Ooma Hubs unable to connect Dec 2021

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FerrariGuy
Posts:16
Joined:Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:01 pm
Ooma Hubs unable to connect Dec 2021

Post by FerrariGuy » Sun Dec 19, 2021 4:30 pm

Apparently a large numer of grandfathered in Hub owners habe been unable to get their boxes to connect recently (per Ooma phone help remarks). I personally have 2 Hubs in 2 different states that went down simultanously, and there's a couple of long recent threads on this on Reddit. Advise from support has been to do a factory reset on the device, which has worked for some people for some reason. Some have been told their hubs are broken and must be replaced.

They are not physically broken.

They appear to be unable to update their preferred DNS IP which Ooma corp might have retired. IDK.

Using Open WRT firmware on a router between the Ooma and Internet I'm able to observe traffic (or attempts at it even after several factory resets). (Device Status - Rev: 63962.63962)

I observe the Ooma trying to communicate with 208.83.244.20 and 208.83.244.21 on ports 53 and 123 (DNS and NTP).

The problem is, both those addresses are dead via a tracert 1/2 way through the hops out at *.zip.zayo.com.

DNS resolution shows those IPs to be associated with:

ns2.ooma.com: 208.83.244.21
ns-equix-sv4.ooma.com: 208.83.244.20

But what would happen if I tracerted the names or did an NSLookup to known DNS Servers (ISP's DNS's as shown by the gateway & Google's)?
ns-equix-sv4.ooma.com still fails and goes to .20 as expected.

BUT ns2.ooma.com tracerts to 208.83.246.21 from all DNS servers I used - those feeding my router as well as big ones like Google. That's .246.21 NOT .244.21 !!! That's a collision! And clearly a mis-config of DNS entries.

It also might represent a hard-coding of entries in the Hub firmware.

There are a few possible solutions (I haven't tried yet but one guy was successful). 1, and most important, is to get Ooma to re-awaken these IPs and redirect them properly. 2. Is a Hub firmware update fixing any hard coding (unlikely) and 3, which should work even if Ooma does nothing, is to manually redirect the request to the correct servers via configuration entries in a home based router/switch with some advanced capablities (not fun for the lay person, but I'm sure instructions can be drawn up). I'll be trying that myself next and then calling Ooma to report this issue in hopes of a Tier 2 service taking me seriously.

~Paul/FerrariGuy

jt25741
Posts:12
Joined:Sun Apr 26, 2009 7:06 am

Re: Ooma Hubs unable to connect Dec 2021

Post by jt25741 » Mon Dec 20, 2021 5:09 pm

Thank you for your post. I appreciate your due diligence. Let me know if I can add my hub to the folly, it failed at the same time with the same issue. I hope somebody cares at Ooma.... Ooma core is suppose to support these devices going forward with a service that works, and that is part of our license. Just because they are old doesnt give them a right to not care about them and brush them off and declare them as "bad" because they messed up and are lazy.

pl1
Posts:58
Joined:Fri May 22, 2009 2:10 pm
Location:Boston

Re: Ooma Hubs unable to connect Dec 2021

Post by pl1 » Mon Dec 20, 2021 5:36 pm

Add me Too! I appreciate that you posted this since I was going crazy trying to figure out what went wrong. I thought maybe it was my router (since my Tello is working fine), until I tried a second router with the same results. Please update us if anything changes. At least we can still get VM from the website and I can keep my number.

EDIT: I must have successfully factory reset it! I had given up after trying several times with no noticeable results, and started researching the factory reset instructions. I went back into the room where the hub is, and all of the hub lights were off! TADA! I guess I am one of the lucky ones where the reset worked! Thank Goodness. I was thinking of my next steps. Do I port to my Tello? Do I port to a cell and change my home phone to the Tello? I refuse to pay the monthly taxes if I lose my Ooma, so there is that! How to factory reset:

1) Remove the power for the ooma device

2) Hold the ooma tab [blue light] connect the power and hold for 30 secs until all the lights start flashing and once the flashing of all lights are done release the tab and the device will reset to factory settings.

mcb
Posts:1
Joined:Fri Aug 06, 2010 3:30 pm

Re: Ooma Hubs unable to connect Dec 2021

Post by mcb » Tue Dec 21, 2021 1:38 pm

+1. My Ooma Hub went down also with buttons 1 and 2 lit. The Ooma FAQ suggested contacting technical support. That experience was a little shakey but they sent me a reactivation code. I was concerned that reactivating would mean losing my grandfathered no-fee service, so I came here to check. After reading this thread, I just needed to reset my Hub to get back up. Thanks!

