Apple Airport Extreme & ViaTalk

[vaughn]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to configues an Apple Airport Extreme for use with ViaTalk? I am having poor voice quality issues and am not sure how to correct these issues (echo's etc.)

[DracoFelis]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to configues an Apple Airport Extreme for use with ViaTalk? I am having poor voice quality issues and am not sure how to correct these issues (echo's etc.)
Isn't the "Airport" a router that does a wireless internet connection? If so, have you tested what the bandwidth/latency is on it?

I know that wireless internet is a lot slower than wired internet, and also is more subject to interference/dropouts than wired internet. As a result, you may not be getting the required bandwidth consistently. For proper sounding VoIP with the g711 CODEC (the CODEC used by Viatalk) you really need to have AT LEAST 100k of bandwidth both directions (i.e. 100k+ download _AND_ 100k+ upload) just for your "phone conversation" (with any other "surfing the net", requiring even more bandwidth). So the question becomes, do you have enough effective bandwidth (not used by other computers/programs on your network) for your VoIP? If not, than that is why you are getting sound problems. And if that is your problem, you pretty much have to do something to free up the required bandwidth (usually the "easiest" thing to do, is to get in the habit of shutting down other internet programs when "talking on the phone").

[bubbanc]

The airport extreme is not for wireless internet. It's an Apple SOHO router that has wired and wireless LAN ports and a wired WAN port.

I would make sure that you forward ports 5060-5061 (or 5080-5081 depending on how you were provisioned by VT), and 10000-20000 (I do both tcp & udp) to your adapter. You may need to make a static DHCP reservation for your adapter based on its MAC address (I believe the Airport supports this) or have VT assign it a static IP address.

You can find out what SIP ports you were assigned by going to http://ip_of_your_papt and looking at Mapped SIP Port:

[IronHelix]

I would get a real router. You NEED good quality of service controls to make VoIP work reliably, and I do not think the apple has QoS. Get a Linksys WRT54GL and load DD-WRT v23-Sp2 on it, you will be happy you did.

[DracoFelis]

You NEED good quality of service controls to make VoIP work reliably, and I do not think the apple has QoS.
I think that's an overstatement. Yes, a QoS router helps, but you can reliably use VoIP without it. In fact, I think I used VoIP (with a different service, before I switched to ViaTalk) for over 2 years, before I got a QoS router. And as long as I was careful to not saturate my internet web surfing (while "on the phone"), the "phone line" worked actually quite well.

However, it is true that if/when you get to the point where you are saturating your internet (i.e. using up your full internet bandwidth), than the ability of a good QoS router to put your VoIP "at the front of the line" can help a lot. But as long as you aren't saturating your internet bandwidth (i.e. you aren't using all the bandwidth your ISP is selling you), than QoS (while still nice) isn't really "needed".

Get a Linksys WRT54GL and load DD-WRT v23-Sp2 on it, you will be happy you did.
I agree, that sounds like a good choice. In fact, I use DD-WRT here with good results.

However, you forgot to mention that it's not sufficient to just load in that firmware. To properly benefit from that router/firmware, you also need to properly configure your QoS settings to not only know how much bandwidth your ISP is giving you, but you also need to tell DD-WRT to put your VoIP at the front of the line. And until you get those QoS settings properly configured on DD-WRT (and they are not configured by default), than the DD-WRT firmware really won't help your VoIP anymore than any other router. OTOH once you do get the QoS properly setup, the effects of good QoS can be quite dramatic (and DD-WRT does have a decent implementation of QoS, so its a good choice for a router firmware).

[meghann]

Sorry to bump up such an old thread, but...this is the problem I am having & since I also use AirPort Extreme I'm thinking this is the answer I'm looking for.

I read this:
I would make sure that you forward ports 5060-5061 (or 5080-5081 depending on how you were provisioned by VT), and 10000-20000 (I do both tcp & udp) to your adapter. You may need to make a static DHCP reservation for your adapter based on its MAC address (I believe the Airport supports this) or have VT assign it a static IP address.

You can find out what SIP ports you were assigned by going to http://ip_of_your_papt and looking at Mapped SIP Port:

I was able to make a static DHCP reservation for my adapter in my AirPort configuration, but I don't know which ports I need to forward to my adapter. I checked my PAP2 configuration page & found the Mapped SIP Port, but I can't figure out what I need to from that. Can someone talk me through it?

[MarkyD]

I am using one of the new Airport Express base stations with my ViaTalk and it works great. They key is, under the NAT tab, do TWO things.

ONE: Give the ViaTalk adapter a static DHCP setting by using the Mac address and telling the Airport to always give your ViaTalk TA the same IP.

Then, make the IP of your viatalk adapter the DEFAULT HOST. This is known on most routers as the DMZ. This will open all ports to your TA and voice quality will be outstanding so long as you're not saturating your internet pipe. I have a 15mbps/2mbps connection so that's not really a problem for me. I always have BitTorrent running, I just throttle the connection speeds on BT so as to not effect my viatalk.

[shermanay]

I am using one of the new Airport Express base stations with my ViaTalk and it works great. They key is, under the NAT tab, do TWO things.

ONE: Give the ViaTalk adapter a static DHCP setting by using the Mac address and telling the Airport to always give your ViaTalk TA the same IP.

Then, make the IP of your viatalk adapter the DEFAULT HOST. This is known on most routers as the DMZ. This will open all ports to your TA and voice quality will be outstanding so long as you're not saturating your internet pipe. I have a 15mbps/2mbps connection so that's not really a problem for me. I always have BitTorrent running, I just throttle the connection speeds on BT so as to not effect my viatalk.
MarkyD,

Can you provide step by step instructions or breakdown of Step#1?

Unsure how to give ViaTalk adapter a static DHCP setting by using the Mac address....and how to tell the Airport to always give ViaTalk TA the same IP??? <--- Trying to understand the "lingo" and trying figure out how to do this exactly is driving me nuts!!!

I figured out how to complete Step #2 making the viatalk adapter the default host by checking that box/option and entering 10.0.1.5 (currently the IP address to the adapter at this moment in time).

Please acknowledge and respond.

[userpro64]

This post is very informative. THanks for sharing your opinions.

http://storeyourpicture.com/images/signature_Webdesigns.jpg

[Dannie Lon]

JNSoftware has announced Dialectic v1.1, a significant update to its flagship telephony tool for Macintosh. Dialectic provides system-wide dialing of phone numbers using Bluetooth mobile phones, landlines, many VoIP services and more. It integrates with leading contact management applications including Marketcircle Daylite, Microsoft Entourage, Now Contact, Palm Desktop, FileMaker Pro, Panorama and other databases as well as Apple's iCal and Address Book.