UCA Softphone call quality intermittant

[chris.humphries]

We have 20 users who are all intermittantly experiencing phone call quality issues, from sounding robotic to not being able to hear one another.

All broadband users have minimum of 5mbps up and down.  They are all using windows 7 Dell laptops.  They are all working from home, using netextender to gain access into our infrastructure.

What else could be the issue?

Thanks

[dilkie]

netextender is the issue.

deploy MBG and configure UCA in teleworker mode. You'll get the adaptive jitter buffering you need for voice quality over internet connections.

[chris.humphries]

Thanks - how do I deploy MGB?  All of this sort of work should be done by our service provider, but they are not very proactive in trying to find a resolution.  hence why I have taken on this forum to find an answer.  Any help you can give, but please note my knowledge of what happens beyond an end user perspective is limited.  Thank you

[dilkie]

indeed, this should be done by your service provider... I'm out of my depth with this, I only have an R&D perspective on how this stuff works.

Can I assume you have MCD(s) on your company network, with these UCA "home" users off in the internet? If so, the MBG is setup in your company's DMZ to the internet... But all this is handled by a dealer, it's not something an end customer can install.

I can understand someone wanting to use a VPN to avoid the cost of MBG but VPN's don't work well for voice traffic, MBG is optimized for internet use.

[akuhn]

Just a few thoughts to add to this:  It also depends on what PBX you are running.  I have a 5000.  MBG and Teleworker mode are not required to get UCA Softphone to work when you have a 5000.  There is a potpourri of ports you need open to get it to work which I've posted on these boards in other discussions.  If you have a 3300 PBX, that's a different situation that may require what dilkie is saying.

But yes, I would ditch the VPN in order to get voice to work better.

Other factors would be the pipe you have going into the home office as well as the fact that the voice isn't being prioritized on any of these home networks.  No QoS.  It's all data.

[chris.humphries]

Thanks all for your advice. It has been really helpful.  On another note, on the Mitel 5312 phones, how can I see what dhcp ip address has been assigned?

[johnp]

Press and hold both volume buttons, release down button, enter 234 and release up button