Ported a number from GV over to Future Nine back in May. Was working great on GV with the Obi110 device and working for about 1-2 months with Future Nine. Thought it was great.
In the past 5-6 weeks we can't make or receive calls almost 50% of the time. When you pickup the phone you get dial tone, dial the number and then wait......all you hear is silence. Most calls will not connect. It's just silence/dead air. If you try the number about 2-3 times it may connect. This is happening on many phone numbers not just one.
I have heard from more then one person that our number rings and rings and we don't answer when we are at home.
Contact Future Nine Tech Support and they couldn't find anything wrong. Am I the only one having problems? Any suggestions?
What router do you use? Have you made any changes to it recently?
Quote from: Mango on August 29, 2014, 06:14:58 AM
What router do you use? Have you made any changes to it recently?
Netgear WNDR3700.
No changes that I can remember.
Here are some settings from the WAN Setup portion of your router that you may wish to experiment with:
Disable SIP ALG
Disable SPI Firewall
NAT Filtering
If possible, Disable SPI Firewall should be unchecked, and NAT Filtering should be set to Secured, for best security. However, you may want to temporarily change these for testing purposes to see if they solve your problem.
You may also want to navigate to QoS Setup and temporarily disable QoS for testing purposes. If you accidentally assigned low priority to your ATA, you could cause your symptoms.
Quote from: Mango on August 29, 2014, 08:59:23 AM
Here are some settings from the WAN Setup portion of your router that you may wish to experiment with:
Disable SIP ALG
Disable SPI Firewall
NAT Filtering
If possible, Disable SPI Firewall should be unchecked, and NAT Filtering should be set to Secured, for best security. However, you may want to temporarily change these for testing purposes to see if they solve your problem.
You may also want to navigate to QoS Setup and temporarily disable QoS for testing purposes. If you accidentally assigned low priority to your ATA, you could cause your symptoms.
I went into the router and went to WAN Setup.
1. 'Disable SIP ALG' is already checked. I unchecked it for now.
2. 'NAT Filtering' radio button is set to Open. I changed it to Secured for now.
3. Went to QoS Setup. I unchecked 'Turn Internet Access QoS On'
I am not sure where SPI Firewall is located on the router. Do you?
It should be in the same place as ISP ALG and NAT Filtering. Though now I see that there are four versions of your router and I could be looking at the wrong version, or a different firmware version. If the SIP ALG/NAT Filtering didn't solve the problem, you may want to try to upgrade your firmware, if an upgrade is available:
http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/other
Good luck,
Mango
Quote from: Mango on August 29, 2014, 09:34:09 AM
It should be in the same place as ISP ALG and NAT Filtering. Though now I see that there are four versions of your router and I could be looking at the wrong version, or a different firmware version. If the SIP ALG/NAT Filtering didn't solve the problem, you may want to try to upgrade your firmware, if an upgrade is available:
http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/other
Good luck,
Mango
There was a new firmware version available on the router. I upgraded the firmware and still not seeing SPI Firewall.
Anyhow I will see if this improves.
Hello mnjeepmale, how are things working with the firmware update?
Just FYI=>
Previously, the CEO of F9 (Nitzan) was a very active poster here.
Now, if you look at his profile here (http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=14680) you will see it has been weeks since he's visited this forum and his posts show as far fewer than they once were.
Apparently he and/or F9 have gotten into serious problems and the F9 site looks to have vanished, along with whatever funds he took from subscribers for service that has vanished without a trace.
This may explain why F9 is not working ??
In trying to visit http://www.future-nine.com/ - all that results is a search portal page and the title 'non-existant domain'.
Trying to log-in as a (formerly ?!) paid user at https://www.future-nine.com/A2BCustomer_UI/index.php just times out now too.
Last I heard he had also been having problems with the Obi folks and it WAS best to email him directly but now that is likely no longer an option...
I am saddened by this apparent scam service because Nitzan's service had been around for years before the whole XMPP concern erupted and for it to vanish with zero notice puts it into the same basket as all the other internet scammers who've taken money & then vanished with it.
