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Significant Latency: GoogleVoice forwarded to PhonePower Number

Started by dwhitejazz, May 15, 2014, 07:28:45 PM

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dwhitejazz

I hope there is a solution to the following problem.

When we used GoogleVoice directly we did not experience any latency issues.  With GoogleVoice shutting down support for the XMPP protocol, we recently setup a PhonePower number and configured GoogleVoice to forward the GoogleVoice number to the PhonePower number.  The Obi202 device is configured to use the PhonePower number.

Unfortunately, incoming calls forwarded from GoogleVoice are experiencing significant latency.  The amount of latency varies, but it seems to be much worse if the caller is also using VOIP as opposed to a cell phone connection.  The latency is bad enough that communication is hindered by people talking over each other.

Important note: the latency issue is not there for outgoing calls or when the caller calls the PhonePower number directly.  Therefore, GoogleVoice forwarding is definitely the problem.

I don't know if there is anything I can do (e.g. router configuration, Obi202 device configuration) to reduce or eliminate the latency when calls are forwarded through GoogleVoice.  If not, then we will have to port our GoogleVoice number to PhonePower and completely abandon GoogleVoice.

Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

jdubner

I cannot offer any real help but I wanted to mention that I have pretty much the same problem.  I have opened a support ticket with PhonePower to which they haven't given much priority.  If they or I resolve the issue I will post the details here.

The PP support tech did suggest I place my Obi device's IP address in my router's DMZ. 
Quote"One thing that may improve your quality is placing the Obi in the DMZ of your router to ensure that there is no firewall blocking the traffic of it."

I did this but cannot determine if the situation is any better.  I'm pretty certain my firewall isn't blocking any traffic to it.

tome

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH, I don't have any problems in this regard with Callcentric to which I am forwarding from GoogleVoice...

Taoman

Quote from: tome on May 15, 2014, 07:56:10 PM
FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH, I don't have any problems in this regard with Callcentric to which I am forwarding from GoogleVoice...

What tome mentions here is definitely worthy of consideration. Just today I switched from having PhonePower be my primary incoming provider to having Callcentric as my primary incoming (forwarding from GV). My reason was not latency but the fact PhonePower's phonebook entries will not override incoming CNAM whereas Callcentric does. So I am only using PhonePower for outgoing calls now. If your outgoing calls with PhonePower are good then it might be something to consider. Callcentric has free DIDs with CNAM. I experience no delay when used as a forwarding number in Google Voice.


dwhitejazz

It seems unlikely that it would be a firewall issue since outgoing calls and incoming calls that call the PhonePower number directly do not have a latency issue.  If there was a firewall issue then I would expect problems with those scenarios too.

I did spend many weeks getting the correct list of ports to forward in the VOIP-unfriendly AT&T U-Verse router.  I cannot put the Obi202 unit in the DMZ zone because that is currently occupied by a secondary NETGEAR router which delivers far better performance for HD streaming.

One thing did cross my mind - the Obi202 is not configured in "bridge mode".  Would re-configuring the Obi202 in "bridge mode" help alleviate or eliminate the latency problem?  The Obi202 is going through the AT&T U-Verse router and no device is connected to the Obi202 itself.

dwhitejazz

Obihai support is telling me I should port my GoogleVoice number to PhonePower.  Surprised they had no suggestions for resolving the problem.

I'm not seeing anything in the router logs indicating there are dropped packets or blocked ports.

Speed test at http://myspeed.visualware.com/index.php gives me a high 4.2 rating for VOIP.

Does anyone have a list of ports that should be forwarded just for GoogleVoice?  Again, I'm not seeing anything in the logs for the AT&T U-Verse router indicating this is the issue.  I believe I have all the correct ports forwarded.

The latency is over a second when forwarded through GoogleVoice.  No problems with latency when the PhonePower number is called directly (i.e. GoogleVoice is not in the communication chain).

PhonePower support says this is not an issue on their end and that I need to contact GoogleVoice.

THEDAVE2

I have the same problem with latency having used GV for years with my obi100. Now that I have switched to PP and GV is forwarded to it, the latency of over a second makes two way conversation nearly impossible. Almost have to pretend we're on walkie talkies and say 'Over'.

Here is the best to worst connections:

Best:
GV via PC speaker / mic, hardwire lan (in or out)
GV via PC speaker / mic, WiFi  (in or out)

Barely OK:
PP outbound via OBi
PP # called direct inbound via OBi

Terrible:
GV # called inbound via OBi    (Outside Caller -> GV #  -> PP -> OBi )

I am seriously thinking of canceling PP and get the MagicJack GV software and set it to run on my Media Center PC.

I don't want to port my GV # to anywhere as I use the SMS / TXT of GV for most everything.


C6silver

I know this doesn't help but I have had zero issues of latency whether inbound or outbound and whether the person had VOIP or cell.  I guess this is just to suggest that there must be other factors in play causing this for some folks.