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djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

djrobx

Premium Member

U-verse "gap of silence" issue, any resolution?

I've had service for about 1.5 years. The Phone Power site says I'm on the "Capricorn" network with a Grandstream adapter.

For the last year I've worked from home, I've spent quite a bit of time doing conference calls, and serveral times per call, there will be 2-3 second gaps of silence where I can't hear the caller. When these gaps happen I'm doing little or nothing on my local network - it does not seem like a QoS problem.

I've moved and the problem moved with me. The U-verse equipment doesn't afford a lot of options in terms of configuration - there's no way to put the Grandstream "in front of" AT&T's router. It's in the DMZ which is the best I can do. When I had CallVantage prior to PhonePower, I had no problems like this whatsoever.

I'm not the first to notice this - here's a link to an old thread:
»Uverse and PhonePower

Are there any solutions to this problem? Any firmware updates or possibly of switching to a different "network" to work around this? I've got about 6 months left and I really want to continue service, but if these gaps don't go away I'm going to have to try something else. Thanks!
Stewart
join:2005-07-13

Stewart

Member

I looked at that thread but found no useful troubleshooting info.

Does it fail with another provider? If you don't have one, try the "call phone" feature in Gmail -- there is a link in the left pane. It's free and easy to set up. (Yes, I saw your comment about CallVantage, but that's no guarantee that CV would be trouble free now, if it still existed.)

If Gmail (or other provider) shows the problem, run a ping concurrently to provider and first gateway and report whether packets are lost during the voice gaps.

If Gmail works ok, try the Phone Power softphone. If that's also ok, temporarily connect a PC to the LAN port on the Grandstream and test with Gmail or PP softphone from there. This test should show whether connectivity is being lost between RG and Grandstream. If not, test whether pinging through the Grandstream has problems when a call on the GS has dropouts.

Please report the typical duration of your calls and estimate the frequency of dropouts. Is the conference gateway a toll-free number? If not, what are the first seven digits of the ten-digit access number?
nycityny
Premium Member
join:2005-08-09
New York, NY

nycityny to djrobx

Premium Member

to djrobx
I had the "gap of silence" problem while using VoicePulse and ViaTalk a couple of years ago. It was so bad that I dreaded using the phone. That it happened with both VOIP companies indicated that it was probably an ISP issue. The VoicePulse reps had me download a software called Pinglotter in order to assess whether that was so.

Running Pingplotter revealed that I had significant packet loss in my Internet connection which caused the audio gaps.

I had my ISP at the time (RCN) come out several times and pushed them on the issue. Their visits never resulted in any fix, including when they provided a new modem. But they ultimately fixed something on their end because one day in the middle of working with them the problem stopped.

I don't know if this is your issue but that was my experience.

jungliu
@megapath.net

jungliu to djrobx

Anon

to djrobx
I had similar problem.
I fixed this problem by not setting DMZ to grandstream and set ALG as required by PP.

Hope this will help.
ddwrt4
Sit down and drink with me
join:2010-06-09
Albany, NY

1 edit

ddwrt4

Member

said by jungliu :

I had similar problem.
I fixed this problem by not setting DMZ to grandstream and set ALG as required by PP.

Hope this will help.
Yeah I thought I replied to the OP about that fix but I'm must have gotten sidetracked? On that note alot of the newer modems are locked by the death star. His best bet is to call PP and see what they can do if that don't work or need help with the fix.

PhonePower
Premium Member
join:2007-07-20
Winnetka, CA

PhonePower to djrobx

Premium Member

to djrobx
Hi Rob

I asked a support representative to contact you. Please let me know if you're not 100% satisfied with the results.

Rob was a dsl extreme client for several years and we are happy to see him as a client at phone power. Thanks for the continued support.
houstoncouga
join:2010-02-26
Cypress, TX

houstoncouga

Member

I think i had the same problem with you.

I had to enable random ports and NOT put the grandstream in the DMZ. I had a popping sound sometimes when i had the blank gaps in the conversation.
ddwrt4
Sit down and drink with me
join:2010-06-09
Albany, NY

ddwrt4

Member

said by houstoncouga:

I think i had the same problem with you.

I had to enable random ports and NOT put the grandstream in the DMZ. I had a popping sound sometimes when i had the blank gaps in the conversation.
Just in from a friend who you TWC in Massena. He had to change ports to get updates from VoicePulse to his PAP2. I see a game of cat and mouse brewing. As if they don't generate enough revenue from their crappy digital voice services. Leave us geeks alone we are the minority, one would think with all the cows they milk they would leave us alone.

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

djrobx

Premium Member

Re: U-verse "gap of silence" issue, any resolution?

Just a follow up. It's been a while but I wanted to monitor the situation for a while before I reported back on it.

Phone power's techs called me back regarding this issue. They pushed a proxy update to my Grandstream. This update made a huge improvement. There were still some minor drops, but significantly shorter in duration.

For the last month or so it's been absolutely flawless. I've had hour+ long conversations without a single hiccup.

I was also verry happy to see an "auto delete" option in the voicemail section. We use the attachment feature to get voicemails. We'd regularly forget to delete messages out of the PP queue and end up with a full box.

In short - very happy. Thanks Ari and everyone for your input and suggestions.