Troubleshooting VoIP Network Issues

Easy Troubleshooting Steps for Common Networking Issues Impacting VoIP Telephony

If you are a VoIP phone user, you might have faced the following situation: you are in the middle of a call, and suddenly you start hearing your callee's voice chopped. You begin to feel frustrated and dread waiting for minutes or hours to have your problem solved by an external support team. Before you get in touch with your VoIP or Internet Services provider, we would like to share a feel easy troubleshooting tips that might give you the ability to solve the most common problems in VoIP (Voice Over IP) telephony, be it low-quality audio, impossibility to make phone calls and many others.

The first thing to have in mind is that VoIP service relies entirely on internet connections to operate; as a result, an excellent first step is to investigate if network issues are driving the problem. Power, internet outages and poor network connections can cause a total failure of a network that will hurt your VoIP call quality. We will expand on addressing common networking issues that cause VoIP problems and how to solve specific VoIP problems.

Investigating Network Issues:

• Cables Problems

Troubleshooting involves starting with the most simple and easy fixes and working up to the more complex solutions until you resolve the situation. Wireless connections are more common than ever; many primary connections still rely on them. To ensure cable problems do not drive your problems, start to check the connection of all your cables. As simple as it may sound, ensuring all your cables are not crimped and bent is the most straightforward step you can take to check your network connection. Also, check if your cable plastic jacks plugin is in perfect working conditions.

• Router & Hardware Configuration

Given the numerous options of routers available on the market, it is not possible to focus on each router's configuration issues. Therefore, you might want to investigate whether your router has outdated hardware that might be causing interruptions and failure to your connections. Also, at VoIP.ms we have a list of hardware partners that we recommend for optimum working conditions with our platform (add Wiki link/reference). When choosing a router, ensure that it has the necessary functions and configurations to optimize your VoIP connection and allow the proper data to flow through the network.

If the router is not the problem, the first most simple step is to reset your router. Upon booting back up and re-establishing a connection, you may find your Internet now works without any of the previous hiccups. If this doesn't solve your problem, it's time to check the quality-of-service settings. Most routers will have a Quality-of-Service (QoS) feature found within the router's management interface that helps optimize the data traffic and ensure enough bandwidth for your calls. You may adjust the QoS configuration of your router typically found within its specific management interface. Set the Voice, Calling, VoIP, or anything similar to the highest priority level within your router configuration, which will push bandwidth issues off to the lowest priority connections, leaving internet connectivity available for your VoIP phone system over email or other data.

While most routers will come with a QoS feature, you might have a device that lacks this function. In this case, you can rely on the old-fashioned port forwarding technique to open the necessary channels for your devices. To do this, you will need to obtain the MAC addresses of your phones (it is generally as simple as looking on the back of the physical phone or navigating through the phone's on-screen settings menu) and assign them a port to the device. The process requires users to specify what port, or port number, they will use for a device and the specific protocol – in our case, this should be UDP for VoIP calls but might vary based on a particular device and use case. This port will then be assigned to that one specific device and cannot be reused for others, but you might open more ports, one for each device.

Lastly, if you decide to buy a new router, we recommend that you consider utilizing a Dual-Band Router. Dual-band routers can transmit both 2.4 and 5GHZ frequencies, which allows users to assign wireless clients to use different brands for different use cases, helping to avoid network congestion. With 5GHz being the faster frequency, your data can flow with less interference and could act as a dedicated channel for only your VoIP communications.

Investigating Specific VoIP Problems

• Dropped Connections

If you have ever been in a call and had to ask the individual on the other line to repeat themselves multiple times, it might be because of a dropped connection. This issue is usually the result of bandwidth capacity. Bandwidth evaluates the amount of data sent over a connection within a given time. While using the Internet — either for VoIP or browsing — small data units are delivered in packets. When these packets don't reach their targeted destination, packet loss occurs. The outcomes are connection interruptions, slow performance, and low-quality audio issues. Try closing streaming applications like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or YouTube.

