VOIP SunRocket Internet Phone Service $199 for 15months = $13.27/month

[Adam8281]

I have a question that I haven't found an answer to on the net. I use Verizon DSL, and Verizon also provides my local phone service. I have like the cheapest phone service I can get, something like $25/mo. I am really interested in VOIP, specifically SunRocket, but I wonder if there is a way to get it with DSL in such a way that I no longer have to maintain an actual land line phone number/service. If I cannot lose the local phone service, how is VoIP such a great deal for DSL subscribers, seeing as we still have to pay for some phone service to keep our DSL working?

 

[flyswatter]

Originally posted by: Adam8281
I have a question that I haven't found an answer to on the net. I use Verizon DSL, and Verizon also provides my local phone service. I have like the cheapest phone service I can get, something like $25/mo. I am really interested in VOIP, specifically SunRocket, but I wonder if there is a way to get it with DSL in such a way that I no longer have to maintain an actual land line phone number/service. If I cannot lose the local phone service, how is VoIP such a great deal for DSL subscribers, seeing as we still have to pay for some phone service to keep our DSL working?

For most DSL service, you need a phone line. (I guess that's how most telco companies make the money by requiring customers to have landline for DSL) Checkout Speakeasy, they have a DSL service that don't require a telephone line, but their price is hefty.
Or you can switch to cable modem service.

 

[VudooCrush]

Originally posted by: Adam8281
I have a question that I haven't found an answer to on the net. I use Verizon DSL, and Verizon also provides my local phone service. I have like the cheapest phone service I can get, something like $25/mo. I am really interested in VOIP, specifically SunRocket, but I wonder if there is a way to get it with DSL in such a way that I no longer have to maintain an actual land line phone number/service. If I cannot lose the local phone service, how is VoIP such a great deal for DSL subscribers, seeing as we still have to pay for some phone service to keep our DSL working?

Qwest DSL can work without a telephone line, but they charge $10 more. So it all depends on your DSL provider.

 

[gjbaker]

Earlier in these posts there was mention of "Dry" DSL offered in Florida where you don't need the land line. Do a search for DSL and scroll through the posts for it...

 

[ImSeeker]

damn - quote was missing - gjbaker - answer to your "as long as I don't connect to POTS, it doesn't matter yet" - my answer was:

Yes.

 

[gjbaker]

 

[gjbaker]

Oops.... Hit reply too soon...

Thanks ImSeeker..

 

[ImSeeker]

Day 23

Still no problems with Sunrocket service, but SBC won't give up the landline.

Best I can tell, they'll give it up Feb 28, which is what I've "paid through" due to the last billing.

 

[loup garou]

How long did it take you guys to receive your shipment from SR? I ordered 12 days ago with express shipping (boy was that a waste of money) and it's still not here. I called after a week and the SR support guy said he couldn't track it. I'm calling again on Monday, this is pissing me off...:|

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: werk
How long did it take you guys to receive your shipment from SR? I ordered 12 days ago with express shipping (boy was that a waste of money) and it's still not here. I called after a week and the SR support guy said he couldn't track it. I'm calling again on Monday, this is pissing me off...:|

Real waste of money. I ordered mine on a Friday with standard shipping and received it on the following Monday.

 

[dfinder]

Thanks

 

[zainali]

anyone get calling cards to work on these phones?

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: dabuddha

Originally posted by: werk
How long did it take you guys to receive your shipment from SR? I ordered 12 days ago with express shipping (boy was that a waste of money) and it's still not here. I called after a week and the SR support guy said he couldn't track it. I'm calling again on Monday, this is pissing me off...:|

Real waste of money. I ordered mine on a Friday with standard shipping and received it on the following Monday.

Well, I haven't even been charged yet. SO I'm going to call again tomorrow and tell them I'm not paying for Express shipping if it's going to take weeks for it to get here. :|

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: zainali
anyone get calling cards to work on these phones?

I hope that's a joke...?

Did you mean: Did anyone get calling cards with their phones? Answer: Yes! a 20 minute card.

