Skype on unshapped ADSL?

[CrazyBob]

We're thinking about getting an unshapped ADSL line for our office, and we'd just like to know if we can be more or less guaranteed a good skype experience with it?

And does the quality differ when compared with shapped ADSL?

thanks

 

[JStrike]

I use shapped ADSL, and SkypeOut has never not been perfect

 

[CrazyBob]

I should've mentioned - we're interested in the quality during business hours as it seems everything works fairly well after hours.

 

[bwana]

I use shapped ADSL, and SkypeOut has never not been perfect

IOW - its always been perfect? It used to be that way on uunet but since the end of last year it went down the crapper.

 

[w1z4rd]

telkom are activly shaping skype. their normal anti competive behaviour

 

[CrazyBob]

Any other opinions on this? Specfically those that use their ADSL for Skype/VOIP during the day.

 

[Daveogg]

International - Use shaped up until about 9am, then on some days it goes a bit off, then change to unshaped.

Local - Shaped always seems fine.

Just make sure you are getting a direct p2p connection ie have forwarded the correct ports. If you are going through relays then you are dependant on that relays bandwidth QOS.

 

[morebroadband]

I have done some thorough testing of Voip products - specifically Softphones.

The quality on unshaped is superior to shaped, BUT shaped works fine after hours. There was a definite improvement during the peak hours. I must qualify this by saying if you have a lot of other traffic (like email, browsing & FTP) going on at the same time as when you want to make Voip calls then it is not worth the switch. I would recommend switching if it is to be used for dedicated Voip calls, with a little of the 'other' stuff.

I would not recommend going the 12 or 24 month contract route should you switch to unshaped adsl, because I suspect before years end the Gov. Will force Telkom to offer unshaped, if the launch of SNO products does not.

 

[ODS]

We have also been conducting tests on Unshaped accounts for VOIP / Video calling and have found it to be much better than normal shaped accounts for Skype. In addition for out IP Pabx systems we use unshaped accounts and these work like a charm in setting up branch to brach calling.

 

[CrazyBob]

Thanks for the replies ...it is what I suspected. We'll give it a bash with shapped first and a small unshapped account and see how that goes...