New adapter, only power light stays on

[new2fongo]

Hello, new Fongo user here.

Received a new Grandstream HT801 V2, followed the setup instructions and only get the power light staying on after all three light-up briefly.

Modem/router combo is a new Nokia FastMile 5G Gateway 12.

Reading through here, I suspect an ethernet connection problem -- the Grandstream ATA doesn't seem to be recognized by the FastMile and does not get assigned an IP (verified via the FastMile admin panel).

Turned off SIP in the FastMile, and still only the one power light on the Grandstream and no assigned IP.

Are there any other modem/router settings needed? Something else I'm missing? Kindly asking for help.

[Liptonbrisk]

Hello,


Visit https://support.fongo.com/hc/articles/1 ... HT-801-ATA.

The HT801 should get an LAN IP assigned to it from the FastMile modem/router combo (or gateway), just as any other DHCP client would, with no special router settings required. If only the power LED stays on and the NET LED never lights, the ATA is not seeing a live Ethernet link at all. Turning off SIP ALG on the Nokia FastMile 5G Gateway 12 is good practice, but it has no effect on whether the HT801 V2 appears in a router's DHCP client list.

Modem/router combo is a new Nokia FastMile 5G Gateway 12.

i) Ethernet cable should be attached to a yellow (RJ-45) LAN port on the back of the Fastmile gateway. The cable should connect to the blue NET port on the back of the ATA. Check to ensure the connection is secure at both ends.

ii) Attach a phone to a phone port on the back of the ATA. Never attach the ATA to existing phone jacks in a wall, unless telephone company wiring has been disconnected from the demarc. Otherwise, you run the risk of frying the ATA.

1) Dial ***
2) Then dial 02

If you don't hear a LAN IP address, then yes, your fastmile gateway isn't assigning a LAN IP to the ATA (also, if your ISP is using CG-NAT, you may not be in for a fun time, but I'm getting ahead of myself).

Also refer to the LED pattern: https://documentation.grandstream.com/k ... ds-pattern

3) Plug a PC or laptop into the same FastMile LAN port and ethernet cable you are using for the HT801 V2, and confirm the PC immediately gets a LAN IP and Internet (WAN) access.​ If the PC doesn't, then try a different ethernet cable to see whether the existing one is faulty.

a) If the PC works, move that known, good cable back to the HT801 V2’s single RJ‑45 NET port, and watch whether the NET LED comes on the ATA.​

b) If the NET LED still stays off, repeat using a different yellow LAN port on the FastMile gateway to rule out whether it has a bad port. If the LAN port(s) are bad, or otherwise not working as intended, contact your ISP for assistance.

c) If the NET LED still remains off, perform a hardware reset on the HT801 V2: https://support.fongo.com/hc/articles/1 ... eam-HT-801. After that full reboot, a healthy Grandstream ATA with a live ethernet link should light up with Power and NET symbols at least. If even after this reset the NET LED never lights while a PC works fine on the same FastMile port and cable, then I suspect the ATA is faulty. If the ATA is faulty, you will need to submit a ticket to Fongo: https://support.fongo.com/hc/requests/new.

d) If the NET light comes on, but the phone light never does, that means the ATA isn't registered with Fongo's server. You will need to submit a ticket to Fongo for assistance: https://support.fongo.com/hc/requests/new.

--
(General Info)

These are user-to-user support forums. Fongo Support staff is not obligated to respond here, and there's no guarantee forum posts are read by staff.

Also, none of the volunteer moderators here work for Fongo. We don't have access to your account.

In the event the phone light is ever permanently off on the ATA, keep in mind that the ATA is supposed to be provisioned or configured by Fongo's provisioning server automatically. Installation instructions are located at https://support.fongo.com/hc/articles/2 ... First-Time. If that doesn't work (beyond a potential firewall, SIP ALG, DNS, or DHCP issue on your LAN), I'm doubtful moderators and users here can do anything to assist.


Visit https://status.fongo.com/.
If "Support System" indicates "Degraded Performance" or "Partial Outage", ticket response time can take up to a week (or longer).


You can check your ticket status by logging in at
https://support.fongo.com/hc/requests. That's an account for tickets
(zendesk) only and is completely separate from your Fongo Home Phone account or
any other Fongo account you may have. If you don't have a zendesk account yet, click "Sign Up" after visiting the link.
Use the same email address that you use to submit tickets. Do not use the same password as your Fongo Home Phone
account. Again, these two accounts are unrelated.

