Callcentric issues

[A_Friend]

So, if OBI doesn't come up with a fix for this bug I will probably port my CC number to Voip.ms.

There's no need to port out, or at least yet.  So far, DID Forwarding from CC has been working pretty well.  (Preferences/DID Forwarding, that is.  Use that over Call Treatments, which has been a little flaky, on and off.)  I use and like voip.ms, so I'm not going to say anything against it, but for a temporary solution, you might also want to check out CallWithUs (others recommended it, I haven't used them), which has a much lower initial prefunding level.  For a more permanent residential solution, at least voip.ms can sell you e911 service, whereas CallWithUs doesn't even offer it.

You could forward your Callcentric DID right now to your GoogleVoice account, but you'll have to pay for every incoming minute as an outgoing call by Callcentric.  If you use a voip.ms or CallWithUs (or many other) SIP URI as a forwarding address, it's free (on both ends) and you don't need a DID from them.  CallWithUs is more straightforward to set up, if I read their FAQ right.  With voip.ms, if you want a free URI to forward to, you have to configure a subaccount, choose an internal extension number, use the credentials for that on your OBi110, and use your main account number plus the user-added part of the extension as part of your URI.  So, it's a little more complicated and potentially confusing.  Read up on subaccounts on their site for more info.

I'm currently paying voip.ms for a "virtual DID" to use with a Ring Group because they don't treat the subaccount-URI as a DID for that purpose and I don't trust Callcentric's Call Treatments right now, but as long as you don't need simultaneous ring or other special handling, a simple SIP URI forward is free (although with voip.ms you might have to pony up the $25 initial deposit to make things work).

I'm of the opinion that OBihai will eventually patch up the firmware to stop the rebooting problem, and also that Callcentric will stabilize their SIP SBCs and stop the attacks from working. Actually porting your number out will take a few weeks, anyway, so if you can find a passable workaround in the meantime, you might want to save the cost of porting out and just leave the DID with Callcentric until things either get fixed or get officially certified as hopeless.

[Johnny]

So, if OBI doesn't come up with a fix for this bug I will probably port my CC number to Voip.ms.

There's no need to port out, or at least yet.  So far, DID Forwarding from CC has been working pretty well.  (Preferences/DID Forwarding, that is.  Use that over Call Treatments, which has been a little flaky, on and off.)  I use and like voip.ms, so I'm not going to say anything against it, but for a temporary solution, you might also want to check out CallWithUs (others recommended it, I haven't used them), which has a much lower initial prefunding level.  For a more permanent residential solution, at least voip.ms can sell you e911 service, whereas CallWithUs doesn't even offer it.

You could forward your Callcentric DID right now to your GoogleVoice account, but you'll have to pay for every incoming minute as an outgoing call by Callcentric.  If you use a voip.ms or CallWithUs (or many other) SIP URI as a forwarding address, it's free (on both ends) and you don't need a DID from them.  CallWithUs is more straightforward to set up, if I read their FAQ right.  With voip.ms, if you want a free URI to forward to, you have to configure a subaccount, choose an internal extension number, use the credentials for that on your OBi110, and use your main account number plus the user-added part of the extension as part of your URI.  So, it's a little more complicated and potentially confusing.  Read up on subaccounts on their site for more info.

I'm currently paying voip.ms for a "virtual DID" to use with a Ring Group because they don't treat the subaccount-URI as a DID for that purpose and I don't trust Callcentric's Call Treatments right now, but as long as you don't need simultaneous ring or other special handling, a simple SIP URI forward is free (although with voip.ms you might have to pony up the $25 initial deposit to make things work).

I'm of the opinion that OBihai will eventually patch up the firmware to stop the rebooting problem, and also that Callcentric will stabilize their SIP SBCs and stop the attacks from working. Actually porting your number out will take a few weeks, anyway, so if you can find a passable workaround in the meantime, you might want to save the cost of porting out and just leave the DID with Callcentric until things either get fixed or get officially certified as hopeless.

A_Friend,

Thanks so much for taking the time to post that helpful information.

I really like the OBI 110 and want to stick with it, so I may do as you advised and wait a little longer before porting out. 

I just wish someone from OBIhai would let us know what's going on.

