Incoming calls go direct to Network Availability Number

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 11, 2009 Posts: 5

Recently I keep having a problem with incoming calls to my Vonage line, and am unable to figure out what the problem is. Multiple times, from any number, when people try to call me the call goes directly to the Network Availability Number listed on my account.

Usually trying again the call will go through, but sometimes it can take several attempts before the call will go through. This happens from any incoming number. All the while outgoing calls / internet connection is fine. It is only on incoming calls that I get a problem.

My network is configured as:

Cable Modem > Router 1 > Router 2 as repeater > Router 3 > Voip adaptor. Distance from Router 1 to Router 2 is (at a guess) no more than 300 feet. I am unable to connect the Voip to Router 1 as it is in a different property (in-laws house). The house is less than a year old, no phone company wiring at all, whole house is hard wired for Vonage use. Been using Vonage for at least 3 years, but had no problems until recently.

Is there anything I can try? the problem is sporadic in nature, some days are fine, other days its a nightmare trying to get through.

thanks.

Posts: 22 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 24, 2009 Posts: 22

Unplug your ATA for 30 seconds and reapply power.

That should solve your problem.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:46 am Post subject:

I really hope your joking about your setup. If you have the Vonage adapter behind a double or triple NAT'd network, there is a good possibility that one of the routers is not keeping the 20 second NAT pinhole open. Every 20 seconds the Vonage adapter send a Registration SIP message to the Vonage proxy. Think of it as the same principle as going to a website. You make a request and get data back through the Pinhole you opened through your router whenj your request went out.

The purpose of the pinhole is to allow traffic originating from the internet into your LAN on a certain port. So the Vonage adapter sends this Registration every 20 seconds and you get a 200 OK back. If the pinhole in one of the routers close, when a SIP Invite is sent to you from the Proxy and your router does not allow it to the device, the call will go to whatever feature you have set up and since Network Avail take priority over any other feature when the Vonage adapter can't be reached, that is where it will go.

This is why you can make calls out. You are originating a request from the LAN to the Internet. This also exaplins why it take a few tries to go through. It not how many times the caller take but how close the Inbound Invite is to the Registration that went out. So if your device sends a Registration right now and right around that time the Invite comes in, your NAT pinholes are still open. However, 1 of your routers is collapsing the pinhole prior to 20 seconds which it should not be doing and therefore if the Invite comes in after lets say 5 to 20 seconds after the Registration went out, the router will not allow it in.

The fix would be to simplify your setup and place the Vonage adapter behind router number 1 or place it directly to the modem.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 11, 2009 Posts: 5

VonTechMgr wrote:

I really hope your joking about your setup. If you have the Vonage adapter behind a double or triple NAT'd network, there is a good possibility that one of the routers is not keeping the 20 second NAT pinhole open. Every 20 seconds the Vonage adapter send a Registration SIP message to the Vonage proxy. Think of it as the same principle as going to a website. You make a request and get data back through the Pinhole you opened through your router whenj your request went out.

Is there any way I can find out which router is causing the problem? only the first router is providing DHCP.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 12:50 pm Post subject:

Not really. You would have to move the Vonage adapter to the 2nd router(your bridge) and test it there for a while. If it works, the problem is the last router. If it doesn't, you would have to move to the first router and test. If it doesn't work on first router, you know where the issue is.

A more complex method or performing a workaround which I cannot guarantee you will work is to port forward UDP port 10000 from each router back. This means you would have to make sure that the second router has a static IP on it's WAN port from the first routers LAN and then a static IP on the third router from the second routers LAN and then a static IP on the Vonage adapter from the 3rd routers LAN.

With this setup, it may be possible to port forward UDP port 10000 from the first router to the IP of the second router's WAN port. Then continue to port forward UDP port 10000 from the 2nd router to the 3rd router's WAN, and then port forward UDP port 10000 from the 3rd router to the IP of the Vonage adapter.

You may also have to change the LAN IP's on each router. So if router 1 is 192.168.0.1, the second router should be 192.168.1.1 and the 3rd router would have to be 192.168.2.1 This is not mandatory but sometimes if all routers are for example on the same subnet such as 192.168.0.1, they have an issue with forwarding within the same subnet and is why you may have to change the LAN IP's.

This all could work depending if all your hardware decides to play nice. It would probably be easier for you to just test out the Vonage adapter at each router and figure out who is the culprit unless your have a strong technical understanding of basic networking.