[WXC/VFX] VFX and Linksys SPA2102 a PITA to setup, now VFX call quality abysmal :-(

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [WXC/VFX] VFX and Linksys SPA2102 a PITA to setup, now VFX call quality abysmal :-(

Wizardling

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#19928 6-Mar-2008 19:36

I won't even get into how Xnet disconnected my SEVEN days before I had the Linksys phone adaptor, despite me being CRYSTAL CLEAR with the person who signed me up that I did not have the SPA2102 yet! This of course left me with only my new Xnet ADSL (I switched from Actrix) and email to communicate with support.

Well what a joke the Xnet tech's explanation was - "all you'll need to do is plug the SPA2102 into your ADSL router and it should just work". Of course it didn't!!! Does it EVER????????? Still, after FW opening and port forwarding on my ZyXEL P660H ADSL router, a factory reset of the SPA2102, interpreting incorrect setup instructions from Xnet and waiting hours for replies to my support emails, I FINALLY had a working VoIP service... or so I thought...

Only I don't really. Call quality is _awful_! Full of static and drop outs. The Xnet techs I spoke to (after waiting half an hour on the phone each time) said I sounded fine unless I really pushed my connection - then they could hear dropouts as well. But I can barely hear them at times.
My ADSL router sees ZERO SIP packets too and from the SPA2102 so I don't think the SPA2102's QoS is working at all. Every time I load a webpage, check email or so much as blink online my call stutters :-(

What a disaster Xnet's VFX is! I don't believe I dropped Telecom and Actrix for this :-( To say I'm disappointed would be a gross understatement.

Regards,
Jamie Kahn Genet

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#115047 6-Mar-2008 20:18

Wizardling: ..."all you'll need to do is plug the SPA2102 into your ADSL router and it should just work". Of course it didn't!!! Does it EVER?????????

NO, not in my experience. I agree that SPA2102 is a PITA to setup. PAP2T or WRTP54G are MUCH easier.

Wizardling: ...I don't think the SPA2102's QoS is working at all. Ever time I load a webpage, check email or so much as blink online my call stutters :-(

Where are the other devices on your LAN connected?

- Into the SPA2102's Ethernet port?
- Or into your ZyXEL router?

maverick

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#115049 6-Mar-2008 20:22

Actually most of the times it does work straight out of the box, other times 99% of the time comes down to routers, port blocking , local setup

Now you say your router see's 0 sip packets why is this it's SIP being passed through it dosn't work on anything else , perhaps your router is not treating the SIP as SIP and may be part of the the issue ?, the QOS on the device is local QOS if have something sitting behind it on the LAN side, on the wan side you will have it plugged in to a switch port and unless you set up QOS on that port for the 2102 then it will be competing with everything else.

Now the quality I can see an issue right from the start as well, your calls show large packet loss and jitter, ie your DSL connection I would say is not performing to well at all.

The service is not a diaster at all we actually have several thousand connections workly very well, your current connection issues are a problem and we will see if we can help you isolate the cause but at this stage it is looking very much like your connection,

Doing some winmtr tests to some common sites would be a help to see where you are getting issues, what is your conection stats form your DSL saying as well, connect speed , noise margins etc, also have you setup any QOS on the port that connects the spa2102, as for the volume you can adjust this as well from the 2102 , so if you can get some of this for us we can try and get you back on track.

Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well

https://www.facebook.com/wxccommunications

bigqueez

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#115053 6-Mar-2008 20:43

My Xnet VFX has been 100% perfect since I got it up and running. As good as if not better than a POTS service.

Persevere and I'm sure you'll be impressed too.

Wizardling

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#115059 6-Mar-2008 21:04

grant_k:
Wizardling: ..."all you'll need to do is plug the SPA2102 into your ADSL router and it should just work". Of course it didn't!!! Does it EVER?????????

NO, not in my experience. I agree that SPA2102 is a PITA to setup. PAP2T or WRTP54G are MUCH easier.

Wizardling: ...I don't think the SPA2102's QoS is working at all. Ever time I load a webpage, check email or so much as blink online my call stutters :-(

Where are the other devices on your LAN connected?

- Into the SPA2102's Ethernet port?
- Or into your ZyXEL router?