Thanks

[Judgeless]

I am having more issues with Callcentric.  I had everything working for 2 days and now it is broke again.  I went to their website. http://www.callcentric.com/ and the domain no longer works.

Did they go out of business?  If not how can they stay around without redundancy and power backup?

[Billt928]

I am having more issues with Callcentric.  I had everything working for 2 days and now it is broke again.  I went to their website. http://www.callcentric.com/ and the domain no longer works.

Did they go out of business?  If not how can they stay around without redundancy and power backup?

I'm in the web hosting business for 12 years now. I'm the owner and have about 50 servers that I own and have a backup plan. I'm in Florida and have planned for these instances. I even use multiple data centers for redundant core services in a fail-over situation. Not only do the data centers I use have redundant power grids, they have redundant generators with 14 days of fuel. and the APC system is rated to carry the entire Data center for 24 at full load.

I used callcentric as a primary provider and VOIP.MS as a fail over, but that does not even work now because callcentric could net even keep up the core services that other providers in the same area seem to have done.


I do think that if Callcentric manages to get back on line and maybe still have a customer base to explain why they had no backup plan for a extended power outage. its inexcusable that they said they only had 1 hour of APC backup.

I for one think some heads may need to roll if they plan on staying in business to show customers and any possible future customers that they are serious about being a VOIP provider and will not allow this to happen again, because the head engineer they have now failed to plan for the biggest threat to a data center or VOIP provider. A POWER OUTTAGE. They also failed to notify the customers of this planned shutdown. and I do not accept the tweet as notice or post on dslreports. They knew the storm was coming for days and failed across the board other than shut it all down and go home. This screw the customer attitude will most likely put them down for the long term. We have been hearing excuse after excuse on why its taken so long to mitigate the DDoS attack that been an issue for 26 days now. there mitigation steps have rendered most ISP's dns servers useless and required countless hours and days constantly changing there recommended setups

The billing system has been working well for them though. I got billed for full months of service and no credits as they stated over a week ago that they would be doing.

[Judgeless]

There customers are not happy on the twitter feed.

http://twitter.com/Callcentric/status/263106841368752128

I am done with is company.  What is the best company to port my number to?  Cheap and relaible.

[CoalMinerRetired]

This is a longer list: https://twitter.com/search?q=CallCentric&src=typd

[Billt928]

There customers are not happy on the twitter feed.

http://twitter.com/Callcentric/status/263106841368752128

I am done with is company.  What is the best company to port my number to?  Cheap and relaible.

It sure does look like they are running Callcentric from just some office space in NY and not a properly equipped data center. Did they think the power would or could never go out? First the slow mitigation of the DDoS and now its revealed they have no backup plan other than to power down and go home.

I just do not see how the could ever be considered a reliable provider again even if they manage to stay in business after this. They could not even inform their customers that they were shutting the hole system down and going home. I sure would have liked to know that in advance.

I know when I was looking to start a web hosting business over 12 years ago. that was the first thing I was concerned about. otherwise I would have just thrown a bunch of servers in the back room an pocked the $$ I could have saved by doing so.

My business lines are down for now. no way to even forward them or port them out. I was using VOIP.MS as a backup, but with callcentric turning the hole system off that killed my inbound calls. So I had to contact all of my current customers to provide my backup contact numbers. That does not help with the expensive advertising I have running with number that just ring busy due to callcentric shutting down all servers. If they had informed their customers I could have at least tried to get some of it updated in advance.

I could maybe cut them a break if the total shut down was unexpected. but they made the decision to shut it down in advance of the storm knowing they had no backup plans in place for an outage lasting for more than 1 hour. They could have at least informed their customers of their plans to shut the hole system down and also informing them the forwarding would also be down.

I do belive with those actions they just put the whole box of nails into their coffin

[Rick]

I've changed my 911 to directly dial my emergency dispatch center, and will be cancelling Callcentric the minute they are up again.

[VOIPisGreat]

Callcentric is completely down so I have to look for alternative.

I just signed up Anveo, but the dashboard is confusing. What can I do with the free account? Can I receive SIP URI?

[Ostracus]

Well we can thank Callcentric for one thing. They helped find a bug.

[jimates]

just got an email from voip.ms saying they dropped the port fee from $25 to $10 until the 6th. I guess they are using CC's trouble as a marketing tool.

