See what codec is being used

[bartdubelaar]

Hello all,

Is there an easy way to see what codec is being used when making calls?
Sometimes the person I call can't hear me very well so I would like to see what codec is used at those times.

Thanks,
Bart Dubelaar

 

[darbid]

[EDIT: Full quote of bartdubelaar removed. Why the heck is that necessary here? --gandalf94305]

As far as i know the fritzbox alone will not show you what codec has been used for the SIP setup.

You can see it using telnet or ethereal though.

 

[bartdubelaar]

Using telnet is no problem. I've already activated telnet access on my box. But using telnet on the fitz box is not well documented, so I've no idea where to find something like a logfile.

 

[darbid]

[EDIT: Full quote of bartdubelaar removed. Why the heck is that necessary here? --gandalf94305]

I am unsure how dangerous it is but if you have a telnet session open while you make a call you will see the SIP log and which codec is agreed during the set up of the call.

 

[DM41]

In the latest Firmwares you have to activate logging by stopping voipd with

voipd -s

and starting it in verbose mode with

voipd -v

After that you can see the log in the telnet session. If you want to save it on your computer you can tell telnet to log the session locally. In Windows you just have to start telnet with "-f". For example: "telnet fritz.box -f C:\fritzlog.txt".

If you run telnet in the background while you are making a call you will see informations about the codecs and things like that.

 

[Edward Velo]

How can one activate telnet on the Fritz!box 7050 (International edition) ?

Thanks.

 

[netman]

#96*7*: enable telnet
#96*8*: disable telnet

I hope this works for the international version as well.

BTW: I've just tried this, because I had echo problems but they seem to be away now. After the connection I get this log:
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: ocfree: fail 1 normal 1581 small 0 large 0
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: underrun 0 max_ackqueuelen 3
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: small packets merged 0, output 0 and consumed from CNG 0
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: ocmode: normal 1581 merged 0 delayed 0
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: dropped 0 packets with 0 samples and one sample in 0 packets
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: generated noise: oben 0/unten <=1
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: capiqueue[0]: 3 ( 0.1%)
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: capiqueue[1]: 76 ( 4.8%)
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: capiqueue[2]: 1502 ( 95.0%)
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: txqueue[ 0ms]: 3 ( 0.1%)
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: txqueue[ 20ms]: 76 ( 4.8%)
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: txqueue[ 40ms]: 1502 ( 95.0%)
Aug 24 18:04:19 voipd[614]: QoS-Report(> XXXXXXX(Nr. removed) via sip.lycos.de): PS=1052;OS=252480;SP=0/0;SO=0;PR=1581;OR=252960;CR=0;SR=0;PL=0;BL=0;EN=PCMA;DE=PCMA;JI=16

Can someone tell me what these values mean? (Es kann auch auf Deutsch geantwortet werden, wollte nur keinen extra Thread aufmachen, wo das doch hier so schön passt.)

 

[Edward Velo]

#96*7*: enable telnet
#96*8*: disable telnet
I hope this works for the international version as well.

When I enter #96*7* on my ISDN phone, it says "High Grade On". What does that mean?

Anyway, telnet still doesn't work :-(

#96*8* results in 'High Grade Off' on my ISDN phone display.

 

[netman]

hm, perhaps your phone interprets these commands it self
Other solution: Build a image-file here: http://www.the-construct.com/ or search this forum there is also an image available that enables telnet.

 

[Loc2262]

When I enter #96*7* on my ISDN phone, it says "High Grade On". What does that mean?

Maybe check if your phone has an option to either interpret the characters # and * itself, or route it through to the device it is connected to.

Mine (Siemens Gigaset SX353) has such an option - I can choose what it should do with # and *. You need to set it to pass those characters through to the Fritzbox. When successful, you should see the message "telnetd on" on the display after dialing #96*7*.

 

[DM41]

When I enter #96*7* on my ISDN phone, it says "High Grade On". What does that mean?

