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

[ttown]

astrosfan90 -

I guess me saying "100 minutes free" is not necessarily true. The rate ranges from $0.03 in most of europe and japan, to $0.17 in the philippines worst case. You get a $3 use-it-or-lose-it credit per month.

Here's their rate chart

I have no first-hand experience with call quality overseas. Others have said anything from "bad" to "better than their land-line". But many of those comments were from the forums from dslreports.com, and I haven't kept up with whether they had good broadband connections, where they were calling, if they got any problem "fixed", etc.

Maybe mention what country(s) you'd call and maybe someone else here will be able to comment.

edit2: Oh, and that you have a wireless router doesn't complicate things much -- EXCEPT -- that I'd stress that you not leave it publicly accessible. Use wep at a minimum.
If you need/like to leave it open, then I'd recommend putting the gizmo (their name for the "the box thingy that you plug your phone into") behind your router, as if it were a PC.
This prevents the drive-by wifi pirate from accessing it.

edit: typos

 

[imported_TekWiz]

Originally posted by: ttown

Originally posted by: TekWiz
...snip...

The only thing I don't understand is why can't I log into the Gizmo if it's behind the router?

...snip...

Tek.

...Snip...cliff notes:
you can't (unless connected in-line via the lan port to the gizmo) access the http interface because it's turned off on the wan port via the SR config file

Thanks very much ttown for the fascinating explanation and ideas. I'm impressed, and I don't get impressed easily!!!

This may be silly, but now what I'm wondering is, how does SR communicate with the Gizmo (behind or in front of the router)? How do they update the firmware? (If the router blocks ports--how do they reach the Gizmo?) Is it done though the configuration file they can send it?

Tek.

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: TekWiz
This may be silly, but now what I'm wondering is, how does SR communicate with the Gizmo (behind or in front of the router)? How do they update the firmware? (If the router blocks ports--how do they reach the Gizmo?) Is it done though the configuration file they can send it?

Tek.

The gizmo reads 2 config files when it starts up. 1 general file and 1 specific to your gizmo. The file associated to your gizmo contains a filename with the firmware version of your gizmo. I'm only guessing (but I think it's a reasonable guess) that the firmware probably looks at that and compares it to the firmware version installed. If it's different, it probably flashes the rom at that time. All SR would need to do is change the line in your config file and wait for your gizmo to read it.
I know for a fact that the gizmo reads the files from SR on power up. What I haven't seen is an update. I'm guessing (and will confirm someday) that the gizmo must reset itself periodically.

The reason the gizmo just works without port-forwarding is because the gizmo sends out a "registration" every few seconds. So IT is initiating the conversation with SR, keeping ports open all the time. (kind of like how you can browse the internet without opening port 80). Firewalls sometimes kick in if you have "denial of service" settings (like I did!, at first) that mis-interpret an incoming phone call as an attack. That's because when a call comes in, there's a communication "hand-off" (to a different IP address) that occurs. At the moment you pick up the ringing phone, a burst of connections are knocking at your door containing audio. If you have DoS enabled on your firewall, it might get triggered, depending on your threshold settings. I had to adjust mine up a bit on s SMC Barricade firewall.

I wondered a lot about all of this stuff too, so I did a LOT of sleuthing -- plus I have the hardware and utilities around that help answer all this. (edit:nework-hub and packet-sniffer)

hope this helps....
(the gizmo is my hobby... )

 

[Santa]

The Gizmo does all the work. It is instructed to go to SR's servers every so often to check for updates and if there is one to download the configuration and update the gizmo.

This includes but not limited to, software updates, firmware, specific configuration to your account ect..

<<Edit>> huum looks like a more detailed explaination was given before mine
Good detailed explanation ttown.

I was able to get into the gizmo and it has configuration information that does elude to locally stored config images on the device much like a cisco router.

 

[imported_TekWiz]

Originally posted by: ttown
...snip..I wondered a lot about all of this stuff too, so I did a LOT of sleuthing -- plus I have the hardware and utilities around that help answer all this.

hope this helps....
(the gizmo is my hobby... )

WoW! :shocked: Thanks for all those fascinating details! I wonder what hardware and utilities are necessary to do these kinds of investigations? I'm sort of jealous...

