residential phone line - advice needed

[mules]

for the past 2 years we have subscribed to Starhub VOIP for our residential phone line. it has driven me nuts, alot of the time it doesn't even work (no dial tone, etc) and when it does the line quality is really poor. as i often have to do work calls from home, i need advice on what is a better option. we have tried different types of phones thinking that would help (eg if there was interference from cordless, etc) but there was no difference.

or shall i just go the singtel fixed line option to ensure at least i get heard.

skype is also not the quality required for business calls.

[durain]

hmmm... me too having starhub VoIP and so far no issue at all. even when doing heavy download and upload, the VoIP is still clear. i think the VeCM (voice enable cable modem) has some sort of QoS where it will reserve the bandwith and put VoIP first. i think just about everyone on starhub will have VoIP as their landline.

i suspect it could be your VeCM. what VeCM are you using? not sure if you can get starhub to replace it. here's a list of starhub's VeCM...

http://starhub.com/portal/site/Online/m ... 14acRCRD#3

you can opt for singtel copper wired landline. only problem is, does the property has the copper wiring?

[ScoobyDoes]

There are times i'm unable to dial out as well, but after a couple of minutes of redial, redial, redial it gets through in the end after which the call quality is fine.

StarHub in general have bandwidth issues, more evident in residential networks in condos and apartments.

Since all the local calls are free and i don't pay at all for a landline, i take the slight inconvenience on the chin though i should complain both about this issue and the cr@p bandwidth i get out of Singapore at times.

[sierra2469alpha]

Hell yeh we're with Scooby on the cr@p bandwidth our of SIN - made all the more difficult with the recent cable cut in the Med.

FWIW, we just use Skype for international calls, and our mobiles for local calls. We have the option for free (ish) VOIP on StarHub (we bundled all our services) but have not found the need as our calling patterns are not "typical".

Mules, Skype we've found is fine for business calls. We have the MaxUltimate StarHub connection, which while they say is 100mbps (laughs!) works fine for us both in conference calling and video calling. Can I suggest you check you have the latest drivers for ALL your equipment? I got caught out with an out of date driver that was sending Skype into fits of paralysis and it was fixed with a driver update (a sound card, no less!)

HTH, P

[DimWit Kid]

There's no problem also with my Starhub line.
I connected my VeCM to a different cable point from my Ultimate cable modem. Is yours that way too?

[mules]

thanks all for the advice. we are going to check the drivers, vecm etc and see if there are any issues there.

perhaps as mentioned, it may be a bandwith issue given we are in a high density (900+ apartment) condo.

will let you know the outcome which may help those also with the same issue.