VOIP Tech Chat → [Equipment] Ooma Setup in front of Router

I have an Ooma Office box, Motorola SB6121 Docsis 3.0 Modem,
ASUS RT-AC66U Router, Comcast Internet (business servier). It is all working fine but the voice quality is not that good because the Ooma box is plugged into the ethernet port of the Asus Router, instead of between the router and modem as recommended by Ooma. If I plug it in front of the router, the internet stops working. Possible solutions:

1) Change a setting somewhere so I can put Ooma between the modem and router.
2) Keep Ooma plugged into an ethernet port and do something to the router settings to prioritize traffic to that ethernet port.

Any recommendations?

What is the voice quality like with the Ooma device plugged directly to the modem?

I would go with option number 2. Sending all your internet traffic through the ooma with it's limited power amd creating a double nat situation in the process is far from ideal. Let the Ooma device use it's processing power only for VOIP and let the router/firewall be the edge device with the modem hopefully as a bridged unit so the router gets an actual internet ip on it's wan directly.

Did you reboot your cable modem when you connected your Ooma to it? Some cable modems lock to a specific MAC address and require a reboot before they will work with a new device.

With your Ooma connected directly to the modem, is it that only the Ooma worked, and no other internet-connected devices? Or was everything (including the Ooma) inoperable?

m.

On your ASUS-brand router, login and go to [General] then [Traffic Manager - QoS].

Northeast corner of the [Traffic Manager - QoS] page select "Automatic Mode".

Then go down a couple of inches.

[QoS] select "ON".

Enter the figures for [Upload Bandwidth] and [Download Bandwidth] that you have obtained from some speed tests. Be sure to select "Mb/s" as appropriate.

Just below that click [SAVE].

Reboot your router.

See if that helped.

-----

The ASUS router is highly automatic if QoS is turned on as above. They don't even have separate settings for VoIP or SIP because it's built in. They do have settings for various types of games etc.

I have the same combination as you, comcast, modem, RT-AC66U router with Ooma behind it (2 actually) and QoS is turned on and load on the Internet connection never effects voice quality, QoS is excellent with the Asus.

Now i wouldn't be surprised if your issue is actually the Ooma, I regularly experience choppy voice and the latency is a little on the high side.

No experience with Ooma Office, but my Ooma Hub never delivers choppy voice.

I have the exact same setup. The internet load never affects voice quality for me as well.

Yes, it's been set that way for awhile (and rebooted). Ooma Sound quality is usable but not stellar. I was wondering if there was a more advanced setting to target the Ooma device.

Yes, it was rebooted

I prefer this too. How can I tell the Asus to prioritze the traffic going to Ooma. there seems to be limited options for QOS.

Ok good to know.

As I explained:

»Re: [Equipment] Ooma Setup in front of Router

This router has QoS that should detect VoIP/SIP such as Ooma automatically, once the QoS is enabled properly.

If it still is not good enough, that may require custom rules.

If your ASUS router does not provide sufficient QoS, and your Ooma box will not work properly as a bridge device in front of the ASUS router, and since you have a Comcast Business Class Internet service (which means you can connect up to five CPE devices) -- you may want to try doing what I did to fix VoIP QoS problems on my Comcast Business Class connection: »Update on solution for using Vonage for VoIP faxing

The ZyXEL switch is inexpensive, and my experience is that if you connect it as I show, it should fix any QoS related problems you are having. If the voice quality is still poor hooked up that way, then the problem you have is more basic than simply a QoS packet priority problem (start looking at signal levels, high (or jittery) latency and dropped packets in general).