Tek.

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: TekWiz

Originally posted by: ttown
...snip..I wondered a lot about all of this stuff too, so I did a LOT of sleuthing -- plus I have the hardware and utilities around that help answer all this.

hope this helps....
(the gizmo is my hobby... )

WoW! :shocked: Thanks for all those fascinating details! I wonder what hardware and utilities are necessary to do these kinds of investigations? I'm sort of jealous...

Tek.

PM'd you details.... cuz it's getting a bit off topic, and probably not interesting to most.
Short answer: network-hub and a packet-sniffer

 

[EvilYoda]

It seems I'm having DNS issues when the gizmo's in place, whereas I've taken it out for now and the internet's fine. Any suggestions/ideas, similar issues?

 

[Jlensbo]

I wonder if you got a SECOND Gizmo, and activated it, you'd have a SECOND phone line?

 

[imported_TekWiz]

Originally posted by: Jlensbo
I wonder if you got a SECOND Gizmo, and activated it, you'd have a SECOND phone line?

Sure! You'd have 4 numbers too!

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: Jlensbo
I wonder if you got a SECOND Gizmo, and activated it, you'd have a SECOND phone line?

Yep. But, I read somewhere that the minimum upload speed for acceptable quality is just under 100Kbps, so 2 to work in parallel would be 200Kbps. (Be sure to Refer yourself!)

My cable service gives me ~250Kbps, so it would be approaching the limit for me.
It would be more an option for those with really good upload specs.

I've thought about getting a second gizmo, but really just to use as a traveller (cloning my home gizmo). I quit thinking about it when I thought "how would I disable my home gizmo, so I can use my portable gizmo?... and then re-enable it remotely?"

EvilYoda -- how do you have things set up? modem --> gizmo ---> router? Make sure the gizmo and router get reset when you mess with the arrangement. (The gizmo may need to be left unplugged ~30 minutes) Also, if may just be your PC. Try going to a command prompt and doing a "ipconfig/renew_all" (win XP). Still no worky? Do a "nslookup www.anandtech.com" also from the command prompt and see what server address it's using. Is it the ip address of your routers lan port?
PM me if you want to take this stuff off-line.

 

[imported_TekWiz]

Rejoice!!! Looks like the problems we experienced this week have been resolved. The technical problem message is no longer being displayed on the SR member pages...

Tek.

 

[imported_TekWiz]

Originally posted by: ttown

Originally posted by: Jlensbo
I wonder if you got a SECOND Gizmo, and activated it, you'd have a SECOND phone line?

Yep. But, I read somewhere that the minimum upload speed for acceptable quality is just under 100Kbps, so 2 to work in parallel would be 200Kbps. (Be sure to Refer yourself!)

My cable service gives me ~250Kbps, so it would be approaching the limit for me.
It would be more an option for those with really good upload specs.

I've thought about getting a second gizmo, but really just to use as a traveller (cloning my home gizmo). I quit thinking about it when I thought "how would I disable my home gizmo, so I can use my portable gizmo?... and then re-enable it remotely?"

Yeah, the say it's like 90 KB. Terrible how these "cable broadband" providers cap the upstream so much. Regular DSL used to be about 9-18 KB. Now I found out that Verizon is able to instantly upgrade some DSL lines to 80 KB from the central office (no extra charge). My cable provider Optonline is capping at 128 KB. However my friend with Comcast is being capped at 30 KB. A regular dialup modem is around 3 KB up. Very dissapointing. Good thing that Verizon FiOS will be 200 KB up, that may up the industry standards.

Used to be that Cable was king, but at least in that one case, going from 128/768 to 768/3000 instantly with no extra fee is amazing. My cable is like 1024/10000 but 5000 is average. DSL is really not far off and for 1/2 to 3/4 of the cost...

How would you clone the Gizmo? Software emulation?

Tek.

