asterisk users - May 2005 - Who's happy with their voip service?

I started out happy as a clam with my new Broadvoice account and 
asterisk machine.  About 10 days ago things began to change.  Inbound 
calling has been down for 2 days.  Beyond the "We are currently 
experiencing in-bound call issues with a carrier partner in some areas. 
We are aware of the issue and our engineers are working to have it 
resolved as soon as possible" mantra their support email and people that 
answer the phone (if you can wait long enough) aren't talking.

Who's happy with their voip service using asterisk?
Where do you get reliable DIDs? 
The 'carrier partner' they speak of.. can you get the did directly from 
them?
Are all the voip providers this flakey?


JD

JD wrote:
> Inbound 
> calling has been down for 2 days. 
Just FYI, mine is back up (408-903) as of about five hours ago.

I did just speak with a (Broadvoice) support tech on an entirely 
unrelated matter (40 min. hold time!), mentioned mine was working, and 
he seemed to think things were coming back in stages.

I've had them for two months now.  People may recall a series of emails 
regarding packet loss through their PNAP link to Sprintlink (my ex-ISP 
backbone.)  I ditched the Sprint BBD fixed-wireless service, got 
Sonic.net DSL, and have been enjoying pretty high quality voice service 
since.  The packet loss rates at PNAP still show but I think now this 
shows it's an artificial measure (intentionally dropped non-VOIP 
packets, all the other potential reasons hashed about in that thread.)

In spite of the service outages and long hold times for support, I still 
want to give them the benefit of the doubt (and my $25 monthly.)  It 
still seems like growing pains vs. incompetency.

I tried their web interface to change DIDs, as they now have them in my 
home area code.  The effect was instant, I reconfigured sip.conf with 
the new number and secret they provide, and something like 3 minutes 
later was using the new DID.  So some things do work well.

Wish they did IAX. And ILBC. Not that important to me right now, though.

-Johnathan

I am a user of Teliax and voipjet.  I find voipjet to be very reliable
and good for outgoing, very low lag, etc.  Teliax is good too, but I am
finding high lag rates, to the point where there is a half-second delay.

I ended up just ordering a pots line for incoming (since I am going to
be doing advertising), as the lag is annoying.

The downside is that teliax gives me a number like 816-1000, which is a
cool did number.  The local CO does not offer such numbers.

The upside, if there is a problem it is resolved quickly, and my lag
time is much lower.

Overall, If you have good ping time to teliax, they are excellent.
Otherwise, stick with pots for important inbound.  For 800, use a normal
ld company and send to a voip inbound if service is good.  This way you
have all bases covered, although at a slightly higher cost.

Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Johnathan
Corgan
Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2005 12:58 AM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Who's happy with their voip service?

JD wrote:
> Inbound
> calling has been down for 2 days. 
Just FYI, mine is back up (408-903) as of about five hours ago.

I did just speak with a (Broadvoice) support tech on an entirely
unrelated matter (40 min. hold time!), mentioned mine was working, and
he seemed to think things were coming back in stages.

I've had them for two months now.  People may recall a series of emails
regarding packet loss through their PNAP link to Sprintlink (my ex-ISP
backbone.)  I ditched the Sprint BBD fixed-wireless service, got
Sonic.net DSL, and have been enjoying pretty high quality voice service
since.  The packet loss rates at PNAP still show but I think now this
shows it's an artificial measure (intentionally dropped non-VOIP
packets, all the other potential reasons hashed about in that thread.)

In spite of the service outages and long hold times for support, I still
want to give them the benefit of the doubt (and my $25 monthly.)  It
still seems like growing pains vs. incompetency.

I tried their web interface to change DIDs, as they now have them in my
home area code.  The effect was instant, I reconfigured sip.conf with
the new number and secret they provide, and something like 3 minutes
later was using the new DID.  So some things do work well.

Wish they did IAX. And ILBC. Not that important to me right now, though.

-Johnathan
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On May 7, 2005 12:22 am, JD wrote:
> Who's happy with their voip service using asterisk?
I am.  Nufone.  For the past 18 months.  Totally happy.
> Where do you get reliable DIDs?
I have a PRI I get my DIDs on.  I have not yet found a VOIP provider with DIDs 
available in a WIDE area with reliable inbound service.  Nufone has DIDs in a 
couple NPA/NXXes but not in ones I need.

-A.

> I started out happy as a clam with my new Broadvoice account and 
> asterisk machine.  About 10 days ago things began to change.  Inbound 
> calling has been down for 2 days.  Beyond the "We are currently 
> experiencing in-bound call issues with a carrier partner in some areas. 
> We are aware of the issue and our engineers are working to have it 
> resolved as soon as possible" mantra their support email and people
that
> answer the phone (if you can wait long enough) aren't talking.
> 
> Who's happy with their voip service using asterisk?
> Where do you get reliable DIDs? 
> The 'carrier partner' they speak of.. can you get the did directly
from
> them?
> Are all the voip providers this flakey?
Nope, just some. Been very happy with both livevoip.com and teliax.com,
but there certainly are others as well. You've seen the testimonials
already on this list.

>
>
>I started out happy as a clam with my new Broadvoice account and 
>asterisk machine.  About 10 days ago things began to change....
>Who's happy with their voip service using asterisk?
>Where do you get reliable DIDs? 
>The 'carrier partner' they speak of.. can you get the did directly
from
>them?
>Are all the voip providers this flakey?
>  
>
I've tried 5 providers, and I can't say that I'm happy with any of
them.  I'm far to small to deal with 'carrier partners' directly
(e.g. Level 3, XO or RNK).  So I have to deal through resellers.  And they all
seem to be operating on shoestrings and duct tape.

I'm OK with the awkward setup, confusing configuration, and (for Asterisk)
all but useless documentation.  But high latency, dropouts, unplanned outages,
lack of clues, echos, all take the shine off things.  With Asterisk I have very
few tools to monitor connection quality, especially on the outbound leg of my
calls.  I at least want to know when it sucks, and have some control over
parameters.

I keep a POTS line at home.