Configuring 2 lines with Innomedia MTA6328-2re & Viatalk

Adam Nollmeyer commented on my previous post about the 2-line feature offered by Viatalk. I tried it out, and I am glad to report that I have a step-by-step guide on how to get this working.

Before I start – one caveat: for me, line 2 seems to take precedence over line 1. In other words, when someone calls me, the phone connected to line 2 rings, but the phone connected to line 1 does not! Same thing happens for call waiting – only line 2 gets the call. However, I am able to make calls from both lines simultaneously. This may be a Innomedia issue, but I am not certain.

Anyways, here is the step-by-step:

Step 1: Enable line 2 on the Sunrocket/Innomedia MTA6328-2re Gizmo.

a) Enabling the 2nd line is not available via the web interface – it is only available from telnet. Telnet to 192.168.251.1 (in windows, you can do this by going to START -> Run. Type in “telnet 192.168.251.1″ and click OK)
b) Log in using the username ‘admin’ (all lower-case) and password ‘7UprUtew’ (case-sensitive).
c) Type in ‘Mp’ (without quotes, case-sensitive). This option will allow you the configure the phone ports.
d) Follow the on-screen prompts to enable both the ports. When prompted whether you want to save the configuration permanently, select ‘y’.
e) Power-cycle the gizmo by unplugging the power cord, wait 20 seconds, and plug the power cord back in the gizmo. At this point, your gizmo should have both lines up and running.

 Step 2: Configure the second line

a)  Go to http://192.168.251.1/Voice_adminPage.htm and login using ‘admin’ and ‘7UprUtew’ as the username and password respectively.
b) From the menu bar, go to VoIP -> User Account. For line 1, your ‘username’ must be set to your 11-digit phone number (starting with country code 1). The password was sent to you by viatalk in the activation email. All other fields must be blank (user name, authentication ID, Hot Phone number). Select ‘No’ for the ‘Use hot phone number’ option, and ‘Yes’ for the ‘Fax T38′ option. Click the “Save” button.
c) Repeat step (b) above for line 2 and click the “Save” button.

Step 3: Reboot/Reset/Power-cycle everything 

a) Power cycle your cable modem
b) Power cycle your gizmo (If the gizmo is behind a router, then power cycle the router, then the gizmo)
c) Power cycle the phone connected to Line 1
d) Power cycle the phone connected to Line 2

Now everything should be working! Try it out and let me know how it works. One forewarning: For the first few calls, both my phones were ringing. This issue auto-corrected it self after a few calls. So if this happens to you, just wait 10 minutes or so and try again.

ENJOY!

 

A Sunrocket User’s review of Viatalk

As some of you know, I recently switched to ViaTalk, following Sunrocket’s collapse. Here is my review of ViaTalk from a Sunrocket perspective:

Voice Quality:
The voice quality on ViaTalk is very good, much like it was on Sunrocket. The service seems very stable, and I have been able to call without any problems.

Website Usability:
1) ViaTalk’s website is very poorly made, and I rank the usability aspect very low, specially when compared to Sunrocket’s website. The biggest annoyances on the website is the navigation – going back and forth between menu’s is very tough.
2) Everything on the website is tied to your phone number. The “Custom Caller ID” feature, for example. Once the Sunrocket number ports to ViaTalk, I will have to re-do all my settings with the new number!
3) There is no way to add international numbers to my contact list, Custom Caller ID, and Speed Dialing pages – it seems to truncate my number to 12-digits.
4) There is no cross-page support. For example, If I add someone to my custom caller ID list, I cannot select that name on the “Whitelist” page – I have to type all the information again! This is really painful, since I have to add every contact twice – once one the “Custom caller ID” page, and then some on the “Whitelist” page, and some on the “Speed Dial” page.

Device:
I used the Bring-your-own-device option, and configured my Sunrocket/Innomedia MTA6328-2re to work with ViaTalk. This seems to be working very well for me.

FAX:
I have been unable to send FAX with ViaTalk. According to their website, they charge additional dollar for sending & receiving FAX, unless you use the business plan. Sunrocket had no such restrictions.

Contract:
ViaTalk provides a 15-day money-back guarantee. However, after that, you are bound by the contract. If you cancel the service, you will not be refunded any pro-rated amount. This, to me, is a huge negative when compared to Sunrocket. However, we all know what happened to Sunrocket…

Speed Dialing:
ViaTalk only offers up to nine speed dialing numbers to be configured. This is very limiting for me, and I see no reason why their software can not be expanded to accomodate extra numbers.

Voice Mail:
The Voice Mail features are comparable to Sunrocket’s. There are some nice extras, like SMS notifications to cell phones. However, ViaTalk does not send voicemails as email attachments.

