Fast Busy on call answer

[wwooda]

Occasionally I get an incoming call that rings and displays caller id but when I answer I hear a fast busy. The calling party hears the ring but also gets a fast busy when I answer. Whats up? Appears to be random.

[wwooda]

Problem not evident today after changing ATA from Grandstream HT502 to Cisco SPA112 this morning....opinions?

[bridonca]

You have a DIR-655 for a router? The DIR-655 is well documented in being SIP VOIP hostile. I do believe the latest firmware fixes that though. Make sure you disable SIP ALG on the router after the flash.

I would not consider a Cisco SPA112 an upgrade from a Grandstream HT502, but I am sure you have your reasons. Just make sure the RTP ports are opened up on the router to route to the ATA. I believe the SPA112 needs the RTP port range 16384 - 16438 forwarded from your router to you SPA112 ATA if the settings are at default.

[wwooda]

Thanks for you reply. Both suggestions are implemented. The DIR-655 is at Firmware Version :1.37NA, 2013/06/06. I installed the SPA112 on the recommendation of one of your tech support people when dealing with an issue a few days ago. All is working very well for 2 days now. This is the best since porting my number over.
Can you suggest a better replacement for the DIR-655?
-alvin

[bridonca]

Any router with the ability to flash to DDWRT is a good router. If you see a router you like, let me know. I am pretty good at picking out the pros and cons of most routers.

What do you have for a modem? You do not want the modem to act as a router, because they are usually awful routers, so if you have the option, put the modem in bridge mode. That allows the router to solely handle the routing.

[wwooda]

I have a Linksys WRT54GL v1.0/v1.1 flashed with dd-wrt.v24_voip_generic.bin. I've been contemplating moving to it. What are your thoughts/advice.

I am connected via Xplornet WiFi with no access to the modem.

[Jake]

Xplornet is probably the problem. I cringe every time I see their name or one of their flyers come in the mail box. I have enjoyed burning the flyers in my fire this year though. I am British, so maybe I have a different take on how a company should behave or what I should expect from them, but this company is probably the worse company that I have ever had the displeasure if dealing with. With my job back in the UK I dealt with a LOT of companies, and none of them come close to the crap this companies tries to pull.

Anyway, as you can probably tell I am not a fan of them, and like you probably are I was stuck with them because I live out in the sticks until Bell was kind enough to upgrade our local exchange so we could get DSL. I believe your only hope of getting this working properly will be to have a public static IP which you will have to pay extra for, and then pray to the gods that they don't throttle your connection too much from the advertised 'burst' speed down to your normal not so advertised 'sustained' speed which is usually anywhere from 1/2 to 1/3 of the burst speed. Their FUP is another way they can reduce your speed even more if they think you might be using more than your fair share.

If you can get a trial for a static IP it might be worth it, but I would suggest that it might be a lot of work, or a lot of luck, to actually get things working with them. Even then your connection may not sustain a decent enough speed to keep the connection alive or working properly.

Unfortunately the test you can do to check your speed all finish before their throttle comes into effect, so their speed seems decent when in fact it is very lacking IMO.

(sorry for the rant)

[wwooda]

Rants are fine. I've had a few of my own.
Xplornet is the 2nd provider I've had the pleasure of using out in the "sticks". They are the better of the two by far. My ip address has not changed since I connected with them a year and a half ago. Speed is pretty consistent too. Neflix, skype and voip all going at the same time with no issues.
My problem was with the behaviour of calls, I've decided, originating on the PSTN. Calls from other voip providers were handled properly. As I said previously, all problems disappeared when I changed my ATA. Everything is working great, as expected, now.
I'm guessing some difference in the configuration of the two ATA's caused the different behaviour. Now I'm trying to optimize the router/configuration.

[bridonca]

I agree with Jake on his assessment of Xplornet. It has been rather well documented the shenanigans Xplornet pulls. They used to really mess up Skype with their traffic shaping. Surprisingly, their own VOIP service worked fine, so it was not a technical issue. When confronted by mass media, Xplornet admitted it to the "configuration error" and the Skype problem went away. In other words, Xplornet quit shaping Skype.

It galls me when I hear the "my other VOIP carrier works fine but Fongo does not" argument. It makes Fongo look like their service is sub standard, when in reality, Fongo is following the SIP standard and are getting penalized for it. But you know what? Fongo can play that game also.

Fongo set up a SIP server for a Rogers Hitron modem that I believe will work in your situation. There had to be a special Server because the Hitron modem is hard wired to really mess up VOIP. I am sure Rogers is fine with that, that is why they bought them. Not their fault they bought hardware that happens to not work will with standard SIP VOIP, Wink wink, nudge nudge!

The SIP Server is voip4.freephoneline.ca The SIP port is 6060. Lets hope Xplornet does not traffic shape port 6060.

Now the suggested RTP Packet size 0.020 or 20 milliseconds. Generally, I would agree with that, but I might also play with 0.030 or 30 milliseconds. that allows for more latency, which might sound more like walkie talkie mode, especially with a service like Xplornet, but the garbling might go away, because there is a bigger buffer.

[wwooda]

FPL service is working perfectly for myself and my neighbour, once all the configuration issues were worked out in our routers and ATA's. Thanks for all the help and advice.
I did read alot of negative press about Xplornet before moving to them...but when you live where we do what choices do you have? In fairness though, I have nothing bad to say about their service to date. And all voip issues we solved, as I say, with your help and configuration tweaking. Thanks again.