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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Hey David,</p><p class=MsoNormal> I agree it’s a good idea to test the system. I think it depends on who you use for your service. I’ve seen good/bad services out there. So shop around. Cheap isn’t always the best way to go. Most offer a 24-73 hr free trial. I’d use that time to make sure they’re a reliable service. I can tell you I’ve had great luck using this provider for a Windows server & Linux servers:</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.nfoservers.com">https://www.nfoservers.com</a></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I know quite a few others who use them as well. I get nothing for passing the info on. Just a happy customer of their service. 73 de K4SQI!</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Steve, K4SQI</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='border:none;padding:0in'><b>From: </b><a href="mailto:kb4fxc@inttek.net">David McGough</a><br><b>Sent: </b>Monday, May 21, 2018 5:41 PM<br><b>To: </b><a href="mailto:app_rpt-users@lists.allstarlink.org">Users of Asterisk app_rpt</a><br><b>Subject: </b>Re: [App_rpt-users] AllStar nodes in the Cloud</p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Hi Everyone,</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I've got some thoughts to consider about VPS based AllStar installations.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>AllStar uses the Asterisk dahdi drivers for critical timing and the</p><p class=MsoNormal>conference/bridging capability we all depend on.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Most VPS installations will have very poor dahdi timer quality, due to</p><p class=MsoNormal>the inherent "jitter" the VPS instances incur from sharing CPU time slices</p><p class=MsoNormal>with many other guests. This jitter has minimal impact on most</p><p class=MsoNormal>applications you might host on a VPS---like a web server, file server,</p><p class=MsoNormal>etc. However, the jitter can have serious side effects for VoIP</p><p class=MsoNormal>applications, like AllStar.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The way you test the dahdi timing performance is with the dahdi_test</p><p class=MsoNormal>program. On older ACID installations, this program was called zttest.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>As dahdi_test numbers fall below about 99.97%, poor timing quality has</p><p class=MsoNormal>more and more of an impact. There are several symptoms of this problem to</p><p class=MsoNormal>watch out for. Whether or not ANY of these symptoms will impact a given</p><p class=MsoNormal>VPS user depends on how you use your AllStar installation.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>AllStar timing-related problems fall into two basic categories:</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>1) Call quality issues--pops, clicks and stuttering audio. Most frequently </p><p class=MsoNormal>this is heard when using Asterisk to transcode between multiple audio </p><p class=MsoNormal>CODECs or when playing audio files (like the localplay of playback </p><p class=MsoNormal>commands). Recording/archiving audio from the node could be impacted, too.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>2) General timing woes. For example: a timeout timer is slower or faster</p><p class=MsoNormal>than the speed you've set. Or, the node is configured to ID every 10</p><p class=MsoNormal>minutes. In reality, it IDs every 9 or 10.5 minutes. This list of</p><p class=MsoNormal>potential problems includes all the various timer settings found in the</p><p class=MsoNormal>rpt.conf file, etc. Fortunately, a lot of these timing concerns aren't</p><p class=MsoNormal>typically applicable to VPS-based pseudo nodes---for example: of what use </p><p class=MsoNormal>is a CW ID on a pseudo node anyway?</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>For more info about dahdi timing concerns, just google search phrases </p><p class=MsoNormal>like: "dahdi_test results" or "bad dahdi_test".</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Anyhow, with all the interest in VPS based installs of AllStar, it's worth</p><p class=MsoNormal>remembering about timer quality concerns---strange audio quality problems</p><p class=MsoNormal>are likely not AllStar's fault!</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>73, David KB4FXC</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>_______________________________________________</p><p class=MsoNormal>App_rpt-users mailing list</p><p class=MsoNormal>App_rpt-users@lists.allstarlink.org</p><p class=MsoNormal>http://lists.allstarlink.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/app_rpt-users</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>To unsubscribe from this list please visit http://lists.allstarlink.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/app_rpt-users and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Enter your email address and press the "Unsubscribe or edit options button"</p><p class=MsoNormal>You do not need a password to unsubscribe, you can do it via email confirmation. If you have trouble unsubscribing, please send a message to the list detailing the problem. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>