HELP ! Callcentric... service is dead
jimates:
Yes, they should have sent an email. I got one a couple weeks ago about line congestion.
jimates:
I use Callcentric for all my incoming calls. In the last 4 days I have had most of my calls dropped when I try to answer them. Google forwards the calls fine, and they come to the Obi. My call history for most of them say failed busy. The phone rings but when I answer I hear nothing.
Switching back to google voice directly to see if the problem goes away.
QBZappy:
This Callcentric system failure is a good lesson for everyone who depends on voip for 911 and alarm systems. As if we need this, once again we have another example that Voip service is not as dependable as POTS, or even cellular service. When was the last time anyone ever hear that your cell service was down?
If 911 or alarm systems are important to you, it seems that a fallback plan is necessary. A fallback strategy involving another voip account, gsm, or POTS line needs to be considered.
An early warning system would also be interesting, as I can see that a few people were surprised to read on this forum that CC was down and didn't realize the implications of 911 availability.
Early warning system can be anything in house if you a have a server running 24/7 or cloud based solutions. An interesting one since everyone here has a gmail account is to consider using a little know feature of Google called "Google Alerts Monitor". ( http://www.google.com/alerts ) In the Search query we can type a
1) search criteria something like: Callcentric down OR Callcentric Network down OR OBiTALK down OR obitalk service down OR voipms down ("OR" adds another search term, you get the idea)
2) Result type: Everything
3) How often: As it happens
4) How many: Only the best results
5) Your email: yourname@gmail.com (An email will be sent to your attention alerting you of a potential problem)
In house solutions can be found by searching for Network Monitoring Tools. Some of these in house are overkill, however I have seen a few light weight free solutions that sit in your tray.
10 Free Server & Network Monitoring Tools that Kick Ass
http://sixrevisions.com/tools/10-free-server-network-monitoring-tools-that-kick-ass/
I found this free app which can send emails, when a server is down. The basic idea is to ping any or all of the following services offered by your OBi unit, the sip provider, OBiTALK server, and receive an email when there is a problem. If anyone finds another app which can notify via email or SMS please let me know.
Serio IT Service View, a free network monitoring tool
http://www.seriosoft.com/service-view/main.htm
http://www.seriosoft.com/service-view/feature-matrix.htm
Cloud based test. This site can be scripted to deliver emails.
http://www.upordown.net/callcentric.com.html
HMishra:
QBZappy,
While I agree with your strategy of having a backup service capable of dialing 911, the monitoring script suggested by you would not have helped in this situation with CallCentric.
The reason being, at no time during this outage, the main site was down. The ddos was targeted at their sip registration servers which do not reply to pings anyway. Unfortunately, this was an instance where you would have come to know of the outage only when trying to use their service. A backup/failover path to 911 would have been the only way to be prepared for emergencies. One possibility of setting up failover is using dial trunks although there might be others beyond the obvious way of using maybe a cell# as backup.
-Hiranmoy
QBZappy:
HMishra,
The "Google Alerts Monitor" approach is not testing any server. It basically looks for threads on the topic which is then reported to you via email. It is an indirect way of testing.
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