My Digital Life

My Fax dilemma solved with the ComSwitch 3.0

With the demise of Sunrocket I lost my fax number. I used Sunrocket's signature number (second number on primary line) with distinctive ring to route faxes to the VentaFax service on my Vista workstation. When I moved my main Sunrocket number to T-Mobile, I left out the signature number since T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home service does not offer a UMA Terminal Adapter to hook up wired phones and fax machines. This left me without an inbound fax solution.

My two options were to subscribe to a fax service or use my land line. Since I don't receive many faxes it did not make sense to pay a monthly subscription fee. I also did not want to dedicate my land line to incoming faxes since this is the number we usually give out as our home phone. I could purchase a second number for the land line and use distinctive ring but there again the additional cost was not justified. The solution was to find a reasonably priced fax switch. A fax switch listens to the traffic on the line without answering or taking it off hook. Newer fax machine emit CNG tones, these tones are detected by fax switches which automatically route the fax call to a connected fax machine or in my case a fax modem.

I found ComSwitch 3.0  from Command Communications, Inc. It has many more options than I need, including TeleZapper, but was the simplest and cheapest solution at $59.99. I received it late last week, installed and tested it over the weekend. I use the default settings and it works very well. When an incoming fax arrives it switches the call silently and the fax modem picks up before any phone rings. VentaFax then emails me the fax. If a fax call should come through on a regular phone you can easily reroute it to the fax machine/modem by pressing #11.

The end of Sunrocket

Yesterday afternoon, I received this notice from Sunrocket. By coincidence my number transfer to T-Mobile (with Hotspot@Home) was completed yesterday. In the end it is too bad because the service was very good at an excellent price point.

"CRITICAL LETTER TO SUNROCKET CUSTOMERS

- SERVICE TO BE DISCONTINUED WITHIN 10 DAYS -

Dear Customers,

As previously reported, SunRocket is in the process of closing its operations and therefore will no longer be able to provide you with the phone service.  However, this email provides you with an opportunity to sign up with select service providers who we believe will offer outstanding replacement service.

While services to customers may be discontinued at anytime, all services will be discontinued no later than August 5, 2007.

However, there are two preferred service providers we are recommending, which are:  8x8, Inc., provider of the Packet8 service, and Unified Communications Corp., provider of Teleblend services will be offering you the best options and we are proud to recommend the following alternatives to you.

We urge each and every customer that has not signed up with a new service provider to immediately do so now.  Do not delay as services are being discontinued and will be permanently shut down no later than August 5, 2007."...

 

Sunrocket goes out of business, I move to T-Mobile HotSpot@Home

Last Monday, noticed a red light on my Sunrocket Gizmo signaling a problem with the service. After a quick search on the net it became clear that Sunrocket had shutdown its service without notifying users. You can still use the service by rebooting the Gizmo, however nobody knows how long that will last.

I feel I was one of the lucky ones, my 1 year contract was suppose to end at the beginning of August. I was to get 3 months free which would take me to the beginning of November. I have read many posts where individuals had almost a full year left.

It is really too bad they ran out of money, the service was reliable and the connection quality had gotten better and better. Now I needed to decide on how to proceed. The number of VOIP providers has grown and many are giving deals to Sunrocket customers. With the lawsuits and onslaught from the cable companies VOIP is a tough market. Costs have been creeping up slowly and the major providers such as Vonage, AT&T and Verizon are charging $24.95 a month. I do not want to take the chance with a small provider. Since I have been testing T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home service, I decided that this was the cheapest (among major carriers) and safest alternative. Unfortunately HotSpots@Home is not yet available on Windows Mobile, so I had to get another line and a Samsung T-409. This is fine since it is a line for my business. The current cost is $9.99 for the line (add on to Family plan) and $9.99 for HotSpot@Home ($19.99 for all the lines in a family plan). Cheaper than the major VOIP providers. Yes, it is more expensive than Sunrocket but this is the price you pay for corporate stability. It seems clear that VOIP providers offering the $199 per year plan are selling the service at an unsustainable price point.

