Freephoneline registration timers are important!

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Freephoneline registration timers are important!

Postby Liptonbrisk » 02/16/2023

If you don't follow these rules or configure your SIP application or device properly, your FPL account may be blocked. Account/registration blocking enforcement for low registration interval timers is relatively new.


Visit https://support.freephoneline.ca/hc/en- ... redentials

Registration Interval: 3600 seconds (1 hour)

Registration Expiry: 3600 seconds (1 hour)

Failed Registration Re-Try Interval: 120 seconds

(NAT) Keep Alive Interval: 20 seconds


Frequent registrations (via UDP transport, in this case) do create system load. Use a 20 second keep-alive interval to retain NAT associations; don't rely on frequent registrations to do it.


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By the way, Freephoneline uses a 15 minute session timer at the moment. Your outbound calls may drop at the 15 minute mark of the call if you don't register FPL with the device or app you're using. This isn't related to the registration timers listed above, but the point is you may need to be registered in order for calls to continue past 15 minutes. Incoming calls require registration, regardless. Outgoing calls don't (but may drop after 15 minutes if you're not registered). When a SIP app, ATA, or IP phone is not registered with your Freephoneline account, placing a call on hold and resuming the call before the 15 minute interval is reached will allow the call to continue past 15 minutes.

Similarly, using *67 in Linksys ATAs/Cisco ATAs with FPL has been reported to drop calls after 15 minutes.
So, trying to block outbound caller ID (at the time of writing) should be avoided with those devices.

In your Linksys/Cisco ATA, navigate to Voice tab-->Line tab (whichever you use for FPL)-->Supplementary Service Subscription-->Block CID Serv:
a) change to no
b) Click "submit"
Do this to avoid 15 minute call disconnections with Freephoneline.
Please do not send me emails; I do not work for nor represent Freephoneline or Fongo. Post questions on the forums so that others may learn from responses or assist you. Thank you. If you have an issue with your account or have a billing issue, submit a ticket here: https://support.fongo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. Visit http://status.fongo.com/ to check FPL/Fongo service status. Freephoneline setup guides can be found at viewforum.php?f=15.
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Liptonbrisk
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Posts: 2763
Joined: 04/26/2010
SIP Device Name: Obihai 202/2182, Groundwire
Firmware Version: various
ISP Name: FTTH
Computer OS: Windows 64 bit
Router: Asuswrt-Merlin & others

Re: Freephoneline registration timers are important!

Postby Liptonbrisk » 03/26/2023

On a related topic . . .

Freephoneline was not, originally, envisioned to be used on smartphones. I believe it was always viewed as a home phone, residential service.

https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31970979-

phonesimon wrote:Understand the point of registration: you are telling the provider the network location (IP address and port, basically) where you can receive calls.

If you change your IP frequently--for example, you keep switching between wifi and data on your mobile phone running a SIP app--then a short registration time is helpful. But it doesn't need to be too short.

Re-registration happens at 3/4 of the expiration time. So if you set a registration time of 120 seconds, your device will renew the registration at 90 seconds. [Using short registration intervals, such as what's mentioned here, will lead to a registration/account block with Freephoneline.]

If you are not moving about--you have a desktop phone, or you stay on the same wifi all day . . .--then there is no reason to set a short registration time. A default max registration time is 3600 seconds (1 hour) and you should use that.

Someone will say that setting a short registration time is helpful to keep a NAT path alive. Don't fall for it! Use the device or software's NAT Keepalive setting for that.

"What difference does it make?" Glad you asked. Registration is a resource intensive operation. You send a REGISTER packet, the provider sends back a 401 challenge, and you send another REGISTER packet with auth, then the provider sends back a 200 OK packet. These are all large packets and require some work on the provider's side to look up your credentials and validate you and then store your location in some database.

A keepalive packet, on the other hand, is basically empty and takes almost no resources to generate, send, and receive.


tl;dr: Use the longest registration time you can unless you keep on changing IP/location.
Please do not send me emails; I do not work for nor represent Freephoneline or Fongo. Post questions on the forums so that others may learn from responses or assist you. Thank you. If you have an issue with your account or have a billing issue, submit a ticket here: https://support.fongo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. Visit http://status.fongo.com/ to check FPL/Fongo service status. Freephoneline setup guides can be found at viewforum.php?f=15.
User avatar
Liptonbrisk
Technical Support
 
Posts: 2763
Joined: 04/26/2010
SIP Device Name: Obihai 202/2182, Groundwire
Firmware Version: various
ISP Name: FTTH
Computer OS: Windows 64 bit
Router: Asuswrt-Merlin & others


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