Garbled audio and static

[alanoutaoz]

Greetings my fellow MJ brothers and sisters.

When using my MJ the people who I call tell me that I have a lot of static and that my voice is often garbled, making it very difficult to have a conversation. I can mostly hear them but every couple of sentences they drop for a second or two. It has gotten worse over the course of the past two weeks

I went to Speakeasy.com to test my internet connection speed and measured download at 8.79 Mbps (I'm paying Time Warner for 15 Mvps) and upload is 0.96 Mbps.

Searching this tech forum for "static" turned up anther website led me to myspeed.visualware.com where downloads came in at 10.7 Mbps and uploads at 0.98 Mbps. In addition they provided a list of other stuff about which I do not have a clue:

54% Quality of service
Roundtrip 24ms
Maximum delay 289ms
Maximum route speed 21.8 Mbps
TCP forced Idle 12%

As I said these figures mean zero to me.

I also did a VOIP test at this website and the results indicated that I had enough of whatever they measured to enable a clear VOIP transmission.
Hmmmm?

Is it Time Warner? Me? My laptop? MJ? The Masters of the Universe?

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium on a fast new laptop that's connected to the internet via a Linksys WRT54(?) and have done the ussual... Run Adaware, Trend, etc, turned off all the stuff running in the background to no avail. Arrgggghhhhh!

If it weren't for the $100 credit for international calls I'd ditch this $20 gizmo (plus I told the skeptical spouse that we'd save a bunch on our utilitiy bills and I hate to hear her tell me, "I told you so".)

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Alanoutaoz

[nighthawks]

Greetings my fellow MJ brothers and sisters.

When using my MJ the people who I call tell me that I have a lot of static and that my voice is often garbled, making it very difficult to have a conversation. I can mostly hear them but every couple of sentences they drop for a second or two. It has gotten worse over the course of the past two weeks

I went to Speakeasy.com to test my internet connection speed and measured download at 8.79 Mbps (I'm paying Time Warner for 15 Mvps) and upload is 0.96 Mbps.

Searching this tech forum for "static" turned up anther website led me to myspeed.visualware.com where downloads came in at 10.7 Mbps and uploads at 0.98 Mbps. In addition they provided a list of other stuff about which I do not have a clue:

54% Quality of service
Roundtrip 24ms
Maximum delay 289ms
Maximum route speed 21.8 Mbps
TCP forced Idle 12%

As I said these figures mean zero to me.

I also did a VOIP test at this website and the results indicated that I had enough of whatever they measured to enable a clear VOIP transmission.
Hmmmm?

Is it Time Warner? Me? My laptop? MJ? The Masters of the Universe?

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium on a fast new laptop that's connected to the internet via a Linksys WRT54(?) and have done the ussual... Run Adaware, Trend, etc, turned off all the stuff running in the background to no avail. Arrgggghhhhh!

If it weren't for the $100 credit for international calls I'd ditch this $20 gizmo (plus I told the skeptical spouse that we'd save a bunch on our utilitiy bills and I hate to hear her tell me, "I told you so".)

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Alanoutaoz

This is from the MJ website, you can goto the FAQ's and type in "speed"

A minimum bandwidth UPLOAD speed of 128 kb/s is required.

You might look at some faster speed from your ISP.

I have the linksys WRT54GS, just did a flash to
dd-wrt.v24_micro_generic.bin
Made a huge difference in MJ on a thin client and my wife's/mine personal computer.

If you haven't already take a look at the DD-WRT website.
This is the database link, you have to know what your linksys is and what version number.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database

Hope this helps.
John

[nailgunner]

My opinion, and it's just that, and an uneducated one to boot, is that you can rule out The Masters of the Universe. You're welcome.

And the other part of the opinion, which is probably as useful, is that it's one of the components, the router, modem, telephone, or a setting on your computer. There are so many variables that it's just a guessing game. The bad call quality is usually not a MJ issue, although there is a small chance you have a bad device. Elsewhere on here are suggestions like not using the crap USB cord they give you, that may help.

The bottom line is I would spend the next MONTH working on it, because the solution is there somewhere and the time invested is well worth the cost of having to explain it to the wife.

[Jano437]

same thing is going on with mine. I spent hours with MJ chat and bottom line, they told me I needed a faster ISP. Well, funny thing is, I didn't have this static before, and my speed is still the same now as it was then. Can't figure it out

[crackerjack]

Searching this tech forum for "static" turned up anther website led me to myspeed.visualware.com where downloads came in at 10.7 Mbps and uploads at 0.98 Mbps. In addition they provided a list of other stuff about which I do not have a clue:

54% Quality of service
Roundtrip 24ms
Maximum delay 289ms
Maximum route speed 21.8 Mbps
TCP forced Idle 12%

As I said these figures mean zero to me.

You should return to the visualware site and explore a bit more where they have links to a more detailed analysis of your problem. The 54% QOS is a dead give-away that your 'net connection is the source of your issue. Also look at your jitter and packet loss stats.
Not much you can do with a crappy ISP other than change. What other ISP options are available in your area?
May help a bit to employ QOS on your router.
Your speed is fine but other nuances of your internet stability are killing voip. Likely you would have similar issues with ANY voip provider using your current connection from Comcast

[nailgunner]

This is from the MJ website, you can goto the FAQ's and type in "speed"

A minimum bandwidth UPLOAD speed of 128 kb/s is required.

You might look at some faster speed from your ISP.

Since his speed was almost 1mb/s, which is aproximately 1,000 kb/s, his speed should be more than adequate. The QOS like crackerjack said is a whole different matter.

[alanoutaoz]

Your collective advice is received with a great deal of gratitude. I am especially pleased to rule out the Masters of The Universe as the source of the problem, and am encouraged by your kind words to further pursue a positive result.

I knew that one day I would have to deal with lost passwords for router security and it appears that those chickens have finally come home to roost.

Now I need to get additional information/ammunition from Visualware.com in order to confront Time Warner, and reset/update router. This is going to get interesting.

Thanks again and I'll keep you posted.
Alanoutaoz

[culeboards]

Have been using MJ and Google Chat for 1 month and folks complain every few minutes that they cannot understand my chopped static words...even with Google chat.
So, I'm frustrated and also looking for answers.

I'm with Time Warner cable.

Thx
Doug

[culeboards]

Update: my MJ (and Google Chat) are working much better now that I'm by-passing my Belkin router and going direct from Time Warner RCA modem into laptop.