kanata2004
join:2004-03-05
Kanata, ON
| "FREE" VOIP phone service in Canada
CIA.com just lower their Home Phone Basic plan to ZERO dollar a month. You'll get:
1. A DID number anywhere in Canada;
2. 3 free feactures including voice mail and caller ID.
3. Unlimited local incoming&outging;
The catch is they charge $3.95 system access fee. But even $3.95/month is the lowest voip plan you can find in Canada.
CIA claim they support Sipura-2100 only but I do put the number successfully in my Netgear WGR615V VoIP wireless router I bought at $40 from ebay.
Here are the steps how I make it work in Netgear WGR615V VoIP route:
1. Go to »myaccount.cia.com and login with your CIA id you get in your e-mail;
2. Make sure your CIA phone service status is "Active";
3. Register your Netgear WGR615V MAC address in "register voip terminal" link, wait 2 minutes and the system will create the provison file in CIA server;
4. Open your Internet Explorer window and paste this link:
»voip.cia.com/provision.php?MAC=123456789012
(replace 123456789012 with the MAC address of your Netgear WGR615V). You'll get the provision XML show up;
5. Find the three lines
voip-mtrl2.cia.com
4167654321
1234567@cia.com
6. Go to »192.168.61.1/set_voip.htm in Netgear WGR615 router, put proxy/username/phonenumber/password you get from step 5. Both username and phone number are "User_ID" in step 5;
7. Save your change and wait 1 minutes, you'll see the green light;
8. Dial 1-800-463-3339 and you'll hear "Wecome to Fedex" 
If you have high speed internet already, the total investment for one year phone service is $4.3 x 12=$51.6 ($0.3 is GST of Canada) or you pay $4.3/month. If you don't have VoIP adapter, go to ebay to get a Netgear WGR615V for $55 shipping included.
CIA customer support sucks. If you don't know what your're doing, don't bother to use CIA because you're on your own if something goes wrong. |
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voiplover
Premium
join:2004-05-28
Portsmouth, NH |  How is the call quality?
What codecs are you using? |
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kanata2004
join:2004-03-05
Kanata, ON | The local call quality is perfect. I use 711u in codec. Because they'll charge 4cents/minute(which is other catch) for long distance, I didn't try LD yet. |
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voiplover
Premium
join:2004-05-28
Portsmouth, NH | I just saw the 4 cents a minute. No thank you. |
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rizzo2dial
Premium
join:2004-08-05 | reply to kanata2004
"FREE" VoIP service for $3.95/mo. 
If there's a $3.95/mo fee, it's not FREE. |
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voiptoronto
@primus.ca | Might as well use vbuzzer - almost same price. |
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stufried
Premium
join:2003-10-13 | reply to kanata2004
What is VBuzzer's rates for a non-Toronto line? |
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voiptoronto
@primus.ca | vbuzzer charges $2/month for non-Toronto line, then 1.7c/min for outgoing calls to North America. Free incoming. |
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fortissimo
join:2003-10-17
Richmond, BC
| reply to voiptoronto
vBuzzer does not have 604 DID, not for the last few years they said it might be coming. I am sick of waiting for it. Other DID service at similar price does not even include any incoming or outgoing minutes, it's just a DID, and at the same price (les.net etc)> So what do you mean almost same price??
For 604, the cheapest ever found before this is Peopleline.net and that is $10. a month or $100. a year. This is 60% cheaper! Other providers are at least $15. a month and not even any good at all! You have to go up to at least $25. a month or more to get decent quality!
Now I really don't know and am very skeptical at this point how good this provider is. No track record so far, and they are part of 3web ISP, and 3web reputation in terms of customer service etc is not good in the ISP forums here. Since the pain of being stung by Acanac, Broadvoice, and to a certain degree Broadvox Direct and Packet8, I have been very skeptical!!
Don't get me wrong, I have been a loyal vBuzzer customer and have been recommending friends to vBuzzer. But what you said that vBuzzer can do for less, it does not matter because CIA can provider a local DID while vBuzzer has never been able to! Not that we haven't asked for it! |
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fortissimo
join:2003-10-17
Richmond, BC
| reply to kanata2004
Just signed up. I just want to check if the provisioning is correct.
I'm testing this on a PAP2.
From what I can see, the 3 lines you put, should be
proxy (also outbound proxy as well? or not used?)
user ID (also auth ID as well? or not used?)
password (1234567@cia.com )
So is that right?
I'm still waiting for my account to be approved so I can't know if my provision is incorrect or that it hasn't been set up on their server yet. I assume they need to charge my credit card etc first. |
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ogdensburg
join:2006-12-12
Ogdensburg, NY
2 edits | If someone can post a screenshot of CIA configuration, it will be perfect. |
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fortissimo
join:2003-10-17
Richmond, BC
| reply to fortissimo
Account activated. Tested briefly and ok.
PAP2 now directly on internet. I haven't got it to work pass my NAT router yet. I didn't see anything in the provisioning XML file setting up NAT traversal or Outbound proxy (should say I am not 100% sure how I should read the file as I don't have a Sipura 2100 around to match it with).
