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how to use AT&T Callvantage behind a router

i finally figured out how to use AT&T Callvantage behind a firewall, I am actually not sure why i've wrestled with this for so long - it's pretty easy:

1. plug your firewall router WAN port into your cable/DSL modem
2. configure the AT&T box for a static internal IP on your network (example 192.168.1.X) and plug the WAN port of the AT&T box into a normal networking port of the switch
3. port forward 2427 with both TCP and UDP to the static internal IP you gave your AT&T box

that's pretty much it. works much better this way than if it is upstream of the router for me.

ok. voip. this year for sure

<sarcasm>

we've been hearing that the last two years, and it's still early in the year, but i'll give voip another year before it really takes off. having just installed an AT&T callvantage box and patching it into the rest of the existing jacks in my house has been a fun little project, but probably a little much for the average person. i consider myself an early adopter and i haven't fooled much with voip until now.

it still has some issues. at&t had a bear of a time getting my service connected - it took a good 45 minutes on the phone one day for a tech to connect it live - and in the end it about 95% works.

things like *98 are missed ( i can't get the advertised "***" to retrieve voicemail to work) , and privacy manager should just be a free feature in the software. if they are going to nickel and dime you for all the add-ons, what's the point, really?

when my wife is on the phone for an hour i definitely notice a big drop in the bandwidth for browsing.

and then there's skype. skype is going to be huge. why? because they have the network. i can't swing a dead cat these days in the bizdev world without someone asking me for a skype account, especially when dealing with partners in Europe. it doesn't really matter if someone comes out with a better technology. so many people are tied to their skype handles now - they are creating an awesome level of lock in. what's amazing is that some people just use skype as IM - even some people i suggested using IM to communicate with a year ago are now asking to IM me via skype after they blowing off IM for all these years.

skype should take a history lesson in AOL and AIM carefully. AOL clearly had the lead in the instant messenger market with tremendous lock in, even outside of AOL proper with the standalone AIM product. everyone i knew used AIM so thus did i (we still use AIM today in our office, even though all of us have y!m accounts as well). AOL even bought their only real competitor at the time, ICQ, but proceeded to do nothing to integrate the two products! then, they shutdown their open APIs, caused a lot of ill will keeping out the reverse engineers and let Y! and MSN eventually stomp all over them.

AOL could have easily won the war early by allowing other applications to communicate with their API over their TIC/TOC and Oscar protocols ( i still have screen scrapes of their original java client libraries that did exist) because people would have stayed with the messenger that that brought them the most value for both p2p and a2p ... but by the time AOL figured that out, it was way too late.

skype has it's issues too, though. i'm a pacer on the phone. i need to have a handset to my ear walking around, and i work in an open environment with WOXY happily playing in the background, so answering skype at my desk isn't really possible.

i like the direction motorola and skype have taken in announcements, and maybe this move will finally be the one move that frees them from the clutches of the cell carrier's demands, especially now that iDen has been put out to pasture - but will we see anything any time soon?

voip. next year, for sure.

my server closet

this is why they don't let me do the wiring at work.

finally got VOIP distributed thoughout the house to the existing jacks. usually you can just plug your VOIP adaptor into an existing jack, but since i keep all this in a closet there are no jacks so it's all patched together manually.

VOIP hiccup #2

okay, my phone number was supposed to have been transferred to my AT&T Callvantage box yesterday, and I even got a confirmation from AT&T that it had been successfully transferred.

the email said:

You are now able to receive incoming calls, place outgoing calls and use the new, exciting AT&T CallVantage features.

the only problem is, incoming calls are still being routed to my land line.

Hm, i can only call them up until 8pm. nice.

callvantage finally working

after three nights of reconfiguring my cable modem, VOIP box, wireless router and 24-port switch, i think i have finally been able to activate AT&T callvantage. my number hasn't switched over, but i am able to make outgoing calls and access the net again in my house.

my home lan closet is a rat's nest. perhaps a picture tomorrow...

at any rate, the calls do seem to be pretty clear, and there isn't really a lag in the call connecting as i have heard stories of. also, my bandwidth doesn't seem to go down to nothing while making a call, but it definitely slows down.

next: try to splice the outbound POTs adaptor to all the jacks in my house. baby steps.

stay tuned.

next n the VOIP saga: dueling routers

yep, squeal like a pig.

AT&T (now part of SBC, didn't the government split them up 20 years ago?) said i could set up my VOIP router even though my number hasn't been migrated yet, so i did.

I wish it was as easy as the instructions said, but of course it never is. Of course, i have a very carefully setup network in my house with a NAT box in front of everything that controls traffic to the internal network. Basically the VOIP box now grabs the public IP from my cable modem and creates it's own NAT, and then wants my router firewall to either NAT behind that or join it's network.

And of course it picked a different subnet than i already have going. i was hoping i wouldn't have to sit down with Visio to install VOIP, but it looks like i might have to.

more to come...

first hiccup with VOIP

well, as i said yesterday, i go the kit (for free) for AT&T Callvantage and signed up.

AT&T Confirmed my signup and notified me my service will be ready on February 6th! um. today is January 28th. Over a week to move my number and get the service up and running? you're kidding me right? nope.

at least with WNP with wireless operators, they had to get numbers ported by law in 2.5 hours or something. i'm guessing no such rule exists for the wireline operators, not to mention VOIP.

alright, you'll hear from me again on this in a couple weeks.

Trying VOIP

I know this is so last year but i'm finally going to be tring VOIP in the form of AT&T Callvantage at home. We're going to be moving a few times over the next few months, and i don't really want to deal with SBC anymore, let alone pay their prices.

I myself could get along fine without a fixed home phone at all, but i don't have the only say in my household.

I'll report my experience. I'm not expecting it to be easy. First task: figure out how to get the TIVO to work with it even though it is nowhere near the VOIP adaptor. I see a lot of custom cable splicing in my future.