Alsa Underrun problems with Skype

[geoffrey mendelson]

On Sep 3, 2009, at 11:44 PM, mbrace7forums at aim.com wrote:

>  Sound on Skype is very unpredictable. Sometimes it works well and  
> sometimes it doesn't. I often get brake up (pauses) with speech. Or  
> I find that the Skype Sound settings in Options have changed. Or  
> before it worked now it won't.

I get the same problems (breakup) and other random problems under both  
MacOS and Windows on several different computers. I think it is a  
SKYPE problem, not a Linux one.

You can turn on a display of packet information and see how many  
dropped or out of sequence packets you get. You can improve it if you  
open a UDP port on your router for SKYPE. The port is a user setting  
so you can do it for more than one computer if you share a router.

BTW, SKYPE is very careful to keep the exact details of their protocol  
hidden, though some people have packet sniffed it. Because it is  
hidden, one of the things I can't do is to give it priority (QOS) over  
other things on my router. Therefore SKYPE is often a less than  
desirable way for me to communicate. I use SKYPE, and yes they do get  
some of my money, but most of my money goes to SIP providers who use  
an open protocol. YMMV.


Geoff.

-- 
geoffrey mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Jerusalem Israel geoffreymendelson at gmail.com