By way of contrast - another provider that is very new to the VOIP world is Circlenet, and despite their recent appearance they seem quite responsive, responsible & affordable IMO.
Best Wishes.
Son of a... just came here to figure out why the site was down, and saw this. @$#^%^&%# I really don't need this complication right now. Glad I only prepaid $15 at a time. >:(
edit: Oh hell, will I be able to port out my phone number?
F9 was working at 11:03am this morning. Ringing and taking voicemail.
Now -- no phone calls go through, no website answering, no domain ping, smartphone apps unable to connect, and ObiTalk control board reports Obi devices unable to connect.
This really sucks as they had been around long enough that I was using one of my numbers with them for important purposes!
Does anyone have any idea how phone numbers could be ported???
I really hope they come back online with an apology and a temporary outage...
-- Michael
Quote from: Michael_Reeder on September 08, 2014, 02:06:05 PM
F9 was working at 11:03am this morning. Ringing and taking voicemail.
Now -- no phone calls go through, no website answering, no domain ping, smartphone apps unable to connect, and ObiTalk control board reports Obi devices unable to connect.
This really sucks as they had been around long enough that I was using one of my numbers with them for important purposes!
Does anyone have any idea how phone numbers could be ported???
I really hope they come back online with an apology and a temporary outage...
-- Michael
I wrote to support@future-nine.com with a polite but worried question asking if they'd be back soon. Will update if I hear back.
Quote from: vtsnaab on September 08, 2014, 12:03:44 PMApparently he and/or F9 have gotten into serious problems and the F9 site looks to have vanished, along with whatever funds he took from subscribers for service that has vanished without a trace.
Your comment is a little unkind. Every service provider has outages. It doesn't mean they've vanished with your funds. It means they are experiencing an outage. According to the other forum, they seem to be having DNS issues.
For those of you who wish to port your phone number over an outage of a few hours, go for it. However, no service provider will guarantee zero downtime, at the price you are willing to pay. Also keep in mind that it will take days/weeks to port your number, and they will probably be back online later today.
Quote from: ebow on September 08, 2014, 02:10:34 PMI wrote to support@future-nine.com with a polite but worried question asking if they'd be back soon. Will update if I hear back.
Avocet:~# dig +short mx future-nine.com
10 mail.future-nine.com.
Avocet:~# dig +short mail.future-nine.com
127.0.0.1I wouldn't expect an answer until after the outage is over.
Mango - I have visited your site and thank you for sharing such great info.
Regarding what you've posted here:
Quote from: Mango on September 08, 2014, 02:28:08 PM
Your comment is a little unkind. Every service provider has outages. It doesn't mean they've vanished with your funds. It means they are experiencing an outage. According to the other forum, they seem to be having DNS issues.
For those of you who wish to port your phone number over an outage of a few hours, go for it. However, no service provider will guarantee zero downtime, at the price you are willing to pay. Also keep in mind that it will take days/weeks to port your number, and they will probably be back online later today.
As I tried to state clearly in the reply I made=>
QuoteIn trying to visit http://www.future-nine.com/ - all that results is a search portal page and the title 'non-existent domain'.
I may be 100% wrong here, but I cannot recall ever getting a page titled 'non-existent domain' when there was merely a DNS problem before - please correct me if I am mistaken ??
As a paid user of that service I would much prefer
NOT to have it just vanish - but sadly have seen MANY internet services simply dry up & blow away (along with user's payments...) too many times in recent years.
A very sad thing when this happens, IMO.
As I posted over on DSLReports, F9 isn't the only one having problems today. I tried several times during the day and couldn't log on to DSLReports.
Is anyone able to register to 64.251.23.244, and if so can you make/receive calls?
Neither server registers, their web page is gone, and the admin / technical number on their WHOIS record at Go-Daddy is unreachable. I know that they have been working on problems with at least one server since at least April, leading to calls not going through in strange ways.
This does not look like a DNS outage.
Here in Hawaii it is extremely hard to find a reasonably priced VOIP service that will port a number, plus the aforementioned long, long delay.
