How to Deal With Latency for VoIP

Latency occurs when telephone calls using VoIP sound broken or choppy. Because latency generally occurs in milliseconds, it usually isn't noticeable. When it occurs at a rate above 150 milliseconds, phone calls begin to break up, sound choppy and echo. Here are some easy ways to fix the problem when latency occurs on your VoIP phone line.

Things You'll Need

• New phone adapter
• Traffic-shaping modem or software

Instructions

1. Turn your router off for at least 15 seconds and then turn it back on. Give it a minute or two for the connections to cycle through and then try to make a call, paying attention to any latency issues, to see if this fixed the problem.

2. Check the bandwidth. You may be experiencing latency because you don't have enough bandwidth. VoIP phone lines need at least 90kbps of bandwidth to operate properly. See Additional Resources to find programs that to check your bandwidth.

3. Close large computer applications such as online games, images and videos require a lot of bandwidth and affect the quality of phone calls.

4. Replace a broken or worn-out phone adapter, which also can be a cause of latency issues.

5. Buy a traffic-shaping modem or software. Traffic-shaping modems and software allow you to make sure that your VoIP phone line is given bandwidth priority when applications are in use on the computer.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're not sure of what you're doing, call your VoIP service provider before attempting to fix a problem. This can help you avoid making the wrong changes to your VoIP phone line and exacerbating the problem.

Resources

• Test your bandwidth at Audit My PC.