Fax sound from the other side.

[marginal]

I know the service we are receiving is almost for free and we should not ask for too much, but isn't there a way to fix my problem?
When I dial certain numbers (one of them belongs to a friend of mine registered with Chatr), I hear a sound as if I was dialing a fax number (after 3-4 rings).
Anyone else in the same boat?
Any suggestions?

Regards.

[TheHardy]

I know the service we are receiving is almost for free and we should not ask for too much, but isn't there a way to fix my problem?
When I dial certain numbers (one of them belongs to a friend of mine registered with Chatr), I hear a sound as if I was dialing a fax number (after 3-4 rings).
Anyone else in the same boat?
Any suggestions?

And the ChatR friend does not have his number call forwarded to a fax machine? This is odd ... is your friend's phone popping up your caller ID at all, or is his end even ringing before you get fax tones?

I am going to assume that you have verified the number and tried a few times ... can you call him from another line correctly?

The only thing that I could think of, IF all the above are correct, is that perhaps FPL is somehow (???) mis-routing the call ... but that would be rare.

What is the NPA-NXX (first 6 of the 10) of your friend's ChatR #?

Reason I ask, is that if something is pooched in a rates & routing table, say for example, 778-300-zzzz might be being mis-interpretted and sent out as 250-300-zzzz which could well be a fax machine (alternately, 778-300-yyyy being sent as 778-400-yyyy) --- just a mis-translation error somewhere, but I would imagine that this would be EXTREMELY rare.

My suggested course of action is to verify the # ... try again. Post the first 6 here. If you want me to try a test call to your friend, PM me, and I can try from MY FPL line here in Vancouver to see if I can duplicate this weird error for you.

Then, if the problem is unresolved (or without me trying even!), PM Steve with the relevant information and he can look into it at the FPL side of things to see if there is something funny going on.

A little investigation and some troubleshooting should resolve this quickly enough tho!

[marginal]

I know the service we are receiving is almost for free and we should not ask for too much, but isn't there a way to fix my problem?
When I dial certain numbers (one of them belongs to a friend of mine registered with Chatr), I hear a sound as if I was dialing a fax number (after 3-4 rings).
Anyone else in the same boat?
Any suggestions?

And the ChatR friend does not have his number call forwarded to a fax machine? This is odd ... is your friend's phone popping up your caller ID at all, or is his end even ringing before you get fax tones?

I am going to assume that you have verified the number and tried a few times ... can you call him from another line correctly?

The only thing that I could think of, IF all the above are correct, is that perhaps FPL is somehow (???) mis-routing the call ... but that would be rare.

What is the NPA-NXX (first 6 of the 10) of your friend's ChatR #?

Reason I ask, is that if something is pooched in a rates & routing table, say for example, 778-300-zzzz might be being mis-interpretted and sent out as 250-300-zzzz which could well be a fax machine (alternately, 778-300-yyyy being sent as 778-400-yyyy) --- just a mis-translation error somewhere, but I would imagine that this would be EXTREMELY rare.

My suggested course of action is to verify the # ... try again. Post the first 6 here. If you want me to try a test call to your friend, PM me, and I can try from MY FPL line here in Vancouver to see if I can duplicate this weird error for you.

Then, if the problem is unresolved (or without me trying even!), PM Steve with the relevant information and he can look into it at the FPL side of things to see if there is something funny going on.

A little investigation and some troubleshooting should resolve this quickly enough tho!

Hi TheHardy, and thanks for replying ...
My friend's line is not forwarded to a Fax account.
I don't know what he's getting, as he does not answer, BTW, I called him OK from my Chatr cell. phone.
ALSO, the same problem repeats while I am calling him from my other SIP account - Voipcheap (or something like that, strangely, it is on another ATA).
I could give you my friend's number, but let's wait for tomorrow as it is late now here.
Also, it might be not necessary given the fact, that I succeeded to reach him this evening using my cell. phone.

Thanks again.

[TheHardy]

Hi TheHardy, and thanks for replying ...
My friend's line is not forwarded to a Fax account.
I don't know what he's getting, as he does not answer, BTW, I called him OK from my Chatr cell. phone.
ALSO, the same problem repeats while I am calling him from my other SIP account - Voipcheap (or something like that, strangely, it is on another ATA).
I could give you my friend's number, but let's wait for tomorrow as it is late now here.
Also, it might be not necessary given the fact, that I succeeded to reach him this evening using my cell. phone.

Just trying to be helpful, which is what most of us here do!

Tres odd that you have two VOIP accts that are getting the same error ...

I would be interested in knowing the NPA-NXX of his ChatR # so we can drill down a little bit and see if it is a known issue or what may be going on with it. I highly doubt that voipcheap and FPL share any of the same infrastructure, although somewhere along the call-processing trunks, there may be a common component that is causing this issue.

The reason that I was suggesting trying it from a different geographical area (you are in Mtl, I am in Van) is to try to isolate if it is a geographic thing, as we know that FPL does route calls differently based on the origin NPA-NXX (ie: a Toronto-based FPL # dialing 3-1-1 will reach TO-city hall, whereas a Van-based FPL # will reach VanCity hall calling 3-1-1... same with 800#'s, they are routed differently based on origin NPA-NXX ... if I dial 3-1-1 with my Newmarket based FPL # I get TO even if I am in VanCity...).

