Friday 3 February 2017

Set Up Freephoneline on the Grandstream HT-701 (firmware 1.0.8.2)

Greetings again!

As you may know, I'm a big fan of Freephoneline (FPL). One of the nice things is the great support provided in the online communities:

http://forum.fongo.com/index.php

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/freephoneline-ca-free-local-soft-phone-line-lifetime-voip-821229/

Over the years, I've received a lot of great help from members of the community; I've learned a lot about FPL, VoIP in general, ideal network conditions and design to best run this stuff...best of all, how to keep it up and running, and what to do when something goes wrong!

In some small way, I've tried to help and hope I have helped other users. For my own setup, I use the Grandstream HT-701 ATA (analog telephone adapter), which last I checked is the adapter that Fongo provides for their monthly phone service. While many FPL users have moved on to Obihai ATAs, there are others who still use different options from Cisco, Linksys, and Grandstream. The last available configuration guide was for an earlier firmware, so I wanted to put together something more current to help others, even if it's just a few people.

You can access the PDF here: http://forum.fongo.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=18839. If I have any updates to it, such as troubleshooting tips, I'll be sure to add them there.

Thanks, and hope this helps! And thanks to everyone in the two FPL communities that helped me navigate these tricky waters.

Happy savings!


17 comments:

  1. Thanks for this, will have to try and get my Ht-701 working (using OBI100 presently). Had audio one-way issues I couldn't resolve even with a router running DDWRT

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  2. Thanks for the comment and hope you get the one way audio issues sorted! The OBIs, I've read, are much more versatile than the Grandstreams, but something to be said for going with what works.

    When I had similar issues in the past, I had some luck with using voip4.freephoneline.ca:6060 as the main SIP server. Worth a try if you haven't tried already. Liptonbrisk has posted some good troubleshooting steps in the Fongo forums too. Hopefully you get this sorted and can enjoy the FPL service/no bills!

    Good luck and thanks for stopping by.

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  3. Let me know, too, if anything in the HT701 guide is confusing or you have any questions.

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    2. Still no joy, no outgoing audio from HT701, tried all the suggestions, I am at my wits end!

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    3. Sorry to hear that. Surely there must be a solution! What kind of a router are you running? Your modem is definitely in bridge mode?

      I believe Lipton suggests to open a ticket and request a forced registration on your account. I never had to go that route, but might be worth checking out.

      Sorry again to hear it's been a bumpy ride. I've definitely been there and see the odd hiccup from time to time. Keep troubleshooting and I'm sure you'll figure it out. If I think of anything else to suggest, I'll be sure to provide. Good luck!

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    4. I am running a newer (lol) router with DD-WRT v3.0-r29739 std (05/19/16) ...I was running a much older version but the problem is the same. No outgoing audio. Modem is bridged (pppoe passthrough)

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  4. hmmmm I have been doing most of my testing with calls between 3 ATA's (2 obi's and one HT-701) on my LAN, made a call outside and it seemed to work OK...will need to do more testing. Calls between OBI's are always OK, it's just the HT-701 with the oneway audio...probably a problem with NAT and RTP packets as the calls in the OBI never show any rx packets in the call status.

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    1. Getting close, I bet!

      For the HT701...could you try SIP REGISTER Contact Header Uses: WAN Address ?

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    2. I have been using that setting, maybe try LAN address?

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    3. No audio both ways with SIP REGISTER Contact Header Uses: LAN Address

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    4. Just saw a post you made on March 25 at the freephoneline support forum......

      "If using multiple ATAs with multiple FPL accounts, ensure each ATA is using a different Local SIP port within the range of 30000 to 65535."

      I am using different local SIP ports but they aren't in the range you specify above....how come the specific range?

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    5. Sorry, that's not me. That sounds more like Liptonbrisk or one of the other experts. Maybe try him in the forums?

      Still having connection issues, I'm guessing? Sorry to hear.

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    6. Thanks, still problems and new ones at that......getting temporary failure message in FPL call log

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    7. Did the connection ever work out?

      I thought I'd mention that I had trouble with mine lately. Lipton (FPL guru) mentioned a setting I hadn't considered before:


      SIP OPTIONS Keep Alive Interval -- change to 20 (30 is the default on HT701)

      Some of this stuff is tricky to flush out! Hope you either got your connection working or this helps out.

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    9. Nope, never got it to work, my Keep Alive Interval was already set to 20.

      FPL still works great with my trusty OBI100

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