Category Archives for "small business telecom"

0 What Is Network Jitter, and What Can You Do About It?

Have you ever been on a phone call using your VoIP phone service and had the voice on the other line become garbled and impossible to hear? Or have you been on a video chat and watched people on the screen “freeze” or the audio or video become fuzzy? These are symptoms of an Internet malady known as “network jitter,” a common and frequently frustrating problem for Orange County small business owners and other businesses across the world. Fortunately, there are solutions to combat it. Let’s talk a bit about network jitter—what it is, what causes it, and most importantly, what you can do to fix it. 

Network Jitter Explained 

To understand network jitter, we need to understand a little about how the Internet handles information. All of the information that we send to each other is broken up into what are called packets. These packets travel from one computer to another through cables in a network (or across wireless networks)—millions of them at any given time. When you’re on a VoIP call or video chat, you’re basically looking at/listening to millions of packets of data that have been broken down and reassembled. 

But router and data connection are subject to some form of network latency that affects the reliability of any data that travels through it. As a result, sometimes these packets get delayed or reordered along the way, so they don’t all arrive at their destination at the same time. This creates what we call “network jitter,” which comes across to us as garbled, stuttering audio, glitchy video, missed words, frozen images, etc. 

Common Causes of Network Jitter  

Now that we understand what network jitter is, let’s look at a few of the common ways it happens: 

• Network congestion and overuse. If too many employees are accessing the Internet at once–or if you’re on a shared network at a busy time of day–your bandwidth may be insufficient for the amount of Internet traffic. Just like too many cars on a highway, your network can be congested with too many data packets to be processed at once. This frequently leads to jitter. 

• No prioritization of VoIP packets. Your network has features that prioritize audio packets over other types of data. If this feature isn’t active, your VoIP may be jittery.

• Uneven routing. Data packets travel between points along a network path. If some of the hardware on the path (i.e., routers, cables) is old or outdated, data packets can be slowed or even dropped as they try to keep up.

• Weak wireless signal. If you’re using wi-fi and the coverage is weak, it can easily affect the integrity of the audio/video data you’re receiving, causing jitter.

Troubleshooting Network Jitter 

Now that you know what network jitter is and how it can happen, here are a few troubleshooting tips that may help make your VoIP use more consistent. 

• Upgrade your hardware. Make sure you’re using up-to-date equipment and that all firmware is updated.  

• Set your network settings to prioritize VoIP packets. This setting prioritizes audio and video streaming and can do a lot to clear up network jitter. 

• Increase your VoIP bandwidth. “Widen the highways,” so to speak, to give your network the capacity to handle more Internet traffic at once. 

• Boost your wi-fi signal. If there’s just too much interference for wi-fi to be consistent, try using VoIP over a wired connection instead. 

NetServ can help your Orange County business make the most of VoIP services, including helpful tips and updates to avoid network jitter. Call 1-877-NetServ to learn more. 

0 How Enterprise Companies Use VoIP Service Differently than Your Small Business

These days, more and more businesses are seeing the advantage of switching out their traditional phone systems for Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems. In fact, nearly one-third of all companies now use VoIP phone service for business. While the majority of these are small businesses, the fact is that VoIP is a great tool for businesses of any size. As more enterprise companies discover VoIP, they’re figuring out how to use it more efficiently and profitably than their small-business counterparts. Let’s talk about what your larger competitors are doing with VoIP that you probably aren’t—and what you can do to become more competitive. 

Large Businesses Make the Most of VoIP Features 

Perhaps the most important way enterprise companies use VoIP better is that they utilize many features that you probably do not. Features like call forwarding, call park, auto-attendant, call screening, on-hold music, queue callback, and many other VoIP features are affordable and easy to use once you learn them. Chances are your larger competitors are making the most of these services, making themselves more productive and profitable. 

Large Businesses Integrate VoIP with Other Applications 

Another huge benefit of VoIP systems is how well they integrate with other applications. Your larger competition has most likely integrated their VoIP with their CRM and other applications, allowing them to take and process calls without ever leaving their CRM interface. They probably have also utilized a Unified Communications system which allows them to combine their phone, videoconferencing, and messaging seamlessly–all of which saves time and money and helps boost revenues. 

Large Companies Have a Full-Time IT Staff 

Whether they’re using cloud computing services or on-site servers, large enterprise companies take their IT networks seriously, including their VoIP service. Many of them keep a full-time IT staff on hand to maintain, troubleshoot, and scale their network as they grow. This should come as no surprise to smaller businesses who can’t necessarily afford full-time IT, but the end result is that large companies experience very little downtime–and therefore can be more present for their customers. 

How You Can Use VoIP to Be More Competitive 

If you feel overwhelmed and demoralized by the advantages we’ve described above, take heart. Even if your business is small, you can use VoIP in many of the same ways as your larger counterparts to give yourself a more competitive edge. Here’s how: 

• Utilize more features. Even VoIP systems for small businesses offer extensive features at an affordable price, and these systems are easily scalable. Start learning and taking advantage of these features, and you’ll be able to function with the same level of professionality as your larger competitors. 

• Integrate VoIP with your other business systems. You can develop an elegant integration between VoIP and CRM, accounting programs like QuickBooks, email platforms like Gmail, and more. Integrations are easy to create–especially with cloud computing services that don’t require any programming skills at all. 

• Hire a managed IT service. You can’t afford a full-time IT staff, but the fact is you don’t need one to be competitive. A managed IT service can be your own 24-7 help desk, monitoring, troubleshooting, and maintaining your network in the background at very affordable rates. 

If you’re an Orange County small business looking for ways to utilize business VoIP to become more competitive, NetServ can help. To learn more about our VoIP service for business and managed IT services, call 1-877-NetServ today.