Hi,
I hope someone can give me some advice.

We have Swyx setup in our office with 30 handsets (25 P250 USB and 5 desktop
phones).  Some users are complaining about poor call quality, echo and sound
fading.  Other users are telling me the quality is just as good as a
traditional phone.

The PC's with poor quality are using a new (Less than a year old) PC and
connected to the LAN at 1GB.  All calls are going out to the PSTN through
ISDN.

Can anyone give me any pointers on where to start troubleshooting these
quality issues or advice on how anyone has resolved similar issues.

Thanks
John McC

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

John McC wrote:

> We have Swyx setup in our office with 30 handsets (25 P250 USB and 5
> desktop phones).  Some users are complaining about poor call quality, echo
> and sound fading.  Other users are telling me the quality is just as good
> as a traditional phone.

Is it internal calls or calls that go over PSTN that are having issues? Are
you using an echo-cancelling PSTN card in your Swyx server? What's a 'P250
USB'? Is there a correlation between poor calls and user-agent [ie P250 
or
desktop phone]?

> The PC's with poor quality are using a new (Less than a year old) PC and
> connected to the LAN at 1GB.  All calls are going out to the PSTN through
> ISDN.
>
> Can anyone give me any pointers on where to start troubleshooting these
> quality issues or advice on how anyone has resolved similar issues.

Get your users to hit 'record' whenever they experience poor call quality so
you can hear it first-hand. If you have a consistently poor-performing
extension, consider connecting it directly to the Swyx server with a
crossover cable to eliminate your network infrastructure as a source of the
problem. If it improves, slowly add more network back in until the problem
reappears. If it doesn't improve, stick a £5 ethernet card in the PC, to
eliminate the current network card/drivers.

Failing all of the above, just install Asterisk ;-)

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpEaTm@ale.cx)
17:51:48 up 11 days,  6:33,  3 users,  load average: 0.35, 0.21, 0.11
This is my BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMSTICK

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for your reply.
It is mainly calls that go over the PSTN that we are having issues with.
Some internal calls are a little poor but this is less of an issue than the
external calls.  The P250 are USB handsets which are used with a softphone
(the software is called SwyxIT).  The USB handsets are all used on various
models of Dell desktop PC's (GX 150, SX 280).  On the same model of pc with
the same model of  handset some are having issues and some are not.  I have
checked all the network and softphone settings are they are all set up the
same.  There is an echo cancellation option in the softphone but this
doesn't seem to make a difference.

The ISDN card is a SX2 Quad BRI.  I have been through the settings for the
card and can't see an echo cancelling option there.  Does anyone have any
experience of this ISDN card?

I have had the network cabling checked to confirm it does meet the required
standards and to confirm there is no interference on the cabling.
Everything passed with flying colours!!!

Cheers
John McC


"alexd" <look@my.sig> wrote in message news:4247374.Vo9mLUBx4g@ale.cx...
> John McC wrote:
> 
>
> Is it internal calls or calls that go over PSTN that are having issues?
> Are
> you using an echo-cancelling PSTN card in your Swyx server? What's a 'P250
> USB'? Is there a correlation between poor calls and user-agent [ie P25
0 or
> desktop phone]?
> 
>
> Get your users to hit 'record' whenever they experience poor call quality
> so
> you can hear it first-hand. If you have a consistently poor-performing
> extension, consider connecting it directly to the Swyx server with a
> crossover cable to eliminate your network infrastructure as a source of
> the
> problem. If it improves, slowly add more network back in until the problem
> reappears. If it doesn't improve, stick a £5 ethernet card in the PC, to
> eliminate the current network card/drivers.
>
> Failing all of the above, just install Asterisk ;-)
>
> --
> <http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpEaTm@ale.cx)
> 17:51:48 up 11 days,  6:33,  3 users,  load average: 0.35, 0.21, 0.11
> This is my BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMSTICK
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

John McC wrote:

> Hi Alex,
>
> Thanks for your reply.
>  It is mainly calls that go over the PSTN that we are having issues with.
> Some internal calls are a little poor but this is less of an issue than
> the external calls.

Does it only happen with a certain number of outgoing calls, ie could it be
a dodgy ISDN channel?

> The ISDN card is a SX2 Quad BRI.  I have been through the settings for the
> card and can't see an echo cancelling option there.  Does anyone have any
> experience of this ISDN card?

Is that an active or a passive card? If it's a passive card, does poor call
quality coincide with high CPU load on the server?

> I have had the network cabling checked to confirm it does meet the
> required standards and to confirm there is no interference on the cabling.
> Everything passed with flying colours!!!

When I suggested using an x-over cable, I meant more to eliminate network
traffic and any switches than the cabling.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpEaTm@ale.cx)
09:24:54 up 11 days, 22:06,  3 users,  load average: 0.35, 0.15, 0.04
This is my BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMSTICK

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

"alexd" <look@my.sig> wrote in message news:1589594.KQe2DcArc4@ale.cx...
> John McC wrote:
> 
>
> Does it only happen with a certain number of outgoing calls, ie could it
> be
> a dodgy ISDN channel?

It might be.  I will give BT a call again to get them to check it.

> 
>
> Is that an active or a passive card? If it's a passive card, does poor
> call
> quality coincide with high CPU load on the server?

The server only has the phone system running on it.  I have monitored the
CPU load and several other things and nothing is getting overloaded
(CPU/Memory/Network card)

> 
>
> When I suggested using an x-over cable, I meant more to eliminate network
> traffic and any switches than the cabling.
>
> --
> <http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpEaTm@ale.cx)
> 09:24:54 up 11 days, 22:06,  3 users,  load average: 0.35, 0.15, 0.04
> This is my BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMSTICK

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

HI John,

Who is your supplier of the system, this problem should be addressed
through them and then direclty to our support. if you are getting no
help from them give me a shout and I will push them to get it sorted.

Regards

Ian
Swyx Solutions UK Limited.


John McC wrote:[vbcol=seagreen]
> "alexd" <look@my.sig> wrote in message news:1589594.KQe2DcArc4@ale.cx... 
>
> It might be.  I will give BT a call again to get them to check it.
> 
>
> The server only has the phone system running on it.  I have monitored the
> CPU load and several other things and nothing is getting overloaded
> (CPU/Memory/Network card)
> 

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]