Australia Update - DSL Speeds

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Mississauga
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Australia Update - DSL Speeds

Post by Mississauga »

A couple of months ago we sent three MagicJacks to Australia - with mixed results. One of the units has worked almost perfectly from Day 1, but the other two were giving us broken, and essentially unusable, service.

A bit of experimentation and discussion has revealed that the problems may have been due to the DSL speeds being used in Australia. The 'working' unit was using a DSL speed of 512, while the two 'non-working' units were using a DSL speed of 256.

One of the "256" services has just been upgraded to "512" and this "512" connection is now working as well. The third unit connected to a "256" service will be upgraded to "512" later this week, so we hope to have all three Australian units on-line.

We do find that MagicJack calls from Australia to our North American land-line phones usually have better voice quality results than MagicJack to MagicJack calls, but some of the MagicJack to MagicJack calls do come up to the standards of the calls involving a land-line at the North American end. Most connection problems are usually resolved by simply hanging up and calling again.

Anyone having similar experiences with the DSL speeds? Is it possible that the MagicJack requires a minimum DSL "512" connection?
Stewart
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Post by Stewart »

256 kbps should be plenty, if it's really available at the IP level, both upstream and downstream, and there is no competing traffic.

Some ISPs only quote download speeds -- run a speed test on the '256' line, or read the fine print, to see if the upload speed is adequate. Also, run a test to Boston at http://www.testyourvoip.com/ . If the score is good, the problem with MJ is other than the Internet connection. If poor, select Test Again, click Conserve Bandwith, and try again. If it's now good, you won't be able to use MJ on this line, but should be successful with a VoIP service that offers a compression codec, e.g. Skype. If the score is still bad, IMO the ISP is giving second-class service to the '256' customers in ways other than speed.
Mississauga
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Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2008 7:16 am

Post by Mississauga »

Thanks Stewart.

A bit of research confirms what you were hinting. Both of the Australian ISPs involved are only showing an upload speed of only 64 kbps on their '256' plans. This doesn't even meet the minimum 80 kbps (which I assume is needed up and down) noted elsewhere on this forum, nor the 128 kbps noted on the MagicJack FAQ.

As soon as the Australian plans are upgraded to '512' or greater download speeds, the upload speeds go up to '128' and '256'.

Thanks for the info.
curiousgeorge
Dan isn't smart enough to hire me
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Post by curiousgeorge »

I also want to comment on why I use a cable modem, my folks have verizon DSL and they have a 756kbps plan when I run a speed test on their pc I get a max speed of 436kbps +/- on a good day,now I have time warner's road runner service @ 6.0 for the same price and when I run the speed test it gets really close if not 6.0 almost everytime.DSL is always slower due to lenght restrictions, the closer you are to the central hub the faster your speed will be and vice versa if you are far from the central hub/network/service station.
help! I am running out of USB ports!!!!!!!!
Tell me, Mr. Anderson... what good is a phone call... if you're unable to speak?
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strndedinalska
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Post by strndedinalska »

Another thing about Internet speed. Local speed may seem sufficient for the magicjack to work, but the true speed to where the phone call travels may vary. I did some comparison from here in Alaska when I had a Dallas telephone number. My speed dropped by about 25 percent traveling to Dallas, but my jitter shot through the roof as my Internet traffic went through one exchange after another. Do some speed tests and compare. Then select the most stable speed for your drop into the phone lines or else you will get horrid jitter and reduced performance, especially being that far away.
Windows Vista and Laptop with XP SP2 on the road. Occasionally, a Mac if my Windows machine isn't working.
curiousgeorge
Dan isn't smart enough to hire me
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Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:55 pm
Location: California

Post by curiousgeorge »

very good point!,agreed.
help! I am running out of USB ports!!!!!!!!
Tell me, Mr. Anderson... what good is a phone call... if you're unable to speak?
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