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labrats.tv — Tweak settings in your Skype client + Port Forwarding = the perfect Skype setup!
CyberRats- 1360 diggs
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- chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36Here is the details contained in the link:
1. Set your router to give your Skype PC a static IP address.
2. Open a Skypish port to that static IP.
3. Give this port number to skype.
Not mentioned in the article:
If you have a more advanced router (such as the DD-WRT featured on Digg's front page a few days back) you can also set QOS to that port, giving Skype (or whatever you want) priority. This little boost is often enough to make sure that a file transfer or browsing the web doesn't cause any pauses or artifacts in Skype. Outside of Linux-flashable routers, QOS and other advanced routing, however, is not common.- gizmo490, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3QOS partially depends on all of the upstream routers your broad band company has in place. I know in my area one of the two major providers does not provide QOS on voip communications as they offer regular telephone service and don't want you using a competing service over their broadband lines.
- Brennan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5QOS upstream from the router doesn't really matter, the router will sort traffic out based on the priorities you define before it hits your connection which is all that really matters.
- gizmo490, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2QoS on your router has to negotiate with the upstream router to allocate the bandwidth for the voip channel. Or so I understand from the people I work with. I'm just an intern at a tel-co so I might be wrong or I may have misunderstood what they said.
Also from wikipedia:
"A network or protocol that supports Quality of Service may agree on a traffic contract with the application software and reserve capacity in the network nodes during a session establishment phase. During the session it may monitor the achieved level of performance, for example the data rate and delay, and dynamically control scheduling priorities in the network nodes. It may release the reserved capacity during a tear down phase. A best-effort network does not support Quality of Service." - chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"QOS partially depends on all of the upstream routers"
No, I was strictly referring to local QOS. In this case, Skype's port traffic would take priority over my web surfing, file download and other network data (including file transfers across the network with some routers). I've seen many routers work this way, and while it won't give you QOS after the data leaves your router - at least your router will be less likely to allow another packet, request or other such thing ever put your QOS app in a delay (a few milliseconds in skype or a multiplayer game and you notice it). This can help prevent bottleneck locally.
Local QOS is worthwhile regardless of whether or not your ISP supports QOS. - CeeJayDK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4If you're under windows and don't have a QOS router , you can install a traffic shaping program like cfosspeed f.x and it will do the same thing.
http://www.cfos.de/speed/cfosspeed_e.htm
If you know of other good traffic shaping programs please let me know. - gizmo490, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@chrono
I agree that if you can afford a fancy new router. "Local QOS is worthwhile regardless of whether or not your ISP supports QOS."
But even with QoS on your local router it doesn't grantee you are going to get a crystal clear signal if you are using a lot of bandwidth. Which in your second post you pretty much agreed with. "..while it won't give you QOS after the data leaves your router..."
I was just trying to point out in my original post another thing you might want to check to get better voip. ie. that if VoIP matters to you that you might want to look up some information on your local ips so see how VoIP friendly they are. - s21825, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3Traffic shaping?! QoS!? That flies in the face of network neutrality you crazy fools! You must give ALL traffic through your network EQUAL priority or else you will kill the internet!!!
- mrops, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3what this misses is that if u do this your Skype client might also act as a skype supernode, consuming bandwidth for other people's call. particularly bad if you pay for your bandwidth like in my case. Although nominal, I was paying 3$-10$ extra per month just for skype when I did this. I also leave my PC running 24/7.
- lowbot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wouldnt say uncommon. A linksys G router I've owned for a year now has had integrated local QoS.
Skype's real problem is that they dont seem to support upnp for port forwarding. If your skype client cannot open a port it ends up running through another skype client that can. If that guy is running bittorrent or whatever without qos then your connection will sound terrible.
This is a big problem with skype and after two dropped calls and poor quality just trying to call my insurance company last night I regret blowing 10 bucks on skype-out. Granted, I can forward my ports and that might help quality but at the same time I might be selected to be a 'super-peer' (because i now have open ports) and push out all these phone calls from strangers. On my personal internet connection. On a paid service.
Skype works well enough now but with the non-consistant quality its more than a little annoying. They need to educate their users about port forwarding and implement upnp ASAP. Much more than they need video or whatever the last update gave users. - geoplaster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Are you guys saying that the Skype client acts as a P2P client, routing other people's conversations through your PC? When I say "other people" I mean other Skype client traffic not related to those participating in your current call or conference call.
