Topic 'WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy' in forum 'VOIP Tech Chat' - dslreports.com

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:05:35 EDT

UHF posted :

said by Ken1943:

Think I will look at VIOPo. If I read correctly, hurricane in Texas or earthquake in CA at least split the difference.

No. Employees in TX and CA. All the servers are in ONE Texas datacenter.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:01:30 EDT

dutchtender posted :

said by gbh2o:

You just have to love the flexibility of VoIP; robust and reliable! :)

THANKS to all of you!

robust? no
reliable? no

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 21:56:23 EDT

Ken1943 posted : I have callcentric and only one server for the whole US in NYC. Think I will look at VIOPo. If I read correctly, hurricane in Texas or earthquake in CA at least split the difference. The biggest thing is the price. Have pay-by-call with CC which for me is a big deal. Retired and don't have many calls.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 21:12:59 EDT

usa2k posted : FWIW
VOIPo is in good shape through Sandy
»forums.voipo.com/showthread.php/···tatement

Hope everyone out that way is OK. Seems like one of the worst! :(

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 20:41:56 EDT

jjoshua posted : Vitelity is failing my calls over to google and ringing through when my fios is active.

Callwithus is handling outgoing calls no problem.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:07:02 EDT

kaila posted : Voxbeam's Virginia server remains up- received an email from them yesterday stating they have a seamless migration plan in place, and will switch to their Amsterdam center if necessary.

I have to say, with the many pre-paid ITSP's out there, it's relatively cheap & easy to setup a geographically spaced secondary provider which would cover outbound needs. Redundant inbound is tricky, as failover forwarding typically will go down with the ITSP. Voip.ms makes it easy to move DID's between their locations, but it requires access to their website.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:43:54 EDT

gbh2o posted :

said by XCOM:

said by gbh2o:

I have previously expressed my personal opinions and experience on individual VoSPs; search is your friend if you are interested.

But, remember I was merely responding to the topic question with my previous response, not looking for a debate.

You are entitle to your opinion I give you that ;)
But seriously... No redundancy for a service provider such as CC? This is a joke. And you are ok with that? you must like the action on your retirement days :p
Though it is up to the provider to keep as much uptime possible to their customers... BUT CC not even an attempt to "try" and move your service to a fail over... Not even to improvise the situation...
Unacceptable.
If this is the case for any VoIP company dude I am out!

Hmmm, I must be missing something; I have no experience with CC and cannot (will not) comment about their services. That really wasn't the topic purpose as I understood it anyway. Several of the VoSPs with which I do business provide considerable backup and fail-over provisions for me. Over the years I have also commented on those topics, where appropriate.

If you do due diligence when seeking providers, and don't agree with a particular VoSP's philosophy, simply don't use them! My preferred providers were up as I previously indicated.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:43:52 EDT

OmagicQ posted : Another service possibly affected by Sandy is some tollfree calls routed through sipbroker. I am guessing its what Callcentric sponsors that is not working right now. Sipbroker itself seems to be working as I was able to make tollfree calls using *9026**18xxyyyzzzz
--
...Who, What, When, Where, How... Why? Why Not?

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:38:17 EDT

JoeSchmoe007 posted : Just imagine telling someone with phone service from, say, Verizon FIOS that they cannot call particular US number in South Dakota (not a 900 number or anything like this) because termination costs are too high. And that they need to maintain a backup phone service from CableVision.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:13:11 EDT

XCOM posted :

said by gbh2o:

Ahh, but my family that wanders around the world at times, and a few friends I allow to use my setup love the convenience. It is extremely rare that they ever see a failure due to my provider redundancy and depth of services. I do this to help maintain my sanity in a boring retirement!

_I_ have experienced more cell phone and POTS outages and over-loads during and after hurricanes than I have loss of internet and VoIP. I have even been privileged to be able to provide neighbors and others working VoIP service for several days following one bad storm. Their relatives in other areas were relieved to be able to maintain contact.

NOTHING is perfect or reliable under all conditions. And, I am certainly not paying for 99.999% reliability! I have previously expressed my personal opinions and experience on individual VoSPs; search is your friend if you are interested.

But, remember I was merely responding to the topic question with my previous response, not looking for a debate.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:54:39 EDT

gbh2o posted : Ahh, but my family that wanders around the world at times, and a few friends I allow to use my setup love the convenience. It is extremely rare that they ever see a failure due to my provider redundancy and depth of services. I do this to help maintain my sanity in a boring retirement!

_I_ have experienced more cell phone and POTS outages and over-loads during and after hurricanes than I have loss of internet and VoIP. I have even been privileged to be able to provide neighbors and others working VoIP service for several days following one bad storm. Their relatives in other areas were relieved to be able to maintain contact.