With this approach I have three issues I need solve:

1. Porting my Sunrocket number to T-Mobile. I called customer service, they were aware of the Sunrocket situation (to my amazement) and were happy to help. They made the request to port the number over one of my T-Mobile assigned numbers. It was interesting to note that my Sunrocket number was actually owned by Global Crossing. It can take up to ten days, I will update this post when it happens.
2. Faxes. I seldom use the fax, but it is nice to have. Outbound fax is easy since I can use the land line connected to my alarm system. Inbound is more problematic, with Sunrocket I had a second number with distinctive ring. The VentaFax software would recognize the distinctive ring, receive the fax and email me a .pdf. This a great solution. Unfortunately since the HotSpot@Home service is cell based, I no longer have this option. I will try to find a free fax services or purchase a box which recognizes fax signals on my land line. The box then switches the connection to the computer and VentaFax can take the call.
3. Using the phones throughout the house. We own a Phonelabs Dock-N-Talk which connects a cell phone via Bluetooth the house phones. This works well with cell technology, however when you throw in a WIFI connection (same 2.4GHZ frequency as Bluetooth) for UMA, the connection is not 100% reliable. It works, unfortunately sometimes the connection can get dropped. This means carrying the phone around the house. This works for me, but my wife is still getting used the idea. I may try Phonelabs 2nd generation Bluetooth unit to see if that helps. Another option would be for T-Mobile to offer a UMA Terminal Adapter to plug in the phones you have at home. The terminal adapter would become active when the UMA compatible cell phone was connected to the home network.

I think this is the best long term solution for us, although it is a work in progress. Long term it would be nice to go from 4 numbers (2 each for my wife and I) down to 2. With a UMA terminal adapter and Windows Mobile compatibility that would be possible.

Callwave voice mail adds speech to text

Back in March I started using Callwave's free voice mail service. At first I was a little dubious about its value, however I have to say that it has been very useful. I now have only one voice mail box for my Sunrocket VOIP and T-Mobile cellphone numbers. I use the Sunrocket Find Me forwarding to my cell phone, then on no answer or reject, it forwards to the Callwave mailbox (It does use my T-Mobile forwarding 1000 minute pool).

When I miss a call, I receive an email with the caller id name (if available) and number information in the subject line. I receive an email whether the caller leaves a message or not. If the the caller leaves a message, I have chosen to have the associated .wav file attached.

Last week Callwave announced a new feature which translates the voice mail message to text. The email now contains the translated text and it works pretty well. I use 4smartphone's Exchange ActiveSync on my T-Mobile Wing. I set the Windows Mobile inbox options to not automatically download attachments. I no longer have to download the .wav attachment to hear the voice mail message, I can read it...and up to now I can make sense of the text without listening to the voice mail. This is pretty cool and it is free.

Callwave also has two Vista gadgets, one which displays missed calls and allows you to playback messages, and one which allows you to send SMS text messages (free to the sender, the receiver still has to pay or have a text message plan).

This makes the iPhone Visual voice mail a little behind the times...Hopefully it will stay free.

T-Mobile lauches UMA HotSpot@Home service.

T-Mobile launches HotSpot@Home UMA service nationwide I discussed here. It looks like a great deal for $9.99, that is cheaper than I what I pay for Sunrocket ($199 for 15 months) and I would only have to deal with one number. The website does not seem to be ready for the launch, there is no way to order the UMA compatible Nokia or Samsung phone and associated router.

Now where is the Windows Mobile UMA upgrade for the Wing? We know it is possible since HP and BT (link) in the UK are launching the iPaq 514 this summer, a WM 6 device with UMA.

