MSN Messenger, Skype and GTalk woes!

Greetings,

I've been perusing this fine establishment for a while now in order to get a grasp on the South African ADSL situation. I'm in South Africa for the next 2 months and the office I'm an intern at has just taken the leap to ADSL from dial-up.

Before we got ADSL, I used my company 3G phone to stay connected to the web for e-mails and hanging out on MSN Messenger. Now.. last Wednesday, we got a Telkom 512k connection, and since then it's all been downhill.

I am not getting messages on MSN. My friends (in Europe) send messages to me, but I just don't get them. There is not the usual "The following message could not be delivered", they just disappear into thin air. The same thing happens when I send messages to them. Now, the really funky part is that SOME of the messages get through, but you can never be sure which.

Same thing happens when I try using Google Talk and Skype Chat. And calling people on Skype? Sure, it works. Occassionally. During a 1 hour conversation, I usually have to redial 3 or 4 times and suffer bad sound quality on my side, while the other person can hear me clear as a bell.

I know about the Skype woes of SA users, having read about them on this forum, but the Messenger part is just a complete mystery to me.

We went with the Telkom WiFi router option (yeah yeah, I know) and I've set it up to the best of my ability. The log file says that the ADSL connection has been stable, i.e. no disconnects for hours when my troubles have been going on. I've forwarded the ports for MSN and Skype (although this shouldn't be necessary with UPnP applications).
It's all very "AUGH!!!", and I am not a very happy camper

Any suggestions?

Ps. I should probably say that web browing and e-mail access is functioning really (really!) well.

Before we got ADSL, I used my company 3G phone to stay connected to the web for e-mails and hanging out on MSN Messenger. Now.. last Wednesday, we got a Telkom 512k connection, and since then it's all been downhill.

Click to expand...

Seriaaas?!

while the other person can hear me clear as a bell.

Click to expand...

Interesting... port shaping on download traffic only?
As for the msn messenger... Telkom throttle all bandwidth and give heavy priority to pop3, smtp, http and ftp while the rest get the dregs... Although i must admit this sounds a little worse than I am used to. I would suggest they seriously consider getting the 4Gb unshaped telkom account instead of the standard account. THEN test it with various speed tests (voip, etc) to ensure they have got what they paid for as other forumites have reported being "upgraded" with no difference until they complain.

Just to confirm - your isp is TelkomInternet?

Assuming you've activated the "Display technical call info" in the advanced Skype preferences what sort of signal loss are you getting during calls?

You might want to try openweb's unshaping proxy service - they do a free one for the first 15 days of the month or there a different r59 per month one that I subscribe to. I have a crappy UUNET account and it helps tremendously.

bwana v.10 said:

Just to confirm - your isp is TelkomInternet?

Assuming you've activated the "Display technical call info" in the advanced Skype preferences what sort of signal loss are you getting during calls?

You might want to try openweb's unshaping proxy service - they do a free one for the first 15 days of the month or there a different r59 per month one that I subscribe to. I have a crappy UUNET account and it helps tremendously.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll give openweb a shot!
And yes, it's TelkomInternet. I haven't activated the technical call info thingy in Skype, but that's only because I didn't know it was there. If anything interesting pops up, I'll be sure to let you know.

EdRobinson said:

Seriaaas?!

Click to expand...

I don't think we can afford to upgrade to the 4gb unshaped at the moment, unfortunately.

i had many problems until i put my router/modem in Bridge mode.

Heh, now I'm concerned that I'm not getting all MSN messages.

Just to check, are you actually using MSN messenger, and not some alternative such as Trillian? I had a similar problem with vanishing messages when using Trillian.

And this last week or so has been hell for anyone doing something other than surfing the 'net.

ZappBrannigan said:

Thanks, I'll give openweb a shot!
And yes, it's TelkomInternet. I haven't activated the technical call info thingy in Skype, but that's only because I didn't know it was there. If anything interesting pops up, I'll be sure to let you know.

Click to expand...

You're sure to find Openweb lurking around the forum in the guise of MrBeep. I'm sure he can sort you out with details for the free service.

I wasnt able to use skype or ichat reliably without it. I'm not sure how well it works with SAIX which is why I'm suggesting the free one first.

Xarog said:

Heh, now I'm concerned that I'm not getting all MSN messages.

Just to check, are you actually using MSN messenger, and not some alternative such as Trillian? I had a similar problem with vanishing messages when using Trillian.

And this last week or so has been hell for anyone doing something other than surfing the 'net.

Click to expand...

Yup, bona fide MSN Messenger with all the frills and extra crap.

You're sure to find Openweb lurking around the forum in the guise of MrBeep. I'm sure he can sort you out with details for the free service.

Click to expand...

Already signed up and am testing it out on MSN with good results so far, thanks for the tip It's just not a very valid solution for my fellow office rats, though...

i had many problems until i put my router/modem in Bridge mode.

Click to expand...

Oh?.. Hm... I'd like some confirmation on this before I start messing around with the router while my boss is around.

ZappBrannigan said:

Already signed up and am testing it out on MSN with good results so far, thanks for the tip It's just not a very valid solution for my fellow office rats, though...

Click to expand...

Why not?

bwana v.10 said:

Why not?

Click to expand...

Imagine the conversation going like this:

"So, boss, you know that ADSL connection I pestered you to get so we could use Skype to cut down on our phone bill and whatnot? Well, you *kinda* need to shell out some more cash to be able to.. Uh, well do what I told you it would do. But it's not my fault, seriously!"

Actually, our monthly costs from using dial-up were approaching R2000, so we save money whichever way you cut it. Still.. Meh.

Anyway, I'm the only one in the office using anything but HTTP and POP services from now and in the foreseeable future, so I suppose it's not all tha much of an issue. Yet.
When it turns out to be, I hope to be long gone

ZappBrannigan said:

Imagine the conversation going like this:

"So, boss, you know that ADSL connection I pestered you to get so we could use Skype to cut down on our phone bill and whatnot? Well, you *kinda* need to shell out some more cash to be able to.. Uh, well do what I told you it would do. But it's not my fault, seriously!"

Actually, our monthly costs from using dial-up were approaching R2000, so we save money whichever way you cut it. Still.. Meh.

Anyway, I'm the only one in the office using anything but HTTP and POP services from now and in the foreseeable future, so I suppose it's not all tha much of an issue. Yet.
When it turns out to be, I hope to be long gone

Click to expand...

Still - if it works it would be r59 well spent right?

bwana v.10 said:

Still - if it works it would be r59 well spent right?

Click to expand...

True. I'll wait and see how it performs and then (probably) back up my recommendation with some solid data.

Man, I miss my uncapped, flawless R300/month 3mb ADSL back home