Thank you for sharing these tips on how to improve the quality of the sound on a call, does that also work for skypecast?

I am having a hard time rationalizing this one. I was under the impression that normally the traffic is exchanged directly between the end-points. This means that reoriginating the call or changing the online status wouldn't change the quality of the call. In other words, this scheme may work only in the minority of cases where the call is routed through media relay nodes. Changing the supernode is one sure way of changing the media relay node.

Hey GlobalSuccess thanks for dropping by! Good question too! Yes, I tried it in two Skypcasts yesterday and both times it worked.

Regards, Bill

Hey Aswath! I kinda figured I would hear from you. (Grin)

Please try it. Test. Test. Test. It really works.

You are correct it is only for a "minority" nurmber of calls. Maybe ten percent for me, but maybe very much more for someone behind a UDP unfriendly router.

Thanks for dropping by... Regards, Bill

Good point Aswath. The supernode handles the call signal, not the media transfer.

Try it a third time Bill, 2 for 2 is good odds.

GlobalSuccess... LOL

Hello Aswath,

It would be great if we could fully understand why this ploy works, but the fact of the matter is, that it does help, particularly when relays are involved. If a marginally UDP-friendly router is in use, I would think that the percentage of problem voice calls would be high from that user's perspective. However, I wasn't suggesting that toggling Online status off and back on was a panacea.

Relay nodes can still be involved even when voice packets are being exchanged directly between endpoints. When you go Offline temporarily, the connection to your Supernode is broken and all other connections are closed. It is important to realize that when a voice call is ended normally, Skype maintains the connections between endpoints for a period of time. Presumably this is done to facilitate an easy re-connection if so desired. When you go Offline these connections are also closed immediately, guaranteeing that new relay nodes will be used during subsequent voice calls. Going back Online also re-connects you to a new Supernode. I have not tested enough to determine if there is ever any advantage in BOTH endpoints toggling their Online status before attempting another voice call, but I do know that the type of connection achieved can sometimes vary depending upon which endpoint intiates the call.

Hey GlobalSuccess. Only twice in a Skypecast call. But many times on Skype 2 Skype calls.

My Skype buddy Neil Lindsey has proof of how and why it works. We will be publishing a separate story on that topic.

Neil and Bill:

Thanks for the clarification. Looks like my understanding of Skype is intact. But Neil, you have created another mystery with your statement that "Relay nodes can still be involved even when voice packets are being exchanged directly between endpoints." Isn't there a contradiction - either the traffic is exchanged directly or there is a relay node. How can it be both?

Hey Aswath!

On the new mystery, well Neil and Bill differ. I don't believe Relay Nodes carry voice/video traffic, Neil does. However, I believe Neil, in the long term may well be proven correct.

We should have a story out in a week or so.

Thanks again for dropping by...

Hello again Aswath,

I could show you a capture file that clearly shows 4 connected relay nodes PLUS a direct UDP connection between endpoints during a voice call. The active UDP connection is carrying the voice traffic, and yet the relay nodes are also seen to be involved for the duration of the call, but not continuously.

The Skype technical call display shows that both Session In and Out were UDP (plain and simple), and yet Relays were 4. This corresponds exactly to what was observed in the above capture file.

Oh, and by the way, voice quality was excellent.

I believe that these relay nodes are not actually carrying voice packets until Session In and/or Out say Relay_UDP or RELAY_TCP (both of which I have witnessed on occasion). I believe this to be a worst case scenario for call setup and thankfully it does not happen that often. As one can imagine voice quality suffers badly under these conditions.

With all this hype about internet calling and getting rid of a normal phone, what happens when the electricity goes down or the cable is out. You don't have that worry with a regular phone.

Thanks Bill,




It certainly seems to work for SkypeOut too!!




I use SkypeOut from Brazil to numerous countries but mainly Australia. As you mentioned, in the past I have just hung up and tried again. This method has had relative success.




Now what I do is go offline for the "15 Seconds" before a call, then back online and connect. I've not experienced a poor quality SkypeOut call in about 10 since.




Although a little inconvient, a nice tip!!

Jane: "With all this hype about internet calling and getting rid of a normal phone, what happens when the electricity goes down or the cable is out. You don't have that worry with a regular phone."

Well electricity out gives you around 48 hours of telephony, if saving. If your cable is gone and that being the telephone cable, you are telephone is gone.

Sir/Madam,

Background:

1. We use SKYPE OUT connection to call from Bangalore to Malaysia (most of the times)
2. Earlier we had just one person calling from one PC connected to a 256 Kbps broadband line. It was working fine.
3. Subsequently we decided to have two persons make SKYPE OUT calls using the same 256 Kbps broad band line. This is when the problem started. Too many call breaks, disconnection, delays etc. Unacceptable levels for the conduct of business.
4. All the prescribed checks for network card, sound card and head phone/ mic have been done & found to be ok.
5. The details of how the two systems are connected are given below
a. Each of the two systems have the following configuration viz, P-III 600 MHZ, 512 RAM, 100 mbps ethernet card, Index head phone.
b. Each system has two LAN cards (pls see schematic below)
i. System 1
1. LAN card 1 connected to the general LAN (which has a proxy server to the internet which is not used for SKYPE OUT services)
2. LAN card 2 connected to LAN card 1 of System 2
ii. System 2
1. LAN card 1 connected to LAN card 2 of System 1
2. LAN card 2 connected to a 256 Kbps Broad band line.
Schematic

L1 L2 L1 L2

LAN card 1 LAN card 2
Connected to Connected to
general LAN 256 Kbps
Broad band.
Note: L1 LAN card 1
L2 LAN card 2

Would request you to kindly suggest remedial measures.