Tips on dropped VOIP calls - FusionConnect ...

[mrdom]

Hi everyone:

We've been using MegaPath (now FusionConnect) for awhile now, and we've had problems on and off with dropped calls. I've not really been able to establish a rhyme or reason. Calls will disconnect at unspecified intervals. We'll also sometimes have issues where the person talking on the other end can no longer be heard mid-sentence. Yesterday was awful. I was on a conference call, and the call dropped four times in about 25 minutes. I finally gave up and used my cell.

This isn't isolated - all of our users are reporting dropped calls. I've talked with our SIP provider, and they've verified our host information and all seems fine. I've sent them part of our logfile, and they can't really see anything glaring.

I've done some reading and have verified that dtmfmode=rfc2833 in the sip configuration. I've also verified that SIP ALG is disabled on our router.

I've done a tracert to our VoIP host, but I can't get it to finish ... it times out after reaching the east coast (our server is in New York City by the looks of the hostname). Probably a lot of devices that don't respond to ICMP traffic I guess. ??

We have plenty of bandwidth - 200mbps down and 60mbps up. Ping requests look good ... I'm not seeing any unusual ping latency, about 20-30ms, which is what I would expect to see.

I'm at a loss. Would anyone have any tips on things I could check or settings I might be able to adjust to try and rectify this? It's the worst it's been ... a dropped call here or there is understandable, but four dropped calls in one conference call? That's frustrating.

Our network is powered by Netgear ProSafe switches. All of them have priority for VoIP packets enabled.

Thanks for any help or counsel you could offer!

-Michael

 

[ucxguy]

It would be a good idea to generate a packet capture (you can do that in the management GUI under the Support tab) and then use Wireshark to look at the dropped calls. In the call flow, you should see which end terminated the call and maybe also why. If you're not familiar / comfortable with using Wireshark, you could open a ticket with E-MetroTel support and send them the packet capture for analysis.

 

[mrdom]

Thanks ucxguy - appreciate your help. I just generated two capture files, and with luck, I had a dropped call in the midst of the capture. What program can read .cap files? Can I load this up in WireShark? Thanks again!

 

[ucxguy]

Yes, Wireshark is the correct application to open the files and examine the contents.

 

[random192]

There is also a lot of network congestion nation wide at the moment due to everyone teleworking. Ive had a ton of cloud hosted customers complaining of similar issues since the stay at home orders went into effect. I think a big issue is smaller pipelines from neighborhood networks cant handle all the traffic that traditionally only flowed across the big huge pipelines that connect major hubs serving office buildings and tech and business centers.