Nope, not a CIA employee, just a happy customer. Interesting that you jumped to that conclusion. I guess the precedent is set; and you must be a employee of a rival, eh. Doing a little slagging??

All kidding aside, the recommendation comes on the fact that I've slashed my telco/adsl bill in half, the service is doing its job, plus I have more options......hmmmm, can't think of a downside.

@IMUP4IT: Have you read much of this thread?

I agree with your sentiments totally - I'm extremely happy that I can tell Telus to go pound sand, happy that I don't get those "you've exceeded your bandwidth" emails. But I'm with the others when it comes to support - currently it's non-existent.

I will recommend CIA to computer savvy people but in no way would I recommend them to the other 90% of the people I know.

I hope "I foresee a growing focus on customer service" is realized.

Several weeks ago I noticed that I've also been billed for High Speed Internet in addition to CIA local phone for 3 months.

I emailed CIA with the problem, and surprisingly got a reply, and in the current month, they fixed the billing issue and now I'm only charged for the bundled Cia Phone/Internet at the correct rate of $39.95/month.

Unfortunately they neglected to credit me for the 3 months they double charged me for the high speed in addition to the phone.:confused:

Again I emailed them, and got a reply :o that the matter was being investigated by accounting. Over a week has gone by and nothing has happened to credit my account for the overbilling. No surprise there.

I just took matters into my own hands, and called the credit card company and requested that they reverse the unauthorized charges ( you only have 115 days to do this).

Now all I need to do is wait for the credit card comapny's affadavit, which I need to sign to swear that I didn't authorize CIA to bill me for this service (ie the high speed internet) , and after I return the document , they will credit my credit card account with the 3 months over charged amount. Apparently this could take as liong as 6 weeks to happen, but its probaly faster than waiting for CIA to sort it out.

Just another option to consider for others in the same boat.

On a positive note, I'm satisfied with my CIA Local Phone service (only had one outage that really affected me), and hope they can eventually get their problems fixed and become a viable, reputable company, because I sure hate Telus!.


I've been trying to contact CIA for months with no success at all. They have been double charging my account on both internet and local phone service for the past 4 months, actually since day one the service was available to me :( I called/emailed them on the weekly basis. Some times the agent admitted the billing error and gave some credits, but most of them just have no clue at all. Even though I got some credits, on the next billing day, those credits suddenly disappeared and I still got double charged. The funny thing is that each month the amount posted to my credit card was different, somewhere between $60 to $80 (excludes long distance charge which is separate and also wrong as well. That is another story), definitely more than the regular rate $39.95+taxes . I keep the screen shots for every time the account balance charges and I am thinking to send them to the credit card company to recall the payments. Does anyone know if I could have the credit card company to limit the payment? Who knows the email address of Paul Mercia so I can send those screenshots to him ?

Thanks !

Had I read this post a few weeks ago I might not of gone with CIA, however, I did and so far so good. My telephone was forwarded from telus within 2 weeks ( before I received the modem and voice terminal ) My bad luck was with the post office because according to the tracking number, it was received here in Edmonton more than a week prior to my phone being cut off.
When I tried to install the service I could not get the phone or net to work. It turned out that the server was down for some kind of upgrading. I tried about 12 hours later and everything installed ok.
Phone works
Internet works
Customer service/tech support does not work:rolleyes: as expected

I have only been running for 2 days so time will tell. I am hoping this will work out as I am tired of the big boys making me feel cheated.

I am having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to get my emule to open up... I get a low ID which means this port is blocked or cannot be reached. This can be caused by firewalls, routers or proxy servers.
Maybe caused by voice terminal?

Both my firewall and router were configured correctly as I have not cancelled adsl yet and everything is ok when I use a p2p or online game

Can anybody give me a step by step to fix this?
VT1005
sb5101


Thanks:)

went into Voice terminal and forwarded ports in advanced section..... rebooted and still have the low Id. hmmmmmmm


I never received a UPS.... i assume it will be shipped eventually

@ssunp: I found the easiest is to pick up a small switch (I'm using a 5 port D-Link 100) and request a 2nd IP from CIA. They'll give you one for free if you tell them you're having a difficult time forwarding ports...

Plug the switch into the modem, VT1005 into the switch and router (or PC) into the switch.

QOS won't work with this setup but I've never found it to be an issue.

Thanks..... I will try that

Those Linksys ones are kind of tricky, so try these steps:

Login to the ATA Administration web page at http://192.168.0.1
Goto the Voice Tab
Click "Admin Login" on the right
Clicke "Advanced" on the right
Click the "Provisioning" Tab
Enter the profile rule exactly as shown:
http://voip.cia.com/provision.php?MAC=$MA&TYPE=$PN
Save Changes
Line 1 / Line 2 LED Should become green within 1 minute
If not power cycle the ATA
If not still, verify the ATA MAC in MyAccount

And you should be back to fully functional!

Unfortunately CIA forgot to provide the User Name and Password for the Linksys ATA that we purchased from them.

Does anyone know what the user name/password is for the Admin menu?
This might be usefull if we have to switch providers. We would be happy to stay with them if they could get their act together.

The price for the service is great, but with 2 or three outages almost every week for the last 3 months (internet and phone), we are considering other options. (Customer only for the last 3 months)

What do you guys/ girls think? I need to upgrade my internet and after reading most of all of the posts in this thread, I'm of course a bit nervous. Of note is that general functionality seems to be improving based on the last 30 posts or so.... hopefully a good sign.

Here's the strategy... sign up for CIA phone - get the high speed and of course phone service.... maintain my Telus land line and Primus $20+/mo LD for a couple of months... and if CIA is working ok then port my phone number from Telus over and ditch both Telus and Primus.

