Choppy, delayed, and/or garbled audio are some examples of
call quality related issues. Almost always, the root cause of these issues stem from either or a combination of
severe latency,
jitter, or
packet loss somewhere on the network path. Using the
PingPlotter tool, we can identify if and where, these performance impacting factors are occurring along the call path.
Here is the URL to where you can download PingPlotter:
http://www.pingplotter.com/download.html. It is a 30-day trial of Standard version. Once done with your troubleshooting effort, you can remove it from your computer or keep it installed as you like.
Please follow the steps below to download and install PingPlotter.
Step 1:
Download and install the standard version of the PingPlotter tool.
Step 2:
Once installed, a popup window asking for a license key will appear. Click inside the User Name field and then, click the Do it later button.
NOTE: The Do it later button can be selected once you click inside the User Name field.
Step 3:
Once open, enter 199.255.120.184 in the Target Name field.
NOTE: This is the only server that will respond to ICMP traffic.
Step 4:
Set the rate to 1 second in the Trace Interval option.
Step 5:
Select All in the Focus Time option.
Step 6:
Click Start.
The PingPlotter tool will now run and give analysis on the performance of your network. To know how to interpret the results, click
here.
Key Metrics indicative of potential network-performance issues impacting call-quality:
- Latency (sporadically) is greater than 250 ms.
- Jitter is greater than 100 ms.
- Packet Loss is greater than 3%.
Depending on where these impacting factors are occurring along the call path, you will need to contact the appropriate party responsible for the affect path (i.e. your
IT Department or your
Internet Service Provider) to further investigate.
See Also:Tips on How to Improve Phone Call QualityVoIP QoS Frequently Asked Questions