Hi, I'm running a small Asterisk server in the UK, just for personal use. I've been experimenting with various VoIP providers for international calls to PSTN numbers, particularly to the US (often California). My results, to date, have been very variable indeed, so much so that I'm considering getting a suitable card and using the PSTN. I have found a VoIP provider with an excellent reputation, and it gives very good quality. However, I seem to get quite a bit of delay at times, enough to make conversation awkward. As the setup at the far end was not completely trivial, I'm not 100% sure the problem was in my connection, but I'd like to test that. Are there any US numbers I can call to get an Asterisk-style echo test? Ideally, a California-based numnber, so I can try to call it from an ordinary PSTN phone here, and compare calling via VoIP, and see if there's an appreciable difference in the delay/quality. I don't anticipate using this for very long, so it doesn't necessarily need to be a free service. Failing that, does anyone have access to a US-based Asterisk server which would allow me to make connections to its echo test? Presumably, if I had this, I could rent a PSTN number from a US-based provider, and point it to the appropriate SIP/IAX address. I expect my total usage would be just a few minutes, though having the facility available for a few weeks would be helpful, to allow me to play around with various options. Again, I'd be willing to pay a modest amount for this. Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Best wishes, Nikhil.
Hey Nikhil, I have some free time right now and would be willing to set this up for you. Just paypal me $1 for the DID(globalpops fee) and like 50 cents for minutes. Whatever is left over after you're done testing I can refund to you. Regards, Igor H. Nikhil Nair wrote:> Hi, > > I'm running a small Asterisk server in the UK, just for personal use. > I've been experimenting with various VoIP providers for international > calls to PSTN numbers, particularly to the US (often California). My > results, to date, have been very variable indeed, so much so that I'm > considering getting a suitable card and using the PSTN. > > I have found a VoIP provider with an excellent reputation, and it gives > very good quality. However, I seem to get quite a bit of delay at times, > enough to make conversation awkward. As the setup at the far end was not > completely trivial, I'm not 100% sure the problem was in my connection, > but I'd like to test that. > > Are there any US numbers I can call to get an Asterisk-style echo test? > Ideally, a California-based numnber, so I can try to call it from an > ordinary PSTN phone here, and compare calling via VoIP, and see if there's > an appreciable difference in the delay/quality. I don't anticipate using > this for very long, so it doesn't necessarily need to be a free service. > > Failing that, does anyone have access to a US-based Asterisk server which > would allow me to make connections to its echo test? Presumably, if I had > this, I could rent a PSTN number from a US-based provider, and point it to > the appropriate SIP/IAX address. I expect my total usage would be just a > few minutes, though having the facility available for a few weeks would be > helpful, to allow me to play around with various options. Again, I'd be > willing to pay a modest amount for this. > > Thanks in advance for any suggestions! > > Best wishes, > > Nikhil. > > > _______________________________________________ > -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- > > AstriCon 2008 - September 22 - 25 Phoenix, Arizona > Register Now: http://www.astricon.net > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users >
Another thing you may want to do is try a simple ping test to the far end host. While this may not always be a reliable way to test lag given that the far end maybe just a proxy and your RTP may be terminating to another device, it still should give you a good idea what your lag times are at least on the signaling end of things. You could also do a traceroute to see how many hops your having to jump through as well. You could use a tool like ngrep to actually see the sip signaling and copy out the media gateway from the SDP if you really wanted to, and do a ping on that. I've done extensive work with international voip origination and termination, and typically I haven't had any problems unless it's going over satellite (lag) or there is a problem at the far end (usually pdd or quality issues). If things keep up, I'd even consider running top during a call to see what kind of utilization your local server is at just to make sure something isn't wrong there either. Hope this helps, - Darren _____________________________ dmsessions at gmail.com http://www.darrensessions.com _____________________________ On Aug 18, 2008, at 10:41 AM, Nikhil Nair wrote:> Hi, > > I'm running a small Asterisk server in the UK, just for personal use. > I've been experimenting with various VoIP providers for international > calls to PSTN numbers, particularly to the US (often California). My > results, to date, have been very variable indeed, so much so that I'm > considering getting a suitable card and using the PSTN. > > I have found a VoIP provider with an excellent reputation, and it > gives > very good quality. However, I seem to get quite a bit of delay at > times, > enough to make conversation awkward. As the setup at the far end > was not > completely trivial, I'm not 100% sure the problem was in my > connection, > but I'd like to test that. > > Are there any US numbers I can call to get an Asterisk-style echo > test? > Ideally, a California-based numnber, so I can try to call it from an > ordinary PSTN phone here, and compare calling via VoIP, and see if > there's > an appreciable difference in the delay/quality. I don't anticipate > using > this for very long, so it doesn't necessarily need to be a free > service. > > Failing that, does anyone have access to a US-based Asterisk server > which > would allow me to make connections to its echo test? Presumably, if > I had > this, I could rent a PSTN number from a US-based provider, and point > it to > the appropriate SIP/IAX address. I expect my total usage would be > just a > few minutes, though having the facility available for a few weeks > would be > helpful, to allow me to play around with various options. Again, > I'd be > willing to pay a modest amount for this. > > Thanks in advance for any suggestions! > > Best wishes, > > Nikhil. > > > _______________________________________________ > -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- > > AstriCon 2008 - September 22 - 25 Phoenix, Arizona > Register Now: http://www.astricon.net > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20080818/75d57aaa/attachment.htm
Nikhil Nair wrote:> Hi, > > I'm running a small Asterisk server in the UK, just for personal use. > I've been experimenting with various VoIP providers for international > calls to PSTN numbers, particularly to the US (often California). My > results, to date, have been very variable indeed, so much so that I'm > considering getting a suitable card and using the PSTN. > > I have found a VoIP provider with an excellent reputation, and it gives > very good quality. However, I seem to get quite a bit of delay at times, > enough to make conversation awkward. As the setup at the far end was not > completely trivial, I'm not 100% sure the problem was in my connection, > but I'd like to test that. > > Are there any US numbers I can call to get an Asterisk-style echo test? > Ideally, a California-based numnber, so I can try to call it from an > ordinary PSTN phone here, and compare calling via VoIP, and see if there's > an appreciable difference in the delay/quality. I don't anticipate using > this for very long, so it doesn't necessarily need to be a free service. > > Failing that, does anyone have access to a US-based Asterisk server which > would allow me to make connections to its echo test? Presumably, if I had > this, I could rent a PSTN number from a US-based provider, and point it to > the appropriate SIP/IAX address. I expect my total usage would be just a > few minutes, though having the facility available for a few weeks would be > helpful, to allow me to play around with various options. Again, I'd be > willing to pay a modest amount for this. > > Thanks in advance for any suggestions! > > Best wishes, > > Nikhil. > >Nikhil, Can't help out on the California number, but IdeaSIP accepts incoming calls to its echo test. 301 at proxy.ideasip.com Alternatively, for a west-coast PSTN number to call, you could get a number from IPKall.com, and forward it to 301 at proxy.ideasip.com, and have a rough estimate. N.
Nikhil Nair
2008-Aug-18 18:32 UTC
[asterisk-users] Thank you! [Was: Re: US-based echo test servers?]
Hi guys, Just wanted to say a big thank you to all the people who responded to this: I got far more help than I expected, and far more quickly than I would have thought possible. I'll be writing to a couple of you off-list, but didn't want to leave the list messages unanswered. I think, with these options, I should have ample opportunity to test things properly. BTW, Igor and Atis: sorry, I certainly didn't intend to start any sort of an argument, however short! For what it's worth, I feel you've both been generous, and I very much appreciate that. Best regards, Nikhil.