Verizon FIOS - My installation

Last week I finally got Verizon's FIOS installed, it took 3 weeks...I was originally was told that I could not get FIOS until the end June, however in late April when I was reviewing my land line phone bill on-line, I saw a link displaying that FIOS was available at my address. I ordered the installation on-line and scheduled it for May 3rd. On May 2nd I got a call from Verizon that there was a technical issue and rescheduled for May 4th. May 4th came around and no one showed or called. I called Verizon, explained the situation and found someone who was very helpful. She analyzed the order and found that it had an issue which caused it not to be dispatched. The problem was that the cut over dates for the land line and connection for the Internet were different. The order system does not automatically dispatch when you have different service due date on one order. She elevated the issue to the order department for resolution. May 7th went by without a call, so I followed up on Tuesday. At this point I voiced my displeasure in the process, and the gentleman researched the issued and overrode the system to force the installation for the morning of May 15th. This time the process worked as planned,  I was called the night before to confirm and the technician called me before arriving.

The technician arrived and could not find the fiber router listed on the order. Routers support 25 to 50 homes, they seem to be on the ground next to poles. I told him there was one at each end of the street and based on the routers street address listed on the order I pointed him in the right direction. The next step was to run the fiber cable from a connection point on the router to my house. The fiber cables come in pre-defined lengths and cannot be altered by the technician. They are built by Corning Glass. He decided to use a 350' cable. The longest part of the installation was the stringing of the cable down and across the street to my house.

The next step was to install the Tellabs 1600 Optical Network Terminal (ONT). I wanted it placed in my garage but at the technician's insistence we decided outside was better for two reasons. First, the fiber connector on the end of the cable is quite large, it would require a large hole through my brick and block wall. Second, if there was an issue with the ONT Verizon could not service it from outside and I would have to be home. The ONT requires a power source so we decided to place the power supply and backup battery next to an outlet in the garage. The ONT enclosure measures 13" x 13", so it is not too obvious. Since the technicians have to use fixed length fiber cable the ONT has a slack storage compartment to hold the excess, very nice design feature.

The fiber connection inside the ONT. The bottom black connector is the large fixed end of the Corning Glass cable coming from the street.

The ONT provides both cable and RJ45 LAN outputs. Verizon provides an Actiontec MI424WR 4 port wireless router which accepts cable or RJ45 LAN inputs. Since my plan was to use my D-Link DFL-210 router I wanted to use the ONT LAN output. Because most homes already have cable, Verizon prefers this method, however we agreed that a LAN drop was better in my situation and I offered to run the drop. One note, since I have Directv and the ONT's cable output is not compatible with the satellite dish cable signal, this gave me another reason not to use cable.

The user interface side of the ONT. From left to right, the RJ45 LAN connection, the 2 land line phone (POTS) connection, and the cable hookup.

Verizon strongly suggest that you use their router with stickers that warn about network degradation if you don't.  I really don't think there is anything the Actiontec router has that my DFL-210 can't do. In order for the DFL-210 to acquire an address from the network, all I had to do is clone the MAC address from the Actiontec router. I compared the speeds with and without the Actiontec, they were the same.

It took 6 hours to complete the install, the major portion of time going to running the fiber drop to my house and resolving a cut over issue from copper to fiber on my land line at the central office.

So far I am very happy, the download speeds average 5.1Mbps are equivalent to Comcast while the uploads of 1.8Mbps are 6 times faster and at $39.99 a month cheaper than the $57.99 Comcast was trying to charge me.

The week of May 21st in My Digital Life

I will hopefully be the owner of a T-Mobile Wing tomorrow. I plan on calling my local store today to make sure they have them in stock.The Wing has not shown up on the T-Mobile web site yet.

Last week I finally was able to have Verizon FIOS installed. It took about 6 hours to complete the installation. I am very pleased with the service. The downstream speed is similar to what I had on Comcast, however the upstream speed of 2 Mbps is about 6 times faster. This makes file and picture uploads considerably faster. Watching Slingbox away from home is a much more pleasurable experience. I also think the quality of my Sunrocket VOIP service is better. More on my install tomorrow.

