stefanp
join:2007-07-12
New Westminster, BC
| reply to stefanp
Re: [Other] Allo.com
Allo.com going out of business ?
That's the message I just got from stella@allo.com a few min ago:
This message is from the Allo.com Management Team regarding your account # xxxxx.
We regret to inform you that starting 1st of August of the current year, our company will cease commercial activities. . Our network will remain up until July 31st, 2007. After this date, we will regrettably no longer offer service to our customers. |
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stefanp
join:2007-07-12
New Westminster, BC | reply to Taker
So, could someone summarize what forwarding ports should be setup on the NAT to make incoming calls work? |
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Taker
join:2003-11-11
Costa Mesa, CA
| reply to priller
Sorry to hear that you guys are having a hard time with customer support. I totally relate and feel that pain too.
Forget emailing them since that doesn't work too well. Best thing is the online 'chat' or to call in to their customer support. Oh, and don't bother giving them your username since they'll just look at your account to see how many times you've contacted them and then they'll proceed to tell you that a tech will call you back. --Utter & Complete Bullshiat!
Continue to repeat your question until they are forced to deviate from their script and answer your question...--This will take several minutes (which ultimately leads to losing a few hours). Lots of times, they'll give you utter bullshit as the answer. Like when I asked them which RTP ports I needed to forward for my router and the online rep answered with '3600' -- That's the 'reg expires' which is the default number in the ATA already!!!!!!!!!!!
BTW, I have been able to solve my problem. NO THANKS, to customer support!
I was able to use a STUN server to bypass my NAT problem on the DI-624 and now incoming calls come through fine. Only thing I've noticed is that if I'm downloading 5-8 files on a P2P, forget it! The sound quality is awful; it sounds worse than a tin can as it's very tinny, hollow, with voice drops between the caller and recipient - almost like using a cellphone underground/through a heavy concrete tunnel - I also dropped a call this way -- very much like a cellphone.
However, if I close the P2P app then the sound quality is decent. Still doesn't sound like a landline as there is just a slight lag (maybe .5 seconds but it is noticeable) and there is a muted echo (yes, I have 'more echo suppression' turned on in the PAP2T).
But for $8.29/mo (via the $199/2 year deal), I think the sound quality is quite decent. It's just a matter of if you're lucky enough to get things to work. However, I don't think I'd be willing to pay over $20/mo for VoIP if this is the sound quality. I'd probably stick to POTS at that point.
Way too much hassle...Everything should have been PNP but oh well...at least it works. I'll play with the codecs later I guess to see if that helps sound quality further. Everything I've researched says to use G711u but I think G729a sounds better...yes, 'use preferred codecs only' is set to no. I've also increased Win XP's bandwith by 20% by altering the gpedit.msc to improve voice quality.
I'll tweak further and see if I can get better voice quality and report back here later.
Good luck to everyone else! |
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priller
join:2000-10-20
Gainesville, VA
 ·voip.ms
·Callcentric
·Vonage
·callwithus
| reply to stefanp
Ya, I submitted 2 general inquiries, unrelated to the issues I noted above. Never got a response to either.
Then I got the same survey. I didn't fill it out because it was so poorly formated and I could believe they sent a survey for something nobody ever got back to me on. |
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stefanp
join:2007-07-12
New Westminster, BC
| reply to redshift
I am surprised you got any success getting in touch with their customer support.
I'v signed up for their pay-as-you-go plan about 2 weeks ago.
I like the fact that I can connect with Asterisk or my own adapter - both work fine. Being able to control my own caller ID it's a very important feature for me.
Bu I haven't been able to receive any calls although I can place outgoing calls ok.
So I have contacted the customer support via their support form on the website about 3 days ago but I haven't heard anything back since.
I also tried their live chat but there is nobody there ever although it says they're online.
Called their 1-877 number but there is just a voicemail.
The next day after I signed up with them I got an email from a certain Christina Michael from Bangalore asking me to give feedback on their service. The email contained just a table where you supposedly should probably retype the whole thing and reply back as there was no form to submit.
I emailed her back yesterday asking her for help with my incoming calls but no reply so far.
The bottom line is that their customer service is inexistent, I would not use them for my main phone line or business. |
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Taker
join:2003-11-11
Costa Mesa, CA
| reply to redshift
Signed up for the 2yr/$199 deal and all I can say is that I'm having troubles!
