Internet telephones

[Pet Nanny]

Does anyone here have a telephone that is run off their internet? I am at my wit's end, since our business phone is and I just changed providers from Plusnet to Sky. They assured me that there would be no disruption to my business line on the changeover, but last Thursday when I tried to set up the router it was as dead as a dodo. To cut a long story short, the engineer came to our house four days later and said there was nothing wrong. He set up the old box fine but he left me without a working business line.
Sky seem to have little or no knowledge of these type of phones and informed me that the routers were fairly new, hence they couldn't really help! I have spent hours being shunted around from dept to dept, each person giving a different reason for why the phone won't work.
The latest reason was that I had the wrong broadband and my box did not support an internet phone (I am in a non fibre broadband network), and this morning it changed to the box cannot be functioning properly.
The company that provides my internet phone have placed an app on my mobile to enable me to receive my business calls that way until this is resolved. In the meantime, Sky is no closer to resolving this issue and my cooling off period is getting shorter. Could anyone advise, please. I was in tears this morning, trying to get this matter resolved and Sky are not even signed up to the Ombudsman scheme. Neither do they have a complaints department and you cannot speak to a manager!

 

[Mr D]

Does anyone here have a telephone that is run off their internet? I am at my wit's end, since our business phone is and I just changed providers from Plusnet to Sky. They assured me that there would be no disruption to my business line on the changeover, but last Thursday when I tried to set up the router it was as dead as a dodo. To cut a long story short, the engineer came to our house four days later and said there was nothing wrong. He set up the old box fine but he left me without a working business line.
Sky seem to have little or no knowledge of these type of phones and informed me that the routers were fairly new, hence they couldn't really help! I have spent hours being shunted around from dept to dept, each person giving a different reason for why the phone won't work.
The latest reason was that I had the wrong broadband and my box did not support an internet phone (I am in a non fibre broadband network), and this morning it changed to the box cannot be functioning properly.
The company that provides my internet phone have placed an app on my mobile to enable me to receive my business calls that way until this is resolved. In the meantime, Sky is no closer to resolving this issue and my cooling off period is getting shorter. Could anyone advise, please. I was in tears this morning, trying to get this matter resolved and Sky are not even signed up to the Ombudsman scheme. Neither do they have a complaints department and you cannot speak to a manager!

Judging by your last paragraph I'd move to another provider. Your previous one could and did provide all you needed. No matter how cheap Sky are, if not providing what you need and passing you around then not worth keeping them.
Vote with your feet. Use another supplier.

 

[Vivid Web Design UK]

Are you using the ISP provided router?

If you are, this may be your issue - as that router is unlikely to include a port for VOIP.

Whilst a VOIP port looks identical to a normal CAT5 Connector, its the magic that happens inside the router that makes the difference.

You may need to install a network switch between the router and the devices on the network. A good switch will include ports for Data and VOIP.

 

[Craig3141]

Check your network home page usally on the back of your router, something like 192.xxx.xx.x perhaps. Or maybe a website, there might be an option to enable VOIP softphones(your app) or similar there.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Are you using the ISP provided router?

If you are, this may be your issue - as that router is unlikely to include a port for VOIP.

Whilst a VOIP port looks identical to a normal CAT5 Connector, its the magic that happens inside the router that makes the difference.

You may need to install a network switch between the router and the devices on the network. A good switch will include ports for Data and VOIP.

Not sure what you are smoking but that's just absolut nonsense to advise.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

The only one you need to talk to is your VoIP provider. Initially when they did the setup they might have assigned a static ip address. Your new router might be on a different subnet. Ignore the bullshit for VoIP ports and cat5 and talk to your VoIP provider not your ISP. If you got Internet you can use VoIP services. 99. 999% chance the VoIP are not blocked by your ISP and the VoIP needs to troubleshoot.

 

[John Hemming]

Home routers tend to have firewalls. Those can block some of the traffic on the internet (such as UDP packets that are used for VOIP). Resolving this sort of thing is quite fiddly.

Home routers can be relatively inflexible in the way in which they handle things.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Home routers tend to have firewalls. Those can block some of the traffic on the internet (such as UDP packets that are used for VOIP). Resolving this sort of thing is quite fiddly.

Home routers can be relatively inflexible in the way in which they handle things.

I see you have zero understanding how VoIP and sip is actually working and invented a new term as well " home router " not sure how you define this but is my cisco router at home now suddenly a ' home router'? In any case I recommend like in many other cases get professional help from a qualified person to set it up if words like subnet turning off a firewall for testing or having a look through router log files seems already to complicated. The only one to blame here is the VoIP provider for not given support to set the VoIP phone up again and the person who posted the thread for not getting professional help.

 

[John Hemming]

I was actually writing code for a SIP server today and I have written RTP low level code used for SIP and other real time streaming sofware. I do understand how NAT works.

The routers people have in their homes vary. I don't think it is unreasonable to call them "home routers". I don't know the details of how all the routers work. I prefer Draytek to CIsco, but Cisco do make good routers. I have programmed the routing tables on a number of CIsco routers, but that was a long time ago now. The BT business hub I have found quite inflexible when handling externally addressable IP addresses (IPv4) and I would assume the BT Smart Hub previously called the BT Home Hub is less flexible.

What I do know is that some routers are easier to make work with VOIP than others.

