Originally Posted by
airborne_artist
I have two PCs - home office PC runs XP Pro and connects via wifi to router. Playroom PC runs 98SE and also connects via wifi to the router. Both wifi adaptors are Netgear USB, though one (downstairs) is a V1 and the other V2. No problems with either until I tried using VoIP*
XP Pro PC give pretty poor line quality, over the Tesco (Freshtel) network and over Sipgate. In both cases the line drops after no more than a minute. I can see the "gap" in tx/rx on the utility provided by Netgear to manage the USB adaptor.
This sounds like a typical "packet loss" situation. You need to be sure where the dropped packets are occurring.
For a diagnostic, I would recommend you borrow a laptop and hard wire it (Cat 5 cable) directly to the incoming connection in the loft. Go to this site and download
Dan Elwells Broadband Speed Test onto the laptop and onto your wi-fi connected PCs.
This is a simple utility which checks the robustness and speed of your broadband connection. It will tell you instantly if you are suffering from packet loss. ANY packet loss on a VOIP connection will significantly increase the incidence of "dropped" calls.
Compare the results from your machines. If the Cat 5 connected laptop is okay, but your wi-fi connected PCs are showing errors, you know your problem lies with your wi-fi router or signal. If all the machines are showing about the same number of errors, then you need to contact your SP and get them to sort it. If all the tests pass on all the machines, then it would imply a configuration error in the router or your windows (or 3rd party) software firewall, (like Norton Internet Protection). You may try opening certain ports on the router and firewall, (your VOIP provider's website should tell you which ports to open).
Good luck.