert www.voipbuster.com

Tracing route to www.voipbuster.com [77.72.169.20]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 31 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.15.1
2 11 ms 11 ms 10 ms 121-72-239-1.cable.telstraclear.net [121.72.239.
1]
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 21 ms 22 ms 22 ms ie1-g-0-0-0.telstraclear.net [203.98.50.1]
5 23 ms 22 ms 23 ms ge-0-2-0-1.xcore1.acld.telstraclear.net [203.98.
50.251]
6 22 ms 22 ms 21 ms 203.167.233.10
7 147 ms 148 ms 147 ms i-3-1-0.wil-core02.bx.reach.com [202.84.142.129]

8 148 ms 148 ms 148 ms i-1-1.tlot03.bi.reach.com [202.84.251.234]
9 154 ms 148 ms 156 ms gin-eql-icore1.tatacommunications.com [206.223.1
23.81]
10 148 ms 149 ms 148 ms if-11-0-0-28.mcore3.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [2
16.6.84.53]
11 224 ms 224 ms 225 ms if-4-0.mcore3.NJY-Newark.as6453.net [216.6.84.2]

12 308 ms 308 ms 308 ms 195.219.69.29
13 307 ms 308 ms 320 ms 195.219.69.34
14 302 ms 301 ms 303 ms ix-13-3.icore1.F2C-Frankfurt.as6453.net [195.219
.183.114]
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 302 ms 301 ms 301 ms 77.72.170.253
17 300 ms 359 ms 301 ms 77.72.169.20

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

here is a Tracert of NZ traffic (to Clear.net.nz) - interestingly does not have a time out at step 3 as it goes to CLIX

Tracing route to clear.net.nz [203.97.37.85]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1

Sharesies

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Stix

81 posts

Master Geek

#277690 30-Nov-2009 09:18

Here is the NZ trarfic Tracert to Clearnet - that dropped off my last post...

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>tracert www.clear.net.nz

Tracing route to clear.net.nz [203.97.37.85]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1

Stix

81 posts

Master Geek

#277691 30-Nov-2009 09:19

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>tracert www.clear.net.nz

Tracing route to clear.net.nz [203.97.37.85]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1