Support staff does not respond to tickets on weekends or Canadian holidays.
Support hours are 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. EST. They are not obliged to respond
on the these user-to-user forums.


Fongo does have https://twitter.com/Fongo_Support. I'm not sure if anyone
there responds to direct messages.
Similarly, they appear to be on Facebook. I don't know whether they'll respond to you there.

[new2fongo]

Thank you @Liptonbrisk <3

I swapped-out the shipped LAN cable for a known working one and was able to obtain a LAN connection, so it looks like the shipped cable was defective.

The adapter is now connected with 3 lights on, there is a dial tone, the phone rings when called and the phone is able to dial outgoing numbers as well.

However there is now no audio being sent or received when answering or making a call.

I did some more research and read that along with disabling SIP, UnPnP should be enabled on the FastMile -- both of which I did, and still no audio when making or receiving calls.

I read that I may need to assign a fixed IP to the HT801 and forward some ports -- is this correct? Something else?

Really appreciate any help you can provide.

[Liptonbrisk]

To rule out your phone, dial *** with your phone attached to the ATA. If you don't hear a voice, try a different phone.

also, if your ISP is using CG-NAT, you may not be in for a fun time, but I'm getting ahead of myself

assign a fixed IP to the HT801

Generally, that's not required, unless one is port forwarding to a specific LAN IP.

UnPnP should be enabled on the FastMile

UPnP is a potential security risk and should not be used unless all else fails first. Anyway, according to your description, enabling it didn't help you.

and forward some ports

Port forwarding is also a potential security risk and should be avoided unless all else fails.

Many 5G FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) services, including Rogers 5G Home Internet with Nokia FastMile, are confirmed to use CG‑NAT for IPv4, so it is very likely that any wholesale/partner, or another ISP, such as Carrytel (for example), using that same mobile core may also also be using CG‑NAT, but there's no guarantee. You should contact your ISP to find out and request to speak to someone competent.

Regardless, port forwarding generally does not work with carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT). CGNAT assigns private IP addresses to customer equipment and translates all inbound traffic at the network edge, preventing external devices from initiating connections directly to devices behind the NAT, which severely limits the ability to forward ports and host inbound services. Traditional port forwarding (for inbound public/WAN traffic) does not work with CGNAT. Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT) fundamentally breaks traditional port forwarding because your home router does not receive a unique public (WAN) IP address. Instead, multiple customers share a single public IP address.

I suggest that CGNAT should be avoided, if possible, for Fongo Home Phone. I also refuse to use to sign up with any ISP that employs CG-NAT for my home internet service (and I will try to avoid CG-NAT unless there's no other option available to me). I'm not 100% sure you are dealing with CGNAT, but it's plausible that you are. Contact your ISP. If level 1 (first person you call) doesn't know what CGNAT is, ask for level 2 support (supervisors sometimes).

Rogers 5G Home Internet uses Carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT). I'm not sure who your ISP is, but if it's using Rogers, then chances are you're on CG-NAT.

If you're on CG-NAT, I suspect there are 3 factors contributing to the core problem:

1. Shared public IP (CGNAT)

Rogers 5G Home Internet (or other ISP's that are basically reselling that) service places your Nokia Fastmile 5G 12 behind Carrier-Grade NAT. This means you do not get a unique public IPv4 WAN IP; instead, you share one with other users.

2. Brief, dynamic port assignments

To manage the limited pool of 65,535 available ports on a single shared IP, the CGNAT system assigns ports to users dynamically and for very brief periods. When your device sends a UDP packet, the CGNAT opens a temporary pin-hole or NAT binding. If no traffic passes through this pin-hole for a short time (often 30-120 seconds), the CGNAT device closes it to reclaim the port for another user.



3. Long SIP registration expiry

Freephoneline's servers (possibly Fongo Home Phone's as well) require your device to register with a 3600 second (1-hour) expiry time. This is a server-side rule to manage resources.


What Causes the Problem? Timer conflicts


There's a race between the long timer set by the SIP service provider (Fongo) and the short timer set by your ISP's network hardware.