- cslarsen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Static IP-addresses and port-forwarding... This is exactly the reason why we want IPv6 *now*.
- Brennan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1^^^
What does this have to do with IPv6? - osbjmg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1QoS is all fine and dandy to prioritize your traffic above others on your network, but your ISP doesn't care :) There are contracts for that sort of thing, but they are much more expensive than residential cable/DSL - which is probably the large majority of skype users are using.
- cslarsen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's got something to do with IPv6 with regards to "endpoint-to-endpoint". With IPv6 I can easily imagine not having to mess with static IP-addresses, port-forwarding and set up the router to correctly NAT the appropriate packets to your computer.
- stopsucking, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Thank you for the summary. I could not get through 5 minutes of that horrific attempt at two nerds trying to be funny. It was a train wreck.
- Archeologist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Too bad I don't even have a router. (I am unaware of the hundreds of potential hackers on the lookout for my ip address now)
- beatfreax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Going to try this immediately. Skype always runs extremely slow when using browsers, photoshop, mail, etc. as well. Thanks!
- Greyarea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've used this technique for a few months now and it seem to work rather well. Even better, only one side of the conversation has to do this.
- squidage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2sounds like a resource problem on your PC rather than a network issue. In this case - changing stuff on your network (prioritising Skype traffic on your router etc) aint going to do squat for speeding up photoshop.
- priegog, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@Greyarea:
I do not mean to attack you with this question (altho it will sound like I am), but... Can you backup your statement? - r1ch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@priegog - What he is saying makes sense. Basically the whole point of this is to avoid using a super node for the conversation traffic (and the resultant extra hops). This change makes it look like your NAT'd PC owns that port of your router's public IP so that the remote PC can address it directly, hence no need for a super node after the call has been established.
- nogami, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I usually use Skype-out to call non-techy family members, and I find the voice quality to be quite good, however there are times when there's quite a bit (>1s) of latency, which results in conversations which are awkward because of the delay.
- zalbag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The site seems to not load for me so... http://www.duggmirror.com/
- cosmotron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3http://duggmirror.com/
It's a video... - gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Their tips are no great secret. It's basically just telling you to open the port Skype is using to the computer you run Skype on. I've always used this tweak but it certainly doesn't always assure excellent quality on Skype calls.
- GeoNine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Where does it claim to be a secret? From what I read it just claims to be some tweaks. I Have not watched the video yet though becuase I am at work and I get no streaming video!
- SteelChicken, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I never have noticed delay, just crappy quality altogether, but some of these suggestions look like they might be worth looking into.
- Corrosionx, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1What's the damn port? I'm not watching that.
- gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's different on each Skype installation, you have to check your connection settings.
- fearlessfrog, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1From show's notes page: http://labrats.tv/episodes/ep52notes.html
How to optimize your router for Skype calls: by means of port forwarding.
1) Access your router administration control panel, by opening your browser and typing your router IP address.
2) Click Start, then Control Panel.
3) Double-click on Network Connections
4) Locate your Wireless Connection, this will show your current internal IP address.
5) To setup a static IP address for your computer:
a) Locate and click on DHCP on your specific router's control panel.
b) Select your specific computer by Mac address or name.
c) Type in your Mac address and the static IP address you wish to use.
d) Click apply.
6) Configuring your Skype Client:
a) Start Skype
b) Click Tools and Select Options
c) Click Connections located on the left-hand side menu.
d) The port that is located in the box, is the port to open in your router.
7) Go into the Advanced settings of your router.
8) Select Virtual Server.
9) Click enable, name your port opening.
10) The Private IP is the static IP address you set prior.
11) Select both under the protocol type.
12) Enter the port from the Skype client.
13) Select always.
14) Click apply.
- A port is basically a door way in the router which allows traffic in and out to the Internet.
- The Mac address is a hardware-based, so it will stay the same even if you reinstall Windows.
- A unique Mac address is assigned to each network card when it is made.
- PortForward.com: provides a walk-though to setup port forwarding no matter what router you have.
- sc123, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I thought this video was ill-conceived and poorly executed. If you're going to put information out there, at least be thorough and do your homework. Somewhere someone is going to attempt to follow your half-baked instructions, only to be disappointed when they discover that you have only given them a false hope of improving their Skype call quality. Here are a few sticking points:
-They Never explained how the "other computer without a firewall" can access the other computer that IS firewalled. Going through an unprotected computer doesn't change the fact that the receiving machine is behind a firewall. The receiving machine being firewalled is never addressed.