 

[ttown]

TekWiz -- cloning the gizmo would entail editing the MAC address on your second gizmo to be the same as the mac address on the first. It's accessible if you log into your gizmos http service from the lan port (password="welcome"). I forget where in the menus it is.

 

[imported_TekWiz]

Oh, wow, that's cool! I didn't know they were available for sale though!

 

[georgepa]

Tekwiz-

According to Sunrocket's CS the occasional outages were caused by a severed fiber line in Virginia. He flat out said that the issue is fixed and that no more outages should occur, at least related to that cable issue.


The "Gizmo" device is the Access211 from Telco Systems.

http://www.tmcnet.com/scripts/print-pag...m%2Fusubmit%2F2004%2Fdec%2F1099085.htm

Product Info:

http://www.batm.com/prod_container/Access211/ds/Access211.pdf#search='access211'


You could buy another device and clone the MacAddress for travelling. It SHOULD ring on all lines, even when travelling. However, it may be easier and cheaper (can't find the Access211 for sale anywhere) to just get another new number set (another account just for travelling) and then do Call Hunting with your home Gizmo, including the new Gizmo number in the forward.

ttown-

International calls are awesome quality, crystal clear. I call Germany and the Netherlands quite often, some of my referrals call to South America (Puerto Rico, Columbia, Costa Rica) and we all experience comments like "You sound like you are right next to me." I had one echo issue one time, but that was fixed in no time and from then on it was smooth sailing.

 

[imported_TekWiz]

Georgepa - Yeah, I IM'd with customer support today and I was assured the problems are solved. I didn't ask what caused them. Thanks that's interesting... He also assured me that they will add my points but wasn't sure when...

Very interesting regarding the Access 211 unit. Maybe they'll pop up on eBay eventually--hehe, in fact I just checked and found 1 listed (# 5765078040) it's $129! + $13 shipping, brand new. Yeah, considering the price of SR, it's more economical to buy a year at $199. The phone is worth $70 too... (not to mention referring yourself). I don't have any use for another--I never budge from my computer...

Regarding the sound quality. Yeah I keep saying how great it is and how it's better than my former POTS line... Regarding echo--my aunt hears echo when she talks to us almost all the time--when I call or she calls. Others haven't complained about anything--only one time.

I asked about it while IM'ing with cust support today, and he had me (Anthony) test with myspeed.visualware.com. I'm pasting it below.

Someone posted that they called and gave the numbers they had the echo with and the echo was fixed. Not my experience in this case: Does this make sense technically?


Anthony: so just let me know when youve ran the tests, if you could, please run it five times.

You: Test 1:
9.47 Mbps down
951 kbps up
QOS: 94%
RTT: 19 ms
MP: 78 ms

You: Test 2:
9.35
950
92%
24 ms
406 ms

You: Test 3:
8.58
954
77%
26 ms
360 ms

You: Test 4
8.80
954
86%
27 ms
47 ms

You: Test 5
9.45 Mbps
952 kbps
95% QOS
16 ms RTT
62 ms MP

Anthony: ok, one moment

You: thanks

Anthony: OK, Mr. Diamond, based on those results, I recomend that you contact your ISP about this issue. See where it says MP, thats where you have a problem, your pause time is too high, which explains the echo problem.

You: But why does it happen only on calls to her?

Anthony: I'm not sure about that sir.

You: The MP should ideally be what?

Anthony: anywhare between 20 to 30,but you had a few that were really bad, 406, 360

You: But it varies, and the echoes are consistent during the conversation

Anthony: well, sir, I did confer with tech support about this, and they said that the Mp, or Max Pause is what is causing this issue.

You: Ok, well, I'll call my cable co. see what they say about that

You: I also tested at another location now, a verizon DSL line, and MP was 156 ms on the first try

Anthony: ok

You: Second try was only 16 ms

You: Third: 125 ms, so it seems this is not a consistent value...

 

[hbcsc153]

Hello!

As I had not seen a bill since I signed up middle of March other than the Annual fee ($199) and I had taken a number of international calls I contacted Sunrocket CS. They said that they will be starting to bill from the 1st of May. So, all previous international calls were free.