So I hope the outage is really just temporary, or that they've just been hacked, but it is not looking that way.
Quote from: Hawaii on September 08, 2014, 03:01:44 PMNeither server registers
What is the other server you tried?
I was told that their INCOMING and OUTGOING servers are/(were?) two different servers.
Quote from: Hawaii on September 08, 2014, 03:06:17 PM
I was told that their INCOMING and OUTGOING servers are/(were?) two different servers.
What are the IPs that you tried to register to? Did you try 64.251.23.244?
I didn't try by IP.
64.251.23.244 is the same as future-nine.com.
Quote from: Hawaii on September 08, 2014, 03:34:56 PM64.251.23.244 is the same as future-nine.com.
Avocet:~# dig +short future-nine.com
54.235.159.97Not at the moment it's not.
"Non-Existent Domain" is the title page of the web page now fetched from areasnap.com. If you go to that address, it also has a fake page, indicating (falsely) that you didn't find it.
It's certainly possible that the domain has been hijacked, I suppose, but I believe this sort of thing more generally indicates that the domain owner has sold off the domain to people that run these fake search pages and then absconded. We just don't know at this point, and if the outage persists, may not find out.
Well I hope to gods they do come back online after a service outage. No, I would not port away for a few hour outage. I have been VERY happy with F9 to-date.
I have important calls on one of my phone numbers, which is being used as a business number, so I do need to take the idea of porting seriously however. If its even possible to port a phone number quickly from a nonresponsive company? (If that is what they become.)
-- Michael
They outsourced their porting. I'm trying to track down the company that might have done it for them, but it's too late on the East Coast.
If I understand correctly (and perhaps I'm wrong), the delay depends on the source of the DID. I've been told that it helps if it is arranged by a local outfit that knows the players. This is mostly a mystery to me, perhaps someone else knows more.
In my ignorance of how it works, I don't even know if my number is mine anymore -- or if it belongs to F9. In which case, how would it be ported to a new provider at all... or would one have to be able to demonstrate that F9 has gone out of business?
I do hope they come back, and soon.
You can port a number from a defunct service provider.
However, I stress that at this time there is no evidence that is the case here.
I guess no one wants to try registering to 64.251.23.244 to see if it works for incoming/outgoing calls? I see that it does respond to SIP.
Quote from: Hawaii on September 08, 2014, 03:44:00 PM
"Non-Existent Domain" is the title page of the web page now fetched from areasnap.com. If you go to that address, it also has a fake page, indicating (falsely) that you didn't find it.
It's certainly possible that the domain has been hijacked, I suppose, but I believe this sort of thing more generally indicates that the domain owner has sold off the domain to people that run these fake search pages and then absconded. We just don't know at this point, and if the outage persists, may not find out.
There are several links on a Google search to instances of DNS hijacking to areasnap.com ... Boy I hope so...
-- Michael
A user on the other forum states that registering to the IP allows him to make and receive calls.
DNS has been fixed.
Quote from: Mango on September 08, 2014, 05:06:29 PM
DNS has been fixed.
Yup, and I'm able to log into the customer portal site and all my info appears to be intact. Was able to just make a call out and call in! ;D
edit: and I didn't do any kind of re-registering or anything, just waited and tried a few times.
Another thought: this thread title is "... not working most times" -- I haven't found that to be the case, myself. There have been some glitches, including DTMF beeps from vocals, a few call cutoffs, and a bit of latency over the past few months (from what I understand, things that can be expected from most lower cost VOIP providers), but mostly it works pretty well up until this outage. Here's hoping it was just a server crash or attack that can be prevented in the future!
The topic was started by a user with a configuration issue, so the subject isn't related to today's DNS issue. My guess is the OP had a problem with his router. He hasn't been back, so hopefully that means the firmware upgrade solved the problem.
There was no server crash (customers were able to make/receive calls if they registered to a server's IP address). At the moment, no evidence of an attack. Apparently their DNS provider erroneously suspended their account.