This does seem to be an oddball problem. You have piqued my interest now to find out what the deal-eo is!

[TheHardy]

I am also wondering if it may be a new NPA-NXX, seeing as it is a ChatR #, and it may be causing some issues because of it's "newness" ...

[marginal]

Hi TheHardy.

Sorry, I forgot ...
Here: 514-781

Thanks a lot.

[TheHardy]

Hi TheHardy.

Sorry, I forgot ...
Here: 514-781

Hmmm, that blows one theory out of the water, as that is far from a NEW exchange ... to the best of my searching, that one has been active for at least 1 year. I cannot get an exact date on it without too much searching; if it had been a new one, that would have narrowed down the problem faster.

I will continue to see if I can find out anything on this, but it may be worth a referral to Steve via PM.

[TheHardy]

Update -- found a realtor with an advertised 514-781 cell number on the web and just placed a test call to him (apologized for mis-dialing) using my FPL app with a Vancouver-based FPL # (and while calling from Surrey -near Vancouver) .... so I dunno if this helps troubleshoot, but it is NOT a "full-spectrum" 514-781 problem.

Again, the offer to place a test call to your friend's specific ChatR number remains open, if you want, but via PM please, not in the forum -- I don't think he would want 9000 people calling him ... (or maybe he/she might!! )

[marginal]

Hi The Hardy.

Thanks a lot for the effort, I'll send you my friend's phone # in a minute.

Regards.

[TheHardy]

Thanks a lot for the effort,

I just find it to be an odd problem with an odd outcome; those kinds of things tend to pique my interest. I still think it is gremlins hiding inside the pipes of the internet sabotaging your calls to your friend ... one of those nasty green ones that was always messing around with the wings on planes that Bugs Bunny was on (not to be confused with Marvin the Martian... he only wanted to blow up the Earth because it was blocking his view....)

[marginal]

Anyone else in the same boat?

[TheHardy]

Anyone else in the same boat?

Marginal -- not yet, that we know of .... I just PM'd you ... I was unable to do the test call yesterday, if you want to set up a good time with your friend, I can attempt today.

Have you tried to PM Steve on this issue to see what the FPL-line is on this? Again, I did make one call to a 781 # and it went thru fine. I will attempt the call to your friend and see if it does the same for me.

[TheHardy]

As per your PM, I tried your friend again. It completes, but goes directly to voicemail. I tried it from both my Vancouver FPL account and also a friend's Newmarket FPL account -- although both calls were placed from my residence in Whalley, BC (Surrey, near Vancouver).

So no nasty fax-ish noises, but only to your friend's voicemail. Let me know if you want me to make another call later on when your friend has his cell on (it seems to be off or out of the service area, as it went DIRECT to voicemail with no RING heard on my end at all!)

[marginal]

Thanks a lot The Hardy.

You are of a great help.
It is normal you are only reaching a voice mail, that's what I have too, from my other telephone lines.
I will contact Steve about it ...

Regards.

[TheHardy]

Thanks a lot The Hardy.

You are of a great help.
It is normal you are only reaching a voice mail, that's what I have too, from my other telephone lines.
I will contact Steve about it ...

The whole fax sound thing confuses me still ... lol. Unless he had some weird CONDITIONAL fwd set on his handset/service ...

Seeing as I can get his voicemail at THIS moment, and you can too from your OTHER account, have you tried from your FPL account to see what the result is? Or are you still getting the FAX noises when trying from your FPL account?

I have only helped in troubleshooting a bit, not resolving ... but that does go some distance. Happy to have helped, even though I have not really done that much!!

[marginal]

Well, I tried again, no go from my FPL account, but OK from my VOIPCHEAP one.
Now, when I am thinking, outgoing calls were always OK from my VOIPCHEAP account, it is only, that there was another mobile phone number that gave me the same problem from my FPL account a week ago, but only once.

Thanks.

[TheHardy]

This is odd ... I am assuming that you have a Mtl, QC-based FPL #?? Another test call just now to your friend's # yeilded voicemail again directly -- no fax noises! :/ Perplexed....

[marginal]

Yes, I have have a Mtl, QC-based FPL #.
I know it is crazy, but if you want, we may connect through Skype (or something similar), and you'll see it live on video ...

Thanks.

[TheHardy]

Oh, I believe you alright, that is not the issue. I just find it to be a very weird problem, which may be hard to reproduce! I am fairly sure that Steve will require some information and maybe even some LOGFILES from you if he is able to try to track down the cause of this issue. As I say, in my 3 test calls to your friend, I have been unable to duplicate this problem. Are there any other numbers you have similar issues with? Or just 514-781 ??

[marginal]

I already sent a copy of the log file to Steve and am waiting.
Only once I had the same problem, with a number (mobile again) starting by: 514 660 ...

Thanks again.

[marginal]

Well, turns out the number I was dialing was a number that was forwarded to a FAX line.
I really appologize for the inconvenience and your lost time ...

Sorry.

[TheHardy]

Well, turns out the number I was dialing was a number that was forwarded to a FAX line.
I really appologize for the inconvenience and your lost time ...

Sorry.

Hmmmmm ... was that the 514-660 number, or the one for your friend that I tried a few times and hit VOICEMAIL? Oh well, mistakes happen. As long as you seem to be able to make the calls successfully now ...

Thanks for coming clean tho!

[marginal]

The same number TheHardy.

Thanks again .