Topic 'CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?' in forum 'VOIP Tech Chat' - dslreports.com

Re: CallWithUs seems OK now.

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:34:06 EDT

PX Eliezer posted : I am registered to the East server.

I saw your post about 1:30 pm EST.

Tried CWU at that time, inbound and outbound, everything was fine.

Likewise, my ATA was listed as registered on the CWU website, and the ATA itself indicated proper registration.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:36:50 EDT

real_goose posted : CallWithUs appears to be down hard right now. My registration fails and their website does not respond. I don't use them as my primary carrier so not a major problem for me.

I switched to west and registered OK, so this looks like a repeat of an earlier outage.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:47:40 EDT

espaeth posted :

said by sokhapkin:

»www.vaultnetworks.com/dedicated-···ers.html looks reasonable..

Except that Miami isn't a strategic location for anything, network-wise.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:32:26 EDT

sokhapkin posted :

said by nitzan:

It'll be hard to find those kinda specs at a good price. You're much better off building the server yourself (or buying one) and sending it to be colo'ed. IMHO.

»www.vaultnetworks.com/dedicated-···ers.html looks reasonable...
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»www.callwithus.com

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:45:21 EDT

sokhapkin posted : No, I don't want to colo, in case of hardware problem it will take long time to restore.
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»www.callwithus.com

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:39:08 EDT

nitzan posted : It'll be hard to find those kinda specs at a good price. You're much better off building the server yourself (or buying one) and sending it to be colo'ed. IMHO.
--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:31:50 EDT

sokhapkin posted : Can somebody suggest a good dedicated server provider on east coast with a reasonable prices? I'm looking for core 2 quad CPU, 1TB monthly bandwidth below $150/month, I pay $99/month for such servers on west coast.
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»www.callwithus.com

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:00:37 EDT

espaeth posted : Bleh..

east.callwithus.com is down again. Went down just before 10pm central, so another 3 hours of downtime thusfar.

./check_sip -u sip:@sip.callwithus.comSIP timeout: No response from SIP server after 15 seconds

[Nov 18 23:42:46] NOTICE[30843] chan_sip.c:    -- Registration for '@CWU-east' timed out, trying again (Attempt #323)

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:07:22 EDT

espaeth posted :

said by nitzan:

The servers seems up (pingable) and the website is working. Are you sure the problem is on their side this time?

Up until 6am this morning all SIP processing was dead on east.callwithus.com. I didn't notice myself at first since I don't have a DID with them, but after a few people started mentioning the outage on an IRC channel I was idling on I checked my * logs and also saw registration timeouts.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:00:58 EDT

PX Eliezer posted : I have had no recent downtime at all except for about 15 minutes Sunday evening.

The owner Sergey explained right away that it was routine maintenance that took longer than expected.

But as I said, it was just 15 minutes.

I know that if you use one particular server---either east.callwithus.com or west.callwithus.com---and if there is a problem, try the other server.

Service has been fine for me lately except that one time. I am glad that I found CWU as my daughter now is a teenager and she can talk to her friend for an hour or more at a time. :)

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:57:47 EDT

nitzan posted :

said by espaeth:

Down again tonight since 7:27pm CST. (about 7 hours now)

The servers seems up (pingable) and the website is working. Are you sure the problem is on their side this time?

No real idea, but just thought it's odd that the servers seem OK. :)
--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:23:53 EDT

espaeth posted : Down again tonight since 7:27pm CST. (about 7 hours now)

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:38:48 EDT

Test99 posted :

said by edmidor:

They however did setup a monitoring system, and automatically move customers to another server (in another datacenter) in case of failure.

That's good information. I had been unwilling to consider them because I was under the impression they did not have automatic failover.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:31:29 EDT

edmidor posted : It's obviously Sergey's choice whether to implement failover or not, it's a hobbyist service and it doesn't guarantee uptime.
The only problem for me is that DIDs best matching my needs feature and price wise are coming from CWU and if there's no failover I'm cut off.

Low pricing isn't necessarily a good reason for no failover. Another service I highly appreciate - pbxes.com - charges both business and private customers rather low amounts between $5 and $15 monthly. They however did setup a monitoring system, and automatically move customers to another server (in another datacenter) in case of failure. This is priceless. I usually learn about failure of the server I'm used to register with after it's already fixed - with no any downtime for me.
I believe this is a model worth looking into by any small VSP.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:50:17 EDT

PX Eliezer posted : I have had good success with CallWithUs, which I use as my main outgoing line at home, but not my only one.