[Rick]

just got an email from voip.ms saying they dropped the port fee from $25 to $10 until the 6th. I guess they are using CC's trouble as a marketing tool.

Any info on their reliability and disaster recovery?

[lhm.]

Have used about 2 years for/with 800 # inbound and use as failover on outbound (CID spoofing allowed). No issues, good customer support. Disaster recovery, no experience.

[QBZappy]

Redundant servers list: Note that it is not perfect. Once in a while I see that there are issues with registering to a particular server.

VoIP Server Locations
Houston, TX
Dallas, TX
Los Angeles, CA
New York, NY
Atlanta, GA
Chicago, IL
Seattle, WA
Tampa, FL
London, UK
Montreal, QC
Toronto, ON

[carl]

It is amazing that they keep on billing for essentially a nonexistent service. It's time to start looking for alternatives. One thing I do not like on Anveo in spite of all recommendations  is the chaotic set up of their web page, reported difficulties in setting up the service and somehow the feeling I have that it is also a garage style operation.
I have to give a closer look to voip.ms.
BTW I never had any problems with reliability of Localphone, although their DID's are a bit basic and I need sometimes a more comprehensive phone service and 911.
Telna, which  sometimes use for international calls from my cellphones and which I used a lot years ago for fax because of their 1 second billing, is currently down as well because of the storm. They do not think of back uo either, apparently.                

[Rick]

Redundant servers list: Note that it is not perfect. Once in a while I see that there are issues with registering to a particular server.

VoIP Server Locations
Houston, TX
Dallas, TX
Los Angeles, CA
New York, NY
Atlanta, GA
Chicago, IL
Seattle, WA
Tampa, FL
London, UK
Montreal, QC
Toronto, ON

So do you register with a particular server?  And if it goes down you haven nothing, and have to change it?  I want to "Set and Forget".

[fathom]

This is from voip.ms feed:

October 29, 2012, 9:04 pm

Report from NYC: Commercial utility power is no longer available. Site has successfully transferred to generators. No impact to customers.

We're up and operational. Our data center currently has fuel for 65 hours. We're preparing mirror images of VoIP.ms website (currently hosted in NYC) and our New York POP in case power goes down. At the time of writing this, no services/customers are affected by the storm.

We'll provide updates as they come by.

[Ostracus]

I'm thinking Amazon's AWC would be useful for VoIP providers.

[Lavarock7]

There customers are not happy on the twitter feed.

http://twitter.com/Callcentric/status/263106841368752128

I am done with is company.  What is the best company to port my number to?  Cheap and relaible.

It sure does look like they are running Callcentric from just some office space in NY and not a properly equipped data center.

To put things into perspective:

---

From Reuters:

Sandy, one of the biggest storms ever to hit eastern United States, flooded servers of Datagram Inc in New York City, bringing down several media websites it hosts, including Huffington Post and Gawker.

"We are continuing to battle flooding and fiber outages in downtown New York and Connecticut," a notice posted on Datagram's website said. http://r.reuters.com/wat63t

"Verizon and other carriers in the area are down as well. Generators are unable to pump fuel due to the flooding in the basements," Datagram said.

New York-based Datagram offers server-hosting services, network and Web application support, and database administration.

---

MarketWatch website, owned by News Corp, was also down and cited "technical difficulties."

---

All Gawker Media websites, including Gizmodo and Lifehacker, were down.

---

So it appears that even major sites that should have backup sites, don't.

Agreed that Callcentric should have a backup datasite, but many don't

[Rick]

I'm not looking to make 911 calls via Huffington Post...

Having one hour of backup power and co-location plans for a VoIP provider is absurd.  I can't imagine that Callcentric will survive after weeks of denial of service attacks followed by this. 

I don't know anything about VoIP.ms, but they were proactively in messaging users AND they have a plan to move things while their 3 days of power lasts. 

Callcentric has been very poor in their communication over the past few weeks, and this is just the capper on a bad experience.

I also had the experience with Callcentric months ago where their E911 database (held with a third party) was providing inaccurate information.  They remedied it when I brought it to their attention, and once they are up and running I will reference the work ticket and post that information for others (Callcentric's responses to work tickets are not sent in emails, only viewable on their site which is down).