VoIP

kinggeorge1987

Hey everybody,

Got kind of a crazy question/request today so I'm gonna try and break it down without making myself look stupid.

Firstly, I use magicJack, I'm sure most of you know what that is.

I have it hooked up to my desktop in the bedroom, I have a cable broadband connection, that I share with my laptop(wireless). Now, when there is alot of internet activity going on in the bedroom the magicJack cuts out during phone call sometimes, examples are: my children playing their games, bitTorrent seeding or downloading, etc. Now, first question.

Would my laptop have the same effect on the service ? I've yet to test it out and it's 5 in the morning so I cannot disturb anybody.

Is it a bandwidth issue, which I'm sure it is, that makes it cut out. And if so, is there a way to limit one or other(desktop or laptop) to ensure the least amount of lag on the phone while using my laptop.

The big deal is I have an interview tomorrow at 4:30, and in all honesty we're not really allowed to use VoIP phones, but my land-line is in the waiting period of installation and this is kind of a one time shot. The interview will be conducted over the phone, from my home office as required - and I dont want to let on that im currently using VoIP, and dont want to lose my chance of getting hired because my phone cuts out, considering it is a call-center tech job. Anyone have any
suggestions ?

EDIT:
Let me explain the point in this, im sure alot of you are thinking "well just keep your kids off the computer during your interview" , but there will probably be some sort of virtual lab or demonstration, in other words, there will be some internet activity going on while I'm on the phone, i will be using the laptop.

tiersten

Yes. Uploading/downloading on other machines will affect it. If you're not hitting the maximum capacity of your link in either direction then it should be fine. Thats why it cuts out.

The solution is QoS.

kinggeorge1987

So should I limit the bandwidth on the laptop or the desktop ? I understand what your saying, I'm just not sure how to do it .

Should I limit the laptop bandwidth so it doesn't take away from the desktop ? Or limit the desktop bandwidth so it doesnt "send away" too much. The second option doesn't sound like it makes much sense but Im just trying to make sure what to do.

tiersten

You need to enable QoS on your router and set whatever VoIP protocol the MagicJack uses as high priority.

Chances are that you'll be fine anyway as your virtual lab connection shouldn't completely saturate your connection.

kinggeorge1987

Thanks alot for the help, im not sure what you meant by it's protocol. It is a USB device so it has no mac address, but I did set the mac address of the desktop it's plugged into to high. I also set the wired lan port the desktop uses to high, and downloaded a priority manager and set magicJacks priority to above normal.

I then started downloading large files from bitTorrent on the both pcs and called my dad and talked his head off for a few minutes and he said that it sounded as clear as it ever did. Is there something else I can do to ensure great connectivity or is that about it ?

tiersten

kinggeorge1987 wrote: »

Thanks alot for the help, im not sure what you meant by it's protocol. It is a USB device so it has no mac address, but I did set the mac address of the desktop it's plugged into to high. I also set the wired lan port the desktop uses to high, and downloaded a priority manager and set magicJacks priority to above normal.

The MagicJack USB dongle runs some sort of software application on your PC that uses some sort of network protocol to talk to the MagicJack servers. For QoS, you need to tell it what that protocol is.

You shouldn't need to change the priority of the MagicJack application on your PC itself unless your PC is extremely slow or overloaded. That only affects the CPU scheduling and that should be fine with normal priority.

kinggeorge1987 wrote: »

I then started downloading large files from bitTorrent on the both pcs and called my dad and talked his head off for a few minutes and he said that it sounded as clear as it ever did. Is there something else I can do to ensure great connectivity or is that about it ?

Eh. You could implement QoS properly if your router supports it but as I said previously, it should be fine so long as nobody is saturating the connection. Regular use of the connection should coexist with the MagicJack VoIP connection.

kinggeorge1987

Well my router is a LinkSys WRG54G, the only QoS options are device, ethernet port, and application priority. Which category would it fall into and how ?

tiersten

kinggeorge1987 wrote: »

Well my router is a LinkSys WRG54G, the only QoS options are device, ethernet port, and application priority. Which category would it fall into and how ?

Application priority but I've no idea what the MagicJack even uses and I don't have a Linksys router. You'll have to research this one yourself.

kinggeorge1987

Well magicJack uses 2 applications, magicJackLoader, which I'm guessing checks if the unit is plugged in, then connects to the server. Then it has magicJack.exe which is the one that is always running in the task manager, so this is the program the calls are made from. I've done some looken around and the voice protocol is randomly sent between ports 10,000 and 14,000 (according to the unofficial magicJack forum).

So I dont think theres really much I can do.