I'm sure that Sergey is as disappointed as anyone else with the recent brief outages.

Today, by coincidence, I learned of a recent 12 hour outage at a large VoIP provider that serves many business clients. In that case, the outage was definitely caused by a defective switch at a major carrier. So even at a large corporate-type VoIP provider, these failures do happen, and are often beyond the VoIP provider's direct control.

CallWithUs does not put on any false airs. Their website clearly states: "CallWithUs.com is family-owned and operated service. We designed the service for ourself to provide our telephone needs. The server has spare resources available and we would like to share the resources with other people".

I believe that they price themselves accordingly: No monthly fees, no junk fees, no minimums, and very attractive rates for outbound calls (termination).

True, some of their DID's are not attractive, but anyone can freely use a DID from anywhere else (even ipKall) and direct it to CWU at no charge.

Considering their very economical prices, I have felt that they provided excellent value.

Folks know that I have been a booster of the fine provider CallCentric. But CallCentric's rates are clearly higher than CallWithUs. So again, I am more than willing to cut some slack for CallWithUs.

Whenever I have had a question or problem, I have gotten quick answers. And I think that these outages have been fixed pretty quickly.

This is the total, total opposite of some of the carriers like Vonics or the late SunRocket, which collect fees upfront for 6 or 12 months of service, and which then have major problems.

If the expensive car wash does a bad job, I'll complain. But if some high school kids are doing a carwash to raise money for the band, I won't mind if they leave a few smudges. :)

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:04:28 EDT

anon posted : Maybe the owner worked all night and slept all day and hasn't awakened yet.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:00:54 EDT

Test99 posted :

said by sokhapkin:

Server provider moved HDD from failed box to a new box

I know for sure the problem was inside their network.

Maybe it's time for a new provider and procedures to cope with failures gracefully?

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:19:56 EDT

sokhapkin posted : Weird network problem on sip.callwithus.com - UDP packest sent from port 5060 were lost somewhere from 12:56:52 EDT till 15:08:21 EDT. Network provider claims they did nothing. I know for sure the problem was inside their network.
--
»www.callwithus.com

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:49:19 EDT

edmidor posted : No, it's down again right now :(

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:48:04 EDT

edmidor posted : Yes, I just reconnected... 3rd time today.

I don't care about outgoing calls but being unreachable on my CWU DIDs during weekend really bothers me.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:32:51 EDT

TheMole posted : SIP registrations have been failing for 1 and 1/2 hours, since approx 1pm EDT today (October 25).

IAX2 registrations are okay.

Anybody else having problems?
--
(1) It's either 99¢ or $0.99; not .99¢ (2) It's "so MUCH fun" not "so fun"

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:10:29 EDT

sokhapkin posted : Server provider moved HDD from failed box to a new box.
--
»www.callwithus.com

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:34:47 EDT

PX Eliezer posted : FWIW, I have had no trouble at all with CallWithUs today. :)

No trouble with tribbles, and no tribbles with trouble. ;)

At least if there is the occasional outage, it gets fixed, and it gets publicly acknowledged.

(Unlike some OTHER providers who have had major outages recently with no explanation!) :(

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:00:26 EDT

nitzan posted : We use 1800 seconds on most hostnames. Tried 600 for a few days but after about a million queries decided to up it back to 1800.

Keep in mind that if you have a few thousand (or more) adapters constantly registering with your server, too-short of a TTL will get you millions of queries a month.
--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:44:59 EDT

espaeth posted :

said by sokhapkin:

No reason to set short TTL for static IP addresses.

Except in cases like this where you could point east.callwithus.com's A record at west's IP address, and recover from an outage without end users needing to reconfigure their stuff in a matter of minutes.

Outside of glue records, there's really no good reason for any TTL to be longer than 3600 seconds these days. Most services are significantly shorter -- Google uses 300 second TTL for all of their resource records, Amazon uses 60. Even on my own hosting servers I'm using 180 second TTL because I have redundant boxes with sync'd filesystems and automated DNS updates on failover. If I lose a primary hosting box (be it for hardware failure or entire datacenter failure), the backup is online at a different data center within 3-5 minutes (a couple minutes for detection plus the 180 second DNS cache time). It's been 4 years and I've never had anyone notice enough downtime to comment on it, even though there's been at least a couple dozen times where the failover has been triggered.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:08:02 EDT

sokhapkin posted :

said by espaeth:

Those DNS changes would probably go a bit quicker if the TTL on the A records wasn't nearly 11 hours.

