OBiTALK Community

General Support => Day-to-Day Use => Topic started by: TiminCincy on March 02, 2012, 06:54:20 AM

Title: Choppy Audio
Post by: TiminCincy on March 02, 2012, 06:54:20 AM
Occasionally I get choppy audio whan making or receiving calls to my Obi100 using SP1 (google voice). Today I tried to call home to my Obi and got virtually no audio at all. I was doing a file transfer at the time of the call from my home computer (which would be using the same internet connection as the Obi100 uses). So while still on the call I cancelled the file transfer and immediately the audio became normal. So it appears there is an audio issue if there is heavy internet traffic at the same time. Is there a way to fix this? Perhaps setting the Obi100 to have a higher priority?

Tim
Title: Re: Choppy Audio
Post by: QBZappy on March 02, 2012, 07:08:48 AM
TiminCincy,

Your  router would need to have QOS ability. One way to control this is If your router model is supported, perhaps you might consider flashing it with 3rd party router firmware "Tomato". It has really good QOS settings. What model do you use?
Title: Re: Choppy Audio
Post by: TiminCincy on March 02, 2012, 07:21:57 AM
My router is a Linksys E2000.
Title: Re: Choppy Audio
Post by: QBZappy on March 02, 2012, 08:49:08 AM
TiminCincy,

Seems your router is supported.
http://tomatousb.org/doc:build-types

If you are up to it you might consider flashing your router with this firmware and then enjoy all the extra features offered by the firmware in addition to the QOS.

If you do decide to implement this, then use this easy to follow guide to set up the QOS rules.
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/3800416/How-to-Manage-Traffic-Using-Tomato-and-QoS.htm

There are several flavors of the firmware. Have a look here and decide the features that you woulk like to have, and then download that firmware. The TeadyBear USB or Toastman versions are very good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato_%28firmware%29
Title: Re: Choppy Audio
Post by: TiminCincy on March 02, 2012, 09:32:01 AM
It looks fairly straightforward to flash the firmware to Tomato. What advantages does Tomato give? I did find that I could turn on QoS in the Linksys configuration, so unless the QoS works better in Tomato vs the default Linksys firmware or there are other improvements, I am not sure it is with the potential risk.
Title: Re: Choppy Audio
Post by: QBZappy on March 02, 2012, 10:26:14 AM
TiminCincy,

Major risk is bricking the router.

If you decide to go with Tomato there are many features not available in the stock firmware. If your only concern is QOS, try the setting it up in your router with the stock firmware. If it works you have a working solution. If the other features tempt you or the QOS on your router is not working to your satisfaction, then you can consider an alternate firmware.

In addition to the QOS, I use the OpenVPN to connect my office to my home. I have an extended network topology using the same ip range over the internet. This simplifies my the setup of Voip, file transfers, network cameras, network printing, etc...

There are many features, many of which you won't be needing right away. There are a lot of resources available on the internet for working with alternate router firmwares. Best thing is to do some reading and decide for yourself.