Google voice call drops: analysis and solution

[screefchap]

Hi Guys,

Here are my thoughts on sporadically dropped GV calls, and what I believe is the solution (pronounced "feature request" :-)

As others have reported, I too have experienced GV call drops.  The call duration has varied between 1 and 20 minutes.   Very unpredictable, and extremely irritating.

Others have described how they swapped out their routers, and the problem vanished.  The intuition is that there's NAT trouble on the router.  And intuition would be _wrong_ in this case.  The problem is actually being caused by the ethernet interfaces on some routers -- not the firewall/NAT function.

I've spoken with Michael of tech support, and provided him with ethernet captures of both sides of my (Linux iptables) firewall, while a call dropped, but these were inconclusive according to him.

My network has a single Extreme Networks Summit Summit200-24 switch, which is a fully-managed enterprise-grade 26-port device (24 x 10/100 and 2 x 10/100/1000), and is non-blocking wirespeed on all ports.

I noticed that there's no setting on the Obi110 to monitor status or set speed or set duplex.  This got me to thinking that perhaps the problems I've been experiencing are related to an auto-negotiation mismatch.

So I put a dumb 10/100/1000 switch between the internal interface of the firewall and the switch, and connected the Obi110 to the dumb switch.  Since then, I've not had a single dropped call.  Then I put the Obi110 back on the switch, and forced the interface to 100/full, and again everything works properly.

So, I'd like to make 2 feature requests:

1. In Status/System Status, show Ethernet Speed (i.e. 10/100), and Ethernet Duplex (i.e. full/half), and which of these were automatically negotiated, or manually set.

2. In System Management/Network Settings add a new section "Ethernet Settings" that has two pulldown options -- Speed (Auto/10 Mbps/100 Mbps), and Duplex (Auto/Half/Full).

Bruno

[ripclaw]

I am having this same issue when hooking up the Obi110 to my gigabit switch.  Since it's an unmanaged switch, I can't manually set the port speed.  The Obi110 just keeps rebooting since it can't get a DHCP address. 

[RonR]

The Obi110 just keeps rebooting since it can't get a DHCP address.

The inability to get an IP address via DHCP should not cause an OBi (or any other device) to reboot.

[ripclaw]

Interesting.  Then something is causing it to reboot.  I'm looking at my gigabit switch (DLink DGS-2208) and there is no link light.  The device keeps rebooting every minute or so and the power light keeps flashing.  I then hooked up the Obi110 to my router which is 10/100 and the device boots up normally and no rebooting.

[RonR]

I did say 'should not cause'...   

I unplugged my ethernet cable to prevent the OBi from being able to get an IP address and cycled the power.  It came up and sat patiently for over 15 minutes without rebooting.

[RonR]

FWIW, I just remembered I had a brand new, never opened D-Link DGS-2205 in stock.  I opened it and put it between the OBi and a Netgear WNR3500L gigabit router.  Both the Netgear and the D-Link indicate a gigabit connection with the OBi indicating a 10/100 connection.  No rebooting here.

[ripclaw]

Maybe I have a defective unit.  How long of a cord did you try?  I tried multiple 10 foot cords and they both had issues.  They worked fine with all my other networking equipment.  I tried a shorter one and it seems to be working on the Gigabit switch.

[RonR]

It's at least a 10 foot cable from the router to the OBi, and I used a 6 foot cable from the D-Link switch to the OBi (after moving the 10 foot cable over to the switch).  I don't know that a 2205 is identical to a 2208 (except for the number of ports), but I'd assume they're the same otherwise.

[SteveL]

I'm also using GV and having occasional dropped calls. My OBi110 is connected to an Apple Time Capsule (dual band, latest model).

Not sure what to try, other than installing a switch between the Time Capsule and OBi110.

Any advice welcomed.