No reason to set short TTL for static IP addresses.
--
»www.callwithus.com

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:50:43 EDT

edmidor posted : There was few minutes off on west, but now it seems to work well...

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:42:59 EDT

espaeth posted :

said by sokhapkin:

I updated DNS settings to repoint to another server, but DNS changes will take time to propagate.

Those DNS changes would probably go a bit quicker if the TTL on the A records wasn't nearly 11 hours.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:18:34 EDT

sokhapkin posted : Update from the server provider:

Sergey,

We have tested the hard drive and are attempting to further diagnose the
issue. I have swapped out the RAM and will be restarting your server
shortly.

--
»www.callwithus.com

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:16:12 EDT

sokhapkin posted : Seems like hardware failure on east(iax).callwithus.com, server hangs after few minutes after reboot. I updated DNS settings to repoint to another server, but DNS changes will take time to propagate.

So far use west.callwithus.com instead.
--
»www.callwithus.com

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:07:01 EDT

espaeth posted : east.callwithus.com has been down again today since 11:15am CDT for me.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:53:09 EDT

prestonlewis posted : I can ping west.callwithus.com but my PAP2 won't register.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:46:23 EDT

Test99 posted : My logs show only 4 days in the last 30 when there were no registration failures on west.callwithus.com.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:22:46 EDT

PX Eliezer posted : Yes, I've noticed CallWithUs to be down for a little while some mornings.

This has never been a big issue for me. That's why we plan for some redundancy.

The thing is, sometimes even my Verizon pots landline has no dial tone.

And sometimes my Internet connection is down.

And yesterday, even though my Optimum (Cablevision) Internet connection was fine, the Optimum Voice phone service was down. This was quickly fixed after a call to Optimum.

Nothing's perfect except maybe that Olympic swimmer guy....

CallWithUs is almost always up, and almost always pretty good. :)

If it's down a little, why worry?

Now the stockmarket being down, THAT's a worry. :(

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:05:16 EDT

gbh2o posted :

said by edmidor:

Down again? :(

It looks like 'sip.' and 'east.' are out for me at the moment, but 'west.' [ip 38.99.70.46] seems to still be up and hanging in there for registrations. It helps to have them all defined. :D

:( Unfortunately though, it appears my outbound has to roll over to another provider.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:47:11 EDT

edmidor posted : Down again? :(

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:42:00 EDT

nitzan posted :

said by AndrewZ:

What are you talking about? Client will (or should) use whatever ptime value assigned by the server during the call setup. Read RFC3264.

Should.

RFC's are nice and all, doesn't mean adapter manufacturers actually follow them.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:52:15 EDT

edmidor posted : Apparently it's either different parameter, or it's not happening in real world. Setting packet size affects voice quality every single time, which means no run-time override takes place during call initiation.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:26:34 EDT

PX Eliezer posted :

said by AndrewZ:

What are you talking about? Client will (or should) use whatever ptime value assigned by the server during the call setup. Read RFC3264.

If that's true, then why do virtually all ATA's and many IP telephones come with the ability for the user to adjust these settings??

And are you saying that these folks (previously referenced) are wrong:
»michigantelephone.wordpress.com/···r-level/

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:35:41 EDT

AndrewZ posted :

said by nitzan:

You'd definitely want to use packet size 0.020 and codec G711u for best results - assuming you have at least 90kbps up and down free during the call.

Packet size 0.010 will not give you better quality. 0.030 will give you slightly worse quality, but usually not noticeable.

If you use G729, always use 0.020 packet size as 0.030 may give you noticeable degradation. (voice under water type effect and such)

What are you talking about? Client will (or should) use whatever ptime value assigned by the server during the call setup. Read RFC3264.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:01:37 EDT

nitzan posted :

said by edmidor:

said by nitzan:

There should be no need to port forward anything.

I might be mistaken, but with NAT and no port forwarding on RTP ports REINVITE won't work... am I wrong here?

Correct.

REINVITE however is not something every user should be trying. If you enjoy messing with stuff like that then you can do it - but it's not necessary if both the user and the provider are in the US (and probably Canada would be OK too). :)
--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:32:18 EDT

PX Eliezer posted :

said by lwt42:

... and even with all of that, still had poor audio and dropped calls.

Changing providers seems to have solved the problem.

Sorry it didn't work out with CWU but glad that you found success with a different VoIP provider.

Some relationships just don't work out.

That's why they have that old song, "50 Ways to Leave Your Voiper".