Quote from: Mango on September 08, 2014, 05:27:12 PM
The topic was started by a user with a configuration issue, so the subject isn't related to today's DNS issue. My guess is the OP had a problem with his router. He hasn't been back, so hopefully that means the firmware upgrade solved the problem.
There was no server crash (customers were able to make/receive calls if they registered to a server's IP address). At the moment, no evidence of an attack. Apparently their DNS provider erroneously suspended their account.
Thanks for clearing that up. I have a lot going on and have been reading threads a bit too quickly.
I'm curious about registering to the IP address, though, in case this happens again in the future. I've forgotten a lot about what I learned when I first got my OBi and set up F9, since everything worked smoothly. Would I put the IP address in the "Service Provider Proxy Server" field in my ObiTalk dashboard (instead of "incoming.future-nine.com") or in each spot that I find "incoming.future-nine.com" on the local device config site (192.168.x.x)? Actually, I bet they're the same thing (simple vs. advanced access).
Exactly. However, you should not do this unless there is a problem with DNS as there was today. If a server goes down, they use DNS-based failover to move you to another server. So you should use the hostname of incoming.future-nine.com as a general rule.
If you're using OBiTALK, you can use OBi Expert Configuration, but you should not configure your device locally as OBiTALK will overwrite the changes.
All systems functioning. I have three phone numbers with F9. Whew.
Michael
Got this message from F9 early this morning:
QuoteOur DNS provider (DNS Made Easy) disconnected our account over a false billing issue without warning or notification. We've settled the bill and taking it up with them about the lack of warning/notification. They have been impeccable until now for 6 years, hopefully this will continue going forward.
Wish that Future Nine were a bit more communicative about problems, though with DNS down they probably couldn't have posted a message in this case.
As of this moment I do not see an after-the-fact outage announcement or technical update posted. Regular service outage messages would help with confidence, or at least messages after major crashes.
If there was any doubt about the ethics and character of Nitzan, after he couldn't take me and others here on this forum calling him out for his tactics, you can read his name calling and trash talking about me to his sycophants over on the DSLReports forum. The very notion that someone would spend so much time dissing his competitors and bragging about his superiority, only to end up delivering service like this, speaks volumes. My thanks go to the couple of folks on that forum, who saw how I was trying to help clear up some of the rumors and speculation, and stuck up for my post.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29473001-The-Almost-Official-Word-on-Google-Voice-and-Obihai-~start=30
Quote from: SteveInWA on September 10, 2014, 12:39:56 AM
The very notion that someone would spend so much time dissing his competitors and bragging about his superiority.....
Companies that are going to survive realize that for better or worse you need to hire propaganda (I mean marketing) experts who know how to spin without explicit dissing/bragging. Those that do not learn that lesson are doomed to fail. There is a reason that engineers/scientists are not allowed to talk to people.
Look what showed up this morning:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29696633-Future9-First-year-free-15-setup-applies-.
Based on my cancellation/refund experience (been almost two months, account still not cancelled, no refund given), and the subpar quality of both the website and service while I was using them, I'd recommend people pass.
Fortunately, I never ported out of GV and am only out $20 (well, $35 if you count the $15 cancellation fee that should have been charged). Overall, the obi110 has worked out very well for me. Live & learn.
edit: Yay, received notification of a $20 refund (ugh, paypal) this morning.
You have had better luck than I. I am out $135, and Nitzan even promised to refund my money on DSLReports. That was only yesterday, so it could still happen.
Quote from: Mango on September 08, 2014, 05:27:12 PM
The topic was started by a user with a configuration issue, so the subject isn't related to today's DNS issue. My guess is the OP had a problem with his router. He hasn't been back, so hopefully that means the firmware upgrade solved the problem.
There was no server crash (customers were able to make/receive calls if they registered to a server's IP address). At the moment, no evidence of an attack. Apparently their DNS provider erroneously suspended their account.
I did replace the router with another Netgear model. I also made the changes suggested in this thread to the router.
Service is a bit better. Most calls connect but there is an occasion where the calls will not go through. But it's way better then it was.
We paid for 1 year of service to Future Nine until April 2015. At that time we are thinking about porting back to GV since it's free.