How to be notified when adapter is offline?

[holmes4]

Apparently for the last several days, my RTP312 has been "offline". I don't get or make a lot of calls and the way I noticed this was when I picked up the phone and got no dialtone. Looking at the box, I saw that the line LEDs were off. Rebooting the RTP312 brought it back.

This is not the first time this has happened and I was wondering if there was a way to be notified by email or SMS or something should the adapter be offline for more than some designated interval. Of course, I have no idea what caused the problem in the first place - my network service has been fine.

[usa2k]

Setting Failover to a cell phone would alert you when the first call to your number is attempted.
That is the best answer I can think of.



A cool request feature could be a Failover-notification

I would see that as a one-time email or text to a designated email address or cell phone or both when no device is detected for xx minutes.

I would also envision the alert could be reset by vPanel to re-arm it for the next time such an event occurs.

[voipinit]

I agree, that would be a great feature.

[tylerscell1]

I second that.

[holmes4]

I already have the failover set to my cellphone. but as I said, I don't get a lot of calls so it may not become apparent for days that there is a problem.

[ephguy]

Third this. This feature would be really valuable to me. I manage my parent's VOIPO account for them from across the country. If I could get a text message when the adapter had been offline for more then 10 minutes say, that would be very helpful in keeping tabs to make sure it's working for them.

[stevech]

I fourth the nomination. But I've always wondered... if the ATA is in fact connected by IP to the server, but de-registered or some such, why should the customer be burdened with rebooting it when the outage is noticed? The VoIP operator should do so remotely.

[VOIPoTim]

I fourth the nomination. But I've always wondered... if the ATA is in fact connected by IP to the server, but de-registered or some such, why should the customer be burdened with rebooting it when the outage is noticed? The VoIP operator should do so remotely.

If the device isn't connected to our network, how would we connect to it to cause it to reboot? :)

The only way would to be physically make a housecall to do it.

Kind of like if a cell phone is off there's no way for AT&T to make it power on, but if it's on and connected to their network they may be able to send a command to it.

[caseydoug]

If the device isn't connected to our network, how would we connect to it to cause it to reboot? :)

But it should be possible to send email or sms notification in the case of a failover event, correct? I think it would be a useful feature.

[holmes4]

I want to see a notice when the adapter hasn't been "seen" for a set period of time. I don't see much value in waiting for a failover event, which would affect inbound calls only.

Picking up the phone to silence is not a good thing, and the residents of the house might not know how to fix it. Since Voipo can't reboot a device it isn't connected to, at least notify us that it's missing. Please.

[VOIPoTim]

But it should be possible to send email or sms notification in the case of a failover event, correct? I think it would be a useful feature.

Sure, it's something we can definitely add to our suggestion list and possibly look at in the future.

We just can't physically make an offline ATA do something though.

[burris]

Sure, it's something we can definitely add to our suggestion list and possibly look at in the future.

We just can't physically make an offline ATA do something though.

I wonder how you could even tell if an ATA was down unless the user notified you.

[internet54]

^ The ATA could be programmed to ping the VOIPO server, or vise versa.
If the ping fails, a notification sms/email could be sent out.

I could see how this would be a very good thing since I just sat here for the last hour and watched my phone lose connection twice. Though, it was an unusual occurrence...

If you guys are having issues, I would recommend keeping the ATA cool. The #1 reason why electronics turn off is because of heat. If you have your ATA stacked between your cable modem and wireless router you need to move it asap. Some of them look like they can easily be stacked, and could be, but they need adequate ventilation.

[caseydoug]

I want to see a notice when the adapter hasn't been "seen" for a set period of time. I don't see much value in waiting for a failover event, which would affect inbound calls only.

Good point. A failover event only occurs when someone tries to call. But since VPanel shows whether a device is connected or not, it should be possible to have the absence of a connection trigger a notification. Such a feature should be configurable, since sometimes people intentionally take the adapter off line.

[usa2k]

Seems like the device page is proof of knowing the device is registered.
Is that a flawed approach. Does the device page need a User request to update?
Does failover really need an inbound call to trigger?

[holmes4]

If you guys are having issues, I would recommend keeping the ATA cool. The #1 reason why electronics turn off is because of heat. If you have your ATA stacked between your cable modem and wireless router you need to move it asap. Some of them look like they can easily be stacked, and could be, but they need adequate ventilation.

My ATA is on an open shelf by itself. It does not turn off, it simply disconnects from the service (connection LEDs are off).

[usa2k]

Being offline was more common back in good old 2003 using Vonage.

An SPI firewall commonly used on most routers, stops unsolicited external connections in their tracks. To bring up a web page, the browser initiates the connection, and the server replies. Because the packets are numbered, and the source is known, the firewall will let the data through. This is sometimes referred to as pinhole access.

VoIP is very similar. The provider cannot ring your phone unless the ATA provides a return path. The ATA constantly checks in with the provider's server, and when a call comes through the path is available.

In 2003 it seemed that especially Linksys Routers were causing grief with Vonage. The window for SPI was too narrow, so there would be a loss of registration. This was noticeable from missed calls, and no dial tone the first time you picked up the phone. There are old threads somewhere on DSLReports.com that discussed it back then. These days, the VoIP providers know better how to balance the timing, and likely Linksys made refinements too. Things are much better. Still, a router can be a source of such problems. Also Internet has many links/hops to complete a connection, and though seemingly consistent, there are still exceptions to the rule. Even worse are the intermittent ones.

To lose the lights on an ATA likely means it lost registration with the server. Can you reach the server to register? Was the server too busy to respond in a timely way? These are things that the provider may be able to analyze. VOIPo has some very savvy support engineers. Every customer is fairly unique for the path data travels, so it makes sense that at times one provider seems to work better than another. Many people on DSLR advocate multiple providers, or cell phone backup.

If your issue happens often, make sure you alert VOIPo by submitting a ticket. Maybe even a different server will get better results? VOIPo is best at divining the source of your problem. I suspect it is easier to deduce issues in a faulty connection, than lack of a connection. Hopefully this kind of occurrence will eventually be a distant memory.

[patoka]

anyone tried to ping their ATA when it's offline? It would be interesting to see if the ATA is losing network connectivity or having an internal software problem or sync problem.

[1bird2]

My ATA goes off-line anytime my router or internet service goes down (which is 99% my router rebooting). It is definitly related to the router settings in timeouts of types of packets. Lots of posts on this topic in dslreports.com and here. I am running a Linksys router with Tomato 1.28, which I really like, but have not been able to figure out the settings for the Voipo supplied Linksys ATA to recover automatically.

I use the cell phone failover approach and know when the ATA has lost registration. Rebooting the ATA does not work (i.e. reboot or remove/replace power immediately as there is some type of connection still open on the router. If I remove power, wait about 20 seconds, then replace power, ATA registers -- OR, if I login to ATA (while in unregistered state), change IP address, save and reboot, ATA will register.

If anyone has any ideas to try, I am all ears. Yes, I know, I could put in a different router -- so besides that..... :)

-bird.

[holmes4]

Well, it happened to me again today. Adapter offline and I got a call through the fallback. While it was in this state I tried to connect to the router on my local network, but it did not respond. A power cycle brought it back. Very annoying and potentially dangerous.