I recommend Wireshark for a packet sniffer which could identify the reason why the OP's voip is not working.

The issue rests between Sky and the VOIP provider.

My guess is that it is something to do with the router as that is most likely. However, Sky may be blocking particular ports on their network. Some ISPs do this.

 

[John Hemming]

It doesn't look like the OP is the only person who have a problem with VOIP and Sky
https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/Voip-on-Sky-Broadband/td-p/3056954

Looking at this it may be that Sky don't want people using home broadband for business.
http://www.surevoip.co.uk/support/wiki/troubleshooting:sip_alg:sky_hub

https://www.voicehost.co.uk/help/sip-alg-and-why-it-should-be-disabled-your-router

 

[Craig3141]

I see you have zero understanding how VoIP and sip is actually working and invented a new term as well " home router " not sure how you define this but is my cisco router at home now suddenly a ' home router'? In any case I recommend like in many other cases get professional help from a qualified person to set it up if words like subnet turning off a firewall for testing or having a look through router log files seems already to complicated. The only one to blame here is the VoIP provider for not given support to set the VoIP phone up again and the person who posted the thread for not getting professional help.

I guess he means consumer grade. I certainly had to open the port on my bthome broadband router to get my VOIP working.

 

[John Hemming]

In any event I did not "invent" the term "home router". Plenty of people have used it over time
https://www.zyxel.com/uk/en/products_services/home-home_routers.shtml?t=c
https://www.bestnetworkinghardware.com/best-home-routers/
https://stevessmarthomeguide.com/home-router-setup/
https://kb.netgear.com/980/How-do-I-log-in-to-my-NETGEAR-home-router
https://www.lifewire.com/accessing-your-router-at-home-818205

NetGear and others claim to make the things.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

na, you got it wrong again. Adding a link to a netgear product made it even worse. Some of the Zyxel ones are actually pretty decent for the home users. What you problem mean is " I got a crappy free router from my ISP " and shit doesn't work. Again, the only one that could trouble shoot here is your VOIP provider. They should take you step by step from setting up the phone with a new static ip to troubleshooting blocked ports and how to do that not skype. Since he mentioned that calls are working on his phone via app are working and I presume he uses wifi to make those calls using the same ISP we can safely argue that the app simulating a voip phone on the same network works and is not blocked. e.g go back to your VOIP provider.

Not sure why some would need port forwarding etc.... I recently set up 2 offices for a friend for network and voip phones. Due to budgets in place I had to go with a draytek router and Ubiquiti switches and secure gateway.+ Yealink phones. I actually liked the Ubiquiti stuff for setups.

Apart from adding vlans for the phones and bandwidth control and priority packages for the voip service there was no need for port forwarding, firewall rules, are any other of that nonesen that was rec..

 

[cjd]

na, you got it wrong again. Adding a link to a netgear product made it even worse. Some of the Zyxel ones are actually pretty decent for the home users. What you problem mean is " I got a crappy free router from my ISP " and **** doesn't work. Again, the only one that could trouble shoot here is your VOIP provider. They should take you step by step from setting up the phone with a new static ip to troubleshooting blocked ports and how to do that not skype. Since he mentioned that calls are working on his phone via app are working and I presume he uses wifi to make those calls using the same ISP we can safely argue that the app simulating a voip phone on the same network works and is not blocked. e.g go back to your VOIP provider.

Not sure why some would need port forwarding etc.... I recently set up 2 offices for a friend for network and voip phones. Due to budgets in place I had to go with a draytek router and Ubiquiti switches and secure gateway.+ Yealink phones. I actually liked the Ubiquiti stuff for setups.

Apart from adding vlans for the phones and bandwidth control and priority packages for the voip service there was no need for port forwarding, firewall rules, are any other of that nonesen that was rec..

The SKY router will not work with non-SKY equipment. It's designed that way. You can hack the box to find the ID to use in a non-SKY router which will then work with VoIP equipment but that contravenes their terms and conditions of service and the third party box will not then communicate with the SKY TV box.

In short, no, it won't work. Avoid.

 

[ukbf0001]

I use skype (with skype out - to get a landline number) , used to be via a skype phone - but now just use a headset off the PC and when not at the office I forward on to my mobile.

That was all using Virgin Mobile and 80gig download fibre speeds - worked fine. These days with so much free call time available - I just use a mobile with my skype number forwarded to it.

Doesnt help your issue much Nina - but that is how Im setup and it all works tickety boo, hope business is doing well (other than your phone problem)

 

[John Hemming]

Its rarely anything to do with bandwidth. It will be something to do with ports being potentially blocked, routing and or this thing where the router modifies packets (that I linked to).

The underlying problem is that this sort of thing requires some reasonably good technical knowledge to pin down as it come down to the compatibility of different bits of equipment. If the VOIP provider knows what happens with the particular broadband provider then they can solve it. Otherwise it takes quite a good level of technical knowledge.

CJD I think is offering the best informed advice.

VOIP can work on a mobile without using wifi. You can also use webrtc /SCTP for voip from a mobile as well as UDP and TCP although the phone provider may try to block UDP.

 

[Slava Gorbatenko]

You can use a softphone on your PC such as Zoiper, for example. In case you need a physical phone, then we can recommend Yealink phones — they are the most popular for the VoIP telephony. Your VoIPLine Telecom