NOTHING is perfect or reliable under all conditions. And, I am certainly not paying for 99.999% reliability! I have previously expressed my personal opinions and experience on individual VoSPs; search is your friend if you are interested.

But, remember I was merely responding to the topic question with my previous response, not looking for a debate.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:47:03 EDT

MartinM posted :

said by borntochill:

MartinM, I want to commend you and the technical staff at voip.ms for having the foresight to put in place good geographic redundancy as well as good disaster planning. All my clients that I set up with you guys, including those on the newyork.voip.ms server, were up-and-running this morning with all features working perfectly. Bravo!

Thank you I appreciate your comment and I passed it to the whole team.
--
Martin - VoIP.ms

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:43:35 EDT

mdseuss posted : More on 75 Broad issues NYC:

»arstechnica.com/information-tech···outages/

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:22:29 EDT

borntochill posted :

said by MartinM:

Regarding VoiP.ms, the reason the website and New York POP were switched to another data center with a DNS Update is simple..The data center in New York where VoIP.ms Website is hosted estimated diesel power to 65 hours, then they got flooded and estimated power to 5-6 hours, that's when we decided to take action. We already had backup images ready, we also have a permanent real time image of our database being replicated to two other geo locations. However, these changes can take a little time to implement. The very first thing that was done was to update DNS for New York VoIP. Web site was a second priority because it does't affect uptime for the VoIP service. At the moment of typing this, the customer interface is being tested and should be online in a few.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:05:43 EDT

OmagicQ posted : This isn't stricty voip-related but the group audio/video chat service Paltalk is up and running and they are based in NYC. I ran a wireshark trace to get some ips and when I looked them up they were all in NYC.
--
...Who, What, When, Where, How... Why? Why Not?

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:02:05 EDT

XCOM posted : I agree.... Even in a natural disaster event it's a hit and miss what services will survive... I built my application line around "some" redundancy

Primary = VoIP Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. (Different tiers just in case of service provider outage)
Secondary = GSM Gateway. (T-Mobile)

All of this connected to a Dual Battery backup system.
It is my responsibility to keep my family communicated as much as possible in case of any human controlled event meaning "if the service is available" I have to make it happen....

This is the responsibility I took when I decided to move to VoIP 8yrs a go.
--
[nUll@dcypher ~]$

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:00:27 EDT

garys_2k posted :

said by JoeSchmoe007:

said by nitzan:

Hold on guys. Just because one provider had a rough patch doesn't mean other providers are in the same boat. Try out other providers before you decide to jump ship. A good place to start would be: »/gbu/ - read reviews first before you decide who to go with. Lots of features doesn't necessarily mean best - reliability is more important IMHO.

It's not just one provider that had a rough patch, THEY ALL have issues.

Well, sure, technology itself has certain reliability boundaries, even POTS.

When adopting VoIP, certainly with BYOD, you accept some responsibility for your own connectivity and redundancy. Nevertheless, even POTS will fail if your local CO was flooded or lines (fiber or copper) were taken down.

A VoIP DID it can fail if:
- Your ISP(s) fail
- Your provider supplying that DID fails (or they have one data center, or they don't switch over)
- Your POTS CO or fiber connection(s) fail

Ougoing calls are easier to make redundant, of course, but you still need Internet connectivity.

Nothing is failure proof, we're saving money but with the knowledge that failures can happen. BUT, of course, there's a lot to be said for back office redundancy and geographic diversity. No disagreement on that!

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:41:55 EDT

anon posted : Improcom has been down since mid afternoon yesterday. Don't know where there equipment is based, but there offices are in Brooklyn NY. Their office lines are down, and I can't even reach their web site.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:35:18 EDT

JoeSchmoe007 posted :

said by nitzan:

It's not just one provider that had a rough patch, THEY ALL have issues.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:24:28 EDT

nitzan posted : Hold on guys. Just because one provider had a rough patch doesn't mean other providers are in the same boat. Try out other providers before you decide to jump ship. A good place to start would be: »/gbu/ - read reviews first before you decide who to go with. Lots of features doesn't necessarily mean best - reliability is more important IMHO.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:11:42 EDT

OldCoalMiner posted :

said by JoeSchmoe007:

said by gbh2o:

I must be _very_ lucky, even my RentPBX server in NJ is still working great.

Alphabetical list of VoSPs that I've tested so far:

Anveo - working
CallWithUs - working
CheapVoipInc - working
Fonica/PBXinaFlash.net - working
FutureNine - working
Messagenet.it - working
SipGate -working
Telasip - working
Vitelity - working
VoipDiscount - working
VOIPo - working
voip.ms - working

You just have to love the flexibility of VoIP; robust and reliable! :)

THANKS to all of you!

