Switched from DSL to Air Card

sanchoman · Post by **sanchoman** » Wed May 05, 2010 5:07 pm

I just moved from the big city out to the country!

Not a single cable provider serviced my area. I also looked into satellite, at&t, but ultimately went with Verizon.

Within the last hour I got my air card setup and my computer back online. I plugged in my magicjack and emailed my girlfriend to call me. What a frustrating phone call that was!

She'd talk and it'd be garbled I'd talk and it seemed as if she was ignoring me... then about 10 seconds later she'd answer my questions...

I hung up frustrated with the conversation and I dialed my cell phone.

With cell in left hand and magic jack hand held in the other I attempted to talk to myself...

I would speak into the MJ line and 10 seconds later it could be heard on my cell phone! I said something to my cell and about 10 seconds later it could be heard on my MJ line.

I ran the speak easy speed test and get .59 - 063 mbps downloads

Could this be my problem?

I have evry single application on my computer shut down and it still does this.

Please help!

sanchoman

tsmith · Post by **tsmith** » Wed May 05, 2010 5:15 pm

Dumb question, and only because it wasn't clear in your post sanchoman. Did you switch to "Air card" on the MJ softphone?

Also, your download is awfully slow, which means your upload (when you talk) will be even slower. That can definitely cause problems, in my opinion.

sanchoman · Post by **sanchoman** » Wed May 05, 2010 5:23 pm

Not a dumb question at all.

When I answered her call the 1st time no I did not switch and my phone was giving my a "pending ack" message for a very long time. I hung up, switched to air card, unplugged and plugged MJ back into computer and this is when my problems began.

The upload speed in .08 - .13 mbps.

tsmith · Post by **tsmith** » Wed May 05, 2010 5:29 pm

It just seems awfully slow at that speed. You can test the integrity of your upload/download/voip from http://www.voipreview.org/voipspeedtester.aspx

It tests everything important and gives you a score of the various components of transmitting data, packets, etc. I don't have a solid solution for you I'm afraid. I'm hoping someone will chime in with some other suggestions.

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Wed May 05, 2010 9:43 pm

MJ claims that you need 100kbps up. I've found that it will work with an 80Kbps link that has low jitter. Your measured downlink speed is only slightly better than dial-up and that's not enough to sustain a decent VOIP conversation.

crackerjack · Post by **crackerjack** » Thu May 06, 2010 4:52 am

Bandwidth issues notwithstanding, the biggest drawback of cellular based 'broadband' is significant latency and exaggerated jitter. I am sure when you run the test at the site suggested you will find that is exemplified by your situation.
You may want to explore Verizon's signal booster device, can't recall the exact name but the VZW folks will understand.
You'll also get a good reading of your connection at http://myspeed.visualware.com/indexvoip.php (Java required)
Still not as bad as what you would experience with Satellite, very loooong hops there in both directions.
Ask around with your neighbors to see if there is a local internet provider who utilizes WIFI equipment on a line-of-sight basis. Many servicers popping up in the hinterlands lately.