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All reviews of Callcentric


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Reviews:
read 71 reviews (64 positive) (1 negative)
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Six Month Rating

Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:


$14 per month avg ($1 to $27)

3 year trend

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Review by dicodread See Profile
UPDATED: a few hours ago
member for 230 days, 28 visits, last login: a few hours ago


Miami,Miami-Dade,FL
$500 per month
"Easy to setup"
"Dont have a virtual pbx"
"perfect for home users but companies need their own sip proxy"
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

    My Other Reviews·callwithus
    I have been using callcentric personally for about 3 years now with no problems. I was sold so much on their service I recommended them to my company to use them for sip trunks on our ip pbx. We have 3 locations and as we have found out, only one allows the sip trunk terminated directly on the gateway (Cisco Callmanager Express) the other locations use callmanager and MGCP so they have to control the sip trunk and not the other way around. The solution was to get a flurry of pap2 devices to connect via fxo on the voice gateways. This worked fine for outgoing but not incoming as you are only allowed one registration with callcentric.

    Callcentric suggested to create multiple accounts and route the incoming via call treatments but we found this didnt always work

    Our final solution was found by installation an asterisk pbx on a vm and use that for the sip trunk. The linksys ata's then registered as extensions and now things are working just fine.

    It would be nice if Callcentric created virtual numbers under the same account as it would really help small companies who want to use this service and not wanting to register a credit card on several accounts.

    Followup comments:
    Forums » comments on review of Callcentric

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Review by igotthisone See Profile
UPDATED: 5 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 567 visits, last login: 1 days ago


Davidson,Mecklenburg,NC
$12 per month
about 9 days
"The Tech Support Is The Best I've Ever Seen!!"
"Would like a Do Not Disturb option to be set by time of day, like CallVantage"
"Should have switched long before AT&T informed me I had to go."
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

    I have been an AT&T CallVantage customer for nearly five years and received notification from them that “AT&T will be discontinuing AT&T CallVantage in 2009”. The statement went on to say “You are not required to take any action at this time, unless you choose to.” which I did.

    AT&T was kind enough to offer that I could move my number to one of their other services and pay a minimum of $5 a month more as part of a bundled service for exactly what I was getting from them today, how nice…

    I quickly began my search on the DSLReports.com website and discovered many new VOIP companies I hadn’t heard of before. My brother has Vonage so I knew what I’d get there, but CallCentric was getting rave reviews. I landed on them and began my migration with some level of caution after my past AT&T experience. I was going to try it out before I committed fully and was interested to find their website encouraging me to do just that.

    I maintained my AT&T service and just forwarded my number to my new CallCentric account so I wouldn’t miss calls and could test their service fully for about a month. I found the services to be nearly identical with the exception of some small feature functionality. I do miss the ability to set my “do not disturb” feature during set times each night so people calling after hours are prompted to consider if the late night call is an emergency or not. CallCentric with just a couple exceptions has many more things I can do with the service.

    My first experience with CallCentric’s exceptional support staff was when I requested an incoming number or Direct Inward Dial (DID) number. I opted to order a “pay per call” number for $1.95/month just to test. The website stated the number area I ordered should only take one day but it did take them nearly 9 days to establish my account with an incoming number. A note to support to inquire where it was on day 2 returned the following within an hour, “the area you ordered was not in stock within our numbering pool and was back ordered at the carriers that serve the area”. This wasn’t a big deal since I had service with AT&T and they credited my account $.54 for the lack of service.

    My second experience with support was getting my PAP2T to work properly once I had the number. I was having problems receiving incoming calls. They gave me very detailed instructions of the screen shots they would need, how to upload those to support, and what I could do to upgrade firmware from Cisco’s website in the meantime. All this was done very quickly and thoroughly through the web. I eventually realized after some trial and error that my issue was due to my router and its firewall. After doing some additional web research I found documented issues with VOIP devices sitting behind my Belkin Pre-N Router. I ended up ordering a different Linksys SPA2102-NA device that could sit in front of my router like I’ve had my AT&T service configured for years. This was my issue not CallCentric but they hung with me…

