[Mango]

PAP2[T] ATA on voip.ms. About 1 out of every 5 calls I get a dial tone, I dial the number and get nothing - no sound, no connection. [...] Sometimes I see only 2 of the 4 LEDs shining - then I know I have to power cycle it [...] could it be defective?

It's theoretically possible the ATA could be defective, but unlikely if you purchased it from a reputable (non-eBay) source.

Try the following: on the SIP tab of your device, you should set SIP T1 to 1 to mitigate a problem that causes the symptoms you describe. You should also set Reg Retry Long Intvl to 120 so that your device recovers more quickly if it does fail.

I can't remember if you have a Tomato router. If your 2Wire modem is also your router, then you don't and you can ignore this. But, if you do, you should enter Conntrack/Netfilter settings and configure Unreplied UDP Timeout to 10.

If neither of those solve the problem, let us know, and we can do additional troubleshooting.

Once I couldn't make out what message a person had left on voicemail.

Is it that the message itself was garbled? In other words, you could hear "You have one new message. Press one for new messages..." but you could not hear the voicemail message?

If I understand you correctly your issue is likely due to a problem some DIDs are having with the Toronto and Montreal servers. VoIP.ms is currently in the middle of deploying new Toronto and Montreal servers; in the meantime you can switch to Chicago and see if that solves the problem. Note that you will need to re-record your unavailable and busy voicemail messages.

If I misread what you wrote please correct me

Just to note, QoS is typically implemented in the router, not the modem. So you can use QoS just as easily with ADSL or with Cable. Personally, I'd wait a few more months before getting TekSavvy Cable as the popularity of their cable product was unanticipated and they and Rogers are having a hard time meeting the huge demand.

m.

 

[Mango]

Yeah, it's the SLA (or lack thereof) that I hear the most complaints about. From what I read, if you have a problem with Cable, the only way for them to contact Rogers (not sure about Videotron) is by e-mail. This makes for some slow resolution to problems.

I used to be on TekSavvy (ADSL) at the office but recently switched away due to low speeds and random outages. The only response I got from their support was "Can't really says why the upload speeds are low." I like TekSavvy because they are family owned & operated and for their commitment to net neutrality. Sadly, (and ironically) I can get better customer service and better products from the big companies.

For the record, I now use Shaw at the office and Telus at home. My experience is that Telus is more prone to speed issues due to old lines/equipment in the neighbourhood. Shaw always works at the advertised speed. Telus on the other hand has better routing. With Shaw, my route to Seattle goes from Vancouver, to Calgary, to San Jose, and then back up to Seattle.

Back to the topic...as far as the new servers, according to VoIP.ms, the issue I mentioned apparently only affects a small number of DIDs from ISP Telecom, and only on the Toronto and Montreal servers. Oddly, the new servers appear to be located in the same datacentres as the old one, which I would assume means the issue is not to do with routing. But I can't think of another reason a DID issue would be server specific. I don't fully understand it but trust Steve is on the job as usual

-The Predictably Loquacious Mango

 

[Mango]

Another thing I discovered is that the Busy routing does not always work. I have the flat rate DID plan. This gives me 2 channels.

I'm sure you already know this, but for the new people, the pay-per-minute plan does not have this limitation. You may use more than two channels. I believe for new customers the default is five, though they will increase this limit on request if you can sustain the usage.

Gazork - any luck with your issue?

m.

 

[Mango]

Hi Gazork,

Did you ever get a chance to try the Chicago server? I'd give that a shot before purchasing new hardware.

You may also want to see if VoIP.ms support has any suggestions. They may have diagnostic tools that they could use on the server to see if that gives us any clues toward the problem.

With regards to Tomato, you should not return your Bell 2Wire modem, because Tomato is only a router, not a modem. So you would use it in conjunction with the Bell modem. If you go this route, you should configure your Bell modem so that it assigns the Tomato router a public IP address (i.e. not something starting with 192 or 10.) There are many routers that can use Tomato firmware. Here is a list: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Tomato_Firmware#Supported_devices_and_revisions

As for Toronto vs. Toronto2, Toronto had downtime yesterday and they moved everyone to Toronto2.

m.