FerrariGuy
Posts:16
Joined:Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:01 pm

Re: Ooma Hubs unable to connect Dec 2021

Post by FerrariGuy » Tue Dec 21, 2021 3:15 pm

Just FYI Tier3 support did see reason to send this up to engineering to look at given that those IPs *should* be up, and reachable. No guarentees.

xBroker
Posts:11
Joined:Tue Dec 14, 2021 3:22 pm

Re: Ooma Hubs unable to connect Dec 2021

Post by xBroker » Tue Dec 21, 2021 3:39 pm

I'm also down after over 12 years. Thank you to Paul for the PM, letting me know I am not alone. I can't use cell phones (due to severe EMF radiation sensitivity), so I've had no phone for weeks. Was thinking of changing back to my old internet co. His message saved me the trouble. Not sure what to do now. I tried a google voice hub. Too confusing. Could not get it to work.

Hopefully these will be brought back online. I will even go back to the pay service that I just cancelled out of frustration. I had them switch me to the free service over this.. ..

FerrariGuy
Posts:16
Joined:Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:01 pm

Re: Ooma Hubs unable to connect Dec 2021

Post by FerrariGuy » Tue Dec 21, 2021 4:33 pm

Just FYI there is a long thread on this over on Reddit and there IS a solution even IF Ooma doesn't get the backbone problem fixed. It's been reported as done twice now sucessfully, BUT it is very technical, thus requires a learning curve for the non tech savvy.., and it requires a piece of hardware - your router -that you can fully control - even maybe with open source firmware like OpenWRT DDWRT Tomato etc.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ooma/comments/ ... er_outage/

Look for the posts by: fltcpt and 3qual1ty

Essentally the Ooma's traffic has to be rerouted using something called iptables (there may be other methods).

The key is to replicate these instructions to the router:
iptables (linux command to modify these tables)
-t (specify table name) "Network Address Translation" = NAT in this case
-i (insert rule at position # specified or at top of table if no number given)
PREROUTING chain
-d sets destination hostname or ip
-j (jump to target when rule is matched)
DNAT (destination network address translation - i.e. to rewrite the destinatin of an IP packet)

Thus this command makes traffic (all) meant for one of Ooma's combined DNS (domain name service) and NTP (network time service) to to one of Googles servers (8.8.8.8) instead.

iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -d 208.83.244.20 -j DNAT --to-destination 8.8.8.8

https://www.linuxtopia.org/Linux_Firewa ... x4013.html

xBroker
Posts:11
Joined:Tue Dec 14, 2021 3:22 pm

Re: Ooma Hubs unable to connect Dec 2021

Post by xBroker » Tue Dec 21, 2021 7:37 pm

Had phone service all my life. Now I can't call even emergency if I need. In some regards, like medical, that might be a good thing. Dying on my own floor is preferable at this point; but if there is a fire or something, I got nothing and have had nothing for weeks.

Too old to tackle anything beyond an easy factory reset. ..

ww4397
Posts:16
Joined:Sat Aug 15, 2015 6:53 am

Re: Ooma Hubs unable to connect Dec 2021

Post by ww4397 » Wed Dec 22, 2021 6:26 am

Hi All,

My Hub has stopped functioning also. I see red flashing tab on back of housing and solid red number "1" and number "2" buttons.

This Hub unit has been working fine for years.

Ooma please advise. We are without phone service.

Thanks.

xBroker
Posts:11
Joined:Tue Dec 14, 2021 3:22 pm

Re: Ooma Hubs unable to connect Dec 2021

Post by xBroker » Wed Dec 22, 2021 7:00 am

Deleted. I'm not helping things with that either way.. lolz
Last edited by xBroker on Wed Dec 22, 2021 4:41 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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