    Once I received and configured my new ATA device everything has been working great. My old number was forwarded to my new service so all calls were received fine while we played with the service. This month was a great opportunity for me to play and learn about what I really needed for services going forward. First, I learned that the unlimited plan I intended to move to wasn’t necessary. The unlimited plan, like I had with CallVantage, was a bit less expensive than AT&T. However, the “pay per call” program was going to end up costing me about half of that due to seeing our detailed calling habits during the trial month. Because of the detailed visibility of our minute usage and charges I was able to see I didn’t need that much service. Coming from a POTS service to VOIP back in 2003 and getting phone service in the $25 dollar range was a steal. I found I could get the same service today for half that and explains why AT&T is getting out. I also learned how to tweak my ATA device, which I never had the ability to do with AT&T service. Now this isn’t necessary but the information is out there if you want to learn. The CallCentric support website provides a standard setup scheme that requires 11 digits and I’ve been so accustom to using 10 digit dialing with AT&T this was something I needed to research to see if 10 was possible. After reading a few post I found one showing me how to do 10 digit and another showing me how to do 7 digit. I learned from those posts enough to create my own dial plan that allows using 7, 10, and 11 digit dialing. The following is what I’ve been using successfully for over a month.

    (Please click on the attached screen shot of my dial plan below. My original post didn't correctly render the actual post because the DSLReports.com blog filters elements of the string because it believes it's HTML code)

    *You will need to replace “704” to be your local area code for this to work correctly.

    I have since ported my old number from AT&T to CallCentric and have said goodbye to AT&T before they gave me the permanent boot and on my terms.

    All-in-all, this is a great service with outstanding support. If you have been an AT&T CallVantage customer I’d strongly encourage you to check these folks out. I’d also encourage any other customers of Vonage, Time Warner, or other more established VOIP providers to do the price comparison. I assure you you’re overpaying like I was for the exact same service with less features than these folks provide.

    Attachments:
    Click for full size


    Followup comments:
    PX Eliezer
    Premium
    join:2008-08-09
    New Jersey

    1 edit

    CC review

    Thanks for interesting review.

    On your dial plan: Shouldn't the .75xx actually be *75xx ??

    This is for their speed dial.

    ---------------------------------

    Great folks at CC. I love their services.

    igotthisone

    join:2001-11-23
    Davidson, NC
    ·Callcentric
    ·AT&T CallVantage
    ·RoadRunner Cable

    Re: CC review

    You are correct! I pulled this from a word document I created and had corrected before pasting to my ATA. I neglected to change what I had saved in a word document, so thanks for the catch. I've updated the review to correctly reflect what you have called out.

    CallC

    @verizon.net

    Using Call Treatments for time based Do Not Disturb rules

    Thank you very much for this wonderful and detailed review.

    Just as a side note (because you mentioned it) - there is a way to use Call treatments for time based handling of Do Not Disturb. You may configure a rule to send a call to either voice-mail or to an error message (or to anywhere else like "We've been captured by monkeys") during certain hours. You may even configure "white" list of those who will still be able to get through to your phone (like close relatives or work-based emergencies). Yes, it's a bit complicated (because you have to set it separately for each day of week), but once set - you may enjoy your privacy during night hours ).

    igotthisone

    join:2001-11-23
    Davidson, NC

    Re: Using Call Treatments for time based Do Not Disturb rules

    Thanks, I wasn't aware this was possible but will give it a try. Just shows how customizable this service really is. The one thing I assume still isn't available is the ring through option in the recording if it is a true emergency though.

    Mat



    Looking to migrate from Callvantage

    I am also a current customer of AT&T Callvantage and wanted to test these guys out. I have a few questions.
    1. Do we need to select an inbound product and an outbound product? If I read right, we need an inbound product to get our number ported.
    2. If we have to take an inbound product what was your selection?
    3. Do you know if its possible to change the outbound product selection later? Like if I see my usage has changed, can I switch from pay per call to unlimited?
    4. One of the feature that I liked with AT&T was the 'Locate Me' with simultaneous ring? Does Callvantage have the same or do I have to forward the call each time I go anywhere?

    Thanks in advance
    Mat

    igotthisone

    join:2001-11-23
    Davidson, NC
    ·Callcentric
    ·AT&T CallVantage
    ·RoadRunner Cable

    Re: Looking to migrate from Callvantage

    1. Yes you need to choose both, and yes you need an inbound number to port. I used a temporary one for the period I was testing. I'd recommend reading the following »www.callcentric.com/faq/17#29

    2. I selected "Pay per Call" for $1.95/month and $0.015/minute to test with the intention to switching to unlimited once I decided if the service was right for me. Because I calculated I would need to use over 1596 minutes a month to break even with the unlimited plan incoming and outgoing I'm staying with the "Pay per Call" as my primary plan.

