Woosh Wireless phone getting harder to hear

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geek4me

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#11580 31-Jan-2007 15:03

I have had a Woosh Wireless phone for some time. We have found lately that more and more people we call are complaining that they can hardly hear us. This seems to be getting steadily worse. (Sometimes we can not hear the person we are calling very well either.) If we use the same phone to call via TelstraClear there are no problems - but this costs more.

Have you had any problems getting others to hear you using the Woosh Wireless phone. Have you solved this issue?

Woosh Help Desk has promised twice to escalate this and have someone call, firstly after being able to hardly hear me when I called on an unrelated issue. So far no promised help has come.

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#59383 31-Jan-2007 15:15

What sort of signal strength do you have and what is you internet speed like?

geek4me

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#59384 31-Jan-2007 15:25

sbiddle: What sort of signal strength do you have and what is you internet speed like?

Currently the Woosh Speed test site counter is in the range 350 to 450. Not the best I know - does this affect the Volume for the prioritised voice packets?

The signal strength according to Woosh Help Desk is very high quality.

maverick

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#59385 31-Jan-2007 15:42

As it's all IP signal strength is not an issue, it will most likely be in the Analogue part of the network, if you can not be heard it will be to do with the Levels from your CPE or Phone, have you tried another phone on the Line first, if the problem still occurs then most likely the issue will be with the CPE as it controls the levels of the signal to the Pots line

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#59388 31-Jan-2007 16:00

I have tried several phones - they are all soft. If I however use the same phones on TelstraClear they are all plenty loud enough. Could you fill me in what CPE is and what I can do about the CPE strength? Is this the Exchange? Note that the volume was not as bad as it is now when Woosh wireless phones first were released - we were an early customer.

geek4me

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#59389 31-Jan-2007 16:29

I presume CPE means "Customer Premises Equipment". As our phone works okay when connected to the TelstraClear Network and is only too soft on the Woosh network I presume the Woosh Modem/Gateway needs replacing?

When I first got the Woosh phone and asked customers how it sounded they said it was "a little soft" however customers have only started complaining often about the volume in the last few months.

grant_k

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#59394 31-Jan-2007 16:48

Your assumption as to the meaning of CPE is correct.

As part of the equipment provided by Woosh, you will have a router with some RJ-11 (4-pin analog telephone) ports.

After looking at Woosh's web site, they don't say exactly what the router is, but suffice to say the phone ports are part of some internal circuitry known as an Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA).

All devices of this type have the facility to set the level of amplification i.e. Tx Gain and Rx Gain. Both of these parameters in in dB (deciBels) and typically range from -15db to +15dB. The plus figures mean the sound will be louder. Tx Gain sets the volume in your ear piece whereas Rx Gain sets the volume received by your caller.

If you can find a way to get into the setup screen of your router, have a look for these parameters and you should be able to solve the problem you are having. If however you find that Woosh have locked out your access to the router setup, you will have to ask them to change the Tx / Rx Gain for you (assuming of course that they are willing to do that).

What is puzzling about this case is the way the volume levels have changed over time. Normally with a digital device such as an ATA, the volume will remain constant unless some settings are changed.

Have you connected any extra telephones, faxes or extension ringers across the line by means of 2-way adapters by any chance? If so, then that may well have caused the volume to change and you should experiment to find out which additional device is causing the problem.

I hope that helps.

Cheers,
Grant.

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JAMMAN2110

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#59395 31-Jan-2007 17:12

I used one of the Woosh phones yesterday at a friends house. After about the first 3 minutes of the call there was a lot of fuzz and it became impossible for the other party to hear. The other end was almost inaudible also. Called back on my Vodafone mobile and we were fine. (0800 number).

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#59396 31-Jan-2007 17:23

My callers often dont hear me answer the phone (IE the first few seconds of sound seems to get lost). This happens with around 80% of incomming calls. Dropping woosh as soon as my contract is up (next month)

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#59473 1-Feb-2007 12:14

Grant17: What is puzzling about this case is the way the volume levels have changed over time.