I decided on BYOD, and purchased a PAP2T-NA and I believe I have everything set up correctly. I can make outbound calls fine but incoming calls will automatically go to voicemail!
It seems to be my router (DI-624) as I have tried connecting directly from the PAP2T to the cable modem and voila! Incoming calls now come through like they're supposed to!
I have forwarded the UDP ports 5060-5061, RTP 10000-20000, changed the ringtone from sinusoid to trapezoid with 90/20 but still no luck. The DI-624 is also set to gaming mode as I have been informed that the router in gaming mode is CONE NAT.
I haven't tried a stun server yet (any recommendations? Are these stun servers free?) but will try that next.
I have contacted customer support which of course is hardly any help ever! They continue to read from the script but I was finally after several days and hours able to obtain information that they are having technical difficulties on their end...Yet this doesn't seem to be related to the issues that I am having since VoIP works fine as long as I keep my ATA connected directly to the cable modem. Of course, I can't keep it like this since I need to have internet access and the PAP2T only has 1 WAN port! AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
Very, very frustrating -- especially since this technical difficulty has been going on for a week now...
I may cancel with them and try ViaTalk and if that doesn't work then I guess I'll try digital cable phone. |
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deskjockey
join:2005-04-17
Charlotte, NC | reply to priller
Update, I just got off the phone with Allo.com and they are charging for the 2 yr deal the $199 base fee and $72 in recovery charges. |
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priller
join:2000-10-20
Gainesville, VA
·voip.ms
·Callcentric
·Vonage
·callwithus
2 edits | reply to priller
Re: Initial Observations
said by priller  :* I'm getting fast busies on calls to area code 571. Contacted support via web, see how long they take to respond. * The called party only gets "unknown" on CID. Updating these issues I reported.
* The problems calling 571 have been resolved.
* "Unknown" on CID: Jacq and other's at Allo were very nice and made a serious effort to work on this, but I'm still unable to set the outbound CID. We were able to set it using the X-Lite softphone, but couldn't make it happen with the spa3102. Looks like there is a "coming soon" feature on the user portal where you can set your outbound CID, for non-Allo ATA's. Apparently, much like Vitelity and Teliax let you do. This is a show stopper for me.
On my brief test calls, I never experienced any voice quality issue.
I seriously do not like having two different buckets you have to put pay-as-you-go money into. There is "local", for US and Canada calls. Then you need to pay into another bucket for International calls.
Bottom line: Allo is defiantly worth a look. But, like any new provider, there will be a few issues to sort out. |
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j0ly
join:2007-03-22
Calgary, AB
| reply to redshift
Re: [Other] Allo.com
Welp, Ive made up my mind, im not going to go with Allo.com.... all outbound calls have a bad echo using a pap2 device for the 1 week trial. I contacted support via the online chat, and they did figure out something for me, however, the echo continued yet today. there is no ticket system for the the problems that customers may have, so no way to track if someone actually fixed anything.
Ill try them out again, when they seem to fix these issues, or other users report success.
If anyone from Allo.com can chime in on the echo issues, i would love to know, or when you think you may introduce some of the other features im looking for.
Cheers,
Scott |
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deskjockey
join:2005-04-17
Charlotte, NC
| reply to redshift
The following site claims there is a $72 charge for 911 & recovery fees. That is why I'm trying to find out what are the total cost for 2 years.
»www.voipreview.org/service.view.···aph=1304 |
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priller
join:2000-10-20
Gainesville, VA
2 edits | reply to redshift
Regulatory Recovery Fees are not a mandated fee. Companies are allowed to charge such a BS fee in the US, but are not required to in any way. |
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redshift
Premium
join:2004-03-23
Beverly Hills, CA
| reply to deskjockey
»www.allo.com/services/plans.php
Can't see anything about the Regulatory recovery fees; it's based in Canada so maybe they are exempt from that?
--
"So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause." |
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deskjockey
join:2005-04-17
Charlotte, NC | reply to j0ly
What is the total cost for their 2 year plan, including all regulatory fees and any other possible surprises. From what I see it is $199 plus something like 24 months of $2.50 or total of $260. |
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redshift
Premium
join:2004-03-23
Beverly Hills, CA | reply to j0ly
Sounds pretty good...let us know what your service is like as you have had it a bit longer.
