VOIP Tech Chat → [General] Voip Issues. Novice

We have a voip system in a medical office w 10 users. Upgraded to a bonded t1 6mg to support.
Biggest issue is dropped calls. Speed test is good. But we get dropped call, static, feedback. Today an outside call rang in through an ongoing extension to extension. Is this a phone system issue? Is it caused by piggybacking through Pcs? Any help is appreciated

Sounds like you have a system problem if your calls are being transposed.
For 10 users, a single T1 should be more than enough (unless you are carrying internet too).
If you are carrying both voip and office internet, try breaking it up at the router (keep your services separated).
The weakest link in VoIP is usually the ISP. Since you have a T-carrier, that should be a non-issue.

Thx! We do have our internet through it as well.
But it all tests well.
The cross call made me think it's a bad system and to push on the mfg?

This sounds more like a configuration issue than it does a bandwidth issue. 10 lines isn't enough to fill a T1 line, even with PPP encapsulation your still only looking at ~840k and even if other internet traffic had fully loaded the circuit it shouldn't change call routing.

Sam

Sorry to hear that you have (at least) four separate problems, which may be unrelated issues.

Is this a newly installed system? If not, were there any changes that you suspect made it go bad? Is it under maintenance? If so, what does the company say is wrong, and why can't they fix it?

Is the PBX at your office? If so, what make/model (if a branded appliance), or what software (Asterisk, FreeSWITCH, 3CX, etc.)? Own it?

If not at your office, is it hosted by your VoIP provider? If so, which company?

If hosted by a third party, which company? What VoIP provider(s) do they use?

What kind of phones do you have? Own them? Any contractual or other constraints on replacing parts of the system, changing providers, etc?

Is it possible that the crossed call was human error? On most systems, if you are on an internal call and an external call comes in, the phone will ring, beep or flash. The user can press the Answer or similar key to accept the new call; the original call is placed on hold. At this point, many systems will show a Conference button and if the user accidentally presses it, all three parties would be connected.

Please describe the other impairments in more detail. By "feedback", do you mean hearing an echo of your own voice? Or, is it a squealing sound like feedback in a PA system? By "static", do you mean clicks and pops, even when neither party is talking? Or, are there gaps or choppiness in the voice? Are these problems heard by the office user, the remote party, or both?

How often are calls dropped? Since dropped calls on mobile phones are quite common, are there many instances when you know the other party was using a landline?

Thx. Guide me
It's an ipitomy and the ISP is earthlink. It was a legacy system when I took the job

The install was 12 mths ago and they started w 3 mg t1 and tried Sip. That was not successful. They went back to the analog line configuration ?

When the circuit was upgraded they tested the lines and the adtran was replaced.

At upgrade each time they turned on the QoS the speed dropped. So they turned it off. The problems cleared for a few weeks and now we are back w the same inconsistency.

Feedback,episodic static and dropped calls snd now cross talk.

Our network is hosted. The phone system is in the data room?

I'm a serious novice.
I'm an administrator.

This is very helpful. So thanks for helping my virtual troubleshoot.

Interesting. So maybe my cross talk is user error? Conference button?

The ext to ext call was one of the physicians. So it is possible that he heard a dial in?

Maybe our training and expectations were not aligned well?

The feedback is echo and it is sporadic. As is every problem.

When installed there was also a big delay in the dial
out. 8 seconds

We were able to cut this down. But all these issues have resulted in a vote of no confidence.

I have to admit, I've never even heard of IPitomy until today. I took a look at their website. Their phones look VERY familiar (anyone?).

Earthlink is actually a good T1 reseller. They provide a decent SLA and "tier 1" type support.

What kind of network topography do you have? Here's what I would do:
I would start splitting out the VoIP devices from the other network devices. If available, I would even go so far as to have separate switching and routing. Do you have a managed switch?

I would break the bonded T1 and dedicate a single carrier to VoIP.

Concurrently, I would start a "re-education" program. I would disable features that aren't required and might confuse non-technical users. VoIP systems are nice, but sometimes they off a little "too much".

Yealink, or mostly Yealink.

As nunya said, separating the services will give you better results than QoS.

At your location, can you get broadband Internet service from your local cable company? Or Verizon FiOS? Or AT&T U-Verse? If so, that's probably much faster (at least in downstream direction) and less expensive than one T1 line. Of course, it's not as reliable. Consider setting up a dual-WAN router so that normally, a single T1 is dedicated to VoIP and the fast/cheap service is used for web, etc. Phone calls will be unimpaired and you'll enjoy 40+ Mbps web, downloading huge imaging files, etc. If the high-speed line goes down, your browsing, etc. will be excruciatingly slow, but that should be less than 0.1% of the time. If the T1 goes down, the phones should still work quite well, because it's unlikely that the fast line will be saturated.