Billion router and Telkom

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edk

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I hate telkom. I have a billion 7300 router and are using telkom as my isp. My internet works well, but VOIP seems to be a new concept to telkom.

They offer the service but their help desk don't have a clue as to how it works. I have phoned 10215 about 10 times and every time i get through (eventually) the person that answers has only a smattering of knowledge (if I'm lucky). They know that the "telkom internet communicator" exists but because I don't have a mega200 they don't know what I'm talking about or how to help me.

I phoned onology and while the guys there are quite good. Ross spent about an hour trying to help me set the VOIP up for the router to no avail.

Does anyone else out there use the billion and telkom as their ISP? Does it work? Can they give me some advice about how to get this thing working?
Did I mention before that I hate telkom?:mad:
 
Hi moklet

Thanks for that comprehensive and eloquent answer. It really helps me in my quest.

best regards
 
You haven't really explained exactly what kind of problem you are having. If you want to test whether Voip is working on your router you could try to download the soft phone from www.voipraider.com and use it to make 1 hour of free international calls. If the calls are badly distorted you could try to forward port 5060 for both TCP and UDP. I have a Billion 7300G and I think I did this if I remember correctly. You need to go to the Configuration -> Virtual Server and add the rules from there. Here are the rules that I set for three different IP addresses 192.168.1.100, ...101, ...102.

1 TCP 5060 5060 192.168.1.100
2 UDP 5060 5060 192.168.1.100
3 TCP 5060 5060 192.168.1.101
4 UDP 5060 5060 192.168.1.101
5 TCP 5060 5060 192.168.1.102
6 UDP 5060 5060 192.168.1.102
 
Hi Yotch

Thanks for your response. I'll try that this week sometime. During the weekend I tried a few things and this is what I found out.

I downloaded the softphone that telkom offers and made a call via the phone and it worked ok. Buts thats not what I'm trying to do.

Because the router has VOIP capaibilities with all the FXO and FXS ports i'm trying to get it to work with a normal PSTN (analogue) telephone connected to the router.
I get a dial tone that I'm assuming is a VOIP dial tone because its different to the normal PSTN dial tone, and I get normal PSTN incoming calls. If I want to make a call using the VOIP facility via the telephone call I get an engaged tone once the number is dialled.

Any suggestions?

Moklet:
Can you tell me who your ISP is so that I can swop to a non-moron isp? I'd like to change as I don't believe TELKOM is the best one around.

regards
 
are these mega200 routers still on the market? i tried getting one when my mega100wr blew and when i went to telskum they said they are no longer in production tv, and how often does telskum know what they are talking about?
 
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Hi labratza

No they aren't they will be replaced by the mega205 as soon as the paperwork is done and also, so i'm led to believe the netgear.
 
If you want to use the Billion as a VOIP router you have to setup a SIP account on that and plug a phone into it etc. It has nothing to do with Telkom really. Look at getting an account from somewhere like www.voipcheap.com or hundreds of other providers.
 
edk said:
Hi labratza

No they aren't they will be replaced by the mega205 as soon as the paperwork is done and also, so i'm led to believe the netgear.
Click to expand...


are they gonna be giving netgear routers out???? well dam i will make sure my router goes faulty then hehehehe as long as it has wireless i am happy. that is all i need but dam a wireless router and as long as it has the voip port i will be happy...

you know at all when the mega205 will be released??
 
@edk: You mentioned a Billion 7300 in your first post. I have a 7300G and it does not have any Voip features. Which model are you using? Telkom is unfortunately one of the cheapest ISPs at the moment which is why we all use them.
 
Hi labratza

All I know is what an engineer at 2C telecomms told me. His words: As soon as the paperwork is finalised they'll be sending them out. No timeframe was mentioned. As for the Netgear, that was given to me by a telkom guy who answered the phone when I phoned the helpdesk.

My gut feel: take it as a rumour until it happens. these telkom guys don't know wether they are auther are martha as far as i'm concerned. They happily spread what they have heard. wether its right or wrong is the least of their concerns.
 
Hi Yotch

The model I've got is the BiPac 7300VPG. I maybe confused, but when I asked the billion guy it said it was VOIP compatible. I took that as confirmation when I saw the two FXS ports and the one FXO port.

Am I wrong in assuming its does have VOIP capabilities because of the plugs on it.

As far as a SIP account goes
If I go into the router settings at its IP address, I can set up a sip account which I assumed to be the telkom 087xxx number and password that they gave me.
Am i wrong???

I'm still confused as I thought telkom was a VOIP provider. Why do I need to go to another provider like VOIPCHEAP as suggested by Syndyre ?

Some clarity on my confusion woill be greatly appreciated

Yours in a fog
 
edk said:
Hi Yotch

The model I've got is the BiPac 7300VPG. I maybe confused, but when I asked the billion guy it said it was VOIP compatible. I took that as confirmation when I saw the two FXS ports and the one FXO port.

Am I wrong in assuming its does have VOIP capabilities because of the plugs on it.

As far as a SIP account goes
If I go into the router settings at its IP address, I can set up a sip account which I assumed to be the telkom 087xxx number and password that they gave me.
Am i wrong???

