Bad recieve quality

[RDPearson]

Today I bought a USB phone for use with Skype.

I have tested it to a friend on the same ISP (Telkom) and it works beautifully. I then tested it using Skypeout to a friend in Oz. My friend in Oz can hear me perfectly but from my side his voice keeps breaking up like you sometimes get via a cell phone call.

I then tested it to the Skype Echo123 service and get the same bad reception.

Seeing as it works perfectly locally I can only assume that I have configured everything OK.

Does anyone have any ideas? Any help would be appreciated as I only really bought it for my international calls and am desperate to get my phone bill down.

Many thanks
Richard

 

[Pox]

Someone mentioned somewhere that only incoming data is port shaped (stand to correction). If that is the case then you're buddy would hear you just fine but your incoming data is getting port-shaped into the ground.

I'm surpised Telkom hasn't found some way of declaring VOIP an abuse so they can throttle it completely)

 

[RDPearson]

Hmmm, yes packet shaping. Thats exactly what it sounds like. I will contact Telkom and try see what they have to say.

Thx
Richard

 

[RDPearson]

Does anyone know if there are any ports that are not shaped that I could maybe try run Skype on?

Is the shaping only done on the int link or on the local link too?

Thx
Richard

 

[Highflyer_GP]

same thing happens to me - they hear me, but their voice breaks up on my end. it's not just skype either - i've notice this happening with all VoIP providers that i've tried

 

[morebroadband]

RDPearson,

What connection are you on? Have you tested your latency?

You may experience dif quality calls on dif days. Skype makes use of Supernodes (They use Superusers computers to enhance quality of call) and depending on which Supernodes are available you quality may be erratic.
It sounds like your upload speed/latency may be where the problem will be. Do some latency tests as this might show where the problem is.

 

[!!DV!!]

Same problem with SKyPE and IAX2 for int call's. Got IAX2 working by changing the Port it uses.
SkyPE does not use one port to communicate it picks one a random or what is open on the firewall / NAT.

 

[RDPearson]

I have DSL 384 connection. The latency seems fine. If I try pinging skype.com I get an average response of 380ms which should be fine.

The problem only seems to be on pc to phone connections locally and pc-pc internationally. pc to pc locally works fine.

 

[!!DV!!]

The problem is still Telkom Shapping, the ICMP request is not shapped by telkom but the SKYPE data packet is shapped. So Pinging the server is not a test you can realy use for latency testing VOIP problems.