If I'm right, here is the sequence of events that causes calls to fail:

a. Successful registration

The Grandstream ATA sends a REGISTER packet to Fongo. Your ISP's CGNAT intercepts this, opens a temporary port (ex. PublicIP:12345), and forwards the packet. Fongo's server records that it can reach you at PublicIP:12345 for the next hour (assuming the registration expiry is 3600 seconds).

b. The idle period

You don't make or receive a call. No traffic passes through that specific NAT pin-hole.

c. The NAT timeout

After just 30 to 120 seconds of inactivity (possibly), your ISP's CGNAT device determines the connection is stale and closes the pin-hole (PublicIP:12345) to free up the port for another customer. Your path from the internet to your ATA is now gone, but Fongo's server doesn't know this yet.

d. (Inbound) Call Fails

Someone calls your number minutes later. Fongo's server sends the call (a SIP INVITE packet) to PublicIP:12345 as instructed. The packet arrives at Rogers' network edge (or your ISP's), but the CGNAT device has no memory of that mapping, so the device has no idea where to send the traffic. It's simply discarded.

The result is that the call eventually fails over to Fongo Home Phone's voicemail system. That's why the ATA sending a frequent keep-alive packet (every 20 seconds) is essential. The (keep-alive) notify packets constantly send traffic through the pin-hole, resetting the CGNAT's idle timer and forcing it to keep the port open for the full 3600-second registration period, theoretically.



If you discover you're not on CG-NAT, then you could try assigning at static LAN IP to your ATA. You would then need to ask Fongo to not use a random RTP port in the Grandstream ATA (so that you don't need to forward a huge, insecure, UDP port range), ask what the RTP port range is (after they make the adjustment to not use a random RTP port), and then forward the newly defined RTP (UDP) port range to the ATA. In that case, you would ask your ISP for assistance with setting up a static LAN IP for the ATA and for port forwarding to it, since they are responsible for your Nokia gateway. However, I wouldn't do anything in this paragraph yet, and I would ask myself, if the problem isn't CG-NAT and if SIP ALG is disabled, why am I not getting any audio in either direction? The NAT firewall employed in the Nokia gateway would have to be incredibly restrictive. I'm leaning towards CG-NAT being the problem instead.

Most of what I just described you don't need to know, and there's nothing I can think of that you can easily do yourself (other than not using an internet service with CG-NAT), since Fongo Home Phone is a locked service (you can't change settings in your ATA yourself).

1) I would submit a ticket to Fongo: https://support.fongo.com/hc/requests/new. Request to be put on an alternate SIP/Proxy server. Ask for your ATA to be put on/register with sip2.fongo.com:6060 just to see whether that makes any difference (I suspect it won't since you disabled SIP ALG anyway and since the ATA is able to register).

2) Describe your problem in your ticket.

3) Ask them to ensure “SIP REGISTER Contact Header Uses” is set to “WAN address” in your ATA to see if that makes any difference. They may have the ATA set to that already.

4) It may be possible that using 5G home internet (with CG-NAT) will not work with Fongo Home Phone. Freephoneline is somewhat similar to Fongo Home Phone, except Freephoneline users are able to configure their ATAs themselves. I don't know of anyone successfully using 5G home internet service with CG-NAT with Freephoneline or Fongo Home Phone. Here is an example: viewtopic.php?t=20936. There are things I could test on Fongo's end, but I don't know if Fongo would be willing to make exceptions and try them (shortening registration expires value significantly and maybe changing to TCP transport). Anyway, you'll have to work that out with Fongo. I would be interested if they are able to resolve your problem and, if so, what their solution is.
---
(General Info)

These are user-to-user support forums. Fongo Support staff is not obligated to respond here, and there's no guarantee forum posts are read by staff.

Also, none of the volunteer moderators here work for Fongo. We don't have access to your account.

In the event the phone light is ever permanently off on the ATA, keep in mind that the ATA is supposed to be provisioned or configured by Fongo's provisioning server automatically. Installation instructions are located at https://support.fongo.com/hc/articles/2 ... First-Time. If that doesn't work (beyond a potential firewall, SIP ALG, DNS, or DHCP issue on your LAN), I'm doubtful moderators and users here can do anything to assist.


Visit https://status.fongo.com/.
If "Support System" indicates "Degraded Performance" or "Partial Outage", ticket response time can take up to a week (or longer).


