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When Fax Modem Dials It is Causing a Fast Busy

Started by audioresearch, September 20, 2011, 12:26:03 AM

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audioresearch

When I my fax modem, which is connected to the "phone" port on my obi110 dials a number, after a few dtmf tones have been output, a fast busy suddenly appears and the call cannot get through.

I have no problem whatever dialing the same number using a phone handset and doing the dialing manually by hitting the dtmf dialing buttons-call goes through every time that way.

I'm guessing that the fast dialing speed of my fax modem is being rejected by my obi110. I have limited control of my fax modem. I'm running Windows XP and I did change the init string sent to my fax modem to change the values in modem register s11. I tried the max and min allowed values in that register. It had no effect, when my fax modem dialed out, the fast busy signals always appeared after only a few dtmf tones had been dialed.

Also, before I got my obi110 (which is being used with Google Voice), I used this same fax modem on my Comcast telephone line and it always dialed out without a problem.

It appears that my fax modem and the obi110 do not like each other.

Any ideas how I can fix this?

I am able to login to my obi110 using my web browser pointed to its ip address and I then get the "expert" obi configuration screens, so if you have any suggestions for changing anything there, I can probably do it easily and then try it out.

Thank you very much for any help you can give.


QBZappy

I assume you are using a software to send a fax. By including a "," in the dialed number usually inserts a pause.
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

jimates

I would put a splitter where the line cord goes into the Obi and connect the fax direct to the line.

lhm.

#3
Try this free Fax software from USRobotics for Windows OS (works on about 900 different modems) http://www.usr.com/bvrp/bvrp.asp?loc=unkg

Works for me.

audioresearch

Thanks for tip about using comma for pauses. I knew there was something that did that, but it's been so long since I used I had forgotten what the character was. Unfortunately though, putting in zillions of pauses with commas did not help the problem.

I also got my obi to use the current Verizon phone line I have connected to the OBI fxo port for outgoing calls, but that also did not help-when my fax modem dialed only a few tones, the fast busies still happened.

The Obi call log never shows any calls made or attempted when my fax modem quickly causes a fast busy.

Looks like I will have to temporarily connect my fax modem directly to the Verizon line every time I want to send or receive faxes.

Thanks also for the tip about using the value {@|?:} in the incoming call routing field for the line port-that did stop any calls coming in over my Verizon phone line from ringing my phones.

Possibly, the Obi has problems with devices such as fax modems that dial fast-if so, maybe the developers could come up with a fix???

RonR

audioresearch,

Temporarily set:

Physical Interfaces -> LINE Port -> DigitMap : (@@.)

and see if the fax modem call goes out the LINE Port successfully.  Either way, look at the Call History and let me know what the modem actually dialed.

audioresearch

I already got all outgoing calls to go out the LINE (fxo) port. I temporarily changed physical interfaces->phone port->outbound call route so that the part of its default value that had been ([1-9]x?*(Mpli)):pp} became
([1-9]x?*(Mli)):li}. Plus, I also, just to be safe, changed physical interfaces->phone port->primary line to be "PSTN". I made an outgoing call using my handset and it was confirmed that the caller id displayed on the called phone was that for my Verizon line on fxo. So, I was then sure all outgoing calls were going out on fxo.

I then once again tried sending a few faxes using my usb fax modem and still got the same failures: after only about 4 dtmf tones were dialed, I heard fast busy on the pc loudspeakers. So, unfortunately, using the Verizon line for outgoing calls did not seem to help.

Further, I have now also tried making an outgoing call using my laptop's builtin modem (as opposed to all the previous call attempts that had been made with a usb fax modem connected to my tower pc). I actually had some old software dial out to, believe it or not, a dialup ISP number. Same thing happened, a few digits dialed caused the fast busy signal.

At no time after any of these attempted calls did the OBI phone history log contain any indications that any of these calls were attempted.

If I have the time, I'll try taking my laptop and putting it right next to the Obi box and running a short phone line directly between the two and see if that helps. Maybe there is some sort of interaction with my house phone wiring or some of the other devices connected to my house phone wiring and if so, this will isolate that possible cause.

RonR

#7
Quote from: audioresearch on September 20, 2011, 08:58:58 PM
I temporarily changed physical interfaces->phone port->outbound call route so that the part of its default value that had been ([1-9]x?*(Mpli)):pp} became ([1-9]x?*(Mli)):li}.

You should not be making any changes to the PHONE Port OutboundCallRoute or PHONE Port DigitMap.  You should put both back to their Default values.

The rule you changed ({[1-9]x?*(Mpli)):pp}) has nothing whatsoever to do with normal calling or the LINE Port.  It's used for single-stage calling from OBi-to-OBi via the OBiTALK Service.

audioresearch

Well, that's what I get for making semi-educated guesses instead of reading the manual!!

Since using the fxo line when connected to Verizon didn't help my problem, fortunately I had set all that stuff back to the defaults.


RonR

#9
Reset the whole OBi to factory defaults.  That will set the LINE Port as the PrimaryLine.