My upgraded Tivo hard drive seems to be working fine, however I cannot connect to it via my Silicon Dust Cachecard. I am still researching the problem and have found other individuals with a similar issue but nobody seems to have a solution to the problem. It seems most individuals on the forums have moved on to the newer Tivo boxes..

On the consulting front, I finally found a work around to connecting a Microsoft ISA server to a Cisco VPN router that does not use NAT-T. The bottom line is that you can't use ISA, the connection needs to go through a firewall that performs static NAT translation. Now I am onto diagnosing a DFS environment across three subnets which does not appear to synchronize files correctly.

This week:

• My QuickLook review of the Prevalent Devices Phraze-It  keyboard 2.0 application using my Dell Axim X51v should appear on pocketnow.com this week.
• I should be blogging about my new T-Mobile Wing.

VentaFax 5.8 for Windows Vista (sort of)

VentaFax has just released version 5.8 with some limited Vista compatibility. You can view the limitations here.

I use VentaFax to receive faxes using my Sunrocket Signature number. I was able to get VentaFax 5.71 to run as a service under Windows Vista. It detects my Sunrocket Signature number distinctive ring (ring-2) on my Intel based 536EP modem, receives the fax and forwards it to me via email. I never got the user application to work correctly, I ended up using the Microsoft scan and fax application for outbound faxing.

I will have to try version 5.8, however if it won't run as a service (see limitations), it won't help me and I may stick with 5.71 since I receive more faxes then I send. Most of the world now has email and I use email .pdf attachments.

Sunrocket - Verizon vs Vonage

Last week when I read the press reports on the Verizon vs Vonage patent case, I was perplexed by lack of detail of the patents involved in the case. During the Blackberry case there seem to be plenty of detail analysis available. Clint Ricker had the same thought and spent the time to research the matter. Here is the link to his findings and analysis. This case seems to have many of the attributes of the Blackberry case which in my mind should never have gotten as far as it did and just illustrates how broken our patent system is. Unfortunately Congress has other pressing issues to deal with it and I am afraid this issue will not be dealt with anytime soon. Left with this system, companies will continue to use questionable patents in defensive moves against competitors.

You could argue that Vonage is not really a competitor of Verizon's. With only 2.2 million subscribers, they dwarf Verizon's customer base. Verizon's real competitor is Comcast and the other cable companies. With their VOIP phone service Comcast is poaching customers from Verizon. Given the reliability ads Verizon is showing in the Washington, DC area, they are concerned with defection rate. Vonage has been since 2002, yet this lawsuit was only brought in the last year. Verizon chose to attack the middle player in the field which does not have the deep pockets of a Comcast to fight this kind of litigation. The result shows.

The problem for consumers is that the ruling affects us. With VOIP services from Vonage, Sunrocket and others, we have been able to save considerable amounts of money and have started to break the strangle hold local phone companies have had.  The technology is maturing and from my own experience with Sunrocket, I can vouch that the service has gotten better and better. Although the call quality still does not equal the Plain Old Telephone System (POTS), it works as well as a cell phone service. Should the ruling stand, it could have a detrimental impact on the nascent industry and in the end kill competitiveness for local dial tone service.

The major patent in question describes how a call and its associated billing information get passed from a VOIP (or in a broader sense a packet based system) network to the POTS network. The irony is that all of the traditional phone companies are moving their POTS networks towards some form of VOIP or packet switched system making this patent obsolete. As I have said before, judges and lawmakers are not technologists. This works to the advantage of large technology companies like Verizon who put their business agenda first. Unfortunately as a stockholder I agree, but as a technologist and consumer I disagree. We need a balance and there does not seem to be an easy fix.  I hope that as the Vonage case works its way through the court system some balance is found, otherwise I fear we will end up with the local phone monopoly VOIP gave us a glimmer to get away from. Maybe Comcast and other cable companies should donate to a Vonage lawsuit fund...