    3. Yes you can switch at a later time if you think you need more or less.

    4. Not exactly the same as CallVantage. They do offer a feature called "Call Treatment" and "DID Forwarding" that aren't exactly the same but do allow customized routing of very specific scenarios or general scenarios. This isn't the same though as what you have used.
    Gulden_NL

    join:2009-06-24
    Fountain Hills, AZ

    Former AT&T Call Vantage Customer Agrees 100%

    I can't add anything to your post except that I agree, two thumbs up for a great review.

    One suggestion I've already sent CallVantage is regarding more help with the dial plan. Heck I even had to go out and look at it to remember how to get to 7 and 10 digit dialing and I architect large VoIP systems for a living! There's no reason they can't add it to their site, in fact having it raises Bing and Google hits which could drive new traffic to their site for conversion to their offering.

    I just joined DSLReports, so will add my review and will also add in my tweaking hints for a Linksys SPA2102 gateway.

    Trimline
    Premium
    join:2004-10-24
    Orlando, FL
    ·Callcentric
    ·AT&T Southeast
    ·RoadRunner Cable

    Re: Former AT&T Call Vantage Customer Agrees 100%

    Here's some dial plans to try:

    (*xx.|*xxx|*75xx|[3469]11|0|00|1xxx[2-9]xxxxxxS0||[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0|xxxxxxxxxxxx.|**275*x.)

    Above is the dial plan for 10 digit dialing. No need to dial the leading 1.... I live in an area with multiple area codes, so I always have to use 10 digits.

    (*xx.|*xxx|.|xx.|*75xx.|[3469]11|0|00|1xxx[2-9]xxxxxxS0||[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0|xxxxxxxxxxxx.|**275*x.)

    The above dial plan is what I use today. It includes the 10 digit dialing and for speed dial, you just enter #XX. To tell the system you are done, just enter #XX#. Extremely fast.

    igotthisone

    join:2001-11-23
    Davidson, NC
    ·Callcentric
    ·AT&T CallVantage
    ·RoadRunner Cable

    Re: Former AT&T Call Vantage Customer Agrees 100%

    Did you confirm that your post rendered 100% correct? I noticed after you posted that my original post wasn't due to use of syntax that the forum thought was HTML tags. My use of the angle brackets or less/greater than signs was removing some of the needed sting code.

    Trimline
    Premium
    join:2004-10-24
    Orlando, FL

    Re: Former AT&T Call Vantage Customer Agrees 100%

    It is correct. Try it.
    Forums » comments on review of Callcentric

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Review by Trimline See Profile
Posted: 6 days ago
member for 4.6 years, 1553 visits, last login: 1 days ago


Orlando,Orange,FL
$24 per month
about -1 days
"Easy setup, excellent sound quality, excellent support."
"Can't think of any."
"Top quality VOIP provider."
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

    My Other Reviews·AT&T Southeast
    ·RoadRunner Cable
    I ordered CC on the pay as you go plan, not thinking I would be really using it very much. My plan was to use mainly for international dialing.

    Quite the opposite happened; I am thrilled with the call quality and switched it over to the North American plan. I now use this as my primary phone and dropped all the "extras" on my AT&T line.

    The service is outstanding, took no time to register and make calls. Plugged in my SPA-2000 and entered the required fields as found in their support section. Flawless service with no surprises.

    A very satisfied customer.

    Followup comments:
    Forums » comments on review of Callcentric

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Review by PX Eliezer See Profile
UPDATED: 15 days ago
member for 330 days, 470 visits, last login: a few hours ago


New Jersey
Contract price not specified.
about 1 days
"Great customer service, Reliable, Clear calls, Excellent control panel."
"A little pricey on outbound calling, but very good value overall."
"High quality service and support. Consistent track record. Many new features."
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

    My Other Reviews·callwithus
    ·Optimum Voice
    ·voip.ms
    Review updated 19 June 2009

    ----------------------------------------------

    CallCentric is an excellent provider overall.

    MAJOR STRENGTHS:

    *High quality phone service!

    *Great reliability, consistent track record.

    *Excellent customer support!

