Improve Skype phone quality

I recently wrote about switching over to Skype for our home phone so that I could have a local number to use for my upstart freelance web design and development company, Tonka Park, here in the Lake of the Ozarks. After using the service for some family calls over the last few weeks I am noticing that the calls are often interrupted by the other person not being able to hear me on the other end. It has been frustrating at best not being able to use Skype for our calls but having to jump on the cell phone. As most of you know there is nothing more a man likes than a problem to solve. Since I am a solution provided I went looking for the solution. Hopefully these steps will help others fighting the same battle.

The first simple step I took was to make sure the Skype process on my computer had priority over other applications.

  1. Open task manager in Windows. (right click task bar or ctrl+alt+delete)
  2. Right click on Skype.exe
  3. Set Priority Above Normal.
  4. Referenced this post.

task-manager

The next step which will probably have the most impact on improving the quality is configuring the router I am using to connect my desktop to the cable modem. I am using the Netgear MR814v2 router to share wired and wireless internet at our home.

  1. Find your computer IP, in my case 192.168.0.3.
  2. Open Skype.
  3. Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Connection
  4. Copy the port number being used for connections.
  5. Login to the router administration page
  6. Add a custom service called Skype (under Services or Port Forwarding)
  7. Add the ip of your computer.
  8. Add the start and end point equal with the port found in Skype Tools.
  9. Save your settings.
  10. More details here using a mac

router-service

I have also turned on the Skype technical call details so I can watch if I lose any packets during my upcoming calls. Hopefully, these small changes make a big difference in my Skype experience going forward.

I noticed that these changes by themselves did not improve my situation. So when all else fails I uninstalled Skype, uninstalled Logitech software for the webcam and microphone rebooted and downloaded the latest Skype and reinstalled. Then I downloaded the latest software from Logitech and reinstalled.  I reapplied the settings in Skype to use the Logitech video and microphone, set the sound settings and then restarted the computer. I also reset my router to make sure previous settings were applied.

The last 2 or 3 calls have worked well. Perhaps when I installed Skype or Logitech I had a bad install or missed a setting.

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