At this moment in time my LAN is laid out like this: Mac #1 ---> ZyXEL P660H ADSL router <---> Linksys SPA2102 <--- Mac #2 (temporary position while I need to access the SPA2102's web based configuration utility). Usually I have a ZyXEL P330W WiFi access point/router off the 660H (serving a Mac in the bedroom and a Nintendo DS) and a couple more Macs connected via ethernet, but I'm running light right now for reasons I won't bore you with. Good thing too or I'd have had to resort to some really bad ASCII diagramming :-D

The P660H is configured to open and forward the following ports:

TCP/UDP Ports 8060 - 8065 Signalling

TCP/UDP Ports 5060 - 5065 Signalling

UDP Ports 35384 - 37384 Media

I set QoS to work with SIP. That didn't work so I set it to prioritise all traffic too and from the SPA2102. That seems to be working, but has not improved call quality :-(

Naturally I've configured the 660H for other purposes as well, but that's everything that's at all likely to affect the Linksys SPA2102.

Regards,
Jamie Kahn Genet

grant_k

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#115062 6-Mar-2008 21:12

Wizardling: At this moment in time my LAN is laid out like this: Mac #1 ---> ZyXEL P660H ADSL router

That is your problem right there. Unless you connect ALL other devices via the SPA2102, the QoS cannot possibly work.

You will need to buy an Ethernet switch, or if you really want to do it properly, I would suggest ditching your existing ZyXEL router and get a Linksys WAG54GP2. It will do everything in the one box, and the QoS will take care of everything.

I also had a ZyXEL router and could not get the QoS to work with VFX. Now I have got rid of everything else except for the Linksys router, and call quality is perfect, even when I am sending/receiving large e-mail attachments or doing Speedtests

Wizardling: The P660H is configured to open and forward the following ports:

TCP/UDP Ports 8060 - 8065 Signalling

TCP/UDP Ports 5060 - 5065 Signalling

UDP Ports 35384 - 37384 Media

If you have a WAG54GP2, it won't be necessary to do any of this at all.

P.S. From what Maverick has said, it sounds like there are some issues with your connection, and these will also need to be sorted before you get decent call quality.

Wizardling

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#115063 6-Mar-2008 21:16

I'm also left wondering why I can make very clear Skype calls WHILE my Xnet VoIP goes to hell. I actually did this tonight. I got on Skype while on the phone listening to the call degrade into an utter mess. But Skype was perfect. What amuses me even more (in a rather dark way right now...) is there is NO QoS affecting Skype in my setup and it STILL works far, far better.

So if my connection is too blame then I have to say I don't think much of the VFX VoIP service if I can Skype with a friend in Colorado, USA, but NOT successfully speak with an Xnet tech using VFX VoIP on the very same Island as me.

Regards,
Jamie Kahn Genet

Wizardling

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#115065 6-Mar-2008 21:23

grant_k:
Wizardling: At this moment in time my LAN is laid out like this: Mac #1 ---> ZyXEL P660H ADSL router

That is your problem right there. Unless you connect ALL other devices via the SPA2102, the QoS cannot possibly work.

You will need to buy an Ethernet switch, or if you really want to do it properly, I would suggest ditching your existing ZyXEL router and get a Linksys WAG54GP2. It will do everything in the one box, and the QoS will take care of everything.

I also had a ZyXEL router and could not get the QoS to work with VFX. Now I have got rid of everything else except for the Linksys router, and call quality is perfect, even when I am sending/receiving large e-mail attachments or doing Speedtests
Wizardling: The P660H is configured to open and forward the following ports:

TCP/UDP Ports 8060 - 8065 Signalling

TCP/UDP Ports 5060 - 5065 Signalling

UDP Ports 35384 - 37384 Media

If you have a WAG54GP2, it won't be necessary to do any of this at all.

P.S. From what Maverick has said, it sounds like there are some issues with your connection, and these will also need to be sorted before you get decent call quality.

Why would it matter in the least if other devices are not connected through the SPA2102? They have nothing to do with the SPA2102 or the telephone hooked into it. The only thing the SPA2102 needs to do is use SIP like it's supposed to so my ADSL router can recognise and prioritise it's packets. There need not be any interaction with any other devices besides the ADSL router and phone, unless I'm gravely mistaken...

Also the WAG54GP2v2 is widely unavailable so far as I can see. Even Xnet's link to Linksys's website is broken.

Regards,
Jamie Kahn Genet

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grant_k

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#115066 6-Mar-2008 21:24

Wizardling: ...if my connection is too blame then I have to say I don't think much of the VFX VoIP service if I can Skype with a friend in Colorado, USA, but NOT successfully with an Xnet tech on the same Island as me.

