How to Deal With Bandwidth Limits for VoIP

Bandwidth limits can adversely affect your VoIP service. If you don't have enough bandwidth, the most common VoIP problem, your telephone calls could either break up, echo or drop. Here are a few tips to successfully deal with bandwidth limits for VoIP.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Know the peak calling times. Usually, evenings are going to have the highest amount of Internet traffic volume. This causes congestion and decreases the amount of bandwidth available for your VoIP. Call during off-peak times to avoid this problem.

2. Recognize what uses up your available bandwidth. Online games, working with images and downloads decrease the size of your available bandwidth. Avoid these types of activities when using your VoIP phone service.

3. Be aware of how many people are logged on to the Internet at once. The more people in your home logged onto the Internet, the less bandwidth available for your VoIP usage. Deal with bandwidth limits for VoIP by making calls when more people are logged off the Internet than logged on.

4. Install another cable/DSL service. This allows you to spread out bandwidth usage between the two modems. By not having all the computers connected to one modem, it increases the total amount of bandwidth available to you.

Tips & Warnings

• A damaged Ethernet cable can lead to problems with VoIP. If your cable is old or damaged, replace it.
• Companies have been known to turn off accounts without warning for exceeding bandwidth usage limits. Contact your service provider to know what your limits are.

Resources

• Learn more about bandwidth limits.