FPL 3.0 softphone ignores audio port setting?

[Zul]

Hi,

Using the current version of the FPL softphone, my specified audio port of 13000 is ignored, and the software simply picks the first available port it can find. I need the port it chooses to be predictable so I can configure my router's QoS appropriately, lest my calls be plagued with dropouts.

Is there a way to fix this? Or will the software need to be updated?

[Zul]

Helpful as always, guys.

[FONGO_steve]

Helpful as always, guys.

Please keep in mind this is a community board - it is simply moderated by a couple of our staff. If you're seeking direct assistance from us, then your best bet is to call or email our support department.

On that note - the random port your softphone is choosing is likely the port being used for update checks - it will choose that at random.
Our softphone is bound to UDP ports 6060-6061 for SIP traffic and 13000-13001 for RTP traffic. If you are seeing different results than this and are able to rule out router setup as causing it, then I'd suggest dropping our support team a line.

[Zul]

Hi Steve,

Let me apologize for the attitude above. It's just been a frustrating experience dealing with your company thus far. I've yet to have ANY of my concerns actually resolved -- everyone over there seems to be more concerned with pinning the blame elsewhere than coming up with workable solutions -- so my patience, as you can probably imagine, is starting to wear a little thin. I suppose you get what you pay for -- this *is* a free service, and I *do* understand that -- but if I were running things, I'd be aiming a little higher in terms of customer service and customer satisfaction. That's all.

To clarify, the random port being chosen is definitely the port over which audio is being transferred. Using the various tools at my disposal, I made sure to confirm this before posting my initial message.

Anyway, as you know, I called in to support earlier today. Because the problem isn't on my end, the CSR wasn't able to provide any insight and, as usual, simply attempted to pin the blame on me and my equipment. Well, after further testing I performed while on hold, I've figured out the problem.

My initial assumption that the audio port specified in options is being ignored was incorrect. Instead, it's that the setting is being erroneously applied to the LOCAL port instead of the remote port, and as you're probably aware, the local port that any given connection passes through is completely irrelevant. It's the REMOTE port we're interested in, and it's the REMOTE port the setting should be affecting. That's how version 2 of the software behaved, but now, for whatever reason, in version 3, that's changed. And I have to assume that's a bug -- an oversight on the developers' part -- because there's no valid reason a local port setting should exist.

As a software developer myself, I can tell you that this is a trivial fix. Chances are, a single line of code is all that'll need to be changed. As such, I hope you'll bring this to the developers' attention and push an incremental update in the near-future rather than sitting on this until version 4 (or worse). Your phones may not be ringing off the hook with complaints about the issue, but it absolutely *is* an issue, and whether they realize it or not, it absolutely affects everyone who requires QoS to achieve smooth, reliable calls through FPL.

[Zul]

*bump*

[FONGO_kris]

everyone over there seems to be more concerned with pinning the blame elsewhere than coming up with workable solutions

This is mainly because we've not had any luck replicating your problem, even on your account. This combined with the reality that you seem to be the only one having this problem (Or coming forward with it, at least) points firmly elsewhere than with us as you put it.

As a software developer myself, I can tell you that this is a trivial fix. Chances are, a single line of code is all that'll need to be changed. As such, I hope you'll bring this to the developers' attention and push an incremental update in the near-future rather than sitting on this until version 4 (or worse). Your phones may not be ringing off the hook with complaints about the issue, but it absolutely *is* an issue, and whether they realize it or not, it absolutely affects everyone who requires QoS to achieve smooth, reliable calls through FPL.

The issue has been brought up with our software developers, however at a time where resources are spread thin while we work on many other projects for you guys. Unfortunately this looks to be an issue we're going to have to deal with for the time being.