Problem w/Obi 100 & DD-WRT router

[rfgenerator]

Banging my head against the wall on this one.  I have Verizon DSL and a Westell 7500 DSL Modem/router.  When I'm using the Obi 100 (with Google Voice) plugged into the 7500 all works great.  Call quality excellent, etc.  I changed my setup and put the Verizon Westell 7500 into bridged mode and connected a Linksys WRT54G V2 router running DD-WRT dd-wrt.v24-13064_VINT_std.bin  Everything on my network functions great except the Obi.  Once the Obi is hooked into the router call quality is very bad with every other word getting chopped off and many instances of "no service is available".  So far I've tried giving priority in DD-WRT to the mac address of the Obi, I've even DMZ'd the Obi, all without success.  Rebooted everything many times, still no luck.  The odd thing is when I make a call with Google Voice from any of my computers the sound quality is great.  No drops, no cutouts, all just works as it should.  Streaming Audio and Video all show good.  Latency across the board is good.  Speed Tests show me getting very close to my 7MB/768 provisioned speed.  I even tried a second router with DD-WRT (a belkin) and got the same results.  When I take the DD-WRT router out of them mix, turn off bridging in the Westell mode/router the Obi sound quality is once again up to par.  Anyone know if there are any settings in the Obi device itself that can be tweaked to resolve the issue.

[RonR]

You might consider flashing your Linksys WRT54G V2 router with Tomato v1.28 to see if you experience any problems.  That's what I use in a WRT54G V2 router here with excellent results.

http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

[biomesh]

My guess is that it has something to do with the bridging.  I have been using dd-wrt (DD-WRT v24-sp2 (10/26/10) big) fine with comcast since I got the obi.  You could also try newer firmware version or tomato like RonR suggested.  If neither work, it is probably the bridged mode.

[rfgenerator]

RonR are you using DSL w/PPPOe?

[RonR]

RonR are you using DSL w/PPPOe?

Yes.

Netopia 2241N-VGx DSL Modem running in Bridged Mode to the WRT54G doing the PPPoE from Tomato.

I also have a PAP2 running alongside the OBi with no problems.

Bridged Mode shouldn't be an issue.  In fact, without the modem being in Bridged Mode, you're looking at a double NAT situation which is more likely to be problematic.

[gb77]

if you keep dd-wrt, try turning off the qos and see if that improves it. known problems with qos in dd-wrt.

[RonR]

QoS in residential routers usually proves to be worthless and more of a problem than a benefit.  The transfer rate limiting being imposed from the ISP's side makes it virtually impossible to do any meaningful control from the user's side.

Also, QoS should only come into play if the OBi was contending for bandwidth with other Internet activity on your LAN (heavy downloading/uploading going on at the same time as your OBi audio problems).

It's been many years since I last tried DD-WRT.  At that time, I had 5 PAP2's running concurrently and experienced a multitude of audio problems, even with explicit port forwarding in place to each of them.  Switching to Tomato cured all the problems and I haven't looked back.

[rfgenerator]

Tried Tomato, no difference still choppy performance on the Obi.  Even tried a second DSL/Modem that I had.  A Actiontec which I again put into bridged mode and hooked up the DD-WRT router, still the exact same issues.

[rfgenerator]

Okay, here is the plan going forward.  I've now installed a VOIP specific build of DD-WRT.  I'm a newbie at this but it appears it includes a Milkfish SIP proxy server and that I would then plug the IP address of the DD-WRT router into the configuration of the Obi. http://wiki.milkfish.org.sipwerk.com/index.php?n=Milkfish-dd.RouterConfiguration

I'll test it tonight and see if it improves the situation.  I'll post again after I see what results I get.  If anyone sees any problem with this, feel free to let me know, it's kind of a learn as I go situation.

[QBZappy]

rfgenerator,

Hi Milkfish is supposed to resolve Nat and firewall issues. I would be interested in knowing if it solves your problem.

[rfgenerator]

This just gets curiouser and curiouser.  I tried Milkfish and it did not work.  However the issue is now resolved but as to why I have no idea.  Previously I had the Obi100 plugged directly into the DD-WRT router and this yielded very poor performance.  What worked in the end was I moved the Obi100 and the phone to another part of the house and plugged it into a network hub that in itself was connected via Cat5 to the DD-WRT router.  Once I plugged the Obi into the hub it worked beautifully.  With the Obi I was using the exact same phone.  The piece of Cat 5 cable that I used w/the Obi was the same that I used to previously connect the Obi to the DD-WRT router.  The only thing that changed was I was about 15 feet away and plugged into a network hub that was itself connected via Cat 5 to the DD-WRT router.  I'm happy that it is working, just confused as to why.  Any ideas?

[gr8aussie]

This just gets curiouser and curiouser.  I tried Milkfish and it did not work.  However the issue is now resolved but as to why I have no idea.  Previously I had the Obi100 plugged directly into the DD-WRT router and this yielded very poor performance.  What worked in the end was I moved the Obi100 and the phone to another part of the house and plugged it into a network hub that in itself was connected via Cat5 to the DD-WRT router.  Once I plugged the Obi into the hub it worked beautifully.  With the Obi I was using the exact same phone.  The piece of Cat 5 cable that I used w/the Obi was the same that I used to previously connect the Obi to the DD-WRT router.  The only thing that changed was I was about 15 feet away and plugged into a network hub that was itself connected via Cat 5 to the DD-WRT router.  I'm happy that it is working, just confused as to why.  Any ideas?

Possibly the port on the router was bad. I had something similar a while back.