TalkBroadband
February 1, 2004 - 1:07am — bmann
Use this thread if you want to leave comments about Primus' TalkBroadband service.
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VOIP Caller ID
Lingo and Vonage Caller ID reporting is marginal. In the case of LINGO, their CID is Single Message Data Format (date and number only). Time is occasionally provided, but it is two hours off (or worse yet, 2 and a fraction).
Their CID data is presented after the 2nd ring by about 1/4 second. Belcore specs require it to be sent between the first and second ring. Many caller id devices quit listening at the 2nd ring.
I have also noted Lingo frequently does not have dial tone immediately when I want to call out. Giving a hook flash 3-4 times USUALLY brings it back to life.
Attempts to send DTMF data have frequently caused a hang, although the last attempt was successful. Maybe they are improving. Still the Caller ID is stone age, with no name, no time, and too late, too short.
disconnects at 10 mins
Ever since I got the Lingo (primus) service, I have had good voice quality, but disconnects on every single conversation at about 10 minutes, without exception. It simply will not let me talk longer than 10 minutes. I've been on the phone with Lingo support many, many times for many hours trying everything they could think of. We've been behind my network router with the Lingo device, then in front of the router between it and the dsl modem, changed routers (the phone company was good enough to give me a brand new router in an attempt to resolve the problem, and now have gone back behind the router, and still I get dropped at 10 minutes. My router is a Speedstream 5200 latest version, I have the Lingo box, and my network router is a Belkin combo wired and wireless. It seems to function perfectly. The Lingo techs have been very nice, but they can't fix the problem. They've DMZ'd and PPPoE'd and everything else they could think of. Any ideas anybody? Blessings.
disconnect at 10 mins interval
Have been having similar issue with my Lingo service..drops consistently every 10-11 mins...
Did anyone get a fix ?
I am having the same problem,
I am having the same problem, and the tech support has no clue. Anyone has further info?
Primus VoiP broadband service
Is there any way you can use a voip phone with this service? or a soft phone on your pc?
thanks..
Not as far as I know
They haven't even deployed their voicemail via email service yet, I don't think.
primus voicemail by email
To my knowledge they're not sending any audio files yet, but they do send you an email telling you that there is a voicemail. I have received several of those. - Joe
Please do not get VOIP with P
Please do not get VOIP with Primus. I will not go on a rant and say it is all bad, but due to complications with their VOIP setup, they are constantly running into problems. Their fixes are failing and from what their own Support tells me, these problems will continue until Feb 2005 when they will have a final fix.
primus
I recieved the free phones from primus and they must have changed the phones they are sending My comes with call display and call waiting all the bells and whistles. I recieved 2 phones one i dont have to use with a phone plug just plug into wall outlet and i works off other phone Im glad i got this service sure beats rates from local phone companys Quality of calls not so great at times but others fine
The Free Phone
The one problem with the phone, as I mentioned in a previous post, is not that it is missing the call display or call waiting features.....it was missing the call waiting caller ID feature (on a call, another call comes in, you get the call waiting beep but the second caller's information does not appear). From a service standpoint, it is included but the phone is technically incapable of supporting this feature - and that I got straight from Primus themselves. The choice of free phone used as a signup incentive was a poor one at best. Again, even though it was free, why provide a phone that will not allow the customer to make use of all of the features?
Also, as an update, the phone I got from Primus is already toast. The LCD display is all garbled as if the phone was thrown up against a wall (this phone was barely used and has never even been dropped, not even a scratch on it). We are back to using our 5-yr old Panasonic cordless phone that, despite it's age, supports all of Primus' features.
Lastly, did I read correctly.....Primus gave you 2 phones?? If so then I am going to make a call to them and demand a replacement (and an additional) phone so that I can get rid of this piece of garbage that they sent to me.
primus is great
I see a lot of bad comments about broadband but im a happy customer. I finally got rid of Telus today It took awhile to get my equipment from them and Yes it does take awhile to get support on the phone if you call weekends and evenings but I got them right away in the day time Help was great and got me hooked up right away I have the phones working in my old Telus lines I took the package and couldnt believe the perks that come with it Telus charges you extra for them Call waiting answering ,call forwarding etc a long list. I can also phone the USA and not worry about how long im on phone Can take the box on holidays with me and still talk to family I think this is a wonderfull deal and goodby Telus Sure the sound isnt the greatest but with all the other perks i get i can forgive this little problem GO FOR IT
I am getting a lot of echos a
I am getting a lot of echos and noise. What could be the causes? Their end or my end?
