Solving Business
Problems With VoIP.
Diagnose And Remedy
Your Issues.

Diagnosing and remedying problems with VoIP can be a Do It Yourself fix for VoIP phone service. Nobody ever wants to hear this, but in a general sense you get what you pay for. Nothing is worse than crappy cheap business phone service!

So most VoIP problems result from inadequate, inferior or improperly provisioned equipment, bandwidth or perhaps a combination of both. Diagnosing Problems with VoIP starts with a simple Broadband Speed Test or better yet try my Broadband Connection Test.

Overview Of Basic Connection Problems with VoIP

Most of the problems with VoIP I encounter on a daily basis are as a result of inadequate or inferior bandwidth. All too often businesses buy the el-cheapo VoIP ADSL or cable modem internet connection because it's labeled as "business-class" by the provider. They then wonder why they aren't getting 24 carat toll quality phone calls like they had on their regular old phone lines.

These types of internet connections, although reasonably inexpensive and appropriate for basic Internet browsing and e-mail needs, unfortunately rarely can support more than one maybe two or three at most simultaneous VoIP telephone calls at a time. Check out my VoIP ADSL Page to learn why.

Unfortunately sometimes even a single business VoIP phone call can be dropped or sound terrible on these types of connections if large amounts of data are being drawn from or especially pushed TO the internet while on the call.

Did I mention that you get what you pay for?

Of course the whole point of voice over IP has always been reduced cost, heck maybe even free long distance phone calls, right? I know at my small home-office I use a cable modem with a T-Mobile VoIP connection.

I only have one VoIP phone number and even with what appears to be "massive bandwidth" something like seven megs down and 400/K upstream, I still get problems with VoIP like dropped calls, voice clipping and intermittent breaks in the conversation from time to time. This connection tests clean on my tests, but still it's a "best effort" service, you see?

Of course I only pay about 10 bucks a month for this T-Mobile VoIP option, as it's available as part of my cell phone service plan. I mean in this case why pay for a business phone line with unlimited long-distance from Ma Bell for seven or ten times that?

I certainly don't mind a few problems with VoIP, sounding like Darth Vader from time to time with a dropped call here and there if I'm saving something like $600 or $800 per year.

But of course when it comes to real business class phone service, if I had a bunch of people in the office who are talking with customers all day long I certainly wouldn't want to have multiple dropped calls, poor voice quality and a bunch of problems with VoIP.

To be sure, my friends get a pretty good laugh if I have problems with VoIP like Quality Of Service (QOS) issues when I'm talking to them, because I'm "in the business" don't 'cha know… <;-)

Have Internet Already
And Only Need A Line Or Two?

My hand picked 1 or 2 line business and residential VoIP phone service is at the banner below, tell them E-Dude sent you! You even get to keep your old phones!

Oversubscription – The Bane Of Best Effort Networks
And Source Of Many Problems with VoIP

Because of the oversubscription issue mentioned below, the very nature of an oversubscribed network leads to tremendous packet loss and latency meaning that the IP packets involved in our VoIP telephone call are not arriving quickly enough, in the correct order or at all (dropped packets)

As I said above, this results in problems with VoIP and has the unfortunate result of making you sound a little bit like Darth Vader or some type of alien speaking in a lost tongue, complete with missing gaps in the conversation and so forth.

So oversubscription results when ISPs sell Internet service basically designed for residential ADSL or cable modem offerings and then introduce them into the business marketplace and label them "business-class". Alas saying they are business-class doesn't make it so!

Of course it always comes down to the bottom line, in order to maximize their network and keep costs down to you the consumer, they sell more bandwidth than is really available at any given time to the Internet or on that part of the network that serves your location. You get a lower price, and problems with VoIP.

Of course they are counting on the fact that not ALL the users will ever be on the internet at one time… But having lots of users on at the same time can be problematic, read on.

Did I mention that you generally get what you pay for?

Mixing Business With Pleasure – Not Good…

So your ADSL or cable modem business internet is on the same network generally as many, many residential users (you know the 13 year old "gamers" doing all that bandwidth hogging stuff) and other business users.

As more and more of these users start logging onto the Internet, the QUALITY of your connection starts to suffer and slowdown -- terrible for VoIP phone service.

Even within your own business, you may have multiple PCs, VoIP phone calls and other data traffic going over your Local Area Network (LAN), many times this in and of itself can cause Quality Of Service (QOS) issues on voice calls.

Ever noticed (like I do) that while you're on a VoIP call if you then send or receive a large e-mail w/ attachments, the voice quality suffers? This may be due to LAN issues, or simply not enough upstream bandwidth TO the internet. Too much data traffic trying to get through the internet pipe at the same time – ugh.

Time to upgrade your internet connection to a synchronous speed , where the upload speed is the same as the download speed, and go to a quality, truly business class offering.

VoIP Is A Real Time Data Stream

The very nature of the voice over IP connection with both voice and video is such that it is latency intolerant, meaning the IP packets involved absolutely have to get there and fast.

IP Packets arriving out of order, or that are lost and have to be resent by the source are not going be able to be utilized in the conversation or video stream, because the conversation already happened! Hence this results in poor quality of service, clipped conversations and sounding less than business-class.

This is why it's so important to have a quality Internet connection, or adequate bandwidth when using a wide area network. There are also a number of other things that can be done on the local area network with switches and routers to ensure a high quality connection.

These fixes like Virtual LANs (VLANs) and traffic prioritization assure that voice over IP packets are delivered as quickly and efficiently as possible to the internet connection itself from your LAN and ultimately the receiving end ie: the person you're talking with on the VoIP Phone call.

Many a business Internet phone service provider will actually provision equipment at your location that "shapes" the traffic such that VoIP and video traffic are put out to the Internet with priority before your typical Web browsing and e-mail etc.

So Best Effort Service Might Be My Problem?

Back to oversubscription, many small businesses report a terrific slowdown in their best effort VoIP ADSL or cable modem Internet connections between 3 p. m. and 5 p.m. when the kids are out of school and doing their thing on the Internet.

Businesses that are open on Saturday and Sunday are susceptible to even more problems since most residential customers are at home on these days and may be using the Internet extensively, thus impacting the networks ability to maintain a high QOS for voice over IP for the business user.

The only way to assure quality, adequate full-duplex bandwidth with a decent upload speed for both VoIP and regular data traffic is going to be "sizing the pipe" properly and perhaps migrating to a dedicated service such as Dedicated Internet Access via T1 or Metro Ethernet. For more information on this please visit the Contact E-Dude Page to learn how you can get a quote.

If you have ADSL or cable modem at your location and would like to know more specifically about how much bandwidth you need, or how your current connection will support VoIP phone service, visit my Broadband Connection Test Page.

So if you have VoIP already, and think you might need more bandwidth, start with a visit to the site below, they have a free tool that will allow you to shop for what you need.

If you have large bandwidth needs, like over 100 users, or lots of servers on site as well as doing VoIP, see if you have metro ethernet in your area at the banner below.

Contact E-Dude About Business VoIP Phone Service
Contact E-Dude page about Business VoIP Phone Service

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