    *Good peering capabilities and SipBroker and iNum support, and URI calling. This allows you to make and receive free calls from many other Voip networks. SipBroker support is the best around.

    *BYOD: Just about any type of device will work.
    Extensive configuration information for many devices.

    *Excellent website and control panel (dashboard) with
    extensive "call treatment" options.

    *Good billing system.

    *Incoming Fax server is available. This works very well. Faxes can be retrieved from the dashboard and/or by e-mail notification. (Some folks have had intermittent issues with the fax server, but it works well for me. CallCentric offers this as a free service and they are working on making it even better).

    *Many new features, such as incoming CNAM, added March 2009! Good job all around. And the CNAM can be customized for specific calls. For example, if a caller shows up as "Wireless Call" you can override the system to show the specific person's name.

    MINOR QUIBBLE:

    *Price is a tad high. Outbound pay-as-you-go calls are almost 2 cents a minute. The flat-rate outbound plan (North America Unlimited) is $ 19.95. They could offer some kind of "inbetween" option like some other providers have. Still, they are a good value, and their excellent and reliable service is worth it.

    --------------------------------------------------

    I ported my home number to them recently. The whole process went well, it works great, and my family is happy.

    Overall, a very solid provider, and I don't think there is anyone else who is more conscientious and reliable. They really care about their service and take a personal pride in it.


    Followup comments:
    mogulman
    Premium
    join:2002-09-09
    Parker, CO

    Length of time you've had service

    How long have you had their service? Seems like you are new to the forums.
    PX Eliezer
    Premium
    join:2008-08-09
    New Jersey
    ·Callcentric
    ·callwithus
    ·Optimum Voice
    ·voip.ms


    1 edit

    Re: Length of time you've had service

    said by mogulman See Profile :

    How long have you had their service?
    That's a fair question.

    I have been using CallCentric since June. But I was getting my questions answered by their customer service team even before I started using it. And also, I've been reading this dslreports website for most of this year.

    One main reason I started using them for VoIP was looking at all the other CallCentric reviews on this site. Looks like the reviews go back almost a year. It's remarkable that nobody really has any major negatives on this company.

    I think that when you start using a VoIP provider, you are going to know very, very soon if they are good or bad. How was the signup process, how was initial setup, how was their customer service responsiveness to deal with questions, how does their website work to check your billing and to configure your services, how is call quality, and so forth.

    I've asked questions of these guys late in the evening and still gotten e-mail responses in a few minutes.

    Please note, I am not saying they are perfect. Nobody is perfect, except maybe that Olympic swimmer guy. In my review, I did suggest some ways CallCentric could be even better. But I do think that they are about the best around of all the companies I've looked at.

    Finally: I'd compare it to dating. I think that folks figure out pretty quickly if the person they are dating is a keeper or a creeper.

    Thanks for reading my review!
    Forums » comments on review of Callcentric

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Review by Mango2 See Profile
UPDATED: 16 days ago
member for 191 days, 247 visits, last login: a few hours ago


Vancouver,BC
Contract price not specified.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)

    My Other Reviews·voip.ms
    ·Shaw
    ·LINGO
    ·Netfone
    ·Digital Voice
    Unfortunately, due to intermittent issues with incoming faxes, CallCentric is no longer advertising their incoming fax service. I guess it's back to Telus for me

    Followup comments:
    PX Eliezer
    Premium
    join:2008-08-09
    New Jersey
    ·Callcentric
    ·callwithus
    ·Optimum Voice
    ·voip.ms

    CallCentric fax reception

    I've had pretty good success with it, only a couple of problem faxes out of dozens overall.

    In fact, mine works well even though it's forwarded to a CC DID through a different company's DID.

    This is what CC is saying now:

    "Please note: The fax reception feature is currently offered as an option on all Callcentric accounts; but is currently un-supported as we work to improve the reliability of fax reception under certain conditions".

    I think that they truly are working on it, and I look forward to it being even better than before.

    I continue to use it, and received several faxes today. With a dirt-cheap DID it's quite a bargain, and the fax reception is offered at no extra charge.

