HOW-TO: Tomato and QoS (fixes "choppy voice")

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:54 pm

I wrote a document describing how to configure Tomato 1.23 QoS to work with MagicJack.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r215819 ... oppy-voice

I posted something else, earlier today announcing 1.23's release, and how it contains new features to make QoS even more useful for VOIP, and especially useful for MagicJack.

http://www.phoneservicesupport.com/toma ... t3908.html

Mark

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 10:22 pm

Very nice write up man.

twlunn · Post by **twlunn** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:20 pm

? for Mark…(and thanks a lot for the write up!)

Linksys WRT54GS V1 running Tomato 1.23 (previously DD-WRT v24mini) & hard wired to network HP thin Client t5710

I must of missed something in your writeup.

The below is my results playing with Tomato’s QoS.

QoS disabled:
Dsl 796 kbps down, 116 up.
Echo call was: perfect

QoS enabled:
731 kbps down, 13 up.
Echo call was very choppy

Results in details
Vms1.columbus.talkforfree.com 17476 highest
Proxy1.columbustalk4free. 5070 lowest

With TCP Vegas:
731 kbps down, 118 up.
Echo call perfect.

QoS enabled & TCP Vegas:
714 kbps down, 12 up.
Echo call extremely choppy

I've gone over your write up a few times now and tested, with Qos enabled echo call really bad.
i'm assumng it should sound good w/QoS enabled.

Todo next?
• Change MJ SIP Sig to 5060-5061
• Change MJ RTP to 5070?

Many thanks, T

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:13 pm

twlunn wrote:Todo next?
• Change MJ SIP Sig to 5060-5061
• Change MJ RTP to 5070?

Did I say in the writeup to use 5060-5061? If so, I'll have to change that. It should be 5060-5070.

However, MJ only uses 5070. And, I don't believe this connection affects voice quality. Everything occurs over the vms1 (rtp, temporarily called rtp-2 in Tomato 1.23) connection which occurs at the time of a call.

Let me know if changing it to 5060-5070 fixes it. I've never tried it with just priority given to the vms1 connection. I'm curious if the proxy1/sip connection contributes to the quality.

Mark

kumar · Post by **kumar** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:46 pm

twlunn: How the hell did you get your hands on a v1. They are like antique and amazing. :-p

Kumar

P.S Nice howto, but I use dd-wrt xD

twlunn · Post by **twlunn** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:29 pm

az2008 wrote:
twlunn wrote:Todo next?
• Change MJ SIP Sig to 5060-5061
• Change MJ RTP to 5070?

Did I say in the writeup to use 5060-5061? If so, I'll have to change that. It should be 5060-5070.

However, MJ only uses 5070. And, I don't believe this connection affects voice quality. Everything occurs over the vms1 (rtp, temporarily called rtp-2 in Tomato 1.23) connection which occurs at the time of a call.

Let me know if changing it to 5060-5070 fixes it. I've never tried it with just priority given to the vms1 connection. I'm curious if the proxy1/sip connection contributes to the quality.

Mark

No you did'nt say to do that, I thought I might try it because I've seen those #'s elsewhere.

This is the second firmware now where I've enabled Qos and everthing comes to a crawl. (dd-wrt being the first).
I'm missing something.......

I plan to triple check that i have the correct settings as you describe in a few days, I'll let you know.

Another ?. with QoS enabled, upload speed is sloooooow, is this normal, 12 kbps......

twlunn · Post by **twlunn** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:37 pm

kumar wrote:twlunn: How the hell did you get your hands on a v1. They are like antique and amazing. :-p

Kumar

P.S Nice howto, but I use dd-wrt xD

Bought at BBuy a number of years back.

I liked dd-wrt, but I want to make the MJ/TC combo work as well as I can.
We'd like to drop the landline totally.

Thats why I tried tomato, from Marks write up it seemed easier....I'm a novice with routers/networking and such. Our 2 laptops and desktop network work perfectly for our home needs, so thats were my "learning" stopped.

Now MJ comes along and with it more to learn from pros like you guys.
I'ts fun thou!

Later, Tom

pagemen · Post by **pagemen** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:50 pm

if the thin client is dedicated for MagicJack, just set all tracffic from its ip to highest priority, no need to mess with L7 filter.

kumar · Post by **kumar** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:51 pm

Ah hmm... I got rid of my v3 a few years ago before I got FIOS not knowing they were gold.. then last year I got a new one. Now its a v8 **kicks himself** They suck compared to the good old v3s and below...

Happy New Year

Kumar

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:58 pm

pagemen wrote:if the thin client is dedicated for MagicJack, just set all tracffic from its ip to highest priority, no need to mess with L7 filter.

