Loss of VoIP in Qatar

Posts: 39

gobhat wrote:

I read this in today's Peninsula. I woner whether they will really open or not???

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Qtel denies censoring voice chat; blames it on snag
Web posted at: 12/28/2005 2:51:16
Source ::: The Peninsula
DOHA: Qatar Telecom has not censored Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or what are commonly called PC-to-PC and PC-to-Phone calls, a senior official at the company, said here yesterday. He blamed snags in Voip technology, unscrupulous usage and upgrade of Qtel's Internet infrastructure for the brief outages that users experience. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A similar article "Internet Voice Services Still on" is shown in the front page of today Gulf Times paper. I wonder if Qtel is honest about their claim. Moreover, why the Voip service fluctuates up and down on a daily basis while it was working perfectly three weeks ago? Can we get Vonage to confirm this with Qtel?

Posts: 22 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 11, 2005 Posts: 22

Quote:

He blamed
1. snags in Voip technology,
2. unscrupulous usage and
3. upgrade of Qtel's Internet infrastructure for the brief outages that users experience.

Khalil Ebrahim said ---blah blah blah --- “This may lead some to believe that the service has been cut off and it is possible for any person to access those sites to verify, though we are mainly responsible for data transmission on the Internet and not voice," he added.

Whome is he trying to fool ? I feel sorry for him.

My guess is that they wanted to upgrade some equipment, they hired a cheap contractor, and they screwed up Big Time (he called that an upgarde in # 3 above). That is somthing he dares not to admit. Due to that, they have to conserve as much as possible of available bandwidth, blocking Voip ports is one way to do it.

Let him show us how port 5060 is open, then we believe him. Perhapse he can demo that in one of the Qtel booths.

Folks, let's give the "poor" man a break, they are trying very hard to fix their mess. They even turned off their firewall on Skype website and JaP website.

After all, they must open it one way or another, all of those Doha2006 journalists use Voip to communicate with their homebase, a bad idea not to have a dialtone on the Doha side.

This company is technically challenged, and it is time for the Emir to think of kicking their "@$$" with an open competition system to show them what technology is.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 09, 2005 Posts: 11

Not to mention that months ago, they did announce in the same paper that they were purchasing hardware to block Voip, and the number of us who on the phone were told by Q-Tel that Voip was indeed blocked.

I guess they are incapable of keeping track of the stories they are telling.

Think they were given a lot of heat and are just covering their tails?

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 12, 2005 Posts: 8

Hi all,

Qhell is certainly trying to put on a show here. I agree with ahmad_ comments, let them demo a Voip application in public Smile

I ran several tests since this morning, ports are still CLOSED!

However, it is comical to see Qhell putting the blame on Voip technology itself. This is the height of ignorance or considering us to be so?

Doha is hosting ITU (International Telecommunications Union) Summit in January. It would be a feather in the cap for Qhell (!!!).

Let's wait and see....

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 28, 2005 Posts: 15

I fully agree with gobhat.
QHel is trying to hoodwink every one with tall stories. Though in the news papers they stated that none of the VOIPs are blocked, still my Vonage phone doesn't work. My Motorola VT 1005 unit is still blinking with 4 blinks continuously and doesn't steady out nor do I get the dial tone on the phone.

I wish what has been said is true that they are trying to fix some problems that arose during upgrade.

When checked some of them had agreed that they have blocked all the VOIPs. The only ones they have released are Yahoo, MSN and skype through which we are able to converse but not yet on Vonage.

As you said they want a feather in their cap that they have successfully blocked all VOIPs in the forthcoming ITU meet in Jan.

-damras
Motorola VT 1005
Zoom ADSL Bridge
GE's Cordless phone(900GHz)

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 10, 2005 Posts: 12

Is this not exactly the opposite of what we were told by QTel agents. I even went to the ADSL director's office myself and was told by him that they were blocking Voip. Anybody know how I can write a letter to the editor in the peninsula?