-D-Link setup is so different from the competition that they couldn't have picked a worse example firewall.
-Apparently it's not important to explain that the Windows firewall can affect your connection as well. They COMPLETELY ignore the fact that, even on their own notebook, Windows firewall is enabled and can adversly affect this scenario. Why would you leave Windows firewall enabled when using a hardware firewall?
-Dynamic IPs do NOT change every time you reboot. The change only when their lease expires, and even then they usually simply renew with the same IP address.
-You do NOT need a static IP to configure your firewall to allow the Skype ports.
-Most consumer level firewall/routers do not allow you to assign static IP addresses based on MAC addresses. Besides, it would have been much better to tell people how to setup the static IP in Windows. Their method is NOT "static", it's simply rigging the DHCP to assign the same IP every time.
-This only works as long as the same version of Skype is installed on the particular machine. It may not work after Skype has been updated or re-installed because the random port may change.
-The following is not addressed (quote taken from Skype's technical FAQ):
"Voice quality and some other aspects of Skype functionality will be greatly improved if you also open up outgoing UDP traffic to all ports above 1024, and allow UDP replies to come back in."- justice7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3dude get over it -- they are bringing the idea about port forwarding affecting performance
you don't need to ***** on them for not writing a book too - NiX0n, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I agree with sc123. In reality, static port forwarding isn't going to improve performance in the least. Anybody who knows how networks work, more importantly how routers work, understand that all these port translations (both static and dynamic) need to be loaded into the routers memory. One way or another, packet destinations need to be resolved based on this translation information in the memory. The router won't be any faster.
One way or another, Skype is going to open up this port (or at least a translation in the router) anyways via outgoing transmissions. If the port changes in Skype, the static assignment is useless. - justice7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i understand fully how routers work
and in fact, a forwarded port WILL give higher performance (slightly) than one that is UPNP mapped.
Reason? It doesn't have to lookup in the routing table every time it receives a packet.
While the amount of measurable performance is debatable -- the fact that they are different is not. - justice7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1the whole idea behind being able to port forward is to enable QoS over that port
- ramsinks.com, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1lol sc123, too bad you think you know about networking.. but really don't.
- justice7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3dude get over it -- they are bringing the idea about port forwarding affecting performance
- ghm101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Worked for me for months (got this from leo on TWIT)
I often video call from UK to Australia and port forwarding made a big difference to both sound quality and audio/video sync - nkwell, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Real geeks run asterisk --> http://www.asterisk.org
- Jumangi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So that's what the "Call for Help" guy is doing these days.
- bigjules27, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sype offers a great service and allows for people across the world to stay in connection at fractions of the cost. I think that this new twist in allowing the calls to be clearer is a great step in making skype a better known program.
- Li0nel1234, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wish our school didn't ban us from using Skype. It was the coolest free program ever.
- KIERANMULLEN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You could use gizmoproject.com which uses th same sound processing software as skupe but does not borrow your cpu and bandwidth and is an open sip network AND you can get free shared call in numbers around the world using sipbroker.com
Did I mention and?
KieranMullen - spazmotron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Anyone else see this topic and think it was about receiving skype calls from a pornstar called Crystal Clear?
- KB1775, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0When you consider how fast the rest of the world is growing (India and China) and how big these markets are its not far fetched to think that skype would show up in these markets. Mass globalization is expanding the use of the internet and wireless technology especially in foreign countries. Since many people are beginning to move into this wireless sector without much prior experience they are picking up new technology. In America we are used to what we have which sort of handicaps us at times. Increasing the effectiveness of skype may make more Americans begin to use the software, thus putting more people on the same playing field. Maybe Friedman is right.
- rado354, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Very useful :)
Integrate Skype into your Windows installation CD: http://addons.wordpress.com/ - Wannabenerd, on 12/18/2007, -0/+0Skip the static IP address.
Check out the free BaUPnP tool, which automates the port forwarding:
http://barracudaserver.com/products/tools/upnp/ - crossers, on 07/17/2008, -0/+0were this port? I can't find it!
http://www.shpe-sac.org
http://www.ocflex.com/
http://www.trgovinca.org
http://www.chasr.org/
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