15.5 release: Call Quality Issues

[Trevor Gordon]

I realize this is not technical support, I am trying to gauge...

how widespread the problem is
if this sort of bug resolution is business as usual
if everyone just puts up with it
do they end up with a stable version​

Short Version:
The only 15.5 release that is not causing us call quality issue is the 15.5.7582 Alpha.

Long Version:
I've just started with a company that uses 3cX for their phone systems. This is my first run in the park with 3cx. I am a computer programmer so do understand that bugs get through.

We are a call center so call quality one of our key requirements. We have invested in infrastructure to ensure any bandwidth issues are not on our side. We are using Jabra Pro 920 headsets and our PC's are at a minimal load with CPU, Memory and disks all running ok.

We upgraded, before I started, to 15.5 and started having call quality issue. We installed the Alpha version 15.5.7582 when it came out and call quality issues disappeared. Even our most onerous user was 100% happy.

Now 15.5.8801 is being push out some of our users are upgrading themselves to this due to the option to upgrade is given every time they log in in the morning. I know when they have done this because they then come to me an complain about call quality and I then go uninstall 3cx and reinstall the alpha version.

I have checked and 3cx does not offer a "do not watch for updates" option.

Cheers
Trevor

 

[eddv123]

Hi Trevor,

Firstly although it is solving your issue, I would not recommend using ALPHA or BETA versions of 3CX phone or PBX in live site environments. As you are probably aware these are only meant to be used in test scenarios (although I do appreciate this maybe hard to do when you have users screaming at you to fix the issue).

As an FYI I deal and have dealt with a lot of 3CX deployments for both customers and installations on live sites and can honestly say I have ever experienced this issue myself, which would lead me to believe it maybe something in your environment causing this problem.

Firstly can you check the guidelines in this guide here (especially the System requirements):
https://www.3cx.com/user-manual/installation-windows/

Check on the machines that your Windows updates and .NET framework is up-to date. Also if you are using Windows firewall turn this off.

As for your headsets, Sennheiser are the only supported headset for 3CX:
https://www.3cx.com/support/ however what I would do is check on the 3CX client under Settings >> Audio devices that you have the correct Audio device set for Microphone as I believe this is set to local audio (PC audio) by default).

I would also check that there is nothing on your local network sucking up bandwidth. These sorts of issues are normally down to QoS related problems. Have you segregated your network with VLAN's and given priority to Voice traffic ? are you using Bandwidth Management on your firewall.

If you enable the setting "PBX Delivers audio" on the extension you are testing on (found under the extension and Options) does this help at all ?

Failing this I would raise this with your re-seller, who can then raise a ticket with 3CX. You would need Verbose logs and most importantly a PCAP trace of this issue so that 3CX can see the audio traffic: https://www.3cx.com/docs/collecting-logs-for-3cx-support/

 

[Trevor Gordon]

Thanks for your reply, with that and the ghostly silence from others maybe it is us. I didn't want to go hunting if it was a problem many others were having.

Thanks for your points on things to look at. Turning windows firewall off seems a strange one, sledge hammer for a nail comes to mind.

 

[Trevor Gordon]

eddv: FYI, 3cx does support Jabra headsets, maybe that list you pointed to might be out of date.

https://www.3cx.com/docs/jabra-headsets/

 

[Trevor Gordon]

I'm still struggling to understand how it might be at our end given that we didn't have these issue prior to 15.5 upgrade, with the same infrastructure in place. As soon as we upgraded these issues started. They continue until we put on the Aplha then they go away. The Aplha gets upgraded to the latest release an the problems come back.

Either there is a bug in 15.5 that got fixed in Aplha, and then that fix did not get applied to release. Or there is a bug in all versions previous to 15.5 and in the Aplha that is masking the issue at our end. Either way 3cx Client has the solution to our problem. They can fix the bug that is causing our issue, or find the bug that is masking our issue and turn it into a feature.

I think it is probably best to go with the logging. Thanks