FIXING ONE-WAY AUDIO

1. Check Your Equipment

Faulty equipment leads to many VoIP call one-way audio. So, the best way to start troubleshooting one-way audio is to rule out your equipment as the cause.

Equipment Issue Solution

Verify that all your equipment (headset, microphone, and desk phones) is properly connected by checking all cables and selected inputs on your devices. Then, inspect your hardware for any visible damage.

Once you’ve assessed your equipment’s physical condition, test your line. For all setups (softphones, IP phones, and legacy phones), simply initiate a test call and see if you can hear audio on both ends. If you’re using a softphone, you can also use any audio recording software to ensure your inputs are correctly configured.

2. Review Your Router’s Settings

Voice over IP uses packet switching technology to deliver calls through the internet. So, in order for these calls to succeed, voice data must travel from one point to another. This means these data packets must pass through your network’s firewalls – which can block audio packets from transmitting to their destination.

It’s worth noting that Network Address Translation (NAT) acts as a firewall and may also be causing one-way audio.

Firewalls / NAT Blocking Voice Data Solution

To troubleshoot this type of one-way audio issue, make sure the firewall ports are open to your provider’s recommended settings. For United World Telecom users, open ports 1,000 to 60,000. Additionally, whitelist GTIGLOBAL IP address in your firewall’s settings.

If that doesn’t work, the problem may lie with NAT. First, evaluate your network. Do you have more than one router supplying NAT? If so, you may be double NATing your traffic – leading to data arriving at the wrong destination. The best way to fix this is to turn off the extra instances of NAT.

After that, if you’re still experiencing one-way audio, try equipping SIP ALG. This network component allows your call data to pass through your firewall’s security checks and NAT rules. However, it’s critical to note that if SIP ALG is implemented incorrectly, it will lead to other problems, which is why most GTIGLOBAL and other providers recommend leaving it off.

3. Ensure Devices Share Common Codecs

When you place a VoIP call, the two endpoints communicate and select a VoIP codec available to both devices. But if this process is unsuccessful, callers may experience one-way audio – as voice packets cannot be appropriately exchanged.

Incompatible Codec Solution

Make sure both endpoints support a common codec and that your line is set to the proper codec. Contact your provider with questions about correct codec names. For our users, use codec G.711 and G729  for all lines and SIP trunks. GTIGLOBAL Telecom network supports the G.711 and G729 codec, which provides the best VoIP call quality and uses no compression.

4. Reconfigure Routes

Network routing technology directs your call data from its source to its final destination. While your audio may successfully arrive at the endpoint, this doesn’t guarantee that you’ll always receive voice data in return. For example, If the call path from point A to B has a low-latency connection, but the data from point B to A takes a different path with high latency – you may experience one-way audio. These are both indications that routing misconfiguration may be present.