Choppy Audio (Mostly Outbound)

I’ll skip the background here and make everyone ask about it as it comes relevant. I think my question is pretty basic and generic. But I’m doing VOIP with Asterisk 1.4 something and on 7Mbps dn and 768Kbps up with Cox Business Cable service. Have Sonicwall TZ170 router with enhanced OS for VOIP capabilities. Have had ongoing trouble with choppy audio after upgrading router, cable connection, etc so I’m pretty much left with network to resolve now.

Most of the time, the audio is fine up and down. But every few minutes, I’ll have choppy outgoing audio where the people can’t hear me or it’s garbled on the other end. Most of the time I don’t have a problem hearing them, but occasionally it’s choppy on the way back as well.

So I understand this correctly, could somebody look at this and tell me if they agree that there appears to be problems between my VOIP provider and my network??? I did 3 tracert’s with about 1 or 2 minutes between of both the inbound and outbound servers of Vitelity. It appears that the outbound is worse (which is what people are complaining about).

outbound1.vitelity.net

[code]
Tracing route to outbound1.vitelity.net [64.2.142.18]
3 52 ms 12 ms 13 ms 68.1.8.17
4 12 ms 13 ms 14 ms dukedsrj02-so110.tc.at.cox.net [68.1.15.49]
5 13 ms 12 ms 13 ms 12.124.65.61
6 111 ms 60 ms 33 ms gbr6.attga.ip.att.net [12.123.21.86]
7 49 ms 35 ms 34 ms tbr1.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.12.25]
8 39 ms 39 ms 37 ms tbr2.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.10.69]
9 31 ms 32 ms 35 ms ggr1.ascva.ip.att.net [12.123.8.173]
10 37 ms 30 ms 32 ms p2-0.IR1.Ashburn-VA.us.xo.net [206.111.0.61]
11 33 ms 54 ms 35 ms 65.106.3.245.ptr.us.xo.net [65.106.3.245]
12 50 ms 55 ms 51 ms p6-0-0.RAR1.Chicago-IL.us.xo.net [65.106.0.45]
13 76 ms 86 ms 194 ms p6-0-0.rar2.denver-co.us.xo.net [65.106.0.25]
14 76 ms 74 ms 77 ms 65.106.6.26.ptr.us.xo.net [65.106.6.26]
15 76 ms 76 ms 74 ms 207.88.83.78.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.83.78]
16 81 ms 82 ms 80 ms 66.236.84.206.ptr.us.xo.net [66.236.84.206]
17 104 ms 114 ms 73 ms 64.2.142.18.ptr.us.xo.net [64.2.142.18]

Tracing route to outbound1.vitelity.net [64.2.142.18]
3 11 ms 15 ms 20 ms 68.1.8.17
4 12 ms 16 ms 15 ms dukedsrj02-so110.tc.at.cox.net [68.1.15.49]
5 16 ms 17 ms 21 ms 12.124.65.61
6 112 ms 95 ms 31 ms gbr6.attga.ip.att.net [12.123.21.86]
7 38 ms 37 ms 37 ms tbr1.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.12.25]
8 33 ms 33 ms 35 ms tbr2.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.10.69]
9 33 ms 31 ms 36 ms ggr1.ascva.ip.att.net [12.123.8.173]
10 45 ms 31 ms 45 ms p2-0.IR1.Ashburn-VA.us.xo.net [206.111.0.61]
11 33 ms 33 ms 35 ms 65.106.3.245.ptr.us.xo.net [65.106.3.245]
12 164 ms 302 ms 193 ms p6-0-0.RAR1.Chicago-IL.us.xo.net [65.106.0.45]
13 82 ms 139 ms 74 ms p6-0-0.rar2.denver-co.us.xo.net [65.106.0.25]
14 74 ms 75 ms 74 ms 65.106.6.26.ptr.us.xo.net [65.106.6.26]
15 95 ms 78 ms 89 ms 207.88.83.78.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.83.78]
16 120 ms 77 ms 80 ms 66.236.84.206.ptr.us.xo.net [66.236.84.206]
17 74 ms 72 ms 73 ms 64.2.142.18.ptr.us.xo.net [64.2.142.18]

Tracing route to outbound1.vitelity.net [64.2.142.18]
3 10 ms 10 ms 16 ms 68.1.8.17
4 15 ms 12 ms 19 ms dukedsrj02-so110.tc.at.cox.net [68.1.15.49]
5 38 ms 45 ms 28 ms 12.124.65.61
6 36 ms 32 ms 33 ms gbr6.attga.ip.att.net [12.123.21.86]
7 257 ms 103 ms 53 ms tbr1.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.12.25]
8 33 ms 33 ms 33 ms tbr2.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.10.69]
9 32 ms 40 ms 32 ms ggr1.ascva.ip.att.net [12.123.8.173]
10 63 ms 56 ms 121 ms p2-0.IR1.Ashburn-VA.us.xo.net [206.111.0.61]
11 38 ms 34 ms 33 ms 65.106.3.245.ptr.us.xo.net [65.106.3.245]
12 70 ms 58 ms 53 ms p6-0-0.RAR1.Chicago-IL.us.xo.net [65.106.0.45]
13 197 ms 359 ms 486 ms p6-0-0.rar2.denver-co.us.xo.net [65.106.0.25]
14 133 ms 77 ms 278 ms 65.106.6.26.ptr.us.xo.net [65.106.6.26]
15 75 ms 75 ms 79 ms 207.88.83.78.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.83.78]
16 87 ms 86 ms 122 ms 66.236.84.206.ptr.us.xo.net [66.236.84.206]
17 73 ms 77 ms 74 ms 64.2.142.18.ptr.us.xo.net [64.2.142.18][/code]

Hi,

What hardware you running asterisk on?

What is your ping time to the itsp servers?

Are you confident the sonicwall is configured properly to prioritise your voip traffic?

How many users are we talking? How many simultaneous conversations?

It might be worth trying another ITSP temporarily to see if that makes any difference.

seabro