    Unlike some other companies, I think that when CC says they are working on it, they truly are.
    Forums » comments on review of Callcentric






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Review by natalykm See Profile
UPDATED: 18 days ago
member for 18 days, 6 visits, last login: 3 days ago


Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
Contract price not specified.
"High quality service and support, Clear calls, Grate control panel, A Lot of Features"
"None"
"Best Provider, Grate Service"
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

    We use Callcentric service at home 4 years already
    We use it a lot for international calling to Russia, Uzbekistan, Israel and other
    And in USA and the call quality is excellent
    Their website is grate and let's you control everything you'd need from it
    They have a lot of features and adding new once all the time
    Excellent customer support
    Grate Provider and I don't think there is anyone else who is more reliable

    Followup comments:

    Evgeny E Slutsky

    @anonymouse.org

    CallCentric

    Another reviewer said "I don't think there is anyone else who is more conscientious and reliable".

    I guess that "grate" minds think alike.
    Forums » comments on review of Callcentric

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Review by regloss See Profile
UPDATED: 18 days ago
member for 8.5 years, 780 visits, last login: a few hours ago


Orlando,Orange,FL
$27 per month
"Support for many ATA's, Fast and accurate technical support, Easy set up, ATA's easy to swap, Fully automated ordering"
"Charges for call forwarding even on unlimited plans but still a great value when you factor in reliability and call quality"
"One of the best VoIP providers around"
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

    My Other Reviews·RoadRunner Cable
    After being a VoicePulse customer for 4+ years, it was time to switch due to some quality issues at one of their downstream providers (no fault of VoicePulse).

    I signed up with CallCentric for the DID Personal Unlimited ($5.95) and Pay Per Call with 911 service ($1.50) and later added North America Unlimited ($19.95) and Voice Mail ($0) after testing the service for a few days. The ordering process was simple and there was only a short wait for a DID number because I wanted a number in a particular city. I used both older Sipura SPA2000 and SPA2002 adapters and the setup for both was simple and they worked on the first try. I really like the fact that CallCentric doesn't take over your adapter or need to go through a long registration process to get your adapter into their system. You just configure it and go. Their dashboard on the webpage gives you plenty of info without searching around. CallCentric support is awesome. I opened a couple of problems to do some fine tuning on the adapter settings and the support response time was measured in minutes and the answers were correct the first time. The call quality is great for both local and long distance calls. All in all, I'm very impressed with CallCentric.

    Followup comments:
    Forums » comments on review of Callcentric

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Review by ab2844 See Profile
Posted: 20 days ago
member for 20 days, 0 visits, last login: 20 days ago


Staten Island,Richmond,NY
Contract price not specified.
"Call Treatments and Voice Mail notification"
"Convenient"
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

    I've been using Callcentric for about 3 years now and they have been providing a very convenient service for my needs. I'm not a telecommunications whiz, but I was able to find everything I needed right from the home screen. My favorite feature is the call treatment. I set it when I don't want to be disturbed or when I go away. I use two settings. One that forwards all my calls straight to voicemail when I go to sleep and one that forwards all my calls to my cellphone when I'm not home. I also like being notified when I have new voice messages. My phone doesn't let me know unless I go into the messaging menu, so I often miss important messages. Having them on my Callcentric home screen allows me to see and hear all of my messages as soon as they're left, and I don't even have to be home for it. Overall, I think Callcentric is a great provider of the simple things that make life just a bit easier.

    Followup comments:
    Forums » comments on review of Callcentric

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Review by lousteinberg See Profile
UPDATED: 21 days ago
member for 3.6 years, 25 visits, last login: 4 days ago


New Fairfield,Fairfield,CT
Contract price not specified.
"outbound calls drop less frequently"
"inbound calls fail often, different account per DID"
"early days, but won't stay for long unless it gets much better"
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)

    Using grandstream sip phones in a small business. Tried converting a couple over from Vonage due to calls being dropped.

    Call stability is better (still not great, but better). Unfortunately, [hones are found in the "not registered state" frequently (requiring reboot) and LNP of our Vonage DIDs has started very badly- more than half of the inbound calls get a "call did not go through" error.

    Callcentric isn't exactly business friendly. No live phone support, can't group our phones into a single account (we have 10), etc. Call quality is acceptable, when it works, which isn't often enough.

    [edited to correct a typo in title]

    Followup comments:
    PX Eliezer
    Premium
    join:2008-08-09
    New Jersey
    ·Callcentric
    ·callwithus
    ·Optimum Voice
    ·voip.ms


    1 edit

    Could it be network problems?

    Sorry to hear of the problems.