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 28, 2005 Posts: 2

my Vonage still does not work....I can sort of hear the other party; they cannot hear me.
We should let the US Ambassador know the current situation--- the service is no use at this point!

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 12, 2005 Posts: 8

Hi folks,

Looks like Qhell is trying to look naive and justify their outrageous excuse of glitches Smile

My Primus (lingo for US customers) is working on and off since 3.45 Qatar time. Here are the status updates as of 5.20 PM Qatar time

Primus (Lingo) - dial tone and tolerable call quality

Broadvoxdirect - dial tone steady but pathetic call quality

Vonage - Occasional dial tone

Just talked to a gentleman who said they might open it up but limit the bandwidth allocated for Voip ports, this way they can claim ports are open but due to restricted bandwidth, we may not be able to have decent call quality

let's wait and see

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 28, 2005 Posts: 15

I tried yesterday evening for about 2 hours changing all the settings and DNS server etc. but couldn't succeed in getting the Vonage through. I have ADSL modem bridge whose firmware I upgraded on 9th Dec. from zoom bridge 2.3.1 to 3.2.1 after downloading from the Zoom site. This had provided me with lot many options than the previous in the advanced configuration. earlier only ATM status and TCP status were available where as noe there are amny options. Is there anyone using the Zoom AFDSL bridge and succeeded in getting the Vonage through, I would like to have the settings. I have ealier enabled the PPPOE at the MTA Motorola VT 1005. I tried doing it at the bridge modem instead of at the telephone adaptor as well. Ofcourse if the ports themselves are closed can we change and use alternate ports after configuring for the same. Need some experts advise.

Yahoo seems to be working since my wife could speak to her sister on it. Don't they use this same Voip ports??

After getting fed up with all these, I had connected back the Alcatel USB modem provided by QHEL and tried to test whether the ports are open,( the claim that Voip was enabled by QHel). I sincerely tried thrice the test at periodic intervels.
Everytime the test gave me saying that port 5060 is blocked and an alternate port 6000 is being tried but the test never went through it was trying continuously till I had to abandon it.

Any suggestions.

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 13, 2005 Posts: 12

DAMRAS wrote:

I tried yesterday evening for about 2 hours changing all the settings and DNS server etc. but couldn't succeed in getting the Vonage through. I have ADSL modem bridge whose firmware I upgraded on 9th Dec. from zoom bridge 2.3.1 to 3.2.1 after downloading from the Zoom site. This had provided me with lot many options than the previous in the advanced configuration. earlier only ATM status and TCP status were available where as noe there are amny options. Is there anyone using the Zoom AFDSL bridge and succeeded in getting the Vonage through, I would like to have the settings. I have ealier enabled the PPPOE at the MTA Motorola VT 1005. I tried doing it at the bridge modem instead of at the telephone adaptor as well. Ofcourse if the ports themselves are closed can we change and use alternate ports after configuring for the same. Need some experts advise.

Yahoo seems to be working since my wife could speak to her sister on it. Don't they use this same Voip ports??

After getting fed up with all these, I had connected back the Alcatel USB modem provided by QHEL and tried to test whether the ports are open,( the claim that Voip was enabled by QHel). I sincerely tried thrice the test at periodic intervels.
Everytime the test gave me saying that port 5060 is blocked and an alternate port 6000 is being tried but the test never went through it was trying continuously till I had to abandon it.

Any suggestions.

DAMRAS
Yahoo is using Dialpad engine, that have been working all the time, I have been using it since the outage.
Nothing wrong with your original setup, its Qtel closing the ports, having the new firmware is good for you in order to manage your box.
The 5060 and 6000 ports are blocked in addition , Qtel detect some Voip packets and drop them, i.e never delivered to your calling party or back to you which results in a very bad QOS.
I have no Idea why some Vonage services are OK and some are not, It could be as simple as deferent servers and subnets at Qtel are setup differently, or Vonage co. are using different ports for some customers, who knows goo figure
aladin405