Service issue, April 4th, 2012

[leper1983]

Mines working again.. Not sure about how long

Also for everyone saying how they are thinking about dropping these guys.. I've been with them for about a couple years now and this is probably the first time I've ever had issues so don't be too quick to judge because of its service issues lately. Plus the fact you pay next to nothing i'd say a little bit of down time isn't toooo bad considering the price.

[MichaelVoIP]

It's past midnight in Toronto and the service is back to normal on both my two FPL lines and on my Dell Voice line. Until tomorrow evening...

[raz]

Still down in MTL

[dibsmft]

Do others use your local network in the evening? Can you connect OK using the Windows client?

[Bloodsong]

Most retail SIP uses UDP and there are historic reasons for that but those reasons are probably not really important today. TCP does have its advantages for such as FAX and apparently triggering iPads(?). IAX might be protocol that would simplify set up for new users but it is not widely available. The SPA series of ATAs don't support IAX and only support SIP over TCP with the most recent firmware.

Be certain that you're not confusing the term SIP with the term VoIP.
The SIP communications can be either TCP or UDP, this is only the initiation protocol, negotiates codecs, end-points and registration.
TCP is often used here to ensure best chance at your call being placed correctly.

The voice portion is actually covered by RTP (Realtime Transport Protocol) usually in the 10000-20000 UDP range.

To learn more about these protocols and how your computer uses them download wireshark and watch your network traffic for a while when you're making a phone call. (Then click on the RTP-stream rebuild option and listen to your captured VoIP conversation for added fun)

[dibsmft]

Most of the problems currently being reported seem to be woth PAP2 devices. What ISP do you have, what router, and at what time did you lose contact with the server?
How many computers and TVs were on your network at the time?

[vostro]

can someone from this service offer an official explanation on this unreliable issue? is it due to hardware failure or software glitch? has any measure been put into place to prevent future failure? if there is no official saying, i have to leave this service.

[vostro]

can someone from this service offer an official explanation on this unreliable issue? is it due to hardware failure or software glitch? has any measure been put into place to prevent future failure? if there is no official saying, i have to leave this service.

[dibsmft]

zakhanz,

Did you try powering down your ATA and then restarting?

If it happens again, go to the ATA configuration screen and restart the ATA there. If you choose to do this note the settings in the Basic Setup page
mine is.........
NAT: detected NAT type is full cone
NAT Mapped IP: 142.163.xxx.x
NAT Mapped Port: 5061
before and after restarting.

Let us know it there are differences.

[Argyros]

I was having the same problem for at least a couple of hours last night. My ATA was indicating that it coulld not register and on occasion it did but would immeadiately fail on the next one. Also my iphone Dell app was not working either.

I would certainly appreciate announcements (on this board) from FPL if they have these kinds of failures. Since I could not predict the length of the outage, also what is the cause and will this be recurring? I had to buy some time on voip.ms, to make some calls.

[wonder]

No, there are no one using the internet right now. And the " Registration State: Can't connect to login server'' since 9pm yesterday until now.
Yes, I can use the softphone.

thanks

[dibsmft]

Since you can use the soft phone that would suggest that the problem is not with Fongo but rather with the configuration of your PAP2T. How have you configured the PAP2?

[marginal]

Still down in MTL

I am in Montreal, area code 514.
Working OK, no interruptions since las time ...

[FONGO_mike]

Thank you to those of you who posted on the Forum to let us know you were experiencing issues last night. At approximately 9:15pm, our primary DNS server failed which resulted in delayed traffic through the network. Please know that we are focused on working with our DNS server provider to ensure high quality service for our customers. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

[Jake]

Thanks for the update Mike.

[TheHardy]

Thank you to those of you who posted on the Forum to let us know you were experiencing issues last night. At approximately 9:15pm, our primary DNS server failed which resulted in delayed traffic through the network. Please know that we are focused on working with our DNS server provider to ensure high quality service for our customers. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Hey there Mike ... somewhat concerning that this happens so close on the heels of the LAST major service outtage.

FYI, Thurs (5 Apr) from 1910 PDT until now, I am having a softphone rego fail also. Have rebooted my Win7 Machine, reloaded PC softphone (FPL 3.0.3) and nothing for 45 odd mins now. Same issue. NO CONNECTION TO SERVER.



Another DNS error, or what gives?

As others stated, the instability is beginning to become ANNOYING. Even at FREE price levels, this is unacceptable...

[TheHardy]

Service running again in Metro Vancouver -- PC softphone app. Came around 2015 PDT. Reloading and re-regging still seems to take a bit longer than usual, but I am up and running now (other than softphone crashing on calls and having to be force closed).

[dibsmft]

When you cannot connect to Fongo have you tried these two things:
1. Using the numerical IP address of for the Fongo server so that it does not have to be looked up by a DNS server?
2. Depending on your routers design, do you use your ISPs DNS server(s) directly or via the router (i.e. setting the internal DNS to the router as eg. 192.168.1.1).

I have always set the to local DNS because the network server that I used to run did local DNS caching which, at the time speeded up connections quite a bit. I still use
the local DNS (the modem router was configured that way on delivery) and apparently does DNS caching. This would mean that if Fongo changes its server address the local cached DNS would be then incorrect and connection could not be made. You would need to flush the local DNS cache to update the DNS. I power down my network at night (runs on solar power) and rely on a cellphone over night so the cache is flushed every day but I guess most people leave their router on all the time so the cache, if there is one, is not flushed.

[tbrummell]

As others stated, the instability is beginning to become ANNOYING. Even at FREE price levels, this is unacceptable...

Feel free to go start your own free service, or sign up with and use another free service. If you don't like the service, move along. It's a free world ya know.

Voip.ms is $0.99 mnth for a number, and $0.005/min for calls. Then you can use 3CX, Xlite, or any other *free* softphone and you no longer need to complain about the java POS from FPL.

[TheHardy]

Feel free to go start your own free service, or sign up with and use another free service. If you don't like the service, move along. It's a free world ya know.

Voip.ms is $0.99 mnth for a number, and $0.005/min for calls. Then you can use 3CX, Xlite, or any other *free* softphone and you no longer need to complain about the java POS from FPL.

While that is an entirely VALID point of view, seeing as how Fongo (and FPL before it) _IS_ a valid commercial enterprise, would you not think, in your opinion, that they should provide a stable network platform, and also, if they are going to offer their OWN softphone, that it should at least be operational, and at the very least supported and updated as bugs are found with it?

Breaking those premises apart, they do have paid customers, and they have admitted to technical problems as well as EXPLOSIVE growth since the DV launch; I simply think that they may not have scaled correctly.

If they are going to offer the PC/Mac softphone, then they are sort of obligated to support it to some level. I mean, they know about these bugs and have done nothing to quash them in a very long time. Had they NOT bothered to supply the software and simply said, "You gotta buy the config and find your own software" then this would be a completely different point. But the fact remains that they DID supply one, and they are NOT supporting it worth a damn.

Always open for intelligent debates and conversation.

As you stated too, I am free to move on ... but that does not help solve the issues that have been identified.