    Their customer support is very responsive, in my experience, and gives quick access to US tech people who know their stuff. But if you do prefer live phone agents, then of course CC may not be for you.

    If there are problems with the inbound porting, this may well be something on Vonage's end as well, especially if you are talking about other Vonage callers trying to call your new CC lines.

    One major point I'd make: If you had problems with your Vonage service, and now ALSO have problems with CallCentric, then I wonder if this could be due to issues with your internet connection speed, jitter, and packet loss. Or are there possibly issues with your routers and other hardware....

    How do you come out on tests such as:

    »www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

    »testyourvoip.com/

    »myvoipspeed.visualware.com/

    Considering that you have had issues with both Vonage and CallCentric, and that so few people ever have problems with CC, I think that it would be good to consider other possible problems. Otherwise you may switch to a 3rd Voip company and still have the same issues.

    Hope things improve for you.

    -------------------------------

    Added in edit: I have multiple DID's on one account with no problem. I think that it's perhaps an issue only if you need different outgoing lines to display different caller ID's.
    lousteinberg

    join:2005-11-26
    New Fairfield, CT
    ·Callcentric

    Re: Could it be network problems?

    Thanks for the reply. Our network connection has been rock solid (cablevision). We get about 30Mb down and 1-2Mb up with zero loss. The Optimim voice line that came with our broadband has similarly been perfect, so I doubt it's the network (I did upgrade the switch handling the grandstream phones to 1gig just to try that, and the grandstream network is on a dedicated router port with no other traffic, priority given to that network segment, etc).

    The vonage issue was quite different from the callcentric issue in terms of behavior, but cant say for sure if they are related or not (e.g. the phones?).

    I'm starting to wonder if the callcentric inbound problems are related to the fact that the phones keep deregistering (though I'd expect to roll to voicemail if a phone wasn't registered). Could the deregistering be due to the fact that callcentric doesn't support STUN? With multiple phones behind the firewall, we can't port forward to just 1 of them or the others won't work. I have NAT traversal enabled on the phones, but maybe the lack of STUN support means that callcentric can't handle multiple NAT'd phones? I don't want to give each phone a public IP (burns addresses and makes the phones more exposed to the net)

    Thx,
    /lou
    PX Eliezer
    Premium
    join:2008-08-09
    New Jersey
    ·Callcentric
    ·callwithus
    ·Optimum Voice
    ·voip.ms


    3 edits

    Re: Could it be network problems?

    I would think that it was not a STUN issue as few providers are using STUN these days. It has been replaced by more modern methods. In addition, if this had been an issue, I think that there would be lots more customers (from various providers) having such problems. Of course, every situation is different.

    What has their support said about this?

    I wonder if you have tried reducing the registration interval (registration expiration) on your Grandstream devices??

    Maybe bring it way down to 2 minutes or 120 seconds, see if that helps, and work back up from there?

    Good luck.

    CallC

    @verizon.net

    reply to "lousteinberg".

    Hello,

    1) Answers to these and many other questions one may get within minutes by opening a trouble-ticket with Callcentric support.

    2) It's not that Callcentric doesn't support STUN - it's not something requiring support. STUN had been developed as a protocol helping not NAT-aware service providers [those who do not have session border controllers] to find out about a real IP address of a client who is behind NAT'ed network. As Callcentric had been from the ground up built on a licensed Session Border Controller systems [multiple, distributed network of] - it simply has NO need to use STUN at all. This also greatly simplified configuration for many not tech-savvy users allowing them avoid complicated questions like "what is your STUN address?"...

    3) You may literally have 1000s or even millions of SIP devices behind your NAT and/or firewall - we do NOT care - our technology penetrates [so far] almost ANY firewall/NAT combination (with extremely rare exceptions, so far only a handful counted when very specific "application" firewall was configured to physically intercept SIP packets - in countries like UAE where VoIP is forbidden; even then by setting so called "bypass" SBCs we, in many cases, solved that issue).

    4) There is NO need to set or enable packet forwarding - in most cases it will, at least, make things worse. As has been said above, Callcentric does NOT require ANY packet forwarding nor setting SIP devices in DMZ. This thing is also clearly explained in our Support/FAQ sections which are very simple to search by keywords. Again - do NOT configure ANY packet forwarding. Do NOT set SIP devices in DMZ.

    5) There are some "broken" routers and switches, for example, many older versions of Dlink firmware had SIP related problems.

