Vonage & Phone Tray, How to get it to work?

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 25, 2008 Posts: 11

Hi,

I have Vonage and recently installed phone tray to weed out some of the unwanted callers.

I am using the standard Vonage Motorola Router VT2442-VD.

I have comcast as my hi-speed internet provider and my high speed cable is hooked up using the motorola SB5100 Surf Board Cable Modem.

I have a Conexant HSF V92 56K RTAD speakerphone modem installed into my desktop.

I installed the Phone Tray Free. In fact the icon in my tray says "Phone Tray Free Ready 0 New Calls".

Here is my problem. I don't think Phonetray is working.

I have received a few calls since installing Phone Tray and phone tray's call log doesn't show any new calls.

Why?

I even had my mother call and placed her number to zap, and it didn't. It didn't show up on the call log either, why?

Under the settings menu, it shows my modem (Conexant HSF V92 56K RTAD speakerphone modem)

Can some one who has Phone Tray installed, please help.

Thanks.

Posts: 19 · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 6:01 am Post subject:

I looked up your modem and I don't see where it supports Caller ID. In order for Phone Tray to work your modem must support Caller ID. My modem is a Zoom V.92 PCI voice fax with Caller ID. I think I paid about $50.00 for it 5 or 6 years ago.

This is from the Phone Tray site

"PhoneTray uses your modem to identify the callers before you answer the phone. You must subscribe to the Caller ID service from your phone company and have a Caller ID capable modem."

Posts: 39 · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:57 am Post subject:

In addition to subscribing to CID service and having a CID capable modem, in order to send anything at all to the caller (like a ZAP tone or voice message) or hear any "announcements," the modem has to be voice-enabled. Not many modems available today meet all of those specifications.

PhoneTray Free works like a charm but only if the modem is both CID capable and "voice-mail" capable.

Also, if the modem does not have its own on-board processor, reliability will be impaired. A so-called Win-modem (even if otherwise meeting the specs above) will not pick up the CID signal on a call if the system board's CPU is "busy." If incoming call processing is not completed within in the first few seconds of the connection (which occurs before the 'phone starts to ring) the CID signal goes by, unprocessed.

The specs of this MultiTech modem is what you are looking for if you want to fully utilize the features of PhoneTray Free.

FWIW, I can be anywhere in my home office and know who is calling by voice announcement. And, after having ZAPped unwelcome autodialed calls for about three years now, I am off all of the vendors call lists, vendors with whom I supposedly have a "prior relationship." I don't even get calls from solicitors for charitable contributions or even John McCain or Barak Obama. Wink

Indeed, buying the right modem and installing PhoneTray Free has turned out to be somewhat like having bought my own slice of heaven.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 29, 2008 Posts: 4

NOTE: This is NOT flame bait. And I apologize for any offense that may be created.

I seriously believe your (1)vonage device is not connected to your (2)computer modem via a (3)generic telephone cord. This is a separate connection from the Ethernet/internet cable that allows you to browse the internet.

Why do I think this? If the computer modem (not the cable or DSL modem) is connected and recognized by your computer and operating system, you should get "something". While your computer modem may NOT support caller ID, according to the phonetray web site, you should still get a UNKNOWN caller pop-up and/or screen alerts and/or log activity.

If you do get the connections right, but still Unknown caller, you can click "Fix CID" under the "Settings button" inside of the options page (double click tray icon to open options - click on the Settings button - click on "Fix CID").

good luck

Posts: 39 · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:47 pm Post subject:

If the modem does not support caller id ("CID"), I don't believe PhoneTray Free ("PTF") will report or do anything. If the modem has CID but not voice, it will still ZAP calls and report who is calling but it will not "announce" anything or "say" anything to the caller. If the modem supports CID and voice, all of PTF's features work.

It's a simple matter to look under "lines to monitor" on the configuration screen to determine what PTF knows about each installed modem.

From the message above, I think maybe the modem under discussion does not support CID.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 29, 2008 Posts: 4

Picsman wrote:

If the modem does not support caller id ("CID"), I don't believe PhoneTray Free ("PTF") will report or do anything.[SNIP]...[/SNIP]

I can't bet with or against that position but I do disagree. I am getting my (unclear) information from http://www.phonetray.com/ptfree_faq.htm which does NOT make it clear for either postition. There is a link there to try other CID software as well.

Below verbage quoted from above link.

Q. I am getting N/A instead of caller's number for all calls. What can I do?

A. If you have Caller ID service from your phone company but all incoming calls show up with N/A instead of the caller's number, most likely your modem doesn't support Caller ID when offline (not connected to another modem, e.g. when online with dialup). Unfortunately there are many modems that don't support offline Caller ID. All V.92 modems support Caller ID when online, but offline Caller ID decoding requires additional hardware parts on a modem, and some modem manufacturers do not install them to reduce cost.

You can try other Caller ID software to make sure it's a hardware problem.

Also you can try to update your modem driver. By default Windows installs generic driver, which may lack Caller ID support. You can find the newest drivers at modem manufacturer's website. If your modem was bundled with the PC, try PC manufacturer's web site.

'Fix CID' feature in PhoneTray can help as well. Click on the PhoneTray icon in the taskbar area in the bottom-right corner of the screen to bring up PhoneTray window. Click the Settings button (third button on PhoneTray toolbar). Click the 'Fix CID' button on the Settings page. PhoneTray will attempt to detect Caller ID command supported by your modem.

I agree with checking the settings page to check to verify that the modem is ready. If it is, I still suggest checking the cord to ensure that the modem is connected.

Posts: 39 · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:01 pm Post subject:

By golly, avipb, you're right again.

Posts: 39 · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:57 pm Post subject:

steeve725

I Googled for your modem and found the manual on line. If it did support callier id ("CID"), it would list these commands:
+vcid=1 - enables CID
+vcid=? - reports the current CID status of the modem
and those commands are not listed.

From the documentation I can see your modem is voice capable but it is not CID capable.

BTW, +vcid=1 is the "fix" PTF sends to the modem... no magic here.

Sure enough, PTF is reporting the modem is ready to accept commands but it is not saying it is ready to process CID data (because, at that point, PTF does not know anything except that the modem will accept commands).

If you have a terminal program (Hypertext is on most Windows systems), enter the commands above. You will most likely get an error. (If you don't have a terminal program and you are familiar with Device Manager, you can also test these commands there.)

As I mentioned before, without a CID capable modem, PTF will do nothing for you except use up memory and disk space.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings but I think this nails down the problem.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 29, 2008 Posts: 4

The FIX CID feature in PTF enabled my CID on my modem that wasn't sold as supporting CID. For that, they are my heroes.

However, my modem still didn't/doesn't support voice. Therefore the out-going ZAPs don't work. So, I had to find a new one, CHEAP. Afterall, thhis is just a toy... for me.

I bought a new modem and haven't received it yet but it is Conexant solution and PTF says they have little problems with Conexant. THIS NEW MODEM had/has free shipping and costs $6.49. I can only hope it works.

I think that THIS MODEM is the one "other" modems PTF recommends but is a bit more expensive @ $28.92 to buy without verifying that it's the correct model.

Again. Good Luck

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 29, 2008 Posts: 4

Picsman wrote:

By golly, avipb, you're right again.

Thank you sir Picsman. I am not sold but, I do believe.