"High grade on" is just the forerunner of "telnetd on" without any functionality in the earlier firmwares.

Is there a newer international firmware for the 7050? Then you should upgrade your firmware.

Karsten

 

[darbid]

[EDIT: Full quote of DM41 removed. Why the heck is that necessary here? --gandalf94305]

edit because there are two people asking questions here, one about the international version and one about the german version of the 7050.

No that is the only english version, but it shows you how old the english version is.

 

[gandalf94305]

As a more permanent solution, I suggest to use syslog to log to another machine and check the logs there. You will find the codec information (and other stuff) for each call in the log.

To enable syslog, add these lines to /var/flash/debug.cfg (after logging in via telnet):

/sbin/syslogd -R 10.0.0.10
voipd -s
sleep 5
killall voipd
sleep 5
voipd -v
[/quote]

--gandalf.

 

[DM41]

If the international firmware is that old, the first line "/sbin/syslogd -R 10.0.0.10" should suffice. In older firmwares voipd is in verbose mode by default.

 

[Edward Velo]

No that is the only english version, but it shows you how old the english version is.

Yes, I have the English version (the German version does not work in Belgium without illegally changing the firmware and loosing warranty). Unfortunately AVM does not provide ANY update for it... It is still the original firmware with much less options then the German version :-(

-> FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7050 Annex A, Firmware Version 14.03.91
http://www.avm.de/en/Extern/fritz_box_fon_wlan_7050_firmware.html

So I guess there is no way for me to use telnet...

 

[DM41]

Of course you can use telnet! netman already told you how (theconstruct).

You can also download this file and use it like a firmware-update (don't unpack it):
http://www.ip-phone-forum.de/attachment.php?attachmentid=3602

It will give you telnet access to your box.

 

[bartdubelaar]

Thank you DM41! Starting voipd in verbose mode did the trick!

I found out that my fritz box is using ilbc for the few calls that I've tried.

Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: allowed bandwidth 720000 for sip:#####@nl.voipplanet.nl
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: #####@nl.voipplanet.nl: bandwidth left 720000
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: audio: 18 (18 G729/8000)
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: audio: 18 (18 G729/8000) => NOT CONFIGURED
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: audio: 97 (97 iLBC/8000)
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: audio: 97 (97 iLBC/8000) => (97 (97 iLBC/8000))
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: audio: 8 (8 PCMA/8000)
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: audio: 8 (8 PCMA/8000) => (8 (8 PCMA/8000))
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: audio: 0 (0 PCMU/8000)
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: audio: 0 (0 PCMU/8000) => (0 (0 PCMU/8000))
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: audio: 101 (101 telephone-event/8000)
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: audio: 101 (101 telephone-event/8000) => (101 (101 telephone-event/8000))
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: ##.###.###.## 16658 - 7078 audio 97(iLBC)
Aug 25 18:30:44 voipd[537]: Codec iLBC (97) - audio 42400 hold=none (none) (by local)

According to this output I've got 3 codec options: PCMU, PCMA and iLBC.
The spare bandwidth is 720000. This seems to be enough for PCM, isn't it? So why is my fritz box using iLBC?

 

[DM41]

In the german firmware there is an option to prefer low bandwidth codecs. With this option checked the box prefers G.726 and ilbc IIRC.

You should find that option via the web interface: -> telephony -> internet telephony -> advanced preferences -> "always use compressed encoding"

Instead of "always use compressed encoding" you have to check "always use high quality encoding"

(I just translated the german options as good as I could. Perhaps they have different names in the international firmware)

 

[bartdubelaar]

This how my fritz box is configured (It has german firmware ):

So that's why I don't understand why it isn't choosing PCM.

 

[gandalf94305]

Try "immer Sprachcodierung mit Festnetzqualität verwenden", which should force it to use G.711 always.

Maybe the order of audio codecs is screwed up, or maybe the FBF tries to be network-friendly ;-)

Cheers,
--gandalf.