Calls dropping - very unhappy

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luvsaving$
Posts:15
Joined:Thu Dec 30, 2010 9:03 am
Calls dropping - very unhappy

Post by luvsaving$ » Mon Jan 03, 2011 8:21 am

I'm still evaluating the ooma service and my experience is not going well. I have a ooma assigned number and have made a couple longer calls to customer service with a non-ooma company and after about 20 minutes the call drops and the ooma telo resets. Are others experiencing this? Is this what I have to look forward to??? As if talking with tech support for 20 minutes isn't a special enough treat losing the call and having to start all over made the experience simply unforgettable.

-Steve
Thanks -
Steve

Greater Chicagoland
Ooma Telo & handset
Ooma provisioned tel no.
AT&T (Formerly SBC) DSL (integrated router/modem)
* Upload speed > 5MB / Download speed ~.4MB
* Jitter 4ms / Packet Loss = 0% / Ping 62ms


thunderbird
Posts:6388
Joined:Mon Nov 08, 2010 4:41 pm

Re: Calls dropping - very unhappy

Post by thunderbird » Mon Jan 03, 2011 8:58 am

luvsaving$:
Setup your Ooma device behind (on the LAN side of) your router (Modem-Router-Ooma).

Doing the following most always helps with dropped calls:

General Outline for Setting up Ooma Behind (on Local Area Network side of) Router.

The steps below are just suggestions. Your may choose to use some or all of the Outline steps below, depending on your equipment and network requirements.

1. Temporarily access your Ooma Telo home port by plugging in a patch (network) cable from the Ooma Telo home port to a computer’s network card port. Sometimes you have to restart your computer after installing the patch cable, so that a proper connection occurs.
2. Type http://setup.ooma.com in you browser address window and hit enter. The “Ooma Setup” window opens.
3. Ooma device setup:
a. Enable Ooma device’s built-in MAC address.
b. Assign static IP address (IP number obtained from your router) in the Ooma device.
c. Disable QoS in Ooma device by setting upload/download settings to zero.
4. Verify that your router’s firmware is up to date.
5. Verify that your router provides support for QoS (Quality of Service) VoIP priority. (Some router manufactures use similar but different names for QoS), reference check router manual.
6. Enable router QoS settings as required, reference check router manual.
7. Create in router, router rule(s) to open Ooma ports, (Setup location sometimes found in router gaming menu) reference check router manual.
a. Ooma uses the following application ports for data and voice traffic,
UDP 53, UDP 123, UDP 514, UDP 1194, UDP 3386, UDP 3480, UDP 10000-20000, TCP 53 and TCP 443.
8. –OR—(Step 7 or 9)
9. Place your Ooma device into your router’s DMZ using the static IP address you assigned to your Ooma device, reference check router manual.
10. With Ooma device connected behind (LAN side of) router, don’t use Ooma home port. Use your router ports for other devices on your LAN system.
11. Do a cold boot of router.
12. Do a cold boot of Ooma device after router cold boot has been completed.

Good Luck.

luvsaving$
Posts:15
Joined:Thu Dec 30, 2010 9:03 am

Re: Calls dropping - very unhappy

Post by luvsaving$ » Thu Jan 06, 2011 12:48 pm

Thought I'd post an update. Thanks Thunderbird for your help. When I saw the instructions you posted my heart sank. "no way I can do this" I thought. But if this ooma thing is going to work I had to try.

Step one should have been "Get your router user guide" (they're mostly available on the internet if you can't find yours.
Step two should be your step 5. I found out after changing settings that my router doesn't have VOIP; I learned this because at this step I had the bright idea to call the customer support for my router (in this case 2Wire).

I was so pleasantly surprised with the help I got - these guys know their stuff. The steps you listed after step 5 I really couldn't understand what to do or why but this guy took over and had me change a couple settings (different than what you proposed) and it seems I now have an external address for the ooma which he seemed to know what we needed. Too early to tell yet if this will solve the problem but I take it on faith that I'm headed in the right direction.

Hope this helps the next guy.
Based on some of the problems I see on this board this type of setup should be mandatory - I wonder how many problems can be avoided just in the optimal setup. I don't think the diagrams and instructions that come with the device are nearly sufficient (much less correct).

-Steve
Thanks -
Steve

Greater Chicagoland
Ooma Telo & handset
Ooma provisioned tel no.
AT&T (Formerly SBC) DSL (integrated router/modem)
* Upload speed > 5MB / Download speed ~.4MB
* Jitter 4ms / Packet Loss = 0% / Ping 62ms


thunderbird
Posts:6388
Joined:Mon Nov 08, 2010 4:41 pm

Re: Calls dropping - very unhappy

Post by thunderbird » Thu Jan 06, 2011 3:33 pm

Steve: I'm glad to hear that you got your Ooma device functioning properly. I'm also glad to get the feedback.
Good Luck

njbrooks
Posts:1
Joined:Tue May 17, 2011 6:35 am

Re: Calls dropping - very unhappy

Post by njbrooks » Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:34 am

Steve,
Did you call ATT customer support or 2Wire?

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