On and off Busy Signal when calling FPL number

[user451]

Is anyone else experiencing occasional busy or system busy signals when calling your FPL number? The ATA is registered and Internet seems fine

[Ice]

Can you give us some more details? I'm trying to look for a pattern - what time of day this happens, how often, which number(s), etc...

This has happened to me twice: New Years Day (midnight) and some other random time. The problem for me was there were no circuits available at the PSTN-level. In other words, everybody calling to say HAPPY NEW YEAR means an incoming call didn't go through; and the "other random time" confirmed it was an equipment problem on their end.

Your problem is likely different, but more details will help us determine why.

[user451]

Noticed this in the late afternoon early evening. Thought it was the ATA settings to start but why would something that was working start acting up then the problem clears up on it's own?

[FONGO_steve]

Noticed this in the late afternoon early evening. Thought it was the ATA settings to start but why would something that was working start acting up then the problem clears up on it's own?

If you know the exact details of when you called and that happened, you can PM them to me and I'll see if the call reached our end, and what happened to it from there. This should help identify what caused the busy.

I'll need to know the number called from, your freephoneline number, and the exact date/time of the call with the busy (or as close as you can get at least)

[user451]

The issue is sporadic I just did another test call and got a system busy tone. Hung up did 2 test calls that rang through OK

The 2 test calls show in the logs the failed call does not

[davemay]

This has been occurring to myself (when I call my own FPL number) and others calling me (locally within Ottawa, other points in the province and from the UK).

There is a long silent delay of about 15 seconds after dialling and then a busy signal. Dialling out to other numbers is fine.

[FONGO_steve]

If you have a recent example call, within the last 12 hours preferably, please PM me the details of it and I will examine the logs to see what's happening.

[Sami]

Hi Steve,

I am having the exact same problem. It mostly happens if the Internet connection is down, or if the router is restarted, etc. In that case, for the first few minutes, people calling my number get a busy tone (after a few seconds of silence). Later, callers start getting my voicemail instead. To help you diagnose the problem, you should know that while the busy tone is happening the freephoneline.ca still shows my device as being connected. It is only once the web site shows me as disconnected (takes about 5 minutes after I actually get disconnected) that calls start going to my voicemail. Also calls that get the busy tone don't show up on the call log of freephoneline.ca. For example, I made a series of calls at 3:20pm today (October 5th 2011) that got the busy tone. I will send you the phone numbers by private message.

Thanks!

[TheHardy]

I am having the exact same problem. It mostly happens if the Internet connection is down, or if the router is restarted, etc. In that case, for the first few minutes, people calling my number get a busy tone (after a few seconds of silence). Later, callers start getting my voicemail instead. To help you diagnose the problem, you should know that while the busy tone is happening the freephoneline.ca still shows my device as being connected. It is only once the web site shows me as disconnected (takes about 5 minutes after I actually get disconnected) that calls start going to my voicemail. Also calls that get the busy tone don't show up on the call log of freephoneline.ca. For example, I made a series of calls at 3:20pm today (October 5th 2011) that got the busy tone. I will send you the phone numbers by private message.

That is a pretty good piece of troubleshooting there, to be able to help narrow it down as to the status of what 'your end' is doing while the problem is ongoing. I hope that Steve/FPL can assist in tracking down this problem.

Just so I have this clear in my own mind (and for understanding), when the connection between your machine and FPL gets "bunged up" (for whatever reason) and people are calling in, before the FPL server realizes that you are not connected, the incoming calls are hitting a BUSY signal rather than being forwarded correctly to your voicemail; your side of things shows you as disconnected, but FPL is taking about 5-or-so minutes to realize that DURING which time your inbound callers get the false BUSY signal. After both systems "time out" and realize the disconnect, calls to your number are then correctly routed to your voicemail.

Is that about it?

Another question for you -- are you running the softphone (and if so, which one, FPL, budphone or other?) or are you using an ATA (again, if so, which one?). There may also be log files on your end that can help to shed some light on the situation (or can at least be used in the troubleshooting aspect of things). I know that there are quite a few logs that are created by the FPL softphone application. Not that I can make sense out of a lot of it, but then again, I am not the software coder!

[Sami]

TheHardy I just noticed your message after 2 years, sorry! Yes your understanding is correct.

In the past couple of years I've been quite happy with the FPL service although I am still having the same problem. I had a few Internet outages lately and during those times freephoneline.ca still showed my ATA (Cisco SPA2102) as registered, which of course means that anybody calling me got a busy dial tone instead of voice mail.

Any ideas from Steve, TheHardy or the FPL community on how to fix this? I believe I have my ATA configured correctly (settings below) as if I use those same settings for my CallCentric account and have a network outage, it takes less than a minute for CallCentric to realize that I am no longer registered, as opposed to more than 30 minutes for FPL.

Proxy: voip.freephoneline.ca
Registration Expires: 180
Preferred Codec 1: G711U
Preferred Codec 2: G729a
Use Preferred Codec Only: No
RTP Packet Size: 0.020
No STUN (tried that but it didn't help)
NAT KeepAlive Interval: 15
INVITE Expires: 240
ReINVITE Expires: 30