Did you really mean what you asked? Answer: No. The calling card has nothing to do with the phones they gave away. The phones are just wireless, NOT cell phones in any way (although the "phone-to-phone" feature might lead you to believe that.)

 

[MrNutz]

Originally posted by: ttown
edit: MrNutz -- I finally found a used hub at a computer graveyard type store (for a whopping $1... well, since they were "as-is" I actually found 3 for a total of $5, figuring 1 out of 3 would work) and have monitored the gizmo. Port 5060/udp is used to initiate calls to/from the gizmo. It talks to sunrocket at 67.133.234.125 every 15 seconds to "register" itself. Once a call is initiated, SR hands off to 67.133.234.136 where the "audio" starts pouring in/out via local (gizmo) port 16384/16385 (udp) w/an application assigned destination port. The "call status" (like when it is "trying" to call, "ringing" the number and finally when you "hang up") is communicated from the gizmo to 67.133.234.121:5060.
My goal is to be able to write a SIP based app, so getting the hub was definately worth-while. It's one thing to read a SIP RFC, but to actually see what's going on is a lot better.

ttown, sounds like you've made some great findings on the gizmo's communications. What features do you want to put into your SIP app?

BTW, the online interface "call" button works fine for me. Tested it on my cell too.

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: MrNutz

Originally posted by: ttown
edit: MrNutz -- I finally found a used hub at a computer graveyard type store (for a whopping $1... well, since they were "as-is" I actually found 3 for a total of $5, figuring 1 out of 3 would work) and have monitored the gizmo. Port 5060/udp is used to initiate calls to/from the gizmo. It talks to sunrocket at 67.133.234.125 every 15 seconds to "register" itself. Once a call is initiated, SR hands off to 67.133.234.136 where the "audio" starts pouring in/out via local (gizmo) port 16384/16385 (udp) w/an application assigned destination port. The "call status" (like when it is "trying" to call, "ringing" the number and finally when you "hang up") is communicated from the gizmo to 67.133.234.121:5060.
My goal is to be able to write a SIP based app, so getting the hub was definately worth-while. It's one thing to read a SIP RFC, but to actually see what's going on is a lot better.

ttown, sounds like you've made some great findings on the gizmo's communications. What features do you want to put into your SIP app?

BTW, the online interface "call" button works fine for me. Tested it on my cell too.

I'm a real noob to the SIP stuff -- so my SIP-app goals aren't too high. What I'd like to start with is to monitor incoming calls and text-message my cell phone if I get a call from certain callers (as opposed to "call-forwarding"). It also "seems" like it should be easy to record a call-log with call duration (which is lacking on the SR call log; plus I just don't like having to "log in" to SR and click thru all their stuff). Next on the list would be a sort-of "call-now" button (like the SR one), but on my own local contact list.
The "call" button for me right now only makes my gizmos phone ring -- but not the destination phone. Hopefully that problem is related to my incoming call problem -- which I IM'd SR about this morning (and they refered me to tech support, tomorrow (monday) morning).
I'm trying to find decent example programs/scripts on the web to relate to what I see going on -- but it's confusing when the SR "call-button" doesn't work (for me).
Another bit of trivia.... I left my gizmo unplugged a long time to reset it -- and monitored what happens when I plug it in. It turns out that 2 configuration files are downloaded to it -- one general one, and one specific to your MAC address.
Hopefully what I want is easy/possible... but I find it discouraging that I haven't found tons of samples of what others have already done.

 

[ttown]

<bump> for an update that may be affecting others regarding incoming calls....

I've had problems getting incoming calls to the gizmo -- all of which I thought were related to the "wait 10 days..." philosophy everyone talks about. Outgoing calls worked fine from day 1.
Today is "day 11" -- so I called SR and told tech support the problems I was having. They seemed baffled with my symptoms of 1) outgoing calls work fine 2) incoming calls make my gizmo's phone ring, but sound appears to be dead when I pick-up.

I have my gizmo behind my router/firewall -- and it occured to me to try turning the firewall off -- even though I could clearly see incoming/outgoing traffic to/from the gizmo.
Upon turning the firewall off, incoming calls worked -- but I really didn't like that solution.

