asterisk users - Oct 2007 - Coming-off-hold delay/silence on Sipura 841 and Asterisk

Hi all. Newbie to the list, been using VOIP with Sipura & Grandstream
hardphones for a few years, via a VOIP service provider (who I won't name
here). I haven't stepped up to running my own Asterisk box yet, because of
poor reliability of our Internet connection during non-business hours, but
I'm considering it in the future.

  I can't provide a ton of detail about the Asterisk version and
configuration at my service provider's end, as they admin it and I don't
know how to query what exactly it runs by normal VOIP channels. On my end I
use Sipura 841s (decent) and one Grandstream GXP2000 (total piece of junk).

  I've weathered some hiccups recently from our SP upgrading their setup and
changing things. Normal operations are pretty stable now, though I
understand from them that we are on a slightly older version of Asterisk
than is presently available due to a problem that came up with the newest.

  Recently, a new issue has surfaced that I haven't found a solution to -- a
customer calls in, we answer and talk, and put them on hold. When taking
them off hold, they are unable to hear us at all for the first couple of
seconds. After that the call proceeds as normal.

  While troubleshooting with the SP, they suggested turning the Handset Gain
level from 0 (default) down to -6, and when we did, the problem seemed to go
away. They claim this has solved the problem for others as well.

  This strikes me as a kludge, and not really finding or solving the real
problem, and I am loathe to adopt such an arbitrary hack. I was hoping to
find out if anyone else had run into a situation like this, and if so, what
the cause and solution were. I don't think the cause lies at my end, as we
have not changed our configuration at all in some time, and the problem
seemed to arise spontaneously recently.

  Now granted, it's probably my SP's responsibility to be trying to
solve
this, but they seem satisfied that the Handset Gain is the solution -- I'm
the only one who is objecting to that. So, please bear with my weak
knowledge of Asterisk and speak clearly in short sentences. ;)

  Thanks in advance for any advice.
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