I'm still confused as I thought telkom was a VOIP provider. Why do I need to go to another provider like VOIPCHEAP as suggested by Syndyre ?

Some clarity on my confusion woill be greatly appreciated

Yours in a fog
Click to expand...

Telkom might provide VOIP, they don't that I know of, but you'd probably get better rates from somebody else anyway.
 
@edk: You are correct the 7300VGP does do Voip. Here is the information on how to set up the Mega 200VWR to use the Telkom Voip service. See page 10.
http://www.telkom.co.za/pls/portal/docs/page/contents/athome/products/dsl/docs/TelkomMega200.pdf
I don't see any settings regarding registrar and proxy addresses etc. These settings seem to be factory programmed into the router in the Advanced Setup menu. I think you may need them to set up your router. Can you find an address on one of the menus in the soft phone called domain, registrar or proxy server/address etc.?

Firstly does the Voip light on the front of the 7300VGP router come on indicating SIP registration success? Look at page 101 of the Billion 7300VPG manual from this link
www.billion.com/_Internet/usermanual/BiPAC7300VGP_UM_08072006.pdf

What address or addresses have you used for the registrar address, proxy address and outbound proxy address as well as the port numbers?
Sip settings - Interface:, Local SIP port: 5060, Registrar address: ???, Registrar port: 5060, Proxy address: ???, Proxy port: 5060, Outbound proxy address: ???, Outbound proxy port: 5060, Register to outbound proxy: Yes etc.

Have you set up the line settings with your details?
Line settings - Disabled: No, Display name: xxx, UserID: yyy, AuthUserID: yyy, Password: zzz etc.

Summary of the most important features of Telkom Communicator
Calls made to non-Communicator subscriber numbers will be charged on a per second basis at R0.58 (peak) and R0.38 (off-peak) per minute.

Once you’ve purchased pre-paid credit you can call any allowed number. You can also make calls to other TelkomInternet Communicator numbers worldwide, while the receiving user is online, without purchasing any credit.

Allowed numbers to call from your 087200 number:
• 01x
• 02x
• 03x
• 04x
• 05x
• 080x (Only toll-free)
• 1023 (National directory enquiries)
• 10903 (International Directory Enquiries)

At present, only other TelkomInternet Communicator members can call you. They will need to know your Communicator number to dial you directly from their computers.

For Technical Support Queries email us at [email protected]
For Communicator-related account queries , contact us at [email protected]
Alternatively, for general Communicator queries contact us at [email protected]
Click to expand...
https://ticomm.telkomsa.net/Voip-phase1/

I would have expected that the 087 number could be used to receive calls from any Telkom phone? Maybe you could try to contact [email protected] to obtain those other Voip settings if you don't already have them. Let us know if you have any success as I would be interested to know if the 087 number can receive calls from other Telkom phones. Other Voip providers will allow you to also make international calls to both landlines and cell phones etc. I would personally consider one of the Betamax services such www.voipraider.com or www.12voip.com etc. which have some of the cheapest local and international rates. www.bopcall.com also has very reasonable rates and you can purchase credit locally.
 
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Hi Yotch

Thanks for the clues. I've already looked at the mega200 manual and have tried to mix and match the settings between the billion and the mega. its tricky because they don't call the various inputs by the same names. I'll check them again tonight and report back.

another question regarding voip providers. Can one have an isp and a voip provider from two different companies? Ie. telkom as my isp and voipraider as my voip provider?

Another question: What is Skype? is it not a voip provider in its own right? I looked at their website briefly and their rates are 25c a minute. that's quite good or is it?
 
Hi spider69

Thanks for your comment. I'm still waiting for moklet to comeback to me with his idea of a non-moronic isp:)
 
@edk: Usually you only need one address - the registrar, proxy or domain address and the port is usually set at 5060 and you leave the outbound proxy address blank. The Voip light on the front panel of the router needs to be on. Here are instructions on how to use a SIP device with lowratevoip - http://www.lowratevoip.com/en/sipp.html.
 
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Hi yotch

Last night I went and tried again

The ip addrss I got from the mega200 firewall settings was 196.43.17.141 with the 5060 port.

I entered that to no avail. I tried leaving the output proxy blank, and then tried entering the ip address. The VOIP light remains stubbornly off.

I then tried to make a call to an 021 number using the telkom soft phone.

The 021 number rang as normal but I couldn't hear any speaking neither could they hear me. I tested my mike and earphones to make sure that they were working and they were working fine. so no joy there

I went back to the mega settings and saw this table

196.43.17.141 5060 UDP Bi Signaling for SIP protocol

196.43.17.116 45000 to 65635 UDP Bi RTP for voice

I tried setting the firewall up to see the second ip address but the router complained about the 65635 number. I could only go as high as 65535

Could that be a factor?

yours hoping
edk
 
edk said:
I tried setting the firewall up to see the second ip address but the router complained about the 65635 number. I could only go as high as 65535

Could that be a factor?
Click to expand...
Depends on the firewall settings. I would initially try to get things working with the firewall turned off, then later re-introduce it once voice is working.
 
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