Home phone issues after changing from Bell to Acanac (Cable)

[SanK]

Hi,

I was using Bell Internet for past few years and rarely had any issues with the FreePhoneLine home phone. I switched to Rogers Cable Internet (Express - http://www.rogers.com/web/link/hispeedB ... faultPlans) a few days back and started getting following issues -

a) Call would drop off (get disconnected) while still talking
b) Many times callers said they were able to get connected after many tries (once a person tried calling for more than 2 hrs)

Yesterday I switched to Acanac (Home - 18 Mbps http://acanac.ca/cable.html) and had all sorts of problems (see below) -

a) No dial tone sometimes
b) If dial tone is there, I get an engaged tone immediately after I dial a number (even if the number is a company's number that has multiple lines)
c) When people call, they get an engage tone even when our phone is not in use
d) During talk, phone gets disconnected

I have powered off the ATA adapter numerous times but the dial tone comes, I am able to call home phone from my cell but later I receive a call on my cell telling me that home phone is giving engage tone. It seems as if after some time the phone times-off or something.

I also powered off the ATA Adaptor, the Router (Belkin Wireless G) and the modem (Thomson DCM476) and powered them back in sequence, got the dial tone in the home phone, was able to call to my cell phone and from cell to home phone (all worked well) but when I checked again after few minutes (maybe 30-40 min), the dial tone was there but could not receive calls or make calls.

Are there supposed to be different settings for the ATA adapter when using cable internet? The ATA (Linksys PAP2T) was purchased from FreePhoneLine few years back.

Would appreciate any help I can get as home phone is non-operational. FreePhoneLine used to have excellent tech support previously but I was surprised to see the changes.

SanK

[Bing Kol]

...
Are there supposed to be different settings for the ATA adapter when using cable internet? The ATA (Linksys PAP2T) was purchased from FreePhoneLine few years back.

Would appreciate any help I can get as home phone is non-operational. FreePhoneLine used to have excellent tech support previously but I was surprised to see the changes.

SanK

Just make sure that the following are set under System tab of your PAP2T:
Enable Web Server: Yes
DHCP: Yes
Passwords: <fill these up>

Leave all other fields EMPTY.

If that does not work, you have to reset your PAP2T to factory default then provision it with your Fongo credentials. Do not forget to reboot modem, router and ATA. Good luck!

[SanK]

Thanks for replying Bing. Enable Web Server and DHCP already are showing Yes. Passwords - these were blank, do I need to fill in with anything I want to or leave them blank?

I have 5 other fields with values in them -
a) DNS Server Order: Manual
b) DNS Query Mode: Parallel
c) Primary NTP Server: time.nist.gov
d) Secondary NTP Server: time.windows.com
e) Debug Level: 0

I have not made any changes to these fields since I spoke to a FreePhoneLine tech support maybe 1-2 years ago. I do not think these need to be changed? If nothing else works, will take screen shots of the settings and set ATA device to factory default and re-enter the info to see if it works.

Any further suggestions?

[Bing Kol]

Thanks for replying Bing. Enable Web Server and DHCP already are showing Yes. Passwords - these were blank, do I need to fill in with anything I want to or leave them blank?

I have 5 other fields with values in them -
a) DNS Server Order: Manual
b) DNS Query Mode: Parallel
c) Primary NTP Server: time.nist.gov
d) Secondary NTP Server: time.windows.com
e) Debug Level: 0

I have not made any changes to these fields since I spoke to a FreePhoneLine tech support maybe 1-2 years ago. I do not think these need to be changed? If nothing else works, will take screen shots of the settings and set ATA device to factory default and re-enter the info to see if it works.

Any further suggestions?

Hmm, there is nothing that stands out to be the problem.

I suggest you proceed with the factory default...what do you have to lose...it is not working the way it is now anyway.

As far as passwords, I do put them just in case script kiddies get past my router security, although no occurence yet.

[bridonca]

The Belkin F5D7230-4 is is probably the worst router I have ever came across, and I have dealt with a lot of routers! It's firmware is totally unpredictable. You can set port forwards, but that does not mean the router actually accepts them. Belkin of course does not support this router. They certainly did not when it was new. You should seriously consider getting another router, preferably one that has the option to be flashed with DD-WRT.

I find it a miracle that it actually worked when you were using Bell. In any case, stump $20-$30 and get a good router. Any other router is better than this one!

[SanK]

I am posting this for benefit of others who may stumble upon this thread.

Comparing Linksys screens with a friend using the same cable internet and FreePhoneLine phone, I found that the in the Info tab of my Linksys PAP2 adaptor showed the Primary DNS as the IP address of my Belkin router and Secondary DNS was blank. His screen showed Primary DNS as 209.197.128.2 and Secondary DNS as 209.195.95.95.

Going into the System tab, I manually entered the Primary and Secondary DNS and saved the settings. Now I see these in the Info tab. After making this setting, I was able to receive call from my friend but 15-20 min later, home phone was giving engage tome again, as was happening previously. My friend told me to wait for 1 day and the ATA and router may be able to communicate themselves as the DNS issue is now fixed.

Since morning, I am not getting engage tone but calls are going straight to the voice mail without home phone ringing. It is one step better than callers getting engage tone.

I emailed a tech support request to support@freephoneline.ca on 1/28/2013 (Mon) and received a mail from them on 1/29 (Tue) saying they cannot find my ATA in their purchase history. The mail also read "We are working to transition our support processes and are experiencing a longer than expected response time. Please allow 2-3 days for responses to billing and porting related inquiries".

I located the credit card statement from 3 years ago when I had purchased the ATA and promptly sent them details within 2 hrs. It has been 5 days since then (including 3 business days of last week) and have not heard a word from them. Their service has fallen off drastically from what I have experienced in the past.

If anyone has any suggestions to what I can do further to make my home phone work, would greatly appreciate it. Regrettably, FreePhoneLine seems to have abandoned its customers to their own devices, for now.

SanK

[tbrummell]

Regrettably, FreePhoneLine seems to have abandoned its customers to their own devices, for now.

SanK

Yes, yes they have.

[SanK]

Since my last post maybe 2 hrs ago, I have received an email from Fongo support confirming they have verified my account and ATA adaptor and found no issue - asking me to confirm this. Of course, the calls are still going to the voice mail directly. But yay, I heard from their tech support.

Couple of months back I chatted online with tech support of some company and the issue got resolved in less than 2 min. If FreePhoneLine wants to off-shore the tech support, an online chat with screen share capabilities would raise their service level considerably.