question

Hi Travis, after reading this post you have to know that the issues are on your local network and not with the company as the result seems to be the same.  In my personal experience working with customers on these types of issues, the only true way to get that clear call quality is to separate the voice and data on separate networks.  QOS is good but not the end all be all.  

How many phones and PC's on the network and what type of equipment are you using?

I feel if you just separate the phones on their own router and own cable back to a separate switch, your problems will go away.  Now not knowing how your network is setup I cant give you all the answers here but I have done this many many times with great results.

If you want to talk more, contact me

chuckfuscone@gmail.com
Certified Ring Central Installer
630-975-1200

Good Morning,

Thank you for responding. I am unable to separate the network out because we use the softphones. So both data and voice run on the same network. We are constantly uploading and downloading documents all day. There are 8 computers on the network and roughly 4 active VoIP Phones. When no one is working, everything is fine. But as soon as you get everyone back in here, the bandwidth spikes really ruin voip. Here are some example ping times:

Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=41Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=41
Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=51ms TTL=41
Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=360ms TTL=41
Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=536ms TTL=41
Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=638ms TTL=41
Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=246ms TTL=41
Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=41
Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=41
Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=41
Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=41
Reply from 74.125.29.138: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=41

Ping statistics for 74.125.29.138:
    Packets: Sent = 1181, Received = 1180, Lost = 1 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 26ms, Maximum = 642ms, Average = 52ms


If you are running a voip call, and put on hold and listening to music, it becomes really crappy when you see ping times like that and I have confirmed with my ISP that those are bandwidth spikes when we are using all of our available bandwidth. However, I have struggled with this for years and through multiple carriers, even when we had 100mbps. So I am really at a loss for what to do.

Travis, 

Chuck is right, you really need to separate the traffic to get good results.  QOS is good, but not perfect. Especially not in routers under $1000.    I know you're using SoftPhones, but there are still ways to separate the traffic.  This issue could even be in your cable-modem.  Here is some food for thought:

1)  To totally separate voice and data traffic, give each of your PCs with SoftPhones an additional ethernet card.  Even a simple USB->Ethernet dongle is fine.  Run the new cables to a separate router, connected to a separate Internet connection.   Yes, get a separate 1Mb/s Up & Down internet connection from your Internet Company and route the Voice Traffic (traffic to and from Ringcentral subnets) over that line.  This will eliminate 99.9% of all of your voice quality issues.  

2)  If you can't separate the traffic to the PCs, more advanced routers have the ability to use multiple uplink/wan interfaces.    As above, have the router send all "standard internet traffic" to your primary internet connection, and all voice traffic to a separate voice internet connection.  I think Meraki (the Cisco brand aimed at smaller businesses) has this capability.

3)  No matter what,  ensure you never saturate your internet connection.  Limiting your router to 9/9 may help.  It may not fully address the problem, but it's always a good idea to limit your usage to no more than 90% of your potential bandwidth.   If you can "carve-out" voice bandwidth, all the better.

===========================

Bottom line, if any particular component in your network is saturated, you'll run into latency issues.  

Hope that helps.

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled RingCentral for Desktop App: Incoming Voices are garbled and distorted.. Ive been plagued by Audio Quality Issue when using RingCentral for Desktop App in which Incoming voices to be garbled and distorted.   When I revert to the Old RingCentral Softphone, the settings can be adjusted to eliminate the problem.

This problem is consistent through my Computer Speakers, Plantronics Bluetooth Headset, and a Logitech ClearChat USB Headset.

The Advanced Audio Settings available with the Old Softphone has been used to resolve this issue; however its NOT available in the New Windows Desktop App.

Windows Vista 64 Bit and Plantronics Voyager Legend (w/ BT300 USB adapter)

Are you having a Similar Problem...?

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Survey of Audio Quality on RingCentral for Mac -- Mine is Poor. Please share your call quality experience with RingCentral for Mac.

In my case, the recipient of a call will often claim that the audio is dropped.  It occurs intermittently. I have good QOS statistics, and my partner who uses a desk phone does not have the issue.  Another partner using the softvphone on a separate ISP has similar cut out on audio.

I have not been satisfied with the support from RingCentral as they never seem to resolve the problem, but have plenty of time to carry your concern through their call system.  

Can you explain how to get an issue escalated to the QOS team?  

I called, got a Level 1 guy, spent an hour going through his characterization. He made no changes. Then he pushes it to Level 2. Promised 24-hour response, no call back and we are now heading for 48 hours. (I tried calling them, but Level 1 could not get Level 2 to engage.) Obviously paying RingCentral for phone service, and having poor quality is very frustrating, carries urgency for me, but I sense no urgency from the support team.  

Is Level 2 the same as the QOS team, or does one need to explicitly ask to be connected to the QOS team?

I have merged several related topics into this one.  In my previous post, there are several troubleshooting links. Also, please see RC-Installer's post above. He has a lot of experience installing systems for RC users and also suggests having separate networks for voice and data. This might be necessary if you have a lot of users.  If you've done all the routine troubleshooting, and still having issues, you are welcome to  Open a Case  so that your issue can get escalated to our QoS team. 

Thanks

Mike