VOIP telephony: which codec (G711 vs G729)

There are 2 main standard codecs used within VOIP: G.711(u/a) and G.729

G.711:
- highest call quality
- doesn't require transcoding
- uses more bandwidth (~ 80-85 kbps up/down)

Note: G.711a and G.711u are comparable in quality. G711.u is mainly used in USA and a few other countries while G.711a is used in Europe and Australia.

G.729:
- Most hardware/service providers support it
- uses less bandwidth (~ 20 kbps up/down)


I'd been running into issues with voice cutting out on my VOIP line. I was using G.711a and I switched over to G.729a. Reading the stats, I would have thought it would have been terrible; but for the most part the sound quality is not noticeably bad, and I've had no issues.

Facebook needs to verify my account by phone. Account locked out.

Facebook for whatever reason decided to lock out my account. When I would try to log in, it would ask me to verify by phone.

Great, no problem. Except that when I would put in the number, it would only give the option of sending me a text.

Fine, no problem. Put in the number and wait.

and wait.

and wait.

and wait for an hour and no message.

Try again and repeat.

Try with a different number and repeat.

Until it finally comes back saying you've tried too many times.

This happened for a couple of days.

Scouring on the internet led to a solution that worked for some people: Resetting password. So I tried it. Said Forgot Password, got a new one, and got stuck in the same loop.

Clicked "Stuck in a loop" link at the bottom. This did nothing.

Decided to try with a U.S. number. Well for whatever reason it geographically locks you to your location. Tried with a proxy, success! ... kind of.

Then it gave the option of either calling or sending a text.

Tried the text, and same story. No text message came after waiting and waiting.

Tried the call method, and got a message saying their servers are overloaded. Tried again a number of times and finally got through on the one time. Got the phone call, entered the number and got my account back!

... after almost a week.

So try that: U.S. proxy + U.S. number + call

Apple TimeCapsule QOS issue solution

Because Apple's TimeCapsule is a dud when it comes to networking and has no QOS, I needed to figure out an alternative solution for my VOIP phone. I decided to get a switch (used for $5 on craigslist) and give the VOIP phone it's own dedicated IP connection.

Recently Shaw Cable has changed their policies and while they still offer all customers a second IP address at no charge, they no longer offer it by default.

You need to make a call and get them to add it to your account. It takes less than a minute for them to do it but you'll probably be on hold for about 10 :/

Unplug the cable modem for a minute, hook it back up and you're back in business.


I guess they're assuming that everyone will be using a router behind their cable modem and will have no need for it since they changed out the modems to ones that don't offer two ports. They're probably not expecting anyone to still be using a switch.

So the network looks like

Internet Cable Modem -> Switch -> VOIP modem
-> Apple TimeCapsule


The Apple TimeCapsule is set up to create a new wifi network.

Apple Time Capsule slow internet issues

My Apple Time Capsule (firmware v 7.6.1) worked flawlessly at the beginning, then started giving me problems with the internet speeds after a week.

Not just with the wifi but even when connected directly via ethernet.

People on forums suggested all sorts of things including downgrading the firmware.

Turns out the culprit is my backup software. The cpu on the Time Capsule isn't powerful enough.

Throttling down the network usage by the backup software helped solve the issue.

I use CrashPlan. Under Advance > Network, you can change the upload/download speed limits for WAN and LAN.

Update
Turns out that still didn't solve the issue. It's a known issue -- Apple Time Capsule SUCKS as a router.

The Time Capsule lacks QoS, so this might be an issue under certain circumstances. Here is my story:

1. I used to be on a 8.5/0.8 Mbps ADSL2+ Internet connection. The actual speeds I was getting were 7300 kbps for download and 680 kbps for upload. I was using the G711 high quality voice codec for VoIP. Even if I was saturating the download channel, the voice quality - me hearing the remote party - was superb. Not sure why this happened, but I would guess the packets were prioritised somehow form the source (my VoIP provider). The upload was a different story. As soon as I was uploading something (e.g. sending large photos by e-mail), the voice quality - the remote party hearing me - had to suffer significantly. Conclusion: do not upload anything major while talking on the phone, and/or switch to the more effective G729a codec.

2. More recently I switched to VDSL2 and I am getting 25 Mbps for download and 7 Mbps for upload. It appears that it is virtually impossible to saturate the upload now. Not only the voice quality is unperturbed, but the upload of large files takes only a few seconds, so the potential to affect the voice quality is very short. Conclusion: I can live with this situation.

It would be nice if Apple would get their act together and add QoS to the AE and TC. With the proliferation of VoIP, it would become a mandatory feature to have.