A possible reason may be that the download speed test has shown steadily decreasing results over the last year - probably as a result of more Woosh users coming online at our cell site - especially ones who have marginal connections who are using additional resources maintaining their connections.

grant_k

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#59475 1-Feb-2007 12:30

That's unlikely. As Maverick says above:

"As it's all IP signal strength is not an issue, it will most likely be in the Analogue part of the network..."

Did you manage to access the setup screens in your router as I suggested above?

geek4me

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#59478 1-Feb-2007 12:54

Hi Grant17

Thanks for explaining that the IP signal strength is not an issue so I can discard that as a cause.

Apparently there is more than one type of Gateway model. Our model does not allow access. Woosh would have to send us the newer model to get at the Configuration menu.

I have just now got off the phone talking to Woosh. The line was so bad they had to call me back on our TelstraClear line which was perfectly clear - the same physical phone with 2 phone lines.

This help desk person has promised to escalate this and to ring me back - a promise that has been made by two other people before, but I am hopeful! They will look at increasing the Tx and Rx Gain remotely and see what else (network issue) can be causing our volume problem.

I have requested a configurable Gateway be sent so we can make these adjustments ourselves. (We also want to set our Woosh network up as a VPN which requires configuration of the Gateway to open ports etc.)

I have tried using a single phone connected to the Gateway with little improvement (maybe 10% better - though this may be wishful thinking). We do have several phones connected to the Gateway and the volume drops if 2 phones are used on the Woosh line at the same time to listen in on a conversation, but not if only one is in use.

Will let you know what Woosh come up with.

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#59487 1-Feb-2007 14:14

I've been thinking over the comments several of you have made and would like to update what I think is happening:

As mentioned before the poor connections only occur sometimes. One Woosh help desk user said he could hear me okay, another has to ring me back on another line as he can't understand what I'm saying, nor I him.

All Woosh line phone calls definitely are softer than calls on our TelstraClear line using the same phone. Cranking up the Tx and Rx Gain will probably improve the volume for all the calls where we can hear each other. Am looking forward to Woosh increasing these.

However, we are getting more and more (using olden days phone terminology) "bad connections" or "poor line" connections on calls than we did in the past. These are made worse by the low volume but are more likely a "network issue" that is happening more often now than before.

Curious to see whether other Woosh Wireless phone users get more bad lines now than in the past.

grant_k

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#59492 1-Feb-2007 14:30

Thanks for explaining further Geek4me, that makes it clearer what is going on.

It sounds to me like you could be suffering from heavy packet loss i.e. many of the voice packets are not arriving at the far end of the link. This typically makes phone conversations raspy and extremely difficult to understand. It doesn't really account for the reduced volume though, that is strange. Are you sure the voice quality remains OK, even when the volume is low?

If there is increased network traffic on your base station (as evidenced by the reducing download speed), this could well be the cause of the packet loss.

If possible, you should move your equipment to another area of the city (with a different basestation) and see if you get the same results.

geek4me

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#59514 1-Feb-2007 15:54

The voice quality is OK when the volume is low - I wouldn't say it was excellent but it is okay. I'm reluctant to try the equipment elsewhere as it's at my office that we want it to work. The link quality to the current base station is very good according to Woosh. Am awaiting Woosh's follow-up call on the issue perhaps they can shed some further light. They have a user who monitors this forum.

Thanks for your helpful comments that should be useful to all Woosh users.

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#59604 2-Feb-2007 16:24

24 hours later and still no promised call from Woosh so back on to the Help Desk - after a long wait I finally get through and get connected to a technician. He suggested resetting the modem using the pinhole reset point just below the power connector. One problem, this gateway doesn't have a reset pinhole. After a long wait they say I have a very old model and will send out a new Gateway which should arrive next week ... doesn't time fly when you're having fun! Here's hoping next week sees the start of better things with Woosh.

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