primus
could someone tell me how i get my old telus line to work with primus broadband Im not sure how to get the phone line from my phone thats in the computer to the line in the wall
Im not very smart with tech stuff so be kind PS support takes long time on hold on phone and it took them over 4 weeks for my phone to arrive
No Full Service From Primus
I ordered TalkBroadband service from Primus over a month ago and am still waiting for full service hookup. I called back on Oct. 5, 2004 and was told it would be another 10 days. Now Oct. 18, 2004 and still not transferred from Bell. Is anyone else experiencing this type of problem from Primus?
long hookup times
hi,
I have been waiting for almost 2 months for my residential hookup. It is frustrating when you contact then & their pat answer " it will be connected any time now" Talk about being strung along. If they cant stand by their timeframes why both mentioning them! If no action pronto I will be taking my business elsewhere since they dont seem to care one way or another!
Long hookup times
I am dealing with Primus Canada and finally got hooked up almost a month and a half later. Trying to contact them is a big headache... was put on hold 3 times then disconnected. Tried again and was put on hold again 3 times before I managed to talk to someone about a problem I had with the service. I was told they would fix it but could not tell me when they could fix it by. I subsequently have reported Primus Canada to the CRTC via the CRTC website. I also sent Primus an email telling them how dissapointed I am with them and that as soon as I find a more competent provider of Talk Broadband I will be leaving them pronto. Anyone else having problems with Primus Canada is encouraged to report it to the CRTC.
Long Hookup Times
Reporting to the CRTC will not help in getting these line ports done any faster. It is because of CRTC regulations partially that it takes this long for a port. It is the same issue on the other side of the border with Lingo. You can request a port from Primus and they send it on to a third party who is there to get the number from the other carrier. The reason for this is due to regulations that won't allow 2 big companies to pass number between each other. With that being said once they send out the request they do not talk to each other it is out of there control until the number is released. So again not an issue on the Primus end. You have to rember the other side will be slow as well as losing there customer is not there primary concern and again nothing Primus can do about this as there not Telus or Bell whomever your trying to port from. This process is time consuming. Another factor is that laws in Canada still actually prohibit number porting between carriers so for the porting to happen like it is now is taking time as its very much new. Only suggestion would be to stay patient as it will happen but so many factors are currently playing into this...most of which are out of Primus's control.
Bad Connect Will Downloading
I've experienced a bad connection when I'm doing heavy downloading. It appears that caller receives me very choppy. I can hear them but they can't hear me. It also interupts alarm monitoring if I'm downloading. This is the biggest draw back for me. I looking into the settings of the gateway and I saw no way to set priority to the phone for bandwidth. I'm using the Shaw 5 Mb service so there's no shortage of bandwidth.
5MB Downstream has nothing to
5MB Downstream has nothing to do with it. It's the upstream that counts in this case - and it's getting saturated with packet requests for data.
Restrict your downloads using a throttling program.
Should have taken the free Air Miles instead...
I have been enjoying the Primus TalkBroadband service for a couple of months now and took advantage of the "free cordless phone" offer for signing up. There is one major problem with the phone though: As a subscriber to their Ultimate bundle (which provides subscribers with all of the calling features) I was a little annoyed at the fact that the free phone is incapable of Call Waiting Caller ID. This threw me for a loop considering that my other cordless phone which is more than 3 years old always had this capability. The phone provided is now useless to me as this calling feature is one that I make use of on a daily basis.
Providing a piece of hardware that is incompatible with the service just doesn't make any sense to me.....even if it is a freebie.
Has anyone had any success getting this feature to work with the free phone provided by Primus?
Yeah i recieved the free phon
Yeah i recieved the free phone also and find the call display works maybe 10% of the time. I haven't called them about it or anything but like you said it kind of sucks not being able to use it. Otherwise though the talk broadband works excellent.
Probably getting rid of cell and getting normal phone line
as the title states. Is this a good option for 19.95 with primus it seems like a screaming deal. Checked out the overseas calling which is phenomenal ($.005 for the netherlands and $.10 for South Africa). It almost seems to good to be true. I know VoIP has been around for awhile now. Is there still a lot of problems to be ironed out?