Any comments and will I be able to switch my phone number over after having one assigned from CIA??

Sorry to ramble but thinking about it a bit more I can likely do one or the other for phone service... duh!

But what is one supposed to do when the reliability is apparently spotty, but the deal is great...

Perhaps I could get people to call us on our cell phones in the evening, if our phone service was down. Do you pay for incoming calls (Long distance) on your unlimited evening and weekend plan with Rogers who we subcribe to for family plan service?

Boy what a dilemma .... Thanks in advance...

Those Linksys ones are kind of tricky, so try these steps:

Login to the ATA Administration web page at http://192.168.0.1
Goto the Voice Tab
Click "Admin Login" on the right
Clicke "Advanced" on the right
Click the "Provisioning" Tab
Enter the profile rule exactly as shown:
http://voip.cia.com/provision.php?MAC=$MA&TYPE=$PN
Save Changes
Line 1 / Line 2 LED Should become green within 1 minute
If not power cycle the ATA
If not still, verify the ATA MAC in MyAccount

And you should be back to fully functional!
Thanks CIA Sable. I am in the same situation and was searching for this info. Beats waiting 30 on the phone.

What do you guys/ girls think? I need to upgrade my internet and after reading most of all of the posts in this thread, I'm of course a bit nervous. Of note is that general functionality seems to be improving based on the last 30 posts or so.... hopefully a good sign.

Here's the strategy... sign up for CIA phone - get the high speed and of course phone service.... maintain my Telus land line and Primus $20+/mo LD for a couple of months... and if CIA is working ok then port my phone number from Telus over and ditch both Telus and Primus.

Any comments and will I be able to switch my phone number over after having one assigned from CIA??

Sorry to ramble but thinking about it a bit more I can likely do one or the other for phone service... duh!

But what is one supposed to do when the reliability is apparently spotty, but the deal is great...

Perhaps I could get people to call us on our cell phones in the evening, if our phone service was down. Do you pay for incoming calls (Long distance) on your unlimited evening and weekend plan with Rogers who we subcribe to for family plan service?

Boy what a dilemma .... Thanks in advance...
I have been with CIA for 6 months now and my view is this. If you need any technical support to setup the voice terminal, router and computer forget it. Do not rely on reaching the Helpline. Half the time I called it was busy, the other half it take over 30 minutes to get someone.

Also do not rely on phone reliability. Aldo for me it was down only twice since. My family and friends cannot reach me they call my cell anyway. So in those times I leave it on.

All this trouble saves me 420$ per year in telephone/internet services. For me its worth it.

I agree with Phatboyc - if you're comfortable with setting up things yourself then go with CIA. If you need to rely on support then find another provider...

Having a cell phone, IMO, is imperative with any voip provider (especially CIA) - I don't think voip will ever be as stable as POTs.

I maintained my Telus for a couple of months to determine if the line quality was acceptable and then ported. I think the porting took a little longer doing it this was but all worked out in the end.

So far no disruptions in service. Phone is clead when calling out, but sometimes a bit clicky when called from other provinces. Calls from overseas have been OK. Internet speed is good.

BUT BE WARNED!!

I have been trying to follow Squirreldip's advice concerning getting a 2nd ip in order to solve a minor issue. I have not been able to contact customer support since I was connected. The line rings busy all the time. I sent 2 emails, one to inquire about a missing UPS. I was answered right away and told it would be shipped when in stock. The other reguarding the second port...... not so far.

I have quite a few people waiting for my feedback to see if they will switch to CIA. A couple of more weeks and I will decide. Some of them are not very computer able and customer support may be an issue.

All in all so far so good except that damn busy signal!!

Hello,
I have swapped my voice terminal from the Motorola VT 1005 to the Linkys SPA 2100. Since then the voice quality has dropped. I went in the web menu with the user account and noticed the QOS is disable. Anyone knows the admin password programmed by Cybersurf? I would like to enable it just like it is with the VT 1005.

Ineresting thing happened. I was contacted twice in as many days by email about my concerns reguarding port forwarding. It is now being sent to tech support...... hmmmmmmm..... hopefully they will be quick to respond.

Heads up for those of you who share files.... I was doing FTP downloads of home movies with my reletives overseas and found that they sometimes cause my voice terminal to stop functioning. I don't know why this would happen I had to re-boot the VT to get everything working again. Still waiting for that 2nd IP.... hopefully that will fix the problem

Has anyone tried to use the CIA service with different voice terminal like the PAP2 has it worked?

I want use it with the PAP2 will it work?

I belive i need
# VoIP username
# VoIP Password
# SIP Server
# SIP Port (probably standard port 5060)

are the SPA2100 provided by CIA unlocked meaning can i access and figure out these setting or do i need to packet sniff the traffic,

I tried use Linksys RT31P2 3 port VoIP router with CIA and it works flawlessly. The SIP part is same as PAP2. Itself is a 3 port broadband router with QoS as well. You can get RT31P2 off ebay for $60.

I tried use Linksys RT31P2 3 port VoIP router with CIA and it works flawlessly. The SIP part is same as PAP2. Itself is a 3 port broadband router with QoS as well. You can get RT31P2 off ebay for $60.


And what are you using for:
# VoIP username
# VoIP Password
# SIP Server
# SIP Port (probably standard port 5060)

See the post from CIA Sable

I just joined CIA before I visited this site. The service is really terrible. I can't get any help from the company, so have to ask questions in this forum. Anyone can explain to me how to use the Voice Mail feature? I saw "Message Waiting" on my phone, but don't know how to retrieve the messages. It is one of the free features that they offer. Anyone can help?