Having trouble with my Blueface connection and Virgin Media

Serbian · 06-05-2016 7:18pm #1

I set up a VoIP connection for my parents a few years ago, and all was well until they decided to set up a second business account about a year ago, running off the same Internet connection.

I picked up a GrandStream HT702 so that they could run two lines from the same ATA. I'm technical, but I'm no VoIP engineer, but I managed to get them up and running eventually.

Again, all was well until they suffered a power cut a few weeks ago, and the initial problem of not being able to make outgoing calls has reared it's head again, but this time I've been totally stumped on how to fix it. Incoming calls work fine, and very rarely, it's possible to make an outgoing call, but for the most part, I get a line in use tone when trying to dial out.

I'm completely stumped on the problem. I've looked into hiring a VoIP consultant or freelancer to sort this out but there doesn't appear to be any companies offering this service (including Blueface themselves).

Failing not being able to hire anyone, does anyone have any suggestions on avenues to explore in order to get to the root of the problem? I can provide any details about the current setup as required.

ED E · 08-05-2016 4:53pm

Just in case the first thing I'd check is if VMI dropped your modem into the DSLite pool when it came back online.

Serbian · 09-05-2016 8:56am

ED E wrote: »

Just in case the first thing I'd check is if VMI dropped your modem into the DSLite pool when it came back online.

Interesting, how do I check this and what are the implications if I am in the DSLite pool?

Just did a bit of searching and found out what this means, cheers. I'll check this evening and, if I am in the DSLite pool, I'll ask for that to be disabled. Thanks for the input.

Serbian · 09-05-2016 8:01pm

Just checked and it looks like the connection is not part of the DSLite pool. It's IPv4.

fbit_colin · 10-05-2016 9:50am

on the Grandstream have you checked that you are using your 2 Blueface separate accounts and not the same one twice?

can you try removing the Blueface settings and re-apply and test them individually?

Serbian · 10-05-2016 4:50pm

fbit_colin wrote: »

on the Grandstream have you checked that you are using your 2 Blueface separate accounts and not the same one twice?

can you try removing the Blueface settings and re-apply and test them individually?

Yeah, definitely running with two separate accounts. Incoming calls work fine on both accounts, it's just outbound calls.

fbit_colin · 11-05-2016 8:36pm

what model of virgin media modem are you using? can you go through the menus and look for SIP ALG and disable it if it is not already

Serbian · 12-05-2016 4:08pm

fbit_colin wrote: »

what model of virgin media modem are you using? can you go through the menus and look for SIP ALG and disable it if it is not already

It's a pretty old model and has very little in the way of configuration unfortunately. I'm aware of SIP ALG and that it should be disabled, but it doesn't appear in any user facing menu. That's not to say that it's not possible to telnet in and disable it from the command line. I'll get the exact model for you anyway.

AwayOuttaThat · 16-05-2016 11:23pm

Try using a software client e.g. Zoiper with the same credentials and settings and see is it reproducible.

Serbian · 18-05-2016 2:40pm

AwayOuttaThat wrote: »

Try using a software client e.g. Zoiper with the same credentials and settings and see is it reproducible.

Nice idea, I'll give that a shot, thanks.

Serbian · 18-05-2016 9:24pm

AwayOuttaThat wrote: »

Try using a software client e.g. Zoiper with the same credentials and settings and see is it reproducible.

Making calls with Zopier seems to work fine

AwayOuttaThat · 19-05-2016 11:43am

So Blueface, Virgin Media as well as the router can be ruled out as the problem, since the software client works fine with these left as is.

I'd verify the registration string that's being sent to Blueface. You can see if you are registered or not by looking at call management section of the Blueface portal. Look for the entry under SIP Accounts. Are the two accounts reporting a status of "UP" ?

Serbian · 19-05-2016 2:30pm

AwayOuttaThat wrote: »

So Blueface, Virgin Media as well as the router can be ruled out as the problem, since the software client works fine with these left as is.

I'd verify the registration string that's being sent to Blueface. You can see if you are registered or not by looking at call management section of the Blueface portal. Look for the entry under SIP Accounts. Are the two accounts reporting a status of "UP" ?

Both lines reported as Up in the Blueface interface. I'm currently chatting to GrandStream tech support, so hopefully they can point at some misconfigured settings in the ATA.

AwayOuttaThat · 19-05-2016 5:10pm

One possibility that comes to mind, and although it may not be the issue it's worth checking that the Grandstream is set to use G.711a (aLaw) or G.729 codecs in the first instance (highest priority).

If Tech Support at Grandstream do manage to resolve it I'd be curious to know what the issue was.

Serbian · 20-05-2016 9:48am

AwayOuttaThat wrote: »

One possibility that comes to mind, and although it may not be the issue it's worth checking that the Grandstream is set to use G.711a (aLaw) or G.729 codecs in the first instance (highest priority).

If Tech Support at Grandstream do manage to resolve it I'd be curious to know what the issue was.

Order of priority of the codecs is PCMU, PCMA, G723, G729, G726-32, iLBC.

Serbian · 26-05-2016 9:32am

Issue is solved finally. I got on a screensharing session with an engineer from GrandStream and the only change he needed to make was change the protocol from Keep-Alive to STUN. He also dropped in a public STUN server in the settings. I guess it must have been a NAT issue with my network, as that's solved the problem for me.

msmx5 · 27-05-2016 9:49am

Serbian wrote: »

...I got on a screensharing session with an engineer from GrandStream and the only change he needed to make was change the protocol from Keep-Alive to STUN....

Thanks for sharing your solution... sounds like it was NAT related alright.
Great support from Grandstream!

Serbian · 27-05-2016 10:31am

msmx5 wrote: »

Thanks for sharing your solution... sounds like it was NAT related alright.
Great support from Grandstream!

Yeah, above and beyond really, especially considering the ATA cost me about €60, and I pay Blueface a monthly fee to provide the service and they didn't want to know about the issue.

AwayOuttaThat · 04-06-2016 9:47pm

Great stuff. One for those notes we keep, but unfortunately never seem to find when needed! Glad issue is resolved.

lensman · 06-06-2016 8:31am

Anyone else having problems with Blueface today/yesterday? my phone has been down since yesterday evening, Im with VM broadband which also went down yesterday afternoon but came back fine after 30mins, later on I noticed that my phone was offline so I checked my
online account with blueface & it went down at 22:04 last night.
***UPDATE***
I switched ethernet ports on the VM modem & my Blueface came back online.

Serbian · 08-06-2016 11:00am

lensman wrote: »

Anyone else having problems with Blueface today/yesterday? my phone has been down since yesterday evening, Im with VM broadband which also went down yesterday afternoon but came back fine after 30mins, later on I noticed that my phone was offline so I checked my
online account with blueface & it went down at 22:04 last night.
***UPDATE***
I switched ethernet ports on the VM modem & my Blueface came back online.

The Blueface service went down for me on Sunday night, was back working by Monday morning. Pretty sure it was an issue on their side. They may have had issues again.

Having trouble with my Blueface connection and Virgin Media

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