Now THAT is weird

I must admit it doesn't make any sense at all. In my experience, Skype is the FIRST thing that turns to crap, long before VFX is affected because the bitrate of Skype is around 50kbps each way IIRC, versus about 32kbps for VFX.

From what Maverick has mentioned about the large packet loss and jitter, this is looking more and more like a router issue. If you look through the recent threads concerning VFX and call quality issues, you will see that this is a frequent occurrence with third party routers.

Basically, if you can get rid of all other devices and just use the Linksys WAG54GP2 which is directly supported by WxC/VFX, then you have a much better chance of getting everything playing nicely together.

cisconz

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#115074 6-Mar-2008 22:14

In our experience the Zyxel routers do not provide a reliable connection for VoIP.

A client of ours had one that would randomly "forget" about the VoIP PBX attached to it.
After a reboot it would suddenly remember it was there for another 30 mins, and then forget again.

Hmmmm

grant_k

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#115080 6-Mar-2008 22:39

cisconz:
In our experience the Zyxel routers do not provide a reliable connection for VoIP.

It's interesting to hear that. Could explain why I had problems.

Wizardling: Why would it matter in the least if other devices are not connected through the SPA2102? They have nothing to do with the SPA2102 or the telephone hooked into it.

Ahhhh, but they do!

Those other devices can saturate the upstream link unless they are routed through the SPA2102.

Wizardling: The only thing the SPA2102 needs to do is use SIP like it's supposed to so my ADSL router can recognise and prioritise it's packets.

You cannot rely on the QoS in your ZyXEL router to correctly identify and prioritise the SIP packets. I have tried it, and it didn't work.

Wizardling: Also the WAG54GP2v2 is widely unavailable so far as I can see. Even Xnet's link to Linksys's website is broken.

Ascent have them in stock:

http://www.ascent.co.nz/search.aspx?T1=wag54gp2&D1=2101

Wizardling

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#115082 6-Mar-2008 23:07

So another $208.49 will _maybe_ solve this. If I sound grumpy it's only because I face risking even more of my money while studying this year part time and earning considerably less. Plus it doesn't help I'm on my third new computer in three months because the first two were lemons. I'm finding tech issues more stressful right now as a result of months of troubleshooting and issues. I REALLY wish the Xnet tech I'd spoken too about my gear before I joined Xnet had actually known what he was talking about.

/end b*tching and moaning.

Is there anything else that might be done here? I wonder how much it will cost me to move back to Telecom... I bet I get shafted doing that :-( (ok, so I wasn't _quite_ done b*tching).

grant_k

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#115085 6-Mar-2008 23:13

Wizardling: So another $208.49 will _maybe_ solve this...

Is there anything else that might be done here?

On previous occasions, Maverick has been able to loan the appropriate piece of hardware while it is established whether this is the cause of the problem or not.

Talk nicely to him -- he may be able to help you out.

Wizardling

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#115088 6-Mar-2008 23:18

Is this also definitely the right product? I know it's not in right now, but I prefer C1 and if next week (soonest I'll have more money) they get some in earlier than expected I'd rather buy from there.

Regards,
Jamie Kahn Genet

grant_k

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#115090 6-Mar-2008 23:23

Wizardling: Is this also definitely the right product?

Hmmmm, I just noticed this:

Mfg. Part #: WAG54GP2-SG

And on looking more closely, I see that Ascent were offering the same version as well.

It looks to me as though these units were intended for the Singapore market, and have probably come in via a Parallel Importer.

It would pay to check with Maverick whether this version of the WAG54GP2 is compatible with VFX or not. I have only seen the -NZ and -AU versions until now, and both of those are OK, but -SG I'm not sure about.

Wizardling

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#115091 6-Mar-2008 23:24

grant_k:
Wizardling: So another $208.49 will _maybe_ solve this...

Is there anything else that might be done here?

On previous occasions, Maverick has been able to loan the appropriate piece of hardware while it is established whether this is the cause of the problem or not.

Talk nicely to him -- he may be able to help you out.

More interesting to me at this late hour when I've had a couple drinks and am trying to forget how crap technology is: how much does Maverick like Top Gun? Or am I on the wrong track?

Wonder if anyone knows why I'm 'Wizardling' most places on the 'net ;-)

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