Thanks Sunrocket!

Regards,

Emil

 

[ttown]

was wondering what was going to happen with international calls with the call-logs being kind of wacked -- in the early days at least.

too bad i didn't make any international calls....

TekWiz -- no, it doesn't make any technical sense to me that giving SR specific phone-numbers would help with any echo problem. I know nothing about how POTS works, so it could make sense to someone.
It makes more sense to me about the "max pause" thing -- which probably is based on (or is) ping times from you to them. Monitoring the gizmo (like late last week, when there were issues) tells me the gizmo's actions are very much timing related -- and so I could very well imagine that echoing could be caused by slow/delayed response times. That woud be a factor of many possible things: the route your gizmo takes to communicate to SR, noise/lost-packets anywhere enroute (ala failing hardware), load on your/their connection, etc.
If they don't communicate fast enough, or completely enough, the result is packet re-transmission.. and thus, echos.

 

[spinn]

I just got my startup kit and the quality is pretty good...when I use my Sony handsets. Junk the Unidens.

Anyways, here's my situation, my cable modem is upstairs in my loft. I want to keep my phone unit in my living room downstairs. What is the device called that allows you to run the phone line through the AC outlet? Or is there some wireless method that I can do without having to run a telephone line all the way down to the living room? I have the "gizmo" hooked up directly to the cable, and then my router hooked up after the "gizmo." Anyone? Anyone?

 

[spinn]

Originally posted by: deejayshakur
another new SR user. waited 6 days from order date to receiving the package.

day 1 of hook up: outgoing AND incoming calls work. called locally with no problems.

the uniden phones are starting to grow on me this is in fremont, CA, and the gizmo is in front of my router (on advice of ttown and FW forums ). and so begins the trial...

Fremont here too...although the uniden phones have not grown on me. Lots of interference when used (I'm off Paseo Padre). My friend told me to have a faucet running water to see if there's any interferences. And then try with microwave going. Both times, the quality was degraded using the Unidens. With my old Sony, it worked fine. So far so good.

 

[upss]

Originally posted by: spinn
I just got my startup kit and the quality is pretty good...when I use my Sony handsets. Junk the Unidens.

Anyways, here's my situation, my cable modem is upstairs in my loft. I want to keep my phone unit in my living room downstairs. What is the device called that allows you to run the phone line through the AC outlet? Or is there some wireless method that I can do without having to run a telephone line all the way down to the living room? I have the "gizmo" hooked up directly to the cable, and then my router hooked up after the "gizmo." Anyone? Anyone?

I will be happy to take your Junky Unidens phones and pay you for shipping charges. ?

Regarding your question, you don't need any "devices" or run any phone wires through ?your home. All you have to do is plug a regular phone cable from the ?Phone 1? output ?of the Gizmo to any of your existing phone jacks in the house and then you can plug any ?phone to any of your existing jacks in the house. BEFORE you do that, you have to make sure ?you disconnect your old outside phone line coming into your home.?

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: spinn
I just got my startup kit and the quality is pretty good...when I use my Sony handsets. Junk the Unidens.

Anyways, here's my situation, my cable modem is upstairs in my loft. I want to keep my phone unit in my living room downstairs. What is the device called that allows you to run the phone line through the AC outlet? Or is there some wireless method that I can do without having to run a telephone line all the way down to the living room? I have the "gizmo" hooked up directly to the cable, and then my router hooked up after the "gizmo." Anyone? Anyone?

Don't remember what they are called, but I saw something at Home Depot that does what you want, iirc. It was in the same section of the store as the regular phone jack cables.
I think it was in the $30-40 range.... I've never priced them, so I have no idea if thats the going rate, or if they could be had cheaper. (I may be wrong on the price... it was 2-3 weeks ago, so my memory has faded somewhat)
It also seems like something a BestBuy or CircuitCity might have....

 

[gamefreakgcb]

Who wants to refer me?

 

[Abem3]

E-mail sent.

Thanks.

 

[xEDIT409]

Does anybody else notice that the quality is severe crap, when Azureus us running?