<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">I have similar problems with call drops.<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I don't know if "Shadow Ping" is some kind of pinging software. I have run a lot of flood pinging and everything comes back just fine. I don't have Cisco phones, I use Softphones and it's the only application running on the PCs (aside from MS Windows and whatever it runs in the background).</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I notice the problem mainly on the softphones. I also have some Uniden hardphones that don't seem to present the same problems. The softphones are eyeBeam. I wonder if it's a bug in the softphone or simply that the machines could be infected with some virus or something like that. It happens randomly (with a lot of calls or few calls, some PCs yes and some PCs no).</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Could this still be network related?</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Thanks,</DIV><DIV>Waldo</DIV><DIV> <BR><DIV><DIV>On Dec 2, 2005, at 5:17 PM, jonc wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">I do run Ethereal on mine when looking for real-time problems. It's</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">great for helping you see what is going on at the packet level, but it</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">is the wrong tool for measuring Latency/QOS problems.</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Shadow Ping works fairly well for measuring latencies. In earlier times</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">I used to just run a quasi-flood ping to the offending phone (10</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">pings/second) and look for latency variations and dropped packets. On a</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">clean network with no problems there should be NO dropped packets, and</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">latency variations should be minimal.</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">You'll find some interesting problems that accompany the use of cheap</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">unmanaged switches (and please don't tell me you are trying to use</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">hubs!).</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">For our setups we use either Cisco 2900XL-EN or Cisco 3500 series</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">switches.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>This come with built in VoIP detection at the port level</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">*and* allow us to use VLANs to separate out Voice and Data. They are</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">champion workhorses and using them lets us also run single wire to the</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">desktop (running the PC off the pass-thru switch on the back of the</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">phone).</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>