Jake wrote:
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Yes, I too find it perplexing that all the FPL servers aren't configured in the same manner as voip3.freephoneline.ca. Doing so would help resolve a lot of one-way audio headaches for Freephoneline newcomers.
To help you try and be a little less perplexed. If they set the other servers up the same as this server is, I am willing to bet the service would degrade to the point where it was 2 or 3 years ago.
With all due respect, this simply isn't the case. The major VoIP providers all (out of consideration and respect for FPL, I'm not going to list them), indeed, "have their servers configured so that if the IP address in the Media description is a private, non routable IP, RTP traffic is sent to the public IP address used for the SIP communication." This point is not being addressed, for whatever reason.
The registration interval being changed to an hour makes a difference with respect to what you're describing. But not RTP traffic.
Support would be inundated with hundreds of tickets and would swamped to the point of not being able to help anyone.
Support would actually be dealing with less tickets related to one-way audio.
Most importantly, we would not be able to make phone calls
How so? In fact, many more people would be able to make proper two-way audio phone calls. Currently, many newcomers have issues making proper phone calls as it is without workarounds.
because the servers would be down all the time. Don't you think that even my 5 year old could see that if this server is working better than the others, then the answer would be to make the other servers the same?
FPL's server reliability and uptime have improved significantly since I initially paid for my unlock key. And that's great! Kudos to FPL for that! I completely appreciate and respect that. However, that has nothing to do with RTP traffic never reaching the customers' ATAs, nor the fact that all major VoIP providers have their servers configured "so that if the IP address in the Media description is a private, non routable IP, RTP traffic is sent to the public IP address used for the SIP communication." And since that isn't the case for voip.freephoneline.ca and voip2.freephoneline.ca, many newcomers are having issues with one way audio and must use workarounds, which they would, otherwise, not have to do. Some people posting in these forums work in the VoIP industry; some of them do know what they're talking about.
That server is more than likely is not set up the same as others, and is probably there for testing and fault finding reasons.
Again, no one is really addressing why voip3.freephoneline.ca is handling RTP traffic as per the industry standard, while voip.freephoneline.ca and voip2.freephoneline.ca do not.
This has nothing to do with server up-time, reliability or server congestion.
FPL are will to help with that if people are having troubles, but now they require people to pay for the help. Personally I don't like this part, especially when I first got here you could pick up a phone and get a very helpful support agent to get things going. It has changed a lot since then, but hey, I paid $50 for my phone line over 5 years ago and not a penny since; so can I really complain?
I like FPL, and I think FPL is a great service. I think it's great that FPL still responds to tickets even though it doesn't have to. That said, as someone who sends a lot of business FPL's way and sets up FPL for new customers, I know for a fact that if RTP traffic were being handled/negotiated normally, less people would be having one-way audio issues. There would be less tickets related to one-way audio.
People wouldn't need to be told that they need to have public addresses enabled in Via requests. People wouldn't need to port forward RTP ports to their ATA when everything else fails. They don't have to do this with other VoIP providers. How do I know? I also test other services on their equipment when I set up FPL with them.
Regardless of how much I don't agree with a lot of changes that have happened here over the years, I will say the service is a lot more stable than it was.
Sure, and that's great, but it has nothing to do with the one-way audio issue many newcomers are experiencing.
Support has actually been very fair and helped customers for free when their bosses have told them that they have to charge those customers.
I agree. I think that's commendable. But there can be even less tickets support would have to deal with.
I want to make it clear that I am not complaining so much as I am making a suggestion for improvement (I am trying to help): voip.freephoneline.ca and voip2.freephoneline.ca, in the manner these servers are configured to deal with RTP traffic, are not configured as per the industry standard, and doing so, would help both its customers and its support staff (since they would have to deal with less tickets). Discussing non-related things about server reliability has nothing to do with this issue concerning how RTP traffic should be handled.