01-12-07 12:11 AM
SmartAlec has brought this to us :
> Is there a VOIP service (apart from the most excellent and expensive
> Vonage) offering UK geographic numbers that has a PSTN Failover
> function that actually works?
Voip.co.uk's works.
AFAIK, voipfone's does too.
> Our Gradwell number became unavailable for about an hour today due to a
> bug in their code (?) or somesuch vague reason. Gradwell of course
> don't offer a PSTN failover at the moment on their normal SIP accounts
> and the SIP device was registering with no problems so the first we
> were aware of the problem was an email fron an irate customer.
I'm sure that's changed. Search this group for posts by Peter Gradwell.
> We set up a divert via a SIP URL to our Voipfone account and started
> receiving calls with one-way audio - obviously some problem between
> Gradwell & Voipfone because direct dialed calls to the Voipfone account
> worked perfectly.
Oh dear.
> To give Gradwell their due they sorted the 'unavailability' problem out
> very quickly once we'd reported it - although the problem did occur
> again for a short time after they'd told us it was sorted out and given
> us the all-clear to undivert our calls. They admitted that it was their
> problem rather than trying to blame someone else's service, which is a
> credit to them BUT we selected their service because they're alleged to
> provide the most reliable service available: suitable for business use.
>
> Peter Gradwell said on here recently "our Centrex / single
> line customers can also get PSTN fail over by setting a divert on no
> reply on their extension".
Ah, you can ignore my advice above!
> Have you actually tried that Peter? Set up the divert, disconnect from
> your ISP and see what happens if you make a call to your number 20
> minutes later. Nothing - Number Unobtainable.
Pah!
> So anyway, once service had been resumed on our Gradwell numbers I
> experimented with our Voipfone account to see if it was a viable
> alternative. I set the PSTN Failover number to a known-working number,
> disabled the ATA that was connecting to Voipfone, waited a few minutes
> and dialled the Voipfone number. The call was answered by the Call
> Queuing feature and then went nowhere even after holding for 5 minutes.
> I waited another 20 minutes and tried it again - still no ringing on
> the line the number was diverted to.
How long is your ATA set to re-register? If you have it set to 3600
seconds, perhaps their servers hadn't noticed you'd disconnected until
the next missed registration. Clearly I could be talking utter bollox
as I have no idea if the ATA tells their servers "I'll re-register in
an hour". Certainly voip.co.uk's servers a re very quick to notice that
the ATA has disappeared.
>
> I love the apparent flexibility of using VOIP for our incoming calls
> and the PBX-like features available but until there are services
> available that at least come close to matching the reliability of BT
> (and Vonage) then I think we'll be avoiding VOIP for our incoming calls
> at least.
Hmm.
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