New Router Causing Call Quality/Connectivity Issues - US Army, Afghanistan

[rpluche]

Currently stationed in Afghanistan. Our unit found an ISP out here that we have been using for wireless internet. I recently replaced the poor quality router they provided us with a new Asus RT-N56U. Ever since, multiple people have complained about Skype being of lesser quality than before. People are mostly having trouble signing in and staying connected to another user, although those arent the only problems. The router fixed all of the problems with the internet that we were having, but made Skyping worse off. I read that port forwarding/port triggering could help solve the problem, but I don't know much about that. If that would solve the problem and someone could provide me with instructions on what ports to open and how, it would be greatly appreciated.. thank you!

[g4pilut]

Greeting from CONUS. 

In most cases manually configuring port forwarding/triggering isn't necessary.

You might try clicking on Tools > Options > Advanced > Connection, uncheck all the boxes there, save the change, restart Skype.

See if that improves things any.

edit:  If the problem persists,  what results do you get if you run a test at www.speedtest.net   ?    Download and upload speed, and ping?

Click on Help > About Skype to see what version you're running.  (Others users should do this too.)   If you don't see the latest version, 5.9.0.114, update via this link:

http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-full

And when you're on a Skype call, click on Call > Call Technical info.  Copy and paste the results here.  Than may shed some light on where the problem lies.

[Neil]

the Asus RT-N56U is an EXCELLENT router and should work fine once set up properly

I would recommend disabling UPnP in the router as a start however, and I would also suggest that you try to see what wifi channel it is trying to use and see if there might be a conflict with other nearby wifi users

there is a free tool called WirlessNetView that could help here, and you can get it from:

http ://www. nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_network_view.html

the Call Technical Info that g4pilut mentioned will go a long way toward isolating the issue -- while displaying that screen, right-click and you will see that the info can be easily copied to the Windows clipboard

[rpluche]

so i tried all of the above and still have the same results. can connect for a minute or two to another person but the quality is terrible and then it disconnects. i understand i dont have the best internet here. its pretty bad compared to what anyone is used to back in the states, but previously to switching routers, we werent having many problems with it. i contacted our isp and they are sending their techs here as soon as they can to see if something changed on their side.

i ran the speedtests a few times. during off peak hours, i got: 600ms ping, .92 Mbps Down, and .56Mbps Up. During the peak hours of usage, i got: 720ms ping, .42Mbps Down, and .2 Mbps Up.

and here is the call technical info:

Basic
Conversation ObjectId=530
Conversation identity=echo123
Status=3
Premium Status=0
Host=the_sw33tn3ss
InVol=4294967295
OutVol=78
ParticipantCount=2
BW (avg/60sec): upload=< 1 kBps
BW (avg/60sec): download=< 1 kBps

the_sw33tn3ss
Identity=the_sw33tn3ss
Status=7
Video Status=0
Problems=RECORD_ERROR

echo123
Identity=echo123
ObjID=96173
Codec=SILK_V3
Jitter=20
Sample rates=e-0, d-24000
Packet loss=0.0% (0)
Send packet loss=0.0%/0.0%
Recv packet loss=0.0%/0.0%
Roundtrip=0 ms
BM=audio 3000 / 60 ms  video 0 corr 0%
SessionOut=UDP (5 packets)
SessionIn=UDP (119 packets)
Relays=3
UDP status=local:Good remote:Good
CPU usage=4.8% 0.0% hicc:0
Remote UI version=ECHO123
Status=7
Video Status=2
Problems=RECORD_ERROR
Video debug (96203)=; media = 0; status = 7; error =

also, i am using version 5.9.0.114 of skype. ill have to check that wirelessnetview out as soon as i get a chance. 

thanks again. all your help is much appreciated!

[g4pilut]

That call tech info doesn't really show much, except very low upload and download speeds.  The same report on an actual call to a live Skype contact may show more.

What the speed test shows me is that your latency to the speedtest server is very high.  You might try that test again and use the speedtest.net option to select another server.  It's strange because the latency to the echo123 site wasn't bad at all.

I concur with Neil's suggestion to use the netview utility to make sure your not sharing a wifi channel with some other service, but as an additional troubleshooting step, can you connect to the new router via Ethernet cable instead of wifi?  It might be helpful to see if the speedtest latency is better with a wired connection, and if the dropped call problem is reduced.

Those speeds you got, btw, are OK for an audio only call, but especially in the evening, it could be a problem if a number of people are all trying to use Skype, or any other function that uses bandwidth, at the same time.

[Neil]

I'd like to see the results you get from http://pingtest.net/ , and technical details from a real/problem call might help too