--
"So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause." |
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j0ly
join:2007-03-22
Calgary, AB
| reply to redshift
Im on a trial right now with Allo.com, and so far im happy with the service, but ill tell you, there are some features that i wish they had.
1) fax to email support (ie, accepting email in voicemail and sending you a pdf, tif, ect.)
2) lack of * features, ie: *86 to check your voicemail, *67 to block your outgoing info from being scene... ect....
3) click to call - I use this right now with my provider, and it works damn well. log in to the user panel, type in a number your at, and a number you would like to call... and bingo!
Thats all i can think of now... |
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priller
join:2000-10-20
Gainesville, VA
·voip.ms
·Callcentric
·Vonage
·callwithus
| reply to jacq
said by jacq :
3) we're investigating and get back promptly with a fix
5) make sure that the 'display name' in your sip config is a valid number (no dashes no alpha characteres). We give our user control over their CID, we support BYOD, so the caller ID sent to the PSTN will be what you chose as display name (the string in the "" in the SIP From Header)
Thank you for following up.
I'll send you more detail on the NPA 571 issue.
I do have the CID set, as detailed in the guide. Looks like that may apply only to Allo-to-Allo calls?? PSTN terminated calls still only get "anonymous" regardless of what that field is set to.
Thx
|
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jacq
@btinfonet.com
| reply to redshift
hi there,
1) some gateways will force you into 729 if you specify supporting both 711 and 729. But, generally if you advertise supporting 711 and 729, with 711 priority, the gateway will accept and set the session for 711.
3) we're investigating and get back promptly with a fix
5) make sure that the 'display name' in your sip config is a valid number (no dashes no alpha characteres). We give our user control over their CID, we support BYOD, so the caller ID sent to the PSTN will be what you chose as display name (the string in the "" in the SIP From Header)
check out: »www.allo.com/support/installatio···uide.pdf
page 3, look for display name
if you have further problem, dont hesitate to send me a mail directly to jal@allo.com
thanks
-jacq |
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priller
join:2000-10-20
Gainesville, VA
·voip.ms
·Callcentric
·Vonage
·callwithus
1 edit | reply to redshift
Initial Observations
I signed up for their pay-as-you-go account, no number assigned. I'm using a SPA-3102. Here are a few quick initial observations.
* My preferred codec is set to G.711. However, they were forcing calls to G.729 ... that's not very nice. I changed the SPA to "Use Pref Codec Only" and now they are talking to me in G.711.
* They are using OpenSER SIP servers and Sonus gateways.
* I'm getting fast busies on calls to area code 571. Contacted support via web, see how long they take to respond.
* They have two different buckets you have to put pay-as-you-go money into. There is "local", for US and Canada calls. Then you need to pay into another bucket for International calls. Never seen it done this way. Everybody else I know of has one fund to pay into. Credits expire after 1 year.
* The called party only gets "unknown" on CID. With InPhonex, for example, the CID is your virtual number prefixed with an area code. |
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tommy13v
Premium
join:2002-02-15
Glenville NY
·ViaTalk
| reply to Voice of Doubt
Re: [Other] Allo.com
What they don't tell you is that, sure you can make all the calls you want(Unlimited calls) but its not unlimited minutes.
Every company uses this verbiage in the TOS even the Bells.
--
Asterisk Scripts |
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jinjimbob
Troy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
1 edit | reply to redshift
The feature of "Smart connection to closest Proxy every 5 minutes" is a good reason to use their hardware.
Another company like Sunrocket, putting the real cost in the TOS. They should just increase the monthly cost by $3, be open and honest, people will use them more.
4.7 Regulatory Recovery Fee: A regulatory recovery surcharge of $1.50 applies to each phone number, no matter the country. Allo.com uses this fee to pay our regulatory-related fees and expenses, including taxes, number portability charges, and related legal fees
4.8 E911 Fees: As per FCC requirements, all Allo.com lines are required to be equipped with fully functional, E-911 Service. As a result, an E-911 Fee of $1.50 will be charged monthly on all Allo.com lines.. Only customers located in the USA or Canada will be able to use this service. The $1.50 fee will be only charged to customers in these two countries. |
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