    6) There is NO need to set any re-registration intervals - our system negotiates an appropriate registration interval with the device. Grandstream is one of very good vendors who DOES support such negotiation mechanism.

    7) Yes, Callcentric may and does handle multiple phones behind NAT without problems. There is virtually no setup today which would not be based on NAT. Callcentric's great success is largely based on its NAT penetrating technology.

    8) In general - please, just open a trouble-ticket with Callcentric and your problem will be solved.

    As a matter of fact - I do not understand how somebody, who do not clearly understand how the service provider works, without first trying its features, could initiate a port of their phone numbers to that provider - Callcentric has a very explicit and bold statement asking everybody initiating the port - check our network first.

    I [personally] do not understand someone sitting here on these boards for 3.5 years and having only 22 visits (3 during last two days) while leaving their first and absolutely negative (also a first negative review for Callcentric in general - what, there was not even a small wish to read some past reviews or just read some Callcentric related threads?) review to Callcentric (I'd expect at least one review for Vonage... during this long time).

    Thank you very much for trying our service.
    lousteinberg

    join:2005-11-26
    New Fairfield, CT
    ·Callcentric

    Re: Could it be network problems?

    Thanks for the reply. We've had tickets open well before I posted. Am still hopeful that this gets resolved, but it seems less and less likely...certainly not "within minutes". Suggesting that we open a ticket was a great idea. Unfortunately, our first set of tickets were open on 12 May. It's now 30 June.

    I'm afraid I don't understand your point number 8 at all. The fact that I haven't posted many (any) negative reviews after 3+ years as a BBR member should suggest that I'm not a chronic complainer (I've had many more visits than that...just don't usually log in, but thanks for checking up on me). I certainly did read past reviews before coming over, and had hoped to have a positive experience. We did test a single extension before porting. It worked fine. The problem came post porting with a second extension. We've frozen the migration of the rest of our numbers pending resolution of this issue.

    As far as understanding how service providers work (still your point 8), you couldn't be more wrong there. I've built and run some of the largest IP networks in the world, have contributed to a number of the RFCs, chaired an IETF working group, etc.

    I'm sure your service works just fine for the folks who posted positive reviews. I suspect that many of them don't run more than 1 phone. Some probably do, which is why I'm still trying to resolve this with you. I don't need 1000s, but so far you've struggled with 2 phones. Sure doesn't seem like a lot to me.

    Blaming the router (your point 5) would seem to be an easy response, but we've tried 3 different brands of routers at this point. It's very unlikely to be the routers- I have the wireshark traces to prove it.. I don't know where the actual issue is, but I've patiently tried to help debug it. Not sure your reply does anything but indicate a degree of defensiveness. It certainly doesn't instill confidence that the issue is being seriously worked on. Not helped by the fact that the support cycles are very long since you don't offer phone support (seems odd for a phone company), and we can go days without a response to an update we made to the ticket.
    Forums » comments on review of Callcentric

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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 21 days ago
(review was emailed from domain LBRE.com)


Long Beach,Los Angeles,CA
Contract price not specified.
"Tech support , features and price"
"VOIP does take somebody who is tech savy"
"My phone bill is now less than $30 vs $150"
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

    These guys are awesome. I just finished setting up two outgoing lines with
    one incoming line that I ported over from Verizon. The porting took about 2
    weeks and the phone number was only down for a couple of hours ringing busy.
    Getting all of the settings correct on the Linksys PAP2T is not the easiest,
    and if their tech support wasn't as good as it is, this could have been a
    frustrating experience. Their tech support should be the standard for all
    other companies. Their method of submitting a trouble ticket via your
    dashboard (web page) is efficient and doesn't waste anyone's time. Yes, I
    had to learn how to create a screen shot of my active browser window when I
    had the Linksys settings on the screen and then upload the image to tech
    support, but they even walked me through this process. They made it about as
    easy and painless as the process could be. It did take a little fiddling to
    get all of the settings right. But their responses were always timely and
    accurate. In fact the last response I got only took about 3 minutes. Only
    after I proved to myself that VOIP with CallCentric was going to work did I
    port my number over. Now I will consider whether to move my two business
    lines over to CallCentric, but this will require additional hardware and
    methods that I haven't quite figured out yet.

    Followup comments:
    Forums » comments on review of Callcentric


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