How to Use a Video Phone With DSL Internet and Routers

Video Phones are increasing their presence in the market because high speed Internet connections are now common, and Fast enough to support voice and video traffic.  T1, fiber optic, or cable-based Internet usually has enough "upload" bandwidth to provide good results with a video phone, as long as there are not too many active users on the network.  DSL, on the other hand, often has a low enough upstream bandwidth to cause concern that it will affect video phone performance.

If you have DSL, or an actively used cable or other network, you may experience some voice and video difficulties.  There is a two-router, two-part approach that can help this problem.  The first part is to guarantee your video phone a 50% share of the bandwidth pie.  In order to do that, the device that your DSL telephone cable connects to has to be a router, or "home gateway".  It must NOT be wireless, or if it is, the wireless function should be shut off.  If you have a DSL MODEM, only one connection is available.  Use Ebay to buy a used Netopia Cayman or similar DSL router, and then sell your DSL modem on Ebay.  You can get telephone support to help you set up the new router with the login and password for the PPP. 

Two devices are connected to the DSL router:  The video phone, and the cable leading to the SECOND router, which acts as a home gateway, and may be wireless.

The first router divides the bandwidth in half, and makes sure that at least half of it goes to the video phone.  The second router can also add to the performance.  The secret is to buy a router with QoS.  Such a router is the ubiquitous WRT54G.  It allows you to set the upstream bandwidth.  While routers can't control how Fast data comes to them, they CAN control how fast they send it out.  By adjusting the bandwidth on the upstream side, you limit the amount of data that the router can possibly use out of the restrictive upload bandwidth.  Enable the QoS, set the upstream bandwidth to manual, and enter the value.

Lowering this level too low may not be necessary.  If you have measured upload speed of 390 from speakeasy, try setting the router to 256.  The more you lower the upstream bandwidth, the better chance your video phone has of maintaining a good quality video call, but lower it no more than necessary.

There is a cost to this.  Whenever you are sending data, such as uploading docuMents or pictures to be emailed, you are suffering a slower speed than what you are paying for.  However, if that is a big problem for you, perhaps a second DSL, or  a change to cable Internet is called for.  Or, perhaps you can schedule this activity, and Plug your Computer temporarily into the DSL router, which isn't speed limited.

I offer two final thoughts.  First, your video phone will have settings for connection speed.  This allows the phone to work better with the speed it has available.  Make sure you set these.  They should be in the Menu system.  Second, not everyone will understand your strategy.  Open ports have a way of filling up.  Check your system periodically to be sure that there are still only two cables connected to your DSL router LAN.

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