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TekSavvy TekTalk (VoIP) Experiences

98K views 86 replies 37 participants last post by  the_refleks_78 
#1 ·
This thread is for discussion of TekSavvy' TekTalk service by subscribers only. Please share your experiences. How was the installation and setup? How does the service compare to your last telephone provider? Do the advertised features work? How well were customer service issues resolved?
 
#2 ·
Delay in connection; otherwise OK

I just moved into a brand new house and opted to go with TekSavvy for internet and TekTalk for phone. In the chaos of moving, I actually didn't realize that the TekTalk was a VoIP product; I thought I was just getting an alternate provider for the land line.

Anyway, the phone adapter was sent within a couple of days of the order and the set-up was incredibly easy. Truly plug and play.

Personally, I don't use the phone very much anyway, so I don't really care about this, but my wife is upset that when you dial a number, it takes a good 10 seconds to connect the call. Other than that, everything seems cool. The voice quality is excellent and the price is right: $14.95 per month for a pretty extensive set of calling features, including a good chunk of free long distance minutes (I can't remember how many). There are upfront costs, though: about $70 for the phone adapter.
 
#3 ·
FWIW, if it really takes 10 seconds to connect then there is a problem so I would suggest contacting TekSavvy support.
 
#6 ·
I just tried and yes it does take about 10 seconds, but you are correct that # dials immediately.

I just started up yesterday and I have an issue. I used my own ATA 2102 and is working fine for one call, then the next call (to anyone) is always busy and you can not dial into the voip phone number either, just rings but doesn't go through.

Any thoughts?
 
#7 ·
To solve the problem of outgoing calls taking 10 seconds to start ringing, fix your dial plan. (Line tab in admin/advanced.) This, along with many other default settings in Linksys devices, are not practical for North America. Here's a generic dial plan that should work properly for 10-digit dialing:

( [23456789]11 | *xxx. | <:1>[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0 | 1[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0 | 011xxxxxxx. | [#*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x][*x]. )

With regards to the next call always appearing busy, it sounds as if TekSavvy's equipment is not properly responding to SIP NOTIFY messages. You can work around this issue by setting the NAT Keep Alive Msg (Line tab in admin/advanced) to simply KeepAlive.

Good luck,
Mango
 
#8 ·
Thanks Mango,

The first part worked fine, dialing is immediate now.

However my phone still shows all dialed numbers as busy. I am testing by calling my home phone and cell phone and both are busy. If I leave the VOIP alone for about an hour the calls work fine but only once and then all is busy again. It's like a call is not being released and thinks the phone is being used. Only after 60 minutes it releases the process or something.
 
#9 · (Edited)
*headscratch*

Edit: Try the following settings on your Line tab if they're not set already:

NAT Mapping Enable: Yes
NAT Keep Alive Enable: Yes
Register Expires: 300

Now move to the SIP tab:

SIP T1: 1
RTP Packet Size: 0.02 (this won't solve your problem but is good practice if you haven't yet set it.)

If those don't solve your problem, check your Line tab and let me know what the Proxy is set to.

Mods - feel free to move this discussion to a TekTalk Troubleshooting thread if necessary.
 
#10 ·
Ok, I tried your advice and no luck. I am now only getting busy signal for every call.

My proxy is set to voip.teksavvy.com. I am really ready to give up and cancel and just go to the more expensive home phone.

Any last thoughts or advice is appreciated.
 
#11 ·
One last thing to try: set the proxy to 206.248.144.132 . If that works, it is not a permanent solution and we still need to troubleshoot your DNS.

I don't have any more ideas but I will watch this thread in case anyone else does, and if Teksavvy's tech support is able to solve the problem I would be interested to know what the solution is.

Good luck,
Mango
 
#12 ·
Thanks Mango, I also just went through http://www.toao.net/25-linksys-ata-configuration and did all the recommendations and still I get busy where ever I call.

Did the factory reset, firmware upgrade and set all the settings per your page.

I tried 206.248.144.132 and now I get no dial tone at all, so I set back to voip.teksavvy.com and I can call out sometimes but still no incoming calls at all. I contacted Teksavvy support and since I bought the ATA from a friend they will not support even though it is Linksys 2102A. Wanted to test it out before committing to buying their ATA for $80.
 
#13 ·
since I bought the ATA from a friend they will not support even though it is Linksys 2102A
In my opinion, it is a crap policy that makes you pay for a service, but allows them to refuse to support it.