One last note, as Verizon is deploying FIOS they are urging people to switch their local service from copper to FIOS. At first I thought that this meant VOIP but I was told by Verizon marketing folks that it is not. They could not tell me what technology they were using but I am assuming it is some sort of packet based system tied into their POTS network.

The week of March 19th in My Digital Life, where was I...

The last week and half have been pretty busy with no time to blog. I was in Seattle and Redmond last week at my first Microsoft MVP Summit. It was well worth the time. In typical Microsoft conference fashion we received a parting gift, a Uniden Win1200 5.8GHZ wireless phone, which works with a phone line and Windows Messenger. You can make free pc to pc calls via messenger, low cost calls via Verizon web calling service, and also use the connected phone line (I plan on connecting it to my Sunrocket VOIP line). I have not yet successfully made a PC to PC call, I keep getting an error that tells to try again. I will have to follow up.

This week I have been struggling with Microsoft ISA 2006. The problem ended up being with SP2 being applied to Windows Server 2003 R2. It seems SP2 has some security updates which affect ADAM (installed with ISA) and breaks authentication with Active Directory. This blog entry pointed me in the right direction. Then, every time I removed SP2, it would reappear, at the time I did not realize that the customer had setup a server with Microsoft's Software Update Service (SUS). If you want to use SUS make sure you exclude servers, too many thing can go wrong. A lot of extra hours were spent this week battling this issue. Things are stable now and the wizards in ISA 2006 make it a mindless exercise to setup inbound VPN and site to site VPN. The only real work is understanding the network topology to make sure you add the appropriate routes when you have multiple subnets and gateways. So far I am very impressed with ISA 2006.

Last weekend was spent, moving my Directv Tivo DVR to our master bedroom which meant adding an additional LAN drop from my attic and reorganizing coax cables from the satellite dish. This was in preparation for the upgrade to HD equipment on Monday March 19th. Monday came with nobody showing up or calling. I called customer service. An accident prevented the installer from showing up, they were able to reschedule for the 20th. On the 20th the installer and his supervisor showed up. They checked out the premises and determined that I could not get HD because of tree height in my backyard (tall tulip poplars). Even though I can receive signals from Directv satellites at position 101 (standard definition satellites), it seems that the oval 5 LNB dish has to be angled down to receive the signal form the 3 HD satellite positions which makes it impossible to get a clear line of sight through the trees. I was and am still really bummed out. I was an early adopter of Directv and have been a customer for over 10 years and I was looking forward to using them for HD. This currently leaves me with 2 options; off the air or Comcast, although I will look into putting up multiple dishes.

I decided to try Comcast out. They gave a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD DVR. I was leery at first, but was happy to find that the Thecus disk array and 2 500 GB Seagate drives I had purchased for the Directv HR20 DVR works with the SA Explorer 8300HD. The only issue is that I don't know how much of the TeraByte is going to be used, since the only status information I have found so far is percentage used. I need to record a set of shows and extrapolate total numbers of hours from the percentage used. Unfortunately when I came home yesterday the DVR displayed a message that it needed to be authorized after having worked for 24 hours. Very bizzare, I called Comcast and they told me they had to come out, They will be out today and I will report back. Maybe there is an issue with the return path but I do have a return path since my internet access works fine, I am clueless at this point. Nothing seems easy any more...I am hoping that Verizon completes the fiber wiring on my street shortly so I can try FIOS and compare it to Comcast.

One good thing that happened this week is that I was able the get the Ventafax service to work with my new modem on Windows Vista. This allows me to receive faxes using my Sunrocket signature number using distinctive ring and email me the fax. I added the following initialization string of AT +VDR=0,2 (allows distinctive ring to flow through) and turned off the VentaFax voice features. I still need to test an outgoing fax with the Ventafax application, but I know that I can fax with the Vista's fax application.

I also have a bunch of reviews for pocketnow.com queued which I need to finish, hopefully next week I won't get derailed...