Strange calls that don't register?

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: May 07, 2009 Posts: 2

I seem to be getting more and more calls that ring once and then stop. Nothing happens for caller ID because there is only a single ring. Nothing registers at vonage.com as an incoming call. My wife told me this happened multiple times last night while I was away from my office phone. This is driving us a bit crazy. Has anyone else had this happen? Is there anything I can do to stop this from happening?

Thanks,
Craig

Posts: 183 · Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 1:38 pm Post subject:

Are you using vonage's voicemail? Do you also have a router in between your internet modem and your Vonage ata?

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: May 07, 2009 Posts: 2

Yes in both cases. I've had the current setup for about 3 years without incident. Is there something new going on here?

Posts: 183 · Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 12:33 pm Post subject:

Well nothing new per se. Sometimes at my house for whatever reason there is a delay between the Vonage keep alive and my network. The phone will be ringing for the caller but I will only get one short ring and then it sends the call to voicemail so when I try to pick up I get a dial tone. Sometimes the caller will leave VM and I know who they are, other times they don't. Each time something like this occurs, I usually boot the router and after it comes back up I boot the Vonage adapter and all is well. Yes I realize this is one of the most un-technical answers ever but it seems to work. I have all kinds of technical theories on why this occurs but I can't back them up so I will just say, easiest fix is reboot.

Posts: 42 · Full Forum Member Joined: May 14, 2006 Posts: 42

I get this too. One ring, no CID, and no record from Vonage. Very occasionally there will be a nonsense number on caller ID.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 1:22 pm Post subject:

This happens on Vonage lines, Verizon lines, AT&T lines, Optimum Voice lines, Comcast lines, etc... Just poll people you know to find that it is true. I have. There is nothing that is targeted just to Vonage.

One main cause is the auto dialer systems that telemarketers use. The way these things work are phone numbers are bought or obtained through numerous marketing channels. These lists of phone numbers are fed into an auto dialer script. The auto dialer will call your number and wait until sound is detected. Once you say hello, a second later, it will play the greeting for whatever nonsense it is selling. If you say nothing, it usually hangs up due to silence detection.

Well the 1 ring comes in when the system dials your number and somewhere along call setup, there is early termination. This could be the auto dialer itself got fubar'd and moved on to next number on list or due to some sort of IAM message sent back in the SS7 signaling causing early disconnect.

That is one reason why this happens, the other reason it may happen is a person realizing they dialed the wrong number and instantly hanging up. While dialing the wrong number should not be a constant, it was a cause of the 1 ring phenomenon that occurred way before Vonage, way before Voip, and even before telemarketing ever existed.

The previous post mentions caller ID displaying a "nonsense number" which would be that of a telemarketer that spoofs their true number. It may be spoofed to a single digit number such as digit 1 or all 1111111111111's. It may be in the format of a real number but upon calling it back, you hear the number is not in service. That is because it is a fake number. It may even be the number of a real person. By calling it back, the real person who owns the number is getting harassed by all the people the telemarketer has called using their number.

The caller ID may not always display since caller ID signaling is passed between rings. If the call was terminated early upon the first ring, no caller ID will be passed.

So if this is occurring on a regular basis to you, it most likely means that your number is on some telemarketing list and they have a screwed up auto dialer.

Hope this clears things up.