You can check your ticket status by logging in at
https://support.fongo.com/hc/requests. That's an account for tickets
(zendesk) only and is completely separate from your Fongo Home Phone account or
any other Fongo account you may have. If you don't have a zendesk account yet, click "Sign Up" after visiting the link.
Use the same email address that you use to submit tickets. Do not use the same password as your Fongo Home Phone
account. Again, these two accounts are unrelated.

Support staff does not respond to tickets on weekends or Canadian holidays.
Support hours are 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. EST. They are not obliged to respond
on the these user-to-user forums.


Fongo does have https://twitter.com/Fongo_Support. I'm not sure if anyone
there responds to direct messages.
Similarly, they appear to be on Facebook. I don't know whether they'll respond to you there.

[new2fongo]

Thank you for the detailed information @Liptonbrisk

Dialing *** with the phone attached to the ATA leads to a voice menu -- phone seems good/compatible.

The ISP being used is indeed Rogers 5G, and therefore based on all the information you provided I think it's the CG-NAT causing difficulties.

I did some more research and read that "IPv6 eliminates the need for NAT, providing end-to-end connectivity." -- if this is true, I'm thinking about 'forcing' the FastMile to use only IPv6 (Enabling DHCPv6 server + disabling DHCP IPv4 altogether). Next, I read that IPv6 would have to be enabled on the HT801 (Set “IPv6” to “Auto” (SLAAC/DHCPv6) so the ATA accepts Router Advertisements and optionally DHCPv6 from the Nokia gateway) -- this can supposedly be done via the web GUI.

At present, all devices connected to the FastMile are assigned both IPv4 & IPv6 addresses EXCEPT the HT801 which is only assigned an IPv4 address -- this leads me to believe that IPv6 is currently not enabled on the HT801. Once IPv6 is enabled on the HT801, disabling IPv4 on the FastMile should lead to all devices including the HT-801 being assigned IPv6 addresses, which if what I read is correct eliminates the need for NAT (and possibly effectively bypassing CG-NAT).

Or maybe keeping both IPv4 & IPv6 on the FastMile (so I don't limit other network activity) and enabling/preferring IPv6 only on the HT801. And with this, I'm guessing an IPv6 address for the Fongo SIP server would have to be specified (assuming there even is one?) in the HT801 config (I also read about a "SIP server name that resolves to AAAA records", again assuming Fongo provides service over IPv6.

What do you think? Anything here worth a try?

[Liptonbrisk]

I did some more research and read that "IPv6 eliminates the need for NAT, providing end-to-end connectivity." -- if this is true

At the protocol level, IPv6 is meant to restore end‑to‑end addressing, so large‑scale address‑sharing NAT is not needed the way it is for IPv4.​
On many mobile/FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) networks, IPv6 traffic from the CPE (Customer‑Premises Equipment) is globally routable without CG‑NAT, while IPv4 goes through 464XLAT + CG‑NAT.​ Theoretically, if both ends (ATA and SIP provider/Fongo) fully supported IPv6, moving SIP and RTP to IPv6 could (possibly) sidestep IPv4 CG‑NAT constraints.

Fongo’s public documentation for Freephoneline only lists IPv4 SIP servers (voip.freephoneline.ca:5060 / voip2.freephoneline.ca:5060 / voip4.freephoneline.ca on UDP 6060). There is no mention of IPv6‑capable SIP proxies or AAAA records for ATA usage.​ voip4.freephoneline.ca:6060 is the same as sip2.fongo.com:6060, which Fongo Home Phone can use. I can't find AAAA records for sip2.fongo.com (as an example).

The Fongo Mobile app has a specific “Allow IPv6 Connection” toggle, which confirms the back‑end can handle IPv6 for the app, but that is not the same as committing to IPv6 SIP for locked Grandstream ATAs with Fongo Home Phone. But maybe Fongo can do something to help you if you ask.

The Fongo‑supplied HT801 V2 is locked and auto‑provisioned by Fongo’s servers, and they control the SIP transport and network stack in the configuration they push to the ATA. Even if you could access the web GUI for your Grandstream ATA and set "IPv6" to Auto”, there is no guarantee the device would be allowed to use IPv6 for SIP. You'd have to ask Fongo about that in a ticket.