Since this is a commercial product, shouldn't it automagically work behind NAT without Outbound Proxy setting, or STUN server? Or should I need to set it up still?
I can confirm these though:
voip-mtrl2.cia.com #this is the proxy, likely also outbound proxy but the XML seems to say "no" on the Outbound Proxy?
4167654321 # this is the "user id" or "account", also likely the Auth. ID, but the XML seems to say "no" as well.
1234567@cia.com # this is the password (or "secret" in Asterisk speak).
It could be obvious but the OP didn't make it 100% clear (but I still thank the OP for this wonderful news).
Their LD cost is a bit higher than most, so I guess their marketing plan seems to want to get upsell to other features or products. There is no way they can make money on just a bare line.
I observed an abnomaly on the account webpage. If you want to add additional features, it says "free" after each feature, but obviously it is not free (costing from $1.99 etc) on the main page. I doubt that those are free, but I think it was free on the Premium account (or when it was $29.95 a month), so they forgot to clean this up. I don't want to add them and then got charged for the extra features, but I think the Call Forwarding can be somewhat useful.
I found the features fairly basic compared to big companies like what I used to use like Broadvox Direct, etc. But for the price it's unbeatable. I have changed from having unlimited North America plan to low end plans because I just cannot use that much LD a month (most gone to waste).
Hope this will last!!
Another thing is that it doesn't say if they allow signing up for a DID that you are not living in. It did say "address where you are installing this" meaning for e911 purpose. No additional address field for credit card payment, so what if the credit card address doesn't match (let's say I use a friend's address in Toronto so I can get a Toronto DID)?
Anyway, finally something here, no more waiting for vBuzzer to deliver a Vancouver DID! haha. |
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fortissimo
join:2003-10-17
Richmond, BC
| For DTMF transmission, I found out it works after changing from INFO to Auto on my PAP2. I thought they were blocking DTMF like some providers. Luckily they don't.
So now this can be used to combine with lower cost LD provider with access number method. |
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fortissimo
join:2003-10-17
Richmond, BC
| More discovery.
For using a softphone behind NAT, STUN is needed. Port forwarding of UDP 5060 is needed. Do not need to set Outbound Proxy.
Registration from more than one client at the same time seems to work (just tested 2). Incoming seems to ring both (not 100% sure, only tested once).
Call Waiting and 3-Way Calling works despite none were added to the features (as it's contradicting as to if it's free or extra). Call Forwarding does not work, didn't get prompt except something resembling a ring (again, normal as I didn't add that feature).
MAC address only required to retrieve XML file. Registration on another client on diff. MAC works fine. So much for its claim for security! I might try to phone in to see if LD can be blocked on my account, just in case it's sniffed! There might be a way on the My Account page but I'm not sure.
Caller ID with Names work for incoming correctly. Caller ID works for outgoing (couldn't test w/ Name as I don't have a line that can show it). It's amazing that it has Caller ID with Names, while many much more expensive providers cannot (shame on them!). |
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anony101
@comcast.net | reply to kanata2004
Marketing must be running out of ideas and or think people are truly stupid.
If you have to pay an access fee than service is NOT free. |
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think4us
@shawcable.net
| Hi
I was impressed by the information posted by 'kanata' and 'fortissimo' indicating that we can use pap2 adapters with cia. However, it doesn't seem to work when I try it on my linksys pap2 adapter.
It would be great if someone can help me use my adapter with cia voip service.
My pap2 is connected to a trendnet router (TEW 432BRP) which itself is connected to a shaw modem.
I've tried entering the username, proxy etc in the configuration menu of pap2 but there seems to be no dialtone.
Some things different for my cia setting are :
voip-van1.cia.com
password format: A1234567@cia.com
I don't know why it is not connecting. |
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fortissimo
join:2003-10-17
Richmond, BC
| reply to think4us
Re: "FREE" VOIP phone service in Canada
I really have no X-ray vision to know why your PAP2 doesn't work. cia requires no special settings I know of, and is similar to many commercial VOIP providers in terms of settings.
If you are using a router you need to forward the port 5060 to the PAP2, which is universally the way anyway.
And if you are behind a router which uses NAT (which most do), then you need to use a STUN server setting as well.
Otherwise it is typical. I am not connecting via a router so my setting might not apply for you.
I also suggest you join as a member of this fine board. It is free. |
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keep
@acanac.net | reply to kanata2004
your way doesnt work .i use my linksys spa1001 to test the cia configuration .
i setup as what you said. but doesnt work.
can u give me more suggestion ? |
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quadxilla
join:2007-10-23
 ·BSNL
| reply to fortissimo
Could you tell me more about port forwarding and how to use stun server? I mean what settings I need to tweak. I hope my server is right i.e. voip-van1.cia.com .
I think I might be close because the adapter status says "coudn't login ...".
and here's how the connections are:
shaw modem--> router --> adapter ; computer
Thanks |
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