Busy Signal on FPL

[Joe B]

My FPL reports a busy signal when someone calls even though the phone is not in use. I can call out but when people call me they get a busy signal. This has been going on since Friday Aug. 20,2010. I have tried everything, I even shut off router, cable modem, ATA and when I call with my cell phone I get a busy signal. The busy signal is sporatic. Any idea?

[laurent]

Is your ATA using an assigned (either static, or via DHCP reservation) IP address? If so, are the inbound UDP ports properly routed to this IP address?

[Joe B]

My ATA, Router, Cable Modem were all shut off. I believe its at FPL end.
Things seem to be working today, no more busy signal.

[FONGO_steve]

My ATA, Router, Cable Modem were all shut off. I believe its at FPL end.
Things seem to be working today, no more busy signal.

Did it start working after everything was shut off? Or was stuff shut off, turned on, things still didn't work, and then it started working after?

We haven't had any service disruptions or maintenance during this time that would cause any form of account outage. I'll close off your email support ticket though, just to avoid duplicate answers.

[Joe B]

I have had this busy signal issue since friday, and it just started working good this morning. I tried all kinds of things and resorted to shutting off all items, cable modem, router, ata and computers and even unpluged the phones. then tried calling with my cell phone and FPL was still busy. It would get unbusy by itself, sometimes after about and 1 hour so. Another thing I tried sunday night was to take FPL off hook until I got the fast busy signal. Hang up and tried calling with my cell phone and it would work. I do believe the problem was not at my end, how could it be with everything disconnected? Had my sister call busy, called with my cell phone busy...

[Joe B]

Steve, since you are closing this off should I open another one?
Joe

[Joe B]

My busy signal is back again, I have tried everything at my end, shut off router, shut off cable modem and shut off ATA and still a busy signal? What could it be? Help

[laurent]

Just throwing an idea out there: I see in my ATA (grandstream) that I can enable a function called "Unregister on reboot." I would be tempted to turn that on, and then reboot the ATA. This theoretically should unregister from FPL, "closing" the account gracefully. And then at next boot, it will register again.

It is most probably not going to help you, but seing as you've had the issue for a few days, I can't help but want to give you whatever crazy idea I come up with, on the off chances that it would work.

Have you tried unplugging your ATA, and then load up the pc softphone application for FPL? Does that work at all?

Have you tried playing with the followme features? What if you enable that to always forward? Are the calls forwarded immediately (no ring)? Or do you get a busy signal still?

[Joe B]

I'm not sure what part people are missing, I have unplugged the ATA, unplugged the router and unplugged the ATA would this not disconnect from FPL? Or does the ATA have to send a signal to FPL to say that it has disconnected? I'm going to try the last suggestion from Laurent.

[laurent]

IP telephony is quite complex and much more happen than just "things are plugged" vs "things are not plugged".

If you just yank the power cord out, the FPL servers still think your modem, ATA and phone are right there. Unregistering is the action of sending a request to the server saying "I'm going off now. No more phone here." One would expect this kind of command to reset the server's knowledge about what is plugged in where.

Again, i'm not saying this ia a fix to your problem. Just ideas.

[Joe B]

I see, so it could be the ATA not sending the signal to FPL saying it's done calling and hang up. I have changed nothing in the ATA, it has worked fine for almost 6 months. Could it be a defective ATA? If I got a new ATA how does one go about programming it? Is there a simple way? I bought mine from FPL already configged. Thanks for the help and advice so far.
Joe

[laurent]

hm no Unregister doesn't happen at the end of a call, it (can) happen when the device is going off for a long time. It's to prevent the server for even attempting to reach you.

Have you tried the softphone application? That could be interesting to try, see if it works or not.

[Joe B]

Okay, I'm going to try using the laptop. I called my cell phone from the softphone software on my laptop, the cell phone rang and worked. Hung up the FPL softphone and then tried calling the FPL with my cell phone and busy signal. The ATA is unplugged and will stay unplugged but the softphone doesn't work either.

[Joe B]

Just tried calling my FPL and it goes straight to voice mail. No ringing on the softphone, straight to voice mail. Tried it twice. Just called it again and it's busy... Remember the ATA is still unplugged. I'm using only the softphone on my laptop. I can call out and then hang up but still can't call FPL using the cell phone, I get a busy signal.

[laurent]

To reiterate my post from this morning, are the ports properly open and forwarded to the correct IP address of the device receiving the call? Since you're now using your computer, your router should forward the inbound ports to this machine rather than your ATA. Additionally, you may want to ensure the computer's firewall has all the required ports open. See the FAQ here http://www.freephoneline.ca/faq#30

Since you have a cable modem, you could try to plug your computer directly into the cable modem (skipping the router altogether) and then try.

[Joe B]

Laurent thanks for all your help. I'm going to try that in the morning. I will keep you posted. Thanks again.

[Joe B]

I hooked up the ata directly to the modem and the problem continued, I reset the ATA back to factory default and then reconfigured it again and so far so good. Things seem to be working fine.