Problem with Dell Voice

[Manny]

I sent in a email on Monday the 9th on behalf of my parents and still have no response:

....

They paid $158.00 as startup costs and believed that while they would benefit financially, there would be no change in their telephone services.

The problems they have encountered are as follows:
- Sometimes when someone calls the phone does not ring. Called tech support, and they suggested we plug in the phone directly to the adaptor – that didn’t work. Also, when I call from my cellphone and it doesn’t ring – they are able to pick up the phone and dial out.
- Some voicemails are received after many hours or even days.
- It is not possible to do telephone banking
- Often there is a message ‘Your service does not include this number’. When they call off and try the second, third or fourth time, the call goes through.

The service and support has not been great. They are senior citizens, need a telephone service that is reliable, available always and clear. They are afraid that in an emergency situation, your services will not be available to them and they will be in unnecessary danger.

[Jake]

Sorry to hear you are having problems, usually I find the support very good. Hopefully someone from Fongo will read this and look into it for you.

You should note though this is not an official support forum but mainly member helped. There are a few Fongo staff that frequent here. Really calling in, however frustrating, is you best route to get help.

Hope you get something fixed.

[dibsmft]

Could you describe the set up that your parents have... ISP Provider and internet speed, Modem, Router and any other devices on their network. I assume they have the GS286 as ATA.

[Manny]

They have rogers ultimate 30 down 1 up. The modem is a router, and the GS286 ATA is plugged directly into a port on the router.

[dibsmft]

So they have a cable modem with integrated router? From your description it seems that you have a port problem. Did they forward the ports suggested by Fongo to the ATA from the router? It is hard to suggest what you can try but, in the hope that it might solve the problem for now, try running/enabling STUN on the ATA. Any STUN server will do such as stun.callwithus.com or stun.ekiga.net as long as they are working. It has solved similar problems the I have had with my GS286. If that does not work then you will need to give the ATA a static IP and forward ports if that was not done.

[Manny]

What ports need to be forwarded? If I recall in the settings its set to 'random port'?

Ill see if I can find the Stun server settings in the ATA

This morning incoming calls were not ringing, so I reset the ATA again and everything started working again... Again this afternoon they stopped ringing so I had to reset it again

[Jake]

What ports need to be forwarded? If I recall in the settings its set to 'random port'?

Ill see if I can find the Stun server settings in the ATA

This morning incoming calls were not ringing, so I reset the ATA again and everything started working again... Again this afternoon they stopped ringing so I had to reset it again

That certainly sounds lime a registration problem. Forwarding the right ports may help, setting a stun server could also help.

Another thing to try is to change the registration time to something like 60 seconds. This has helped a few people (including myself) with this exact problem.

Try the stun server and forwarding ports first. To give you an idea of what is happening, the ATA is loosing its connection to the server. When you reboot it you are forcing a new registration. A stun server could help in keeping things connected, as could forwarding the ports. Changing the registration time will hopefully keep the connection fresh before it has time to loose its way.

[dibsmft]

The STUN settings are on the "Advanced" settings page of the GS286 set up.
You can try.....
local SIP port: 5060 (default 5060)
local RTP port: (1024-65535, default 5004)
Use random port: No Yes
NAT Traversal:
Yes, STUN server is: stun.ekiga.net (URI or IP:port)
Make sure that..
keep-alive interval: 20 (in seconds, default 20 seconds)
is set to 20 and not some higher value.

If that does not work then try the other stun server.

(That is not quite what I have on my GS26 as I have forwarded ports and use a different provider that has its own stun server)

[Manny]

Sorry, this is a dumb question, but if I have random port set to 'yes' what port do I forward on the router?

5060, 5004, and others?

[dibsmft]

For now don't forward ports and when/if you do then they are forwarded from the router to the ATA. STUN might do all you need.

If not then you can worry about forwarding ports.

[Manny]

I forwarded the two ports and setup the STUN. lets see if that works

[dibsmft]

Here is an echo test: Call 4169003666 (free on Fongo) and dial *850301

[Manny]

There is no echo/delay at all during the echo test.

[dibsmft]

The echo test here is just to let you check that you have two way sound without bothering someone else.
Is the phone working now?

[Manny]

With those settings below and the ports forwarded incoming calls stopped working about 10 min ago. When I call from my cell phone it just rings and rings.

Ill try changing the STUN server.

[dibsmft]

If that fails then
Give the ATA a fixed address if you have not done so. I don't know what router you have but what usually works is to give the ATA an address that is not in the range that the router gives by DHCP. Once you know that, in the ATA turn off DHCP and give the ATA the address and then add the other information DNS servers etc. Forward 5061 UDP and 8001 UDP to the ATA from the router and put this in the ATA as local SIP port and the local RTP port respectively. Save and restart the ATA.