Will the HT701 ATA work from a Thomson TG784?

[godot2012]

I am divorcing from Ma Bell! I have signed on with Worldline for HS internet and Home phone bundle. I am also porting my Bell number to them. Worldline has sent me a "preconfigured" Thomson TG7784 with instructions not to touch it!!!

Could not resist. I swapped out my Speedtouch ST516v6 DSL Modem, my NETGEAR WNDR 4000 router and my FONGO (Grandstream) ATA with the Thomson box. After the normal delays, the internet connection (my old/exiting HS internet provider is 295.ca) came up and worked fine from the various devices I have at home. However, when I connected the FONGO ATA it could not register. I hope there is a solution for this problem because my FONGO number is my primary phone, the one I listed with friends, doctors offices and AlarForce.

As it stands once Bell cuts out my POT (Plain Old Telephone!) service and my " Bell number" is transferred to Wordline I could loose my FONGO number. This could create a problem. The planned cutover is on Thursday-Friday.

I hope there is an easy solution.

Thanks.

[Jake]

The TG784 has 2 phone jacks on it, and has probably been set up with your account details. If that is connected you won't be able to connect another ATA with the same account details. They will just keep fighting for registration.

How many Fongo accounts do you have? The reason I ask is when you port in a number it replaces the Fongo number for the account you port into.

[godot2012]

Hi Jake;

The TG784 is not yet officially active. The transfer is scheduled for Thursday. I was just trying to see what will happen, got my conclusions and put the device back in the box.

I have two Fongo Numbers (accounts)
1. my Fongo home phone
2. my Fongo (Dell?) phone on my Nexus4

I also have a Freephone number. But this one has no connection of what is happening here.

I connected my (Fongo) ATA to the Ethernet port of the TG784. I figured that the ATA would register as user on the LAN side of the router, independent from the - not yet present - Wordline Account. It never occurred to me connect anything to the phone jacks of the router. I figured there will be nothing there until they complete the number port.

What I hear you say is that this router can not handle two ATAs - one built in AND an external one? This does not make sense to me. There are two 'users' sharing an internet connection - just like multiple PCs.

To me there is some sort of link between 295.ca (my HS internet provider), Fongo (my simple VoIP service provider) and Wordline (HS internet/VoIP bundle provider). If so I figure that synchronizing the router part of the TG784 configuration would be easy.

What am I missing here?

Laszlo

[Jake]

What I meant is, you cannot have the same details in the ATA and TG784. As long as you have two different accounts it should be able to work fine.

As you probably know 295, Fongo, and Worldline are all the same when the flesh is stripped away. Nothing should need to be synced up, just the account made active. If the account has not been made live yet, that will be why the ATA won't register. It needs a working internet connection. Did all the lights go green on the TG when you plugged it in?

As long as you have two accounts, you should be fine. You might need to set up some port forwarding, but you will have to wait and see on that one.

I used to use a TG784 as my main router, and to be honest I wasn't impressed with it. I have now swapped it out for separate modems and router, mainly because I have MLPPP now.

[godot2012]

Thanks for your note. As you know, I have a working "account" on my current config, modem, router and ATA. It was Worldline who imposed their Thomson modem/router. I guess from a service provider's perspective they want to know the hardware and not have to guess what is going on when something goes wrong. This makes sense if you are selling a POTS replacement to the open consumer market. The mishmash of hardware and knowledge of Fongo users was tbe reason I said here in one of my blogs that " a Fongo home phone is not something I would recommend to my grandmother". The Worldline bundle was positioned to compete with Ma Bell's bundles. In order to provide quality service they need to be able to control the hardware and its config. This is the marketing side. I think it is smart. Maybe they could have choosen a better box. Who knows.

Still I can't understand why my ATA could not register using the Thomson box as a router using my valid Fongo home account. Since as you say all these organisations are part of the same family the failure can only be explained that some thing was not set jo correctly in the box. I guess I will see on Thursday.

Cheers

[Jake]

Your TG784 will have your DSL settings inside it as well as your new SIP details for the phone number you have been given. It will be your modem. If the account that corresponds to the settings inside the TG is not activated an internet connection could not be obtained. Because you don't have an internet connection, then your ATA could not register with the servers.

Did you notice if the lights all went green when you plugged it in? they should have all gone solid or flickering - not pulsing or going red after a little while.

[bridonca]

The Thomson is a nasty router. IT uses SIP ALG which seems incompatible with most SIP implementations. It owns port 5060!

Thankfully there is an easy fix. On the HT701, switch the SIP port. Something like 6060 works great. I forget what the RTP port is, but make sure nothing else but the HT701 is using that either. For good measure, see if you can make those ports forwarded to the HT701

[godot2012]

Here is the situation after the installation and number port completed by Bell/Worldline.

My ported (old Bell) number and internet works as expected on the Thomson box, but my Fongo account will not work, because the Fongo ATA will not register. After some discussion the Worldline tech called his tech contact at Worldline. 'Neil' suggested that Fongo can set up the second phone port of the Thomson box to link it to my Fongo home number. For now I have used the Follow Me feature and forwarded all incoming calls to the ported number. Tested this and it works fine. This way I do not have to worry about number changes - at least for now.

I figured that my other option would be to connect my old hardware and BINGO I have my FONGO Home account working for me. Done this and the configuration worked but for some reason the voice quality was inferior to the other method. Hmmm.....

Ultimately my only reason to get Wordline involved was to shed Bell and get a dry loop installed. For whatever reason this is not an easy process to do on your own. Bell simply refused to accommodate me as a 'private citizen'. They told me that it can not be done -hahh. This made me even more angry. Now I have achieved my goal, but ended up with two VoIP numbers and paying for e911 twice. I will have to rectify this. Rest assured I am working on it.

[FONGO_mike]

The ATA will not work on the thomson 784 modem as the phone ports, like the ATA, are pushing through port 5060 to use the SIP phone settings.

[godot2012]

Thanks Mike That explains it.

[FONGO_mike]

Through the CLI, it is possible to dissable it, but in doing so, you are removing the ability to use the SIP phone ports on the thomson