Calls dropped, one way calls, and registration issues.

[djrobx]

It's been a long time but I wanted to update this incase anyone else runs into the same issue.

I continued to have problems with incoming calls. Most commonly, the phone would ring. When I'd pick up, all I'd hear is dead air. The caller was usually sent to voicemail. I'd then be unable to place a call or get a dial tone for about 30 seconds. Support just kept telling me to check my port forwarding settings and making mysterious config changes on their end.

The odd delay got me to thinking - what if the ATA was crashing and rebooting? Sure enough, the next time this happened, I logged into the HT502, and it showed an uptime of just a minute. Confirmed that the uptime was always reset after one of these events. I reported this to support. They tried updating the HT502 to the latest firmware, but it didn't change the behavior. I found a post from someone else using the same ATA on PhonePower that had the same symptoms (he actually had two HT502s, one exhibited this issue the other didn't).

VOIPo sent me a new ATA. Bingo - uptime is over a week, and I've actually been able to speak with each incoming caller. Finally!

[christcorp]

I slight twist to what you found. "Many" people wire their ATA into their home wiring. This way they can plug their phone into any jack in the house and they don't have to deal with buying multi-handset cordless phones. Nothing wrong with this. I've worked for Ma'Bell as well as running a voip/digital/analog phone system for the government. I've definitely wired a few houses with jacks; and therefor had no problem wiring my house up tot he voipo adapter so I could use phones in all the existing jacks.

Here's the kicker..... Phones have a characteristic known as a REN. (Ringer Equivalence Number). What that means in english is: How much CURRENT the phone draws when the ringer starts ringing. In the old days with REAL BELLS, it draws much more than with modern day phones. And a cordless phone draws it's power from the batter in the handset and NOT from the receiver. Although, it does draw some current when it senses the incoming call.

So what does this mean. Unlike a regular Ma'Bell phone line on your jack, which has pretty much more current than you'll ever use, a VOIP Adapter doesn't have that much capabilities. If you have TOO MANY phones ringing on the voip adapter, it can draw too much current and either cause damage to the Voip Adapter, or it may give you half rings (Known as a Ring-Trip) and it disconnects the call before you can answer it. (Outgoing is almost always fine).

I have 11 phones hooked up in my house. One in EVERY JACK. I despise cordless phones; although I do keep one for the garage. (The quality just isn't as good). Anyway; if I turned on ALL the ringers to ALL the phones, there is no way the adapter could handle it. Especially when 3 of the phones have real bells in it. Just too much current. I've tried it and the voip adapter gets really pi$$ed off. So; even though I have 11 phones connected. I have 4 phones with the ringers turned on. The other 7 have the ringers turned off. But the 4 with ringers on, are strategically placed throughout the house, so you'll always hear one of the phones ringing when being called. Depending on the voip adapter; depending on the quality of the components; will depend on how many REN it can handle. Most times, the voip adapter won't have a problem. Most people don't have tons of phones and most use cordless. Plus, most modern phones use little tweet type ringers and they don't draw a lot of current. But if you start hooking up 3-4 heavier duty phones; a fax machine; etc... and draw too much current, there's a lot of times the phone could ring and when you answer it, it's dead air. It couldn't handle the amount of current, and basically hung up on the caller before you could answer it.

Anyway; just a little side note in case anyone had a similar issue.

[djrobx]

Yep - You bring up a good point. I understand REN value and the potential for issues if you say - attached a bunch of mechanically-ringing phones to a poor little ATA that was never intended to handle it all.

In my case, the ATA was directly connected to single cordless base with 4 handsets with a 6 foot phone cord (no house wiring). Perhaps I got a used ATA that had been damaged this way before I started using it (or it was simply bad ... "it" happens). Everything is working beautifully on the new ATA. It's so refrehsing to be able to just speak to callers when I pick up the phone!

-- Rob