Probably getting rid of cell and getting normal phone line
I'd hang on to your cell...at least for the first month. You have to realize that VoIP is interdependent upon a broadband connection. The margin of error for surfing/downloading/etc... is much larger if you have a flakey connection. With telecommunications, if you have slight packet loss, significant jitter, or high latency, these will all effect your call quality. The product is great, so long as your connection is solid. Once you've determined after a month that your call quality is just dandy, then I'm sure your decision and investment will definitely look like a smart one.
2 (or more) phones??
Is there anyway to hook up more than 1 phone to the TalkBroadband Service? There is a second port on the Voice Gateway (covered with a tab but removable) and I hooked a second phone into it but got nothing. Is there a way to configure the gateway to allow traffic to go through the second port?
You can use a duel line split
You can use a duel line splitter and hook 2 phones to the line 1 slot
2 (or more) phones??
The second RJ-11 port on the gateway unit is deactivated for residential accounts and used by commercial customers. If you want to use more than one phone with TalkBroadband, I'd suggest using a splitter. Also, some customers are actually powering multiple extensions in their house with cordless bay stations. I'm pretty sure companies like VTech have these products although I'll be honest in telling you I haven't researched this in depth. The only way the second port can be 'activated' is by Primus.
You dont have to use a splitt
You dont have to use a splitter i just plugged in a line from my primus "box" to a wall outlet and disconnected telus line and you have phone in all the outlets in your house
WOW!! That actually works!
Thanks for the information. I never thought of trying that but it does make sense that it would work, at least as long as the phone lines are interconnected with each other. I now am able to have a phone on all 3 levels of my home without the bother of using splitters.
The bay station idea works as well. There are a few mfr's that produce 2-handset systems but I have not been able to find 3+ handset systems. This method is just easier.
SIP to MGCP or alternate device/software with Primus TB
Hi All,
I've been using Talkbroadband for about 3 months now. I am free from bell. I have no other phone. I want to extend the TB service to use on the road.. Perhaps use asterix as a gateway. has anyone done this? MGCP to SIP or vice versa? Anyone using anything other then the supplied voip box for making and receiving calls? Thanks for any info.
SIP to MGCP or alternate device/software with Primus TB
At this point there are no software/device/adapter that converts the SIP to MCGP platform. Unfortunately you'll have issues with Asterisk so you're essentially limited to your gateway and its fixed location (i.e. can't really use it mobile).
Problems with disconnects & no ring
I'm having 2 problems.
1) I frequently find my calls die after 5-6 minutes. ALWAYS between 5 to 6 minutes. Anyone else noticing this? And my DSL line is not doing any traffic other than the talkbroadband (based upon sniffing the ethernet). The DSL circuit is stable, and routing to the Primus voice gateway is fine.
2) I frequently have people call me and they say the phone rang and rang until they hit voicemail. I did not hear the phone ring though. Any ideas?
Problems with disconnect not ring
I have the same problems. I'm using rogers as my isp and my calls die after 10 mins. I did have the hardware configure dso the d-link was in front of my router (linksys) and it was working fine. The prob is that i want to run 2 lines so I tried to put the dlink back behind the router and configure the DMZ. I had to change the IP address of the router to accomadate the IP address of the D-Link. Unfortunately I am still losing the calls after 10 mins. Not sure what I did wrong. Linksys said that the Dlink will not work on the downside of the router and then did an about face when I questioned them about the DMZ. Thats where I stand.
2) on the ring no answer situation, my prob is that I call forwarded my line before it got forwarded to Primus from bell. Primus is telling that Bell has to disengage the call forward on their end and this should fix the prob. Bell has been giving me the run around and they have not yet exectuted on my requests. I hope this is the prob. I f not I'm out of ideas.
Problems with disconnects & no ring
1.) Is your gateway behind a router? If so, chances are the router is cutting off your audio stream believe it or not. You have two choices: a.) place your gateway in the DMZ configuration of your router or b.) place the gateway in front of your router directly connected to the modem (broadband access point).
2.) Is your phone a Motorola or Nortel model phone? I don't mean this as an insult, but have you double-checked the ringer volume on your phone? Have you swapped in another phone and tested?
Problems with network
There seem to be some problems with the network right now. Definitely document and report all issues that you experience.