That's true. I am going to rewrite the how-to on the wiki. I'll add something to it about dedicated computers (specifying the MAC or IP address of the computer as the QoS rule).

DSLR's forum features are nice. I wrote it there because of that. But, it locks you out of editing your post after a few days. So, I can't do anything to it now.

Mark

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:05 pm

twlunn wrote:Thats why I tried tomato, from Marks write up it seemed easier....

I think Tomato is easier simply because it doesn't try to be full-featured. It fits a good niche, just as DD-WRT does. I get the feeling (based on who MJ markets to) that Tomato's niche corresponds better to MJ users than DD-WRT does.

I've also read a few reports from people saying, after trying both, they felt Tomato was faster. And, there is a benchmark which seems to substantiate that (http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/showt ... hp?t=60335). But, at average consumer internet speeds, it probably wouldn't slow it down enough to be noticed.).

The one thing I like about Tomato is the ability to see which traffic is falling into which category. It makes it easier for the average user to verify that it's working correctly. I believe there is a command which can be issued from the command line (to do the same thing on DD-WRT). But, having it on the UI is nice.

Mark

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:31 pm

twlunn wrote:I plan to triple check that i have the correct settings as you describe in a few days, I'll let you know.

Another ?. with QoS enabled, upload speed is sloooooow, is this normal, 12 kbps......

You can take screenshots of the same screens shown in the how-to and send them to me at [email protected] (pm me if you do, because I don't check that account for anything).

Regarding upload speed, it all depends on how much uploading you do (and your bandwidth).

I haven't noticed my upload speed change, except it's 100kbs slower when I'm on a call. That's expected because MJ requires 100kbs.

You can alter the rules to give more bandwidth to your uploads. You'd have to identify what they are, and how to balance the bandwidth to meet your neesd. (You might want to ask for help with that on linksysinfo.org after you get the MJ traffic to fall into the "highest" category.).

Mark

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:33 pm

kumar wrote:P.S Nice howto, but I use dd-wrt xD

BTW: We can place Tomato and DD-WRT how-tos beneath the QoS how-to. So, if you want to create a DD-WRT how-to, you can.

I.e., when I port the Tomato-QoS how-to to the wiki, I'm going to make it a separate page beneath the existing QoS how-to. It will be named "QoS-Tomato" and I'll indent it in the index list under "QoS."

Also, keep in mind that the "rtp" filter that DD-WRT uses may be broken. This may explain some observations that Tomato worked better than DD-WRT. Tomato lets a person specify destination IP address. IIRC, I think DD-WRT doesn't. The only way I saw to make DD-WRT work was using Layer 7 "rtp." But, that's when it seemed like it wasn't as effective as Tomato using destination IP address.

It was a few weeks later that I realized the Layer 7 "rtp" filter didn't work. It's been fixed in the Layer 7's distribution. Now it works the same in Tomato (using the temporary "rtp-2") as destination address. But, in DD-WRT it may not (until DD-WRT gets a fresh copy of the Layer 7 distribution for a new version of DD-WRT).

Mark

twlunn · Post by **twlunn** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 12:45 pm

az2008 wrote:You can take screenshots of the same screens shown in the how-to and send them to me at [email protected] (pm me if you do, because I don't check that account for anything).

Mark

PM sent.

Just now with Qos enabled, navigating this site, pages load real slow, all jpegs dont fill in.....with it off & TCP/V enabled all pages load like lighting.

Maybe i'm converting kbps to kbits wrong.
I've been doing it by: convert 128 kbps to KB/s : ((128*1000)/8/1024 =
15.65*.85= 13.28.
13.28 @kbit/s is what i've entered into the Inbound rate/limit max BW box

Later T.

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 1:23 pm

twlunn wrote:Maybe i'm converting kbps to kbits wrong.
I've been doing it by: convert 128 kbps to KB/s : ((128*1000)/8/1024 =
15.65*.85= 13.28.
13.28 @kbit/s is what i've entered into the Inbound rate/limit max BW box

You don't have to do any conversion. Just go to speedtest.net, run some tests (with no other activity occurring, even from other computers connected to your router). The number you see there is is the number you put in Tomato's QoS.

Although the number should be conservative. Some people say it should be 90%. And, it should represent the slowest speed you may have throughout the day (if it varies like cable can). It should also take into account things like "speed boost" (cable providers use it) which can give variable speeds for a specific transfer.

I haven't looked at your screenshots yet. But, I'm pretty sure how you specified your max bandwidth is a lot of the problem.

Mark