Your FastMile gateway is dual‑stacking, insofar as it hands out both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to most LAN clients. Rogers’ 5G core uses IPv6 plus translation mechanisms for IPv4.​ If you disable DHCPv4 on the LAN, many modern OSes (Windows, Android, etc.) will continue working over IPv6 (possibly via NAT64/DNS64 for IPv4‑only sites), but locked devices, such as your Grandstream ATA, are not always supported in IPv6‑only LAN scenarios.​ Fongo does not document publicly (at least) IPv6 support for its Home Phone service at all. I could be wrong, but I suspect the outcome would be that the HT801 fails to obtain a usable address or continues trying to reach IPv4‑only SIP servers.

Disabling IPv4 on the LAN does not change the fact that Rogers is using CG‑NAT for any IPv4 flows that still exist between the CPE (Customer‑Premises Equipment) and the internet.​ IPv6 traffic may avoid CG‑NAT, but only if the SIP service is actually reachable over IPv6. Again, there is no documented evidence that Fongo’s locked, ATA Home Phone platform exposes an IPv6 SIP interface to customers. So, setting your FastMile gateway to IPv6‑only to avoid CGNAT is unlikely to help.

On Rogers 5G Home Internet, the FastMile gateway always has an IPv4 stack on its WAN side that is carried over Rogers’ IPv6‑only core and put through CG‑NAT upstream. Changing LAN settings (turning off IPv4 DHCP and using only IPv6 addresses for clients) does not remove IPv4 from the FastMile’s own WAN connectivity or from Rogers’ network, so CG‑NAT for IPv4 still applies. FastMile gateway's WAN interface maintains its IPv4 stack (via 464XLAT/NAT64 mechanisms built into the carrier network), regardless of what you configure on the LAN side. Disabling IPv4 DHCP on the LAN only stops the gateway from issuing private IPv4 addresses (ex. 192.168.x.x) to your devices, but it does not change how the FastMile itself connects to Rogers over IPv6 + translated IPv4, and it does not remove the upstream CG‑NAT layer that Rogers applies to IPv4 traffic.

I think I typed too much. Maybe I should have just written this instead: disabling IPv4 on your LAN does not change the fact that Rogers is still using CG‑NAT for any IPv4 flows between your gateway and the outside world.​ IPv6 traffic may avoid CG‑NAT in principle, but only if the service on the other end (Fongo’s SIP servers for Home Phone) is actually reachable over IPv6, and there’s currently no evidence Fongo's SIP servers for Fongo Home Phone are (or at least, I'm not aware that they are, but I don't work for Fongo; so I don't know for sure). So changing the FastMile to IPv6‑only may not bypass NAT for Fongo Home Phone, and the more likely result is that the ATA stops working until you undo the change. If you really want to experiment, you can re‑enable IPv4 on the FastMile later (ask Rogers for help if need be), so the change shouldn't be permanent. However, I'm leaning heavily towards the entire process not helping anything.

What do you think?

I think you should submit a ticket to Fongo as I described earlier to discuss your problem. I would probably request escalation to the networking admin. The Fongo Mobile app has a specific “Allow IPv6 Connection” toggle, which confirms the back‑end can handle IPv6 for the app. Maybe something could be done for Fongo Home Phone users (I don't know since I don't work for Fongo).


Disabling IPv4 DHCP on the LAN side of the FastMile gateway only affects what addresses your local devices receive. But doing so does not change these facts:

1) the FastMile gateway itself still has an IPv4 stack for its WAN connectivity to Rogers,

2) Rogers 5G Home Internet uses an IPv6-only core with 464XLAT, where the FastMile (acting as the CLAT or Customer‑side TransLATor) embeds IPv4 addresses into IPv6 packets and sends them over the IPv6 network to Rogers' PLAT (Provider-side TransLATor), and

3) the PLAT at Rogers' network edge then translates those back to IPv4 and applies carrier-grade NAT (CG-NAT) to all IPv4 traffic going to or from the public internet.

So even if every device on your LAN were IPv6-only, any attempt to reach an IPv4-only server (such as sip2.fongo.com:6060) would still follow a path similar to IPv6‑only device —> FastMile (IPv6 routing) —> Rogers IPv6 core —> NAT64/PLAT (CG‑NAT) —> IPv4 Internet —> sip2.fongo.com:6060, and inbound IPv4 connections would still be constrained by that same CG‑NAT layer.