I have had other people tell me that calls are dropped after certain time periods -- call it in as an issue.
The "no ring" is a new one that I have not heard of before.
5-6 min hangup problem solved
Previously, I was using a Westell DSL router as my gateway on my network. Aparently it has issues with the VoIP traffic being transmitted in/out that would cause the call to cease after 5-6 minutes on the dot. Right now I have the D-Link functioning as the gateway (PPPoE client), and all is well.
how do you change the usenrame/passwd in the dlink device?
I have a misconfigured dlink (the # they gave me doesnt match up with whats actually on the unit). What are the steps to change the username/password? Please help. And please, no responses with "call technical support". :)
how do you change the usenrame/passwd in the dlink device?
You can actually change the password of the gateway from WITHIN the gateway. I believe you have to go to Advanced and in the expanded menu, there is a menu option which loads a page where you'll have 3 fields: current password, new password, confirm password. I forget off the top of my head currently, but it's there. A hard reset of the unit will bring the password back to factory default.
According to broadband report
According to broadband reports, the user/pass is:
admin/primusvoip
I don't know of a way to do a reset.
Soft client with TalkBroadband?
Has anyone tried to get a MGCP soft client (Cisco's maybe?) to work with TalkBroadband service? My D-Link device is waiting halfway around the world right now, and it would be really cool to make and receive calls just using a PC.
MGCP soft client
try www.comwave.net/ePhone or www.comwave.net/ephone not sure. Look around on their site. I was part of the beta test a few months back. Very cool!
Only one MGCP Soft phone
From the VoIP Info list of phones, the only soft phone listed as supporting MGCP is the one from EyeP Media.
Primus is supposed to be releasing new features in a few weeks, so perhaps they'll have a softphone as well.
15 minute Fax cutoff?
Do you have any more details about the 15 minute fax/data cutoff? I am on the phone with a tech and he is telling me that some people have complained about a 15, 30 and 1 hour cutoff.
Apparently their engineering group is working on a new firmware, due date unkown.
dave at theconsultant dot net
Doesn't surprise
About the only complaint with service I have is that I have on occasion had the call drop on very long calls. Not very often, as it has happened about 3 times in the 5 months I've had the service.
I had a couple of TalkBroad l
I had a couple of TalkBroad lines for my business and I was getting my long calls dropped regularly (I only make long calls, I was getting dropped after 2-4 hours). It took them about a month for them to figure out that this was due to their hardware, and was unavoidable. After speaking with Vonage, the same is true over there as well. I am desperately seeking a VOIP that will allow me to make calls up to 8 hours without getting dropped. Alternatively, I could live with a standard line that would allow me to pick my area code. If you guys have any ideas, let me know please. Thx.
sfb
Configuring behind a router
There is a great thread at Broadband Reports about the ins-and-outs of setting up your gateway behind a router.
Primus broadband
Can anyone tell me if there is a time delay when you use talkbroadband?
What I mean is if you make a call to someone in Canada or the US do you get the same quality as you would if you were using a traditional phone line?
No time delay
The quality is about the same as with a traditional phone line. I have experienced a few occasions where the quality hasn't been great, but hanging up and calling back has solved those issues.
Don't think of it as "different" from a traditional phone line. It's just like a phone, it just happens to use the Internet as the "wire" that you talk over.
Allstream is Primus' CLEC
I had some feedback asking for info on the provisioned numbers. Apparently, from the numbers I was given, Allstream is the national CLEC providing services to Primus.
Mark Rejhon TalkBroadband review
[ copied from comment on original post - BM]
Got TalkBroadband for fax service. Free activation and you can move with your service with no reinstallation charges for the VoIP phone line. Initial test results with good ISP such as Magma that's less than 20 millisecond ping away from Primus:
Pluses so far:
- Audio quality better than POTS
- Able to get solid 52 Kbps modem connection over it (fax mode enabled)
- Works with TDD/TTY/Text text telephone
- No phone line activation charge at this moment
- No reinstallation charge (can move anywhere there is highspeed)
Problems so far:
- Setup can be a little difficult if D-Link unit is misconfigured
- Calls have been dropped after a timeout period (especially data/fax calls)
For my detailed report on TalkBroadband, search for "Mark TalkBroadband" at http://groups.google.com ...
Thanks,
Mark Rejhon