Softphone:
This is one area where ViaTalk offers a LOT of freedom. You may use any SIP-based softphones, such as GizmoProject. The service works seemlessly with softphones.

“Unlimited” Calling:
ViaTalk has a 5100-minute per month cap on the “unlimited” plan. That is not quite unlimited, is it? In comparision, Sunrocket had no such limits. According to users on DSLReports.com, other companies also have some form of limits, however I have not verified this.

Customer Service:
1) Over the past few days, ViaTalk has been very busy with the huge influx of customers like me, switching from Sunrocket. With this in mind, ViaTalk did a great job with activating my account in less than one day. There are several outstanding customer support tickets open for more than two days, but bearing in mind that they are swamped with Sunrocket refugees, it will be unfair to judge their support right now. I will give an update after a few weeks once the sea is calm.
2) That aside, it is very heartening to see their CEO, Brenden, regularly post messages on DSLForums. Great personal touch
3) I do find it somewhat amusing, that users can pay an additional fee to avail “Priority Support”.

Promotional Offers – Now you see it, now you don’t!
Promotional offers on ViaTalk’s website seem to change very rapidly, sometimes in less than 24 hours! This causes a lot of confusion, and very little time to research our options to decide on our VoIP provider.

Call forwarding:
This feature seems to work fine for me. There are additional/advanced features such as “SIP Forwarding” which are cool, but I have not used them yet.

E911:
I have not used this feature yet, and likely, will never use it, since I have a pre-paid cellphone for emergency purposes. I highly recommend everyone using VoIP to have some alternate means of 911 through POTS or Cellular phone service.

Overall, for $199 annually, this is not a bad service – the voice quality is great, and there are some very good features that are not available with other VoIP providers. Website usability is not that important to me, and I recommend this service to anyone who needs a decent broadband phone service for cheap. If, however, you require FAX, do check their extra charges and compatibility before signing up.

To Signup for Viatalk, click here!

 

Sunrocket sinks – moving to Viatalk! Review and porting instructions.

As most people keeping track of the VoIP industry know by now, Sunrocket has stopped business abrubtly, leaving over 200,000 customers like me in the dark.

Yesterday, I signed up for ViaTalk, and used their “Bring your own device” (BYOD) option to take advantage of the Sunrocket Innomedia MTA6328-2re Gizmo that I had. I received the welcome kit and IP provisioning information yesterday, and configured my Innomedia gizmo device to work with Viatalk. In this article, I will provide information about unlocking instructions, and provisioning instruction for your Sunrocket/Innomedia MTA6328-2re Gizmo device to work with Viatalk. If you use the BYOD option, Viatalk will waive all activation fees and shipping charges.

Unlock your Sunrocket/Innomedia MTA6328-2re Gizmo:

1) Go to http://192.168.251.1/Voice_adminPage.htm – this URL may be different if you changed the default address of your Gizmo. If this is the case, change the “192.168.251.1″ to the correct address. Type in ‘admin’ as the username and ‘7UprUtew’ for the password, and click the OK button.
2) From the Menu on the left-side, go to Network -> Provisioning Setting. Uncheck the “Enable Provisioning” box, and click the “Save and Reboot” button. Wait for the device to reboot. You will be promoted for username and password again. Click the “CANCEL” button until you reach a blank page. Now go to the URL from step 1 again, and use the ‘admin’ and ‘7UprUtew’ credentials to logon.
3) You may change the password for ‘admin’ account if you want.

Configure the Sunrocket/Innomedia Gizmo to work with Viatalk services:

1) From the menu on left side, go to VoIP -> SIP Proxy. Enter the information below:

a) SIP Proxy: From the Viatalk email. It was newyork-1.vtnoc.com for me
b) Uncheck the “Use Outbound Proxy” box
c) SIP Local Signalling Port: 5060
d) SIP Domain: vtnoc.com
e) Registration Expiration Time: 60
f) Preferred CODECs List: PCMU/800 for the first drop-down, and NONE for all others
g) Click the “Save” button.

2) Now go to VoIP -> User Account from the menu, and enter the following Information.

a) Line: 1
b) User ID: Your 11-digit phone number from email. (Starting with country code 1. Example, 19995551212)
c) Password: From email
d) User Name: Same information as entered above in 2(b)
e) Authentication ID: <empty>
f) Use Hot Phone Number: NO
g) Hot Phone number: <empty>
h) Use T38 FAX: YES
i) Click “Save” button.

3) Reboot your cable modem. Then reboot your Sunrocket/Innomedia MTA6328-2re Gizmo. If your telephone is powered, then power cycle the telephone. Your ViaTalk service should be up and running. ENJOY!!

I will post my ViaTalk review soon… stay tuned.