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  • My VoIP phone is dead [telecom]

    From Bill Horne@21:1/5 to All on Mon Sep 5 20:49:48 2022
    My callcentric VoIP phone stopped working yesterday, and it's still out.

    I have a new ISP: they bought out the old local company which was
    providing cable TV and Internet service, and I've been having trouble
    ever since. Streaming media such as Reuters and CBS news have gaps in
    their audio feeds, and even missing video while the audio continues
    on, and the online Zoom video call I (and others) used yesterday to
    attend my Quaker meeting without risk of Covid-19 was so intermittent
    that I had to drop out and log back in twice.

    The new Cable TV/ISP owner started their operations a few weeks
    ago. On the day they took control, I lost the ability to log in to the
    T-D servers at M.I.T. I had to install VPN software to regain access,
    and then when I tried to find out which North Carolina government
    agency regulates such companies, the TCP port which is used for "ssh" connections was suddenly not blocked anymore.

    Yesterday, my VoIP phone went dead. It's a three line phone, and there
    are two VoIP services I use it for: Callcentric, where I get my "home"
    phone number, and the Hamshack Hotline, a free VoIP service for
    Amateur Radio operators like me. They both quit at the same time.

    This morning, I talked to a person at the new cableco's "trouble"
    number, and she told me that she was going to reset my cable modem. Lo
    and behold, the Callcentric line came back, long enough for me to make
    a call to my sister's home in Massachusetts: I talked to my
    brother-in-law for a few minutes, and said 'goodbye,' and hanged up. A
    few minutes later, the line was out again.

    I called the new cableco's trouble department again: they told me that
    it's a problem in my router and demanded that I call the company that
    made the router for help. I told them they were wrong, and demanded to
    speak to Tier 2 support, and they said they would submit a ticket but
    that the departement which handles that isn't open today.

    This reminds me of what Comcast was caught doing a while back: they
    would block any port that they didn't like, and when anyone
    complained, they'd open the port for a few days, and then go back to
    blocking it again.

    I'll call the new cableco tomorrow, and ask what it will cost to
    restore VoIP connectivity. Suggestions welcome.

    Bill Horne

    --
    (Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bill Horne@21:1/5 to Bill Horne on Thu Sep 8 16:44:43 2022
    On Mon, Sep 05, 2022 at 08:49:48PM +0000, Bill Horne wrote:
    My callcentric VoIP phone stopped working yesterday, and it's still out.

    Yesterday (Sunday, 9/4), my VoIP phone went dead. It's a three line
    phone, and there are two VoIP services I use it for: Callcentric,
    where I get my "home" phone number, and the Hamshack Hotline, a free
    VoIP service for Amateur Radio operators like me. They both quit at
    the same time.

    Yesterday (Wednesday, 9/7), I got a call from someone at "Galaxy
    Cablevision," and he told me that my VoIP lines are out-of-service
    because of "Cee-Gee NAT." He did his best to convince me that the
    ports used for the "new" Internet layout that my local cable company
    is using can't be "mapped" to my VoIP phone, and that there was
    nothing he could do about the problem.

    I did my best to explain to him that I used to be a Certified NetWare Engineer(tm), and that I have been the Moderator of the Telecom Digest
    for about fifteen years, and that my job gives me extraordinary access
    to world-class experts on the subject of Network Address Translation,
    the TCP three-way handshake, and VoIP in general, and that there was
    no "port mapping" involved. I told him that I didn't need any ports
    mapped, and that such capability wasn't what I had sought after.

    He told me that my problem would be solved by a "Fixed IP Address,"
    but when I advised him that I wasn't interested in paying for a
    capability which isn't guaranteed to solve the problem, he said he'd
    do some more research and get back to me.

    So, I'd appreciate your help: please point me to a source of
    easy-to-understand information about current VoIP practice, especially
    as it relates to NAT of any flavor, and let me thank you in advance
    for your help. I'd also like to know if there are more current
    versions of the story about being born at night in the back of a
    turnip truck, since I'd like to have answers ready if and when someone
    at Galaxy Cablevision calls me again.

    Bill Horne

    P.S. I'll also call Alexis Rosen at Panix, and ask if he can support
    the "OpenVPN" capability of my ASUS router. Here's hoping ...

    --
    (Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me diretly)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)