One other thought - is your ATA acting as your router? If not, did we investigate your router as a source of the problem? If possible, try to connect your ATA to your modem, and your computer to your ATA to check that you still have internet access. If that works, try to turn off SIP ALG, SIP Helper, SPI, and if you have a Tomato router, set Unreplied UDP Timeout to 10. If you don't have those options, post back with the model number of your router.

m.
 
#14 ·
Thanks for all the help.

Not sure what that means ATA acting as a router. I tried to hookup modem to ATA and then to router and Internet stop working, I did Network troubleshooting and no resolution.

I put the connection back to modem to router to ATA and all works again but phone still does not.

I was told my ATA is unlocked, how do I check that. Secondly, how do I know if ATA is acting as router.
 
#15 ·
I've been with TekTalk for a couple of weeks now. I can't say I'm thrilled.
* I've had multiple issues and had to call back repeatedly. You can't get through for customer support or sales without waiting an extremely long time or have them call you back later (which is usually quite a bit later)
* I've had issue with call display not working. I was given an incorrect reason for this problem (ie. my fault).
* I've had problems with the message waiting indicator for voicemail. It doesn't show up and I'm unable to resolve the issue through the SPA2102's interface. (there's an option but it keeps the light on permanently)
* Connecting a call takes a long time. 10-20+ seconds sometimes. Apparently this is a known issue and they're generally working on improving it.
* When I have a ticket open, they close it before the issue is resolved.

Voice quality is mediocre. This might be a limitation of this type of phone "line" as I had primus in the past and it was similar.

I'm okay with some tinkering, but I'm getting a bit fed up. My other half is far less tolerant. I'm not sure if we'll be with them much longer. They've been unable to deliver the services we were promised.
 
#17 ·
Pressing pound works, but the box is locked (semi-locked?) and I'm unable to get into the admin tab to permanently resolve the issue.

Just got off the phone with them again with lots of waiting. More BS about the other problems and they're not resolved. Very frustrating. The question now becomes how many more hours do I want to waste trying to work with them? I'm 50/50 whether I'm going to cancel the service. If I do hopefully I'll be able to get them to take back the ATA box.
 
#19 ·
Pressing pound works
The fact that TekSavvy doesn't even have their act together enough to ship their ATAs with a proper dial plan speaks volumes to their incompetence, inexperience, and lack of professionalism. Given your post, it sounds like the dial plan is the least of your problems. I have no idea why they think they can successfully offer this product without having even rudimentary knowledge of the technology or putting forth any effort. All they're going to do is hurt the industry. THIS is what makes people say "VoIP doesn't work".

To answer your statement about audio, VoIP should not have mediocre audio quality. VoIP that is properly set up should - at a MINIMUM - sound every bit as good as a landline.

m.
 
#18 ·
TekTalk Problems

Hello All,
Finally Iditched Bell and went with TekSavvy TekTalk.
The sign up was painless. I requested the porting of my number from Bell be done 30 days after Teksavvy gives Bell notice. I have received the modem plug it in worked fine with a temporary number. Voice quality was excellent.

Two week later, I got a phone message informing me that my number will be ported on that same day, two and half weeks earlier than the agreed date.

The nightmare begins. For two and half week I was with no phone, apparently they lost my ported number. Everyday for two and half weeks, twice a day taking to tech support and troubleshooting with no resolution. Promises were made to escalate the ticket after spending 2 hours on the phone with TS. Finally, I gave up and asked for my LAN line back, the person on the other said she would escalate the ticket to the server technician, I told her it was supposed to be escalated two weeks ago, she replied it was never escalated. She put me on hold and made sure that the technician got the ticket. Less than 24 hours later, the phone was working.

The phone worked like a charm and the quality was excellent for one and half months.

Five days ago, I could not dial out. When I dial out, I get a message saying "your call can not completed due to the telephone company problem" I thought that it might be a maintenance update or something of that sort. However, I can receive calls.
I called tech support today, waited 20 minutes. A nice and helpful person on the other end. Made him listen to the message, did some troubleshooting but no avail. He politely said that the problem might be on their end and someone will look into it and will get back to with 24 to 48 hours. Fingers crossed.

I have my cable internet with Teksavvy, I have no complaints whatsoever.

I do understand that Tektalk is a new service, thus, I give them time to work the kinks in the system. At some point my patience will wear out and I will be forced to look for another phone service.
 
