[u-u] Cheap/free VOIP home phone

[David Gilbert]

On 2020-05-24 13:54, Dan Astoorian wrote:
> For years I've been using netTALK for my home phone service.  It's
> similar to MagicJack--you get a device where you plug a normal phone in
> one end and a network cable in the other, and you get VOIP.
>
> The service has never been particularly good.  In the past I've ascribed
> that partly to the fact that I've always gone with the cheapest Internet
> plan (256Kbps upload speed), but there have been other issues over the
> years as well, which I won't get into here.
>
> However, our condo recently renewed our bulk contract with Rogers, and
> with traditional TV slowly dying, the renewal included adding Internet
> service, which I got enabled last week.
>
> Today I tried to use my netTALK phone for the first time since switching
> to the new Rogers cable modem, and had two calls half-terminate after
> (almost exactly) 15 minutes--the other party could hear me, but suddenly
> I couldn't hear them.  (If that symptom rings a bell for any of the SIP
> experts on the list, I'll happily listen to any troubleshooting advice.)

It's almost certainly Rogers fault.  In the 25 years I've been doing 
this, if Rogers is the ISP, it's almost always rogers.  Did you change 
to a rogers modem that is your "router"?  This sounds particularly like 
a timeout of a NAT mapping.  This may not be your permanent fix, but try 
setting your VoIP device as your Bastion or Designated or "Game" 
device.  This will usually translate any unknown incoming packets to 
it.  You can only have one --- but this is firstly just to confirm my 
diagnosis.

Permanent fixes?  VPN account ... urm ... not using Rogers? urm... maybe 
even making the modem transparent and running your own device as a router?