How to tell if you are talking to the air

[vnecaxa]

The other day I was doing a presentation using MJ. I spoke for about 10 minutes and then I opened the presentation for questions and I got zilch. I started doing roll call and nobody answered. I hanged up and called one of the persons I knew attended the conference call and she told me I went mute after about 5 minutes. When she tried to call me back, my line was busy. Any way to tell if I am talking to the air? if not, this will be a suggestion for Dan and Mj. I have a dedicated thin client, a powered USB Hub, a Hawking Broadband Booster, and done most of the suggestions offered in this forum. Sound is perfect about 99% of the times, but kind of annoying, if not embarrasing, when the line goes mute without one knowing about it. thoughts?

[tony]

The other day I was doing a presentation using MJ.

Hi,
I guess talking to the air is always a risk. When presenting, try to get some feedback along the way, even asking after the first couple of sentences "can everyone hear me ok?" then periodically checking in with the audience during your presentation.

But I really have to ask, was it worth the risk of using MJ for a presentation? If the presentation was to bring you or your company any value, was it worth saving a couple of bucks per hour on the long distance call with something more reliable? I think MJ is fine for calls to family and friends who'll tolerate drop outs, dropped calls, echo, etc. But a risk when your professional image is at stake. I've got a similar setup with TC, Hawkings BB Booster, fast Internet, etc. I tried it for business calls but gave up because of the feedback I was getting from others.

[vnecaxa]

It seemed like a good idea at the same, especially since I was pitching the idea of switching to VoIP.

[tony]

It seemed like a good idea at the same, especially since I was pitching the idea of switching to VoIP.

I thought so too, but the negative feedback I got from clients (poor call quality) made me abandon MJ. I only use it for calls to family. I don't even call friends on it because they don't appreciate the highly variable call quality. Mj is getting better but still too variable. This afternoon I coudn't maintain a usable conversation with a family member. We decided to try calling again tonight.

Take a look at ATA's and a subscription to a VOIP service. I ended up with a couple of Linksys SPA1202's and a subscription to voip.ms. voip.ms is good but there are other equally good services out there too. I pay half a cent per minute for calls and I figure it'll cost me $30/year in long distance at the rate I use it. That's including a 1-2 hour long conference calls every few weeks. And no hassles, it just works every time, any time.

Funny, I don't know why clients aren't too receptive to "oh, can you wait a sec. Let's see, checking something at my end. OK, let's try this, let's hang up and I'll try calling you again on my MJ, maybe the connection will be better". "Oh, you're getting an echo? You can hear yourself? Can you talk through it? Just ignore it". "Hmm, still not good, I can only hear 20% of what you say. Can you hang up, I'll shut down some running processes, and call you back". "Huh? What's that?, hello...hello...hello, can you hear me? If you can still hear me, I'll call you back, OK? Hello hello." Dang, they must have hung up.....why did they do that? I 'm sure they could hear me ok".

[Darkman90808]

vnecaxa... as far as talking to air goes, I think it might help if you have WireShark running while you're talking. You should have a visual indication of your connection. I can't swear to this, because I never used it for that purpose but I'll be able to test later in the day. (It's 5:43 a.m. and folks get mad when I call them this early for a test call.)

Although, I can't imagine using the MJ for a major presentation, stuff can happen with almost any equipment. Verizon is supposed to be a good wireless carrier, and I regularly find myself talking to dead air when I thought I was connected.

I'll load WireShark later and see if it gives you a visual while you're talking.

[jongasse]

Would using wireshank not slow down the processing and deteriorate the quality?

[Darkman90808]

I've never really noticed any degradation, although I haven't tried to quantify it either.

I just did a quick and dirty test using Wireshark and it becomes obvious real quick when something changes, like getting disconnected. I don't know if that's the best way to tell, but it would certainly be a visual indicator. And the price is right... free-e-eee!!

Post Script: FWIW, I've seen professional presentations with state-of-the-art equipment get disconnected from their remote audience and the only way they knew was when someone called in to a cell phone to let the presenters know.

[vnecaxa]

[quote="Darkman90808"]I've never really noticed any degradation, although I haven't tried to quantify it either.

I just did a quick and dirty test using Wireshark and it becomes obvious real quick when something changes, like getting disconnected. I don't know if that's the best way to tell, but it would certainly be a visual indicator. And the price is right... free-e-eee!!

Post Script: FWIW, I've seen professional presentations with state-of-the-art equipment get disconnected from their remote audience and the only way they knew was when someone called in to a cell phone to let the presenters know.[/quote]

I downloaded WireShark but looks complicated. what is the screen I'm suppose to be looking at while using magicJack (Telephony->VoIP calls)?