CenturyTel does not support Vonage

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 22, 2004 Posts: 5

Maybe I'm the only one who uses this lame ISP - but I bought the Vonage phone adapter this weekend at CC only to find out that my DSL ISP (CenturyTel) is blocking port 69 because of the Blaster Worm and has no plans to unblock it.

Therefore...Vonage (or any of the systems that use a phone adapter) won't work as long as CenturyTel is your ISP.

I was definately bummed.

Evil or Very Mad

Posts: 50 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 10, 2004 Posts: 50

Port 69 I think that is used for firmware upgrades

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 22, 2004 Posts: 5

exactly... something Vonage does on first install and something that Packet8 does as well.

if you can't install these firmware updates...you can't use the service.

Posts: 104 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 31, 2004 Posts: 104

Having watched the CEO of CenturyTel personally lambast VoIP as the end of telephony (at the latest US Senate hearings), it's no wonder that you are finding this (the hearing was only last month).

Complain now ... send your complaint to:

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Complaints
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554

You should also complain to the CEO of Centurytel:

Glen Post III, CEO/Chairman
CenturyTel
100 CenturyTel Drive
Monroe, LA 71203

You should also copy the CEO of Vonage (who sat next to Post at the hearing);

Jeff Citron
Vonage
2147 Route 27
Edison, NJ 08817

Specifically, you should indicate:

(1) CenturyTel has blocked access to Vonage's Information Service.
(2) This has limited your choice.
(3) You do not wish your ISP to interfer with your data transmissions.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 22, 2004 Posts: 5

UPDATE:

CenturyTel did not block this port to stop VoIP services. They blocked it so save bandwidth when their routers were overwhelmed with the Blaster virus back in Sep. of 2003. Blaster used port 69 (TFPT) to move itself around on infected machines.

The word this morning is that they are slowly unblocking this port on a region by region basis -- the decision to do so is left up to regional managers. The manager for WA state area has yet to respond about their timetable for unblocking this port.

We'll see....i had no idea the CEO of CenturyTel was so against it. But if you look at their business model it isn't hard to see why. VoIP subscribers don't have to pay a switching charge to ring a phone in a rural area. Telephony companies (Sprint, AT&T, etc.) do. This is a MAJOR revenue source for small and rural-based phone companies like CenturyTel. Unless the FCC figures out a way for VoIP providers to pay the same "fees" (taxes?) that normal telephone companies do...there's going to be a major shift in money, and therefore a major shift in phone service over the coming years.

In the end, perhaps CenturyTel could do better by providing better broadband internet service.

Posts: 61 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 29, 2004 Posts: 61

it does not sound like port 69 is the issue here since patch MS03-026 fixed this security concern about a year ago.

Also in question of the Voip customers causing a loss of revenue what % of customers are using Voip...additionally to use VOIP you would have to subscribe to the High Speed Service they offer causing an increase in revenues. I would also imagain that if all of their customers had highspeed access this would cause a giant leap in revenues.

It sounds like ckoehncke has his stuff down about choice and I think that he should run for Mayor of Vonage Town.

Posts: 21 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 15, 2004 Posts: 21

They should block the infection ports of vunlerable machines instead of port 69. The infection ports are RPC ports 135, 137, 138, 139, 445 and 593.

You could block 69 but if you don't block the above ports, a variant could enter the network and spread using a different mechanism.

Blocking the infection is much more important than blocking the spreading mechanism. If a machine cannot get infected, it won't execute arbitrary code that causes it to download the worm via port 69 (TFTP).

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 22, 2004 Posts: 5

Another Update:

Well, I finally got someone on the phone from Vonage who said that a new ATA only needs to get the latest firmware and then it can use normal FTP (port 21) . So, I took it to my wife's office whose ISP doesn't block these ports and was talking within minutes. I then brought the device home and it's working great.

They said as long as i don't change any of the basic settings on the account (like the phone number or adding virtual lines) that it should be fine.

Very happy now. Surprised

Posts: 50 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 10, 2004 Posts: 50

WAY TO GO!! To hell with them. CLEGs suck anyway

Posts: 104 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 31, 2004 Posts: 104

Glad to see you figured a way around the problem. CenturyTel gets their termination charge if YOU call a CenturyTel rural customer. No escaping that.

For the rural operators (and in fact any traditional telephone company), the problem is clearly customer loss. Assume that long distance quickly goes to zero (or close to that) -- you won't really care what telephone number you have. So how about a DC phone number if you live in LA that you select simply because the DC number had a better proposition to you (cheaper, better features).

You might imagine similar to credit cards, sponsor type "telephone" companies. Think if United Airlines offered your telephone service that gave you mileage points and a web portal oriented to travel discounts. Or how about a charity that offers a branded phone service that contributes a portion of your charges to them. Imagine Coca-Cola or Virgin offering a telephone service for teen age kids with a cool web portal, celebrity greetngs for voicemail and ....

The issue for the telephone companies is simple --- VoIP introduces bigger marketing guns into their circus tent and either way they look at it ... it means a loss of the customer base.