I am getting a bit tired from that "flexibility". To me it translates into having to bend over backwards and maintain 3 providers already (Anveo - primary, CC - backup, CWU - backup for the backup because backup is down and primary can't complete calls to certain numbers with high termination cost). I just want to make calls and save money comparing with phone/cable company. This seems to be unattainable in VOIP world - time spent on getting it to work and having to maintain $ balance on all accounts seems to negate all price savings.

I'm coming round to that same thinking also. I recently jumped into VoIP, but am now re thinking if it's worth it vs. a basic landline with no extra add-ons.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:57:31 EDT

JoeSchmoe007 posted :

said by gbh2o:

I am getting a bit tired from that "flexibility". To me it translates into having to bend over backwards and maintain 3 providers already (Anveo - primary, CC - backup, CWU - backup for the backup because backup is down and primary won't complete calls to certain numbers with high termination cost). I just want to make calls and save money comparing with phone/cable company. This seems to be unattainable in VOIP world - time spent on getting it to work and having to maintain $ balance on all accounts seems to negate all price savings.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:50:45 EDT

gbh2o posted : I must be _very_ lucky, even my RentPBX server in NJ is still working great.

Alphabetical list of VoSPs that I've tested so far:

Anveo - working
CallWithUs - working
CheapVoipInc - working
Fonica/PBXinaFlash.net - working
FutureNine - working
Messagenet.it - working
SipGate -working
Telasip - working
Vitelity - working
VoipDiscount - working
VOIPo - working
voip.ms - working

You just have to love the flexibility of VoIP; robust and reliable! :)

THANKS to all of you!

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:27:02 EDT

borntochill posted : I have set up several client businesses with voip.ms and all of them are up-and-running today, including those using newyork.voip.ms. All services are working too including Interactive Voice Response, subaccounts, etc.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 10:44:36 EDT

JoeSchmoe007 posted : Anveo is working but sound quality was a bit choppy. Skype is working fine via the same connection, so probably something on Anveo end.

I disabled CC in my OBi, PhonerLite can't register for CC account.

Used CWU via PhonerLite this morning for 20 min conference call - had zero problems (Anveo can't reach this # today because high interconnect cost (per Anveo support), but was able to reach it 2 days ago - go figure) .

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 10:40:48 EDT

mdseuss posted :
Our minimal (half-rack) presence in NYC made it through the night but there is flooding and no power and our provider @ 75 Broad has asked us to power down by 11:00 AM EDT

(We lost our 4 ISDN/PRI lines to Qwest during the night ... VoIP working fine :-) )

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:37:18 EDT

Trimline posted : I also use Vitelity. They are primarily a commercial provider but do provide service to residential users. They don't have a lot of web options like the other providers, but are pretty good. Voicemail and call blocking is offered.

»www.vitelity.com/network/

Edit: Removed special pricing line as this may have changed.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:35:47 EDT

sokhapkin posted : Almost all DID providers (CLECs and ILECs) have only one connection to Internet - their own network.
--
»www.callwithus.com

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:22:03 EDT

mikefxu posted :

said by MartinM:

said by nitzan:

said by MartinM:

Sorry, I was a bit on the edge when I posted that.

Wouldn't be the first time...

At least I am.. Passionate ;) And I do not self promote ourselves when others are down.

The name of the thread is: "WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy"

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:04:44 EDT

w8sdz posted :

said by sokhapkin:

DIDs always have a single point of failure. If you need a very reliable DID - use POTS.

That goes without saying.

My question related to DID providers with redundant connections to ISPs using BGP to automatically handle routing changes needed to reach CallWithUs. CallWithUs has three widely distributed locations. I want a DID provider with at least 3 BGP routed connections to the Internet.

--
73 de w8sdz - sip:w8sdz@getonsip.com - Google+: »plus.google.com/+w8sdz

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:58:59 EDT

sokhapkin posted : DIDs always have a single point of failure. If you need a very reliable DID - use POTS.
--
»www.callwithus.com

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:41:08 EDT

w8sdz posted :

said by sokhapkin:

Callwithus servers are located in California, Michigan and London, UK.

I'm happy to see this (I have CallWithUs pay-as-you-go for outgoing calls). That is great for outgoing service, but do you have any similar DID partners with multiple data centers?

--
73 de w8sdz - sip:w8sdz@getonsip.com - Google+: »plus.google.com/+w8sdz

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:37:05 EDT

nitzan posted :

said by MartinM:

At least I am.. Passionate ;) And I do not self promote ourselves when others are down.

Oh yeah? where exactly did I self-promote?

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:21:45 EDT

MartinM posted :

said by nitzan:

said by MartinM:

Sorry, I was a bit on the edge when I posted that.

Wouldn't be the first time...

At least I am.. Passionate ;) And I do not self promote ourselves when others are down.
--
Martin - VoIP.ms

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:16:47 EDT

sokhapkin posted : Callwithus servers are located in California, Michigan and London, UK.
--
»www.callwithus.com

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:14:30 EDT

nitzan posted :

said by MartinM:

Sorry, I was a bit on the edge when I posted that.