Then set:

System Management -> Auto Provisioning -> ITSP Provisioning -> Method : Disabled

Physical Interfaces -> LINE Port -> DigitMap : (@@.)

and see if the fax modem call goes out the LINE Port successfully.  Either way, look at the Call History and let me know what the modem actually dialed.

Make sure you're clicking Submit at the bottom of each page before leaving any page that has been changed.

Make sure you click Reboot in the upper right corner after making all changes.

audioresearch

I should have the time tonight to implement exactly what you asked me to do (set Obi to factory defaults, etc). and I plan to do that and let you know the results.

I will also bring my laptop and/or my tower pc (both have modems) physically close to the Obi and try connecting it to the Obi with a short cable directly, rather than it's being connected to my house phone wiring and connecting the house phone wiring to the Obi, and see if that helps.

At least there is no problem sending/receiving faxes through the Obi other than the dtmf dialing problem on calls outbound from the modem. As a workaround, I set my modem to not require a dial tone before dialing and I just lifted one of my phone handsets and manually dialed the target fax number and then clicked on the final button of my fax software application to cause it to dial (the modem's dtmf dialing was now being properly ignored by the Obi or whatever else may have been aborting the call during modem dialing since I'd already dialed manually) and send the fax.

The fax was sent ok to the Hewlett Packard (HP) fax test number and I then received a faxback from HP a few minutes later ok. During all this, my Obi box had been configured to place all outgoing calls through its fxo port which was connected to my Verizon phone service (I verified that all outgoing calls were being placed through the Obi fxo port).

Again, the problem here has not been specific to just faxes, it has been a dial out problem by modems in general.

Thanks for your help Ronr, you've saved me hours of making mistakes!

audioresearch

I did what you said, reset obi to all defaults, changed the digitmap you specified to (@@.) and finally outbound dialing by my fax modem worked and a test fax sent to HP out the fxo port was successful.

I then re-enabled auto provisioning, went onto the obitalk dashboard, and used it to reconfigure my obi box and install once again Google Voice. There I did specify that Google Voice should NOT be used as the primary line.

Again, faxes still dialed out and were transmitted with success.

If I used the obi dashboard to select Google Voice as the primary line, then the old problem of fast busies showed up again after my fax modem only dialed about 4 dtmf tones.

If I set the primary line back to being "line", faxes once again could be sent ok.

If I then set the default value for the digitmap you specified in place of (@@.), the problem returned.

So, it appears that setting that digitmap to (@@.) was the fix. I don't know a lot about programming the Obi box, but I assume if the digitmap for Google Voice were set to (@@.), then probably faxes dialed out through Google Voice would also work.

What exactly was it that setting the digitmap to (@@.) did that fixed the problem?

RonR

Quote from: audioresearch on September 22, 2011, 07:54:28 PM
So, it appears that setting that digitmap to (@@.) was the fix.

That wasn't meant to be the fix.  It was meant as a temporary means to see what the fax modem is actually dialing so that a proper DigitMap can be formed.  If you look at the Call History and tell me exactly what the dialed sequence is, we can figure out what the fax modem is sending that is unusual and not being accepted by the default DigitMap.

audioresearch

Ok, I did that.

Here is what the call history showed for the dialed-out number:

*7018884732963


I believe somewhere I had set my fax software to prepend *70 to the dialed-out number. That was for the purpose of turning off call waiting so that any incoming calls would not interfere with an outgoing fax transmission.

I'm getting a bit tired now, but I'll try to stay up a little longer and remove the dialing of the *70, restore the default digitmap to replace the (@@.) and see if the dialout problems go away.

I do however have to somehow turn off call waiting to dialout faxes. I'm too tired to search for how to do this, if possible, through the Obi box (if it can even be done at all that way) rather than prepending the *70 as my fax modem has apparently been doing.

I'll post again a bit later if I am able to complete this test tonight.

RonR

#14
It's the *70 that's the problem.  Now that we know the problem, it's easy to fix.  Leave the fax modem alone and set:


Physical Interfaces -> LINE Port -> DigitMap : ([2-9]11|[2-9]xxxxxx|1xxxxxxxxxx|*701xxxxxxxxxx)


You can add a similar rule to the SP1 DigitMap if you want to try the fax modem with Google Voice:


Service Providers -> ITSP Profile A -> General -> DigitMap:

(<*70:>1xxxxxxxxxx|1xxxxxxxxxx|<1>[2-9]xxxxxxxxx|011xx.|xx.|(Mipd)|[^*]@@.)


In this case, the *70 will be discarded.

audioresearch

I'm still here, I'll set the digitmap to what you said (although I have already reset it to default and my fax modem does now dial fine with the *70 removed, which I had to do in windows xp dialing rules).

I'll let you know in a bit if all is fine after I set the digitmap as you just instructed.

audioresearch

It worked!!

I restored my windows xp dialing rule to once again prepend *70, updated the LINE digitmap to your most recent suggestion, and the problems have gone away even though *70 is still being prepended.

I assume Obi will change its firmware to handle *70 and similar in the future??

RonR

Recheck Reply #14 as I may have edited it after you read it.

This won't be a future change to the OBi defaults.  It's the user's responsibility to handle situations like this.