:)

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:27:47 EDT

PX Eliezer posted : (reply to dd325xi)

I use CallWithUs. I have a Zoom 5801 ATA and a D-Link DGL-4100 router. I have not set up any port forwarding and also not using any DMZ setting.

I honestly don't know if REINVITE is working or not (although I understand it is not essential).

All I can say is that CallWithUs consistently works great for me. No static, no drops.

As always, VoIP experiences can vary....

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:57:09 EDT

edmidor posted :

said by nitzan:

There should be no need to port forward anything.

I might be mistaken, but with NAT and no port forwarding on RTP ports REINVITE won't work... am I wrong here?

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:43:56 EDT

lwt42 posted :

said by lwt42:

said by nitzan:

With Linksys, start with factory settings, enable NAT mapping and keep alive, enable registration, and keep the advanced options alone until after you test with basic configuration. There should be no need to port forward anything.

To take the whole firewall question out of the picture, the PAP2T is now on the other side of the firewall. The first router is at my provider on the other end of the DSL.

I reset the PAP2T to factory, configured it for the public (static) IP, set the RTP Packet size to 0.020 and set Latency to "low."

... and even with all of that, still had poor audio and dropped calls.

Changing providers seems to have solved the problem.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:06:52 EDT

lwt42 posted :

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:33:13 EDT

nitzan posted : CWU is using a similar software to ours. You'd definitely want to use packet size 0.020 and codec G711u for best results - assuming you have at least 90kbps up and down free during the call.

Packet size 0.010 will not give you better quality. 0.030 will give you slightly worse quality, but usually not noticeable.

If you use G729, always use 0.020 packet size as 0.030 may give you noticeable degradation. (voice under water type effect and such)

With Linksys, start with factory settings, enable NAT mapping and keep alive, enable registration, and keep the advanced options alone until after you test with basic configuration. There should be no need to port forward anything.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:13:44 EDT

lwt42 posted :

said by PX Eliezer:

I'm sorry, networking and port forwarding are not my gig, so I'm not fully understanding that. But I will say: If you try to set up a softphone, it may work, it may not, but nothing will break, and at worst you've lost 10 minutes....

(snip)

Further, if you are worried about conflicts on remote port 5060, I believe that CWU also listens on port 20051 so you could set it up that way.

Well, if there is some good news, it's that networking and port forwarding is my gig.

Thanks for RTP packet size lead. I said G.729, and it's G.711u. The article says the default packet size of 0.030 is incompatible with G.711u, and suggests 0.020 on "normal" connections, and as low as 0.010 on satellite links and anything with high latency. So I'm going to split the difference and see what happens.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:52:44 EDT

PX Eliezer posted :

said by lwt42:

1) It is if the TA is on 192.168.42.136, and you send all traffic on the RTP ports and the SIP ports to that specific IP, then it's a problem. I have to rip that out.
Taking the router out is also a bit of a pain because my upstream doesn't do DHCP.

I'm sorry, networking and port forwarding are not my gig, so I'm not fully understanding that. But I will say: If you try to set up a softphone, it may work, it may not, but nothing will break, and at worst you've lost 10 minutes....

Also, if you want to do a softphone, you can log in to CallWithUs, go to VOIP Accounts, then at the right side of the page click ADD. You will get a second Username and Password, so it's easy to program a second device (such as a softphone). Your main account is not changed, and the second Username shares the funds that are already in the main account.

Further, if you are worried about conflicts on remote port 5060, I believe that CWU also listens on port 20051 so you could set it up that way.

Re: CallWithUs: Is CallWithUs.com Down?

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:37:48 EDT

lwt42 posted :

said by PX Eliezer:

Reply to lwt42:

Certainly seems like a frustrating problem.

Three thoughts:

1) If you just unplug the ATA, then should be no conflict just setting up a softphone on your computer.

2) With your ATA, you mentioned codec G.729. Maybe if you have good bandwidth you should try codec G.711

3) This MAY be our best bet yet: Here is a link which describes how some ATA's have a wrong setting for RTP size.

Thanks again for comments.

1) It is if the TA is on 192.168.42.136, and you send all traffic on the RTP ports and the SIP ports to that specific IP, then it's a problem. I have to rip that out.

Taking the router out is also a bit of a pain because my upstream doesn't do DHCP. Reconfiguring is a pain, especially coming back from public to private.

2) I wish it was a consistent voice quality problem. It doesn't happen on every call, it usually happens on one or two calls per day, or with very specific numbers (and not others).

3) I'll run this one to ground, thanks!