Wouldn't be the first time...

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:12:48 EDT

MartinM posted :

said by Davesnothere:

said by MartinM:

Oh really?....

Smile when you say that. :)

Some inside that zone WERE affected, to varying degrees, and some were not.

Sorry, I was a bit tense when I posted that.
--
Martin - VoIP.ms

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 03:47:46 EDT

Davesnothere posted :
UPDATE : I read this past night that the local law in NYC apparently is that a LANDLORD can set up and offer the services of a backup power generator to its tenants, but a TENANT cannot do this individually for themself.

Callcentric (@Callcentric) tweeted this past evening :
"Buildings are allowed, however individual companies within buildings are not allowed." [i.e. to have backup power generators]

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:52:53 EDT

Davesnothere posted :

said by MartinM:

Oh really?....

Smile when you say that. :)

Some inside that zone WERE affected, to varying degrees, and some were not.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:30:33 EDT

MartinM posted :

said by Trev:

Business as usual here on the west coast. As long as those earthquakes stay up north, that is. Aftershocks are still rumbling Masset as recent as a couple hours ago.

Oh really? Businesses not located in the disaster area are not affected? Man I guess I need some sherlock lessons.
--
Martin - VoIP.ms

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:27:32 EDT

Davesnothere posted :

said by Trev:

Business as usual here on the west coast....

Meaning AcroVoice is UP then.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:24:12 EDT

Trev posted : Business as usual here on the west coast. As long as those earthquakes stay up north, that is. Aftershocks are still rumbling Masset as recent as a couple hours ago.
--
Wondering what I do? Find out at »www.digitalcon.ca
Get your Obihai ATA in Canada.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:11:13 EDT

Davesnothere posted :

said by MartinM:

Regarding VoiP.ms....

K00L !

BTW, I just checked and your website seems to have propagated to whichever DNS serves ME - The front page came up promptly just now.

I had not checked it earlier, but some others had posted that it had been down.

Re: WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:08:15 EDT

MartinM posted : Regarding VoiP.ms, the reason the website and New York POP were switched to another data center with a DNS Update is simple..The data center in New York where VoIP.ms Website is hosted estimated diesel power to 65 hours, then they got flooded and estimated power to 5-6 hours, that's when we decided to take action. We already had backup images ready, we also have a permanent real time image of our database being replicated to two other geo locations. However, these changes can take a little time to implement. The very first thing that was done was to update DNS for New York VoIP. Web site was a second priority because it does't affect uptime for the VoIP service. At the moment of typing this, the customer interface is being tested and should be online in a few.
--
Martin - VoIP.ms

WHO is UP-DOWN during Sandy

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:58:25 EDT

Davesnothere posted :
Just checked ANVEO and I have dialtone - dialed my cell and it rang.

Anveo is based in Philly, is it not ? - Not TOO far from NYC - though their SIP servers are in another US city, in Montreal, and in Europe.

No dialtone on CallCentric as their power arrangements in NYC seem to be pretty slim and they had to power everything down before UPS power faded. - see P79+ of their big thread, where, among other things, it is stated that NYC prohibits backup generators.

Oddly, VOIP.MS can haz generator power in NYC, as I have been reading in 2 other threads, though they mirrored their website to another city and they say that it will be back as soon as the DNS change propagates. - Still, in times like this, their multiple SIP servers in different cities would seem to be a big PLUS.

CallWithUS is based in FLA ? - If so, then they would likely be OK.

Twitter is UP. - Updates from CallCentric and VOIP.MS are there.

DLSR is UP. - Their hosting data centre and peering is in Washington DC ?

HERE are some MORE (Thank Youse) :

said by gbh2o:

I must be _very_ lucky, even my RentPBX server in NJ is still working great.

Alphabetical list of VoSPs that I've tested so far [Tuesday A.M.] :

Anveo - working
CallWithUs - working
CheapVoipInc - working
Fonica/PBXinaFlash.net - working
FutureNine - working
Messagenet.it - working
SipGate -working
Telasip - working
Vitelity - working
VoipDiscount - working
VOIPo - working
voip.ms - working

said by kaila:

Voxbeam's Virginia server remains up- received an email from them yesterday stating they have a seamless migration plan in place, and will switch to their Amsterdam center if necessary....

said by Davesnothere:

said by Trev:

Business as usual here on the west coast.... [in spite of recent Earthquake]

Meaning AcroVoice is UP then.

said by JoeSchmoe007:

Anveo is working but sound quality was a bit choppy.

Skype is working fine via the same connection, so probably something on Anveo end.

....Used CWU via PhonerLite this morning for 20 min conference call - had zero problems....

--

We have only 2 things about which to worry :
(1) That things may never get back to normal
(2) That they already HAVE !