• Dropped Calls

Dropped calls are the calls that suddenly end halfway through the conversation and usually occur during outgoing calls on high-volume networks. The main cause of this problem is not having updated firmware on your device. A brief call to your service provider can verify this. Another potential issue leading to this can be a UDP Timeout. This is the time a UDP route remains open on a router or firewall. The solution to this VoIP issue is to readjust the router settings to enable lengthy UDP timeouts or switch to TCP (Transmission Control Protocol).

• Call Echoes

Echoes make call quality to be poor. There are often two potential reasons leading to call echoes: the device or the headset. We recommend that you begin examining the device and checking if it is up to date with everything connected appropriately. An essential step is always to unplug and plug everything back in. To check if the headset is driving the problem, try to make a call with and without the headset. Low Latency – Voice Delay: latency is the amount of time one data packet takes to travel to its intended destination — in other words, the total time it takes for words to exit the speaker's mouth and arrive at the listener's ear. There's a higher probability of experiencing higher latency during peak business hours. Routers play a significant role in sustaining today's weighty bandwidth requirements, like video calls. The solution to this VoIP problem is to prioritize VoIP traffic on your routers or choose QoS (Quality of Service), which may require advancing to a business-class router that keeps VoIP data a top priority (as explained in detail in the above section).

• Jittering

Jittering is when portions of your VoIP phone calls sound garbled, out of order, or completely missing, causing conversations to become challenging to understand. The quick and straightforward solution is to upgrade your Internet connection with your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Your Internet may not have sufficient bandwidth to take on a load of all your connected devices. If this is not the case, verify the internet connection. Wireless networks are user-friendly and durable enough to support direct internet access; however, they are not optimal for VoIP phones. Try shifting to an Ethernet internet connection instead. Don't forget to verify your model or Ethernet cords (more on cables above).

• Silence After Call Connection

You might not face any problems connecting calls, but you may not hear anything once the call is successfully connected. Silent connections happen because of firewall problems hindering RTP packets, which makes voice packets able to pass through only one direction or block both sides from receiving data packets. One solution is to check out the SIP ALG (Session Initiation Protocol Application Layer Gateway), a software component that manages specific application protocols, like SIP. Disabling it will fix the problem most of the time, as it opens ports to allow traffic to flow.

Another problem that may cause a lack of audio is an incompatible codec between two connecting phones. If that's the case, calls can connect ultimately, but they don't allow package exchange, leading to a complete absence of audio. The solution ensures that both phones share a standard codec in this situation.

• Call Forwarded Straight to Voicemail

If your callers are automatically directed to your voicemail before your phone even rings, you first need to ensure your phone is still connected with your existing VoIP service provider. If not, contact the company and reconnect your devices. Double-check your call forwarding settings. You may have changed the configuration or forgotten to reset it back to your basic setup. Lastly, check if you haven't mistakenly switched your phone to Do Not Disturb. VoIP is not Working while the Internet does: try to disable the SIP ALG to resolve this. Try relocating your VoIP telephones to a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) if it doesn't work.

Contact Your Internet or VoIP Provider for More Troubleshooting Help

While it is an excellent practice always to run a router audit when you face issues with your Voice Over IP connection, on occasion, you might not fix the problem without support. When your internet connection goes down completely and there are no issues with your connections, modem, or router, the best troubleshooting tips will lead you back to your ISP or VoIP provider. While redundancies help ensure services stay up when one data center goes down, outages are still common and can take down an entire network. Recognizing when it's time to call your ISP or even VoIP service provider could save you precious time and significantly reduce the downtime you might face. However, if you are still unable to make or receive any communications after attempting the proposed solutions, most of your headaches can be solved by simply contacting your VoIP provider or ISP.

If you have any unanswered questions or need additional support with your troubleshooting issues do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]