Problem: Caller ID Name only says "Unknown"

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 03, 2008 Posts: 1

After years of working properly, just today my Caller ID started to say only "Unknown" for the name (the number is still being delivered correctly).

Here is some information:

1. Your location
San Antonio, TX

2. Your ISP name and type (cable, DSL, wireless etc)
AT&T U-Verse HSI

3. Upload and download speeds
9.6Mbps down/1.4Mbps up

4. Modem make and model
2wire 3800HGV-B Gateway

5. Type of Vonage adapter used ie RT31P2 or PAP2
Moto VT2442

6. Setup of Network ie Modem---->Vonage Adapter-->PC
Modem>>Vonage Adapter>>PC

7. Issue you are experiencing ie dropped calls, choppy audio etc
Caller ID Name Delivery only says "unknown"...Number delivery works fine.

Posts: 51 · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:33 pm Post subject:

I noticed the same thing just today. This has happened to me at least twice in the past:

Dec 8, 2007
http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic21323.html

Mar 25, 2007
http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic19005.html

In both instances the problem cleared up overnight. I assume it is a Vonage glitch that they fix. As a note of interest if I go to my Vonage account online at their site all the incoming calls also have "UNKNOWN" listed on the ID token. At least they are consistent.

This is a pain because I use Asterisk to process all my incoming calls and I send "UNKNOWN" calls to voicemail.

Posts: 66 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jul 20, 2006 Posts: 66

jasonfont wrote:

After years of working properly, just today my Caller ID started to say only "Unknown" for the name (the number is still being delivered correctly)..

It is doing it in Ohio as well. It may clear up soon as usual.

Posts: 51 · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:47 am Post subject:

Well the problem seems to have gone away again. My only gripe is that if this is a Vonage problem of some sort it would be helpful if they would post it on their Dashboard "Service Announcements" panel.

Posts: 66 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jul 20, 2006 Posts: 66

vtex wrote:

Well the problem seems to have gone away again. My only gripe is that if this is a Vonage problem of some sort it would be helpful if they would post it on their Dashboard "Service Announcements" panel.

You usually only see anything in service announcements if it is a national disaster.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 06, 2008 Posts: 3

have been with Vonage since June, caller ID name has been fine til the other week. Kept intermittenly getting "unknown". This would happen even from a call from my neighbor. Then it would be ok when they would call back, then it would be "unknown" when they called again. This would happen, wiht local, cellphones and 800#s calling in. Vonage told me it was the problem for the calling provider They told me that they do not us a database and that the caller ID info is in the stream. If the sending provider does not include all of the info in the stream, then it comes up as "unknown". anyone heard of this?

Posts: 656 · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 12:32 pm Post subject:

This was a problem with a caller ID provider Vonage uses. Vonage in no way passes or generates Inbound or Outbound caller ID. All caller ID information is stored in CNAM databases and in order to pull this data, Vonage uses 3rd party CNAM providers.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 06, 2008 Posts: 3

it has gotten better the last 2 days, but still occasional "unknown" from a known phone number. Has this issue been addressed?

Getting tired of hearing from CSRs that the problem was "with the provider that the caller is calling from" or "I made a change to your router. The problem is fixed. i'll call back in a couple days to verify"

thanks

Posts: 656 · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 1:37 pm Post subject:

Are you saying that a number that shows name one day will show Unknown on another day or are you just saying certain numbers show as Unknown?

First of all you have to understand how caller ID works. The receiving end has to dip into a database using the calling number to reference a name. If the receiving provider does the dip and the database does not have a name record, a variable of Unknown, Unavailable, or the City/State of the calling number will be displayed. Vonage Inbound Gateways will populate Unknown when the connection to caller ID provider dipped into times out or no response is returned. This was the reason for the constant Unknown on all calls. The caller ID provider was not responding so each connection timed out. If your seeing Unknown all the time for the same numbers, then it is because there isn't a name in the database being used to dip into.

Do not listen to Customer Service reps when it comes to the deeper inner workings of the telcom systems. Making changes to your telephone adapter will not fix a caller ID issue. If the caller ID arrives to Vonage as Unknown from the Caller ID provider, nothing can be physically done by Customer Service / Tech Support. They would need to escalate to a higher level of support that will work directly with the CNAM provider and the inbound LEC.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 06, 2008 Posts: 3

Thanks for the info.

yes, a number that shows name one day will show Unknown on another day. Better yet, a number shows name one day, then same day same number shows unknown (even just a few minutes later)