After some fiddling, it turns out that my SMC firewall was not blocking ports <exactly...>, but instead was detecting a DoS "attack" during incoming calls -- and shutting down the communication to sunrocket -- but not before telling my gizmo to "ring". The criteria it was meeting for a DoS was a setting for "Max incomplete tcp/udp sessions from same host" -- which by default for my router is the value 10.
I upped that value to 50, and my problem is solved!

A secondary solution would be to turn off SPI for udp -- but I strongly prefer the above DoS solution.

edit: This fixes the "call button" issue, too. Woot!

Side note/rant: The timing of all this is great. I just got my next bill from Qwest, and they are STILL billing me incorrectly -- which has gone on for 5 months now. Good riddance to Qwest.

 

[dhoytw]

Not available in my area

 

[MrNutz]

ttown, glad to hear everything is working fine for you. Did you tell the SR tech guys that this was the problem? They could relay that info to the other ppl that are having the same issue.

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: MrNutz
ttown, glad to hear everything is working fine for you. Did you tell the SR tech guys that this was the problem? They could relay that info to the other ppl that are having the same issue.

Not all the detail. I discovered the firewall solution w/the tech on the phone -- so he knows that part. We talked a bit about how come the gizmo rang at all for incoming -- and ended our conversation with us both a little baffled about why it partially works. He told me he'd ask an engineer and call me back -- since I was very curious why (and him too).
When he calls back, I'll fill him in on the details.
Overall, a very good impression with SR customer service AND tech support. I'll definately be recommending them.
edit:... an exact opposite of what I'm used to with qwest! lol

 

[MrNutz]

Who did you talk to?

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: MrNutz
Who did you talk to?

edit: I couldn't remember the guys name, so I called back and talked to someone else who was able to access my call-notes -- and told them all the info I found out.

 

[jayfischer]

Just received my gizmo today.

I have it working fine before the router, but I cannot get it going after the router. DHCP assigns an IP but the gizmo will not connect. I tried port forwarding 5060-5061 and 10000-20000 - no dice. I am using a Linksys BEFSR but I just ordered a Linksys WRT54GS so I could use its QOS and static DHCP. I really need (want) this to work after the router. I tried their crossover cable from the gizmo WAN port into the router. I tried a regular cat5 cable. Nada. Each time I get an IP address. What am I missing?

Any suggestions?

As an aside - I can receive calls but NOT make calls. Now thats a twist I haven't read here or elsewhere. I have a call into tech support about it.

Thanks
Jay

 

[mm60]

Originally posted by: jayfischer
Just received my gizmo today.

I have it working fine before the router, but I cannot get it going after the router. DHCP assigns an IP but the gizmo will not connect. I tried port forwarding 5060-5061 and 10000-20000 - no dice. I am using a Linksys BEFSR but I just ordered a Linksys WRT54GS so I could use its QOS and static DHCP. I really need (want) this to work after the router. I tried their crossover cable from the gizmo WAN port into the router. I tried a regular cat5 cable. Nada. Each time I get an IP address. What am I missing?

Any suggestions?

As an aside - I can receive calls but NOT make calls. Now thats a twist I haven't read here or elsewhere. I have a call into tech support about it.

Thanks
Jay

I am not sure if you did this, but you have to leave the gizmo unplugged for 45 minutes after disconnecting it from your old config. It takes that long for it to lose the ip address acquired in the old config (I read this on another post). I am using a DLINK DI624 router and did not have any problem connecting the gizmo before and after the router. In either case I use the crossover cable to connect the router and the gizmo. If you have the gizmo after the router, the crossover will go from one of the router LAN ports into the WAN port on the gizmo. I did not have to forward any ports.

Good luck!!!

 

[jayfischer]

I had the gizmo hooked into the router on my first attempt. Then I went to before the router - which works. I have the crossover cable from the router to the gizmo WAN port.

That was one question I had though - do I use the crossover cable going into the router? You answered that, mm60.

I shouldn't need to reset the cable modem and/or router with the gizmo after the router, right? As long as the router assigns a IP to the gizmo everything in theory should be cool, right?


Thanks
Jay