[Asterisk-Users] Voiceglo questions

[Greg Hill]

On Thu, 5 Feb 2004, Michael Swan wrote:
> We're just about to bring up Asterisk in a small business setting
> with a broadband carrier. In this case, we have no reason to have
> any POTS lines to make incoming and outgoing calls using our
> SIP phones (Cisco 7960, 7940 and Grandstream 102.) We're
> probably selecting Voiceglo simply because we can transfer our
> existing local lines from an area code they handle (925).
>
> We've talked to a *lot* of broadband carriers, all of whom are
> stunningly unable to answer our basic questions about our
> proposed architecture. The one notable exception to this is
> Nufone which, unfortunately, doesn't service our local area code.
>
> A couple of questions for Voiceglo/Asterisk users:
>
> 1. Can someone confirm whether Voiceglo needs to use SIP or
> can it handle IAX? This link seems to indicate it uses SIP:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/asterisk-users@lists.digium.com/msg20561.html
> although other messages on the mailing list indicate that
> Voiceglo is using Asterisk in its internal architecture.

Voiceglo uses * servers (It identifies itself in the SIP headers, which
you'll see when you turn debugging on). Their free webphone gadget uses
IAX, while the pay-to-use services use SIP. (g711 and g729 codecs)

> 2. Voiceglo's "support" keeps telling us we need to purchase an
> MTA (Multimedia Terminal Adapter), essentially an analog to digital
> box, described here: http://www.voiceglo.com/pages/Products_equipment.html
> Since we're using SIP phones and Asterisk, we have no need for this,
> right?
>
> 3. Any words of warning or praise from clients of Voiceglo?

I actually just signed up with them Tuesday of last week. My USB phone
hasn't arrived yet, which means 9 of my 14 day "risk free guarantee" has
already passed -- and I wouldn't have been able to even try the service
yet if not for my determination to "make it work."

As you have discovered, they are very clear about not supporting anything
but the MTA and USB phone available through them. The support people seem
to be unaware of SIP or the fact that they aren't the only ones who use
it. When I have called their support with any type of question, they keep
telling me that I have to wait until I receive the USB phone and CD.
Whatever.

If you sign up for the USB phone, they'll send you a Windows registry file
which contains your username and password (it's plaintext). You can use
these to make any SIP client connect to their server. I haven't heard from
anybody who got the MTA; it may be more difficult to discover your login
info this route because the MTA probably comes pre-configured.

I've been having some struggles with it so far:
- when I use the xten softphone to call through my * and into voiceglo,
the call fails because of some g729/ulaw codec issue. But when I connect
the xten softphone directly to voiceglo, it works fine. Stranger still, if
I use the SJ Labs softphone to call through my * and into voiceglo, it
works. I don't know why. I also don't have a g729 license yet, and that
may fix the issue * has when I use the xten client.

- dmtf doesn't work reliably (not at all for me). When I call my voiceglo
number and * answers, the menus and such don't work because of this.
(they do work when I call in through iaxtel, FWD, etc) I haven't gotten
around to bothering them about this yet. Since I'm using this for home
use, it isn't a huge deal right now. And it still beats signing up for
Vonage and paying $40 whenever I decide to end my service.

The voice quality has been fairly good in my experience, but I wouldn't
rate the support very highly.

Greg