#20 ·
My VOIP (not TekTalk) sounds as good as a POTS line. That is unless I am talking to Teksavvy. Then it sounds terrible and is riddled with dropouts. The POTS line is the same so the problem is with Teksavvy's phone system. If that's what TekTalk sounds like, I feel sorry for anyone who is using it.
 
#22 ·
VOIP Nightmare

I've been a happy Teksavvy internet customer for several years and even moved my phone service to Teksavvy (through Bell). When they announced their VOIP service I happily purchased a Cisco phone adapter (from Teksavvy) and subscribed to the service.

Then the problems began....I have had all the phone issues mentioned in other posts and a few more; however, the worst thing is I cannot make an outgoing call....it reverts to a fast busy.

I have raised several tickets via EMail waited the requisite 24 hours and had no response. In mid-September the same thing happened and I ended up launching a complaint with the CCTS (total downtime 5 days). Now less than a month later, again, I cannot make outgoing calls....same thing for service...report and wait ...report and wait. Yesterday I launched a BBB complaint. Downtime this round is now at the 4 1/2 day mark and counting.

I once thought Teksavvy had good service but they are burning through 7 years of good will very quickly.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?
 
#23 ·
dougF: Do you have your TekSavvy adapter connected directly to your modem? If not, give that a try, and be sure its IP Address is a public one rather than one that begins with 192. You will need to insert your PPPoE login details into your ATA. It's been a long time since I've done this so I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to give you better details, but hopefully someone else here will if you can't figure it out. There have been some reports of Speedtouch modems interfering with VoIP when they are acting as a router, so if you aren't already set up this way, it would be a good thing to try.

To anyone who is having a problem in which you make an outgoing call and get a reorder (fast busy) tone: do you have access to the system tab in admin/advanced? If so, let's set up a syslog server and find out why the call is getting rejected.

m.
 
#24 ·
Several posts removed.

The subject is TekSavvy TekTalk (VoIP) Experiences

This thread is NOT about Teksavvy Internet service, it is about the Teksavvy VOIP service.
We have several threads in the following forum where you can discuss Teksavvy Cable and DSL internet service.
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=28

Please confine your comments in this thread to discussing the VOIP service.
 
#25 ·
Re: TekTalk Problems

16 days later, my tektalk worked for 10 minutes. I safely can say that I spent no less than 75 hours waiting on hold, speaking with tech support and trouble shooting. Needles to say, I switch back to LAN line. I hope the transition to LAN goes smoothly, I'll keep you posted. The switch will occur on the 31st of October.

I am now trying to get some money back for the ATA and the time that tektalk did not work. I will keep everyone posted.

Too bad Teksavvy dropped the ball on this one. If they ever get their act together on tektalk I might consider tektalk. The reason is it worked great when it worked and voice quality was excellent.
 
#26 ·
The issues you're having sound to me like they exist on Teksavvy's end... nothing to do with your ATA.

I have 6 VoIP lines in my home, from 3 different providers. (Callcentric, Link2voip, and Voip.MS) which I setup myself. I've never had any issues like you've described.

I'm using 3 SPA2100 ATA's ... I password protect them and then connect them to a DMZ port on my router... this way they are not fire-walled... no risk of blocked ports.
 
#27 ·
VOIP Nightmare

An update, I have not been able to make an outgoing call for 17 Days now. Teksavvy said they "escalated" the problem over a week ago.

My service was up for a few weeks then went down so I beleive the problem is on Teksavvy's end.

Imagine not being able to make a call from your home phone and your provider ignoring your "EMail" pleas for help.

This is not the service one expects from any vendor.
 
#28 ·
dougF, with all due respect, Mango gave you an excellent suggestion on resolving the problem 13 days ago and you never responded.

If you are not going to help yourself then why post?
 
#29 · (Edited)
I signed up with TekSavvy the first week of August, for both internet and voip. No issues at all with the internet, I am using my own SMC gateway.

The first Linksys voip adapter I was shipped was a brick though. I hadn't used voip before, and spent about 10 hours trying to troubleshoot. This forum was a huge help in that. The instructions that come with the unit are sub par. I am not a superuser, but I have been around computers for 30 years, and can follow instructions if they exist.

Many calls to them to have another Linksys box shipped, but it came, and worked well. I also had the delay, but it wasn't too obtrusive.

Until the 26th of October. Now, I, like a poster above, cannot dial out.
I called TekSavvy from work, but was told there are no issues with the account, or on their end. I connected the voip adapter to my computer, but it needs a username/ password to access, which I don't have. So, I can't try Mango's advice to resolve. Nothing was changed on my end at all during the last few days.
 
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