Frequently Asked Questions

Answer:

An Outbound proxy is mostly used in presence of a firewall/NAT to handle the signalling and media traffic across the firewall. Generally, if you have an outbound proxy and you are not using STUN or other firewall/NAT traversal mechanisms, you can use it. However, if you are using STUN or other firewall/NAT traversal tools, you may not need an outbound proxy at the same time.

Answer:

Both G711(uLaw and aLaw) will give you good quality but their bandwidth consumption is quite high, in excess of 64Kbps. In general, we recommend G729. It will give you near toll quality at much smaller bandwidth consumption at around 8Kbps. Another alternative is GSM. It can be a bit mechanical sometimes but it uses less than 7Kbps

Answer:

STUN stands for Simple Traversal of UDP over NAT. It is a protocol which enables an IP phone to detect the presence and type of NAT behind which the phone is placed. An IP phone that supports STUN can intelligently modify the private IP address and port in its SIP/SDP message by using the NAT mapped public IP address and port through a series of STUN queries against a STUN server located on the public Internet. This will allow SIP signalling and RTP media to successfully traverse a NAT without requiring any configuration changes on the NAT.

STUN presents a working solution for most NATs that are not symmetric NAT, e.g., most of the SOHO routers have non-symmetric NAT and in this case, it is OK to use STUN. However, STUN does NOT work with symmetric NAT and if your routers have built-in symmetric NAT, do not use STUN.

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SIP, the Session Initiation Protocol, is a signalling protocol for Internet conferencing, telephony, presence, events notification and instant messaging.

Answer:

The IAX protocol is used by the Asterisk (an open-source Linux base PBX software) as an alternative to SIP, H.323, etc. when connecting to other devices that support IAX (a limited list at the moment, but growing very rapidly)

Answer:

Metro Number is FreeCall speak for DID. DID stands for Direct Inward Dial, which essentially means a conventional telephone number that callers can dial to ring you.

You can port your existing number to FreeCall or request a new number.

We can also supply International DID for more than 65 countries.

Answer:

Gateway is FreeCall's answer to avoid the need of Metro No(DID). Anyone can use a normal phone to call the nearest FreeCall's Gateway, the Gateway will then prompt the caller for number to be connected

Calling a FreeCall account is free. FreeCall members can also use the Gateways to make chargeable calls from anywhere. If the number is chargeable, the system will further prompt for M'ship No and Password for security. The call rates are the same as VoIP calls.

You can authorise your phone so as to avoid entering M'ship No and Password everytime for chargeable numbers. Select Setup -> Gateway Access after logging on to authorise number.

You can make multiple calls using the gateway. Press * to hangup your current call or simply wait for the called party to hangup. The system will then prompt you for the 2nd number to call.

Answer:

Call Diversion is an useful feature if you don't want to miss any calls to your IP Phone. When FreeCall detects that your phone is no longer registered with our system, due to network outage or computer being turned-off in case of soft-phone, all incoming calls will be automatically diverted to the nominated phone number. You can change the nominated phone number anytime from our Web page.

Answer:

Topping up (recharging) your balance is easy. Just logon to our secured Web page and choose "Recharge". You can pay by VISA, MasterCard, BPay or other listed methods.

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Echo is the result of transmission speed mismatch (ie outgoing channel is quicker than the incoming channel) and volume differences.

You'll experience some echo every-now-and-then and that's quite normal. If you get echo all the time, check if the volume of your phone is too loud. Some phones let you adjust the incoming volume. If possible also ask the person you're calling to reduce the volume a little bit and see if it makes a difference.

Answer:

We suggest you experiment with a soft-phone first. The advantages of trying a soft-phone first are to check if your router is blocking the IP phone and whether you like the quality of IP calls.

If you've problem with your router, you can consider getting a new router with VoIP ports.

If you're comfortable with the IP calls, investing a hard-phone will only make the call quality better plus you don't have to have your computer on all the time.

Answer:

Mainly there are 2 type of ip hardware; handset or adaptor. A handset looks like a normal phone only that it plugs into your network rather than the telephone socket.

An adaptor works much the same way as the ip handset, only that it won't work on its own. You'll need to plug a normal phone to it to make and receive calls. While you need an extra phone for it to work, you've the freedom to choose any phone to work with the adaptor including cordless phone which can be handy to move around the house or office.

Answer:

If you're using ADSL , most Service Provider requires that you also have a working telephone line.

We recommend that you keep at least one normal phone line for safety reasons. There are currently issues with making emergency calls with ip phone as the emergency services may not be able to tell where you actually are.

Also, a normal phone is more reliable than an Internet connection. The last thing you want is the Internet not working when you need it most.

Answer:

While not recommended, we do have customers successfully using dial-up with very good call quality.

You can also use hard-phone with dial-up. The trick is to enable Internet sharing with the computer that does the dial-up connection.

Answer:

Absolutely, you can bring your FreeCall phone to anywhere with an Internet connection ie hotel, Internet Cafe, etc.

Once connected, you can continue to enjoy cheap phone calls.

Answer:

Certainly, we want our customers to be happy customers. We can provide you with an obligation free "Trial" membership so that you can experience the quality of the calls.

Just give us a call on +61 2 84128398 or +61 3 88132198 and we'll get one organised for you.

Answer:

Yes, you can port your existing number to FreeCall. Once ported, you can add Auto-Attendant, Group Call and multi-channels calling (rotary lines) as free add-ons.

Answer:

Yes, you can set your own CallerID on our portal

You don't even need to have a Metro Number with us

Answer:

There are mainly 2 methods in carrying faxes across Internet:

Fax relay - standard fax (T.30) is demodulated at the adaptor/gateway. The demodulated fax content is enveloped into packets, sent over the network, and remodulated into normal fax at the receiving end. T.38 is a new standard supported by newer adaptor/gateway.
The fax machines on either end are sending and receiving tones and are not aware that a demodulation/modulation fax relay process is occurring.

Fax pass-through - it is the simplest technique for sending fax over IP networks. It works by setting the codec to G.711 with no voice activity detection (silence suppression) and no echo cancellation.
Since sending faxes across the Internet is unpredictable, it's recommended for occasional use only.

For more reliable faxes, you might like to consider our Fax Line (fax-to-email) and Email-to-Fax services. Sending fax is a fee add-on for all accounts.

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Generally cable/ADSL broadband Internet has higher download bandwidth than upload bandwidth. Sometimes, it's possible that your ISP's upload (you to the Internet) bandwidth is limited due to congestion hence the voice quality at the other end is compromised.

Answer:

Yes, to receive calls from any VoIP users, just ask them to dial:

[M'sip No]@proxy.freecall.net.au

For calling other VoIP users, you've to consult their providers.

Answer:

1800 - free-of-charge
1300 - 25¢ untimed
13 - 25¢ untimed (not geographically switched)

Other special numbers ie 013, 1223, 0055, 1900, etc can't be used at the moment.

Dialling format:
1300 and 1800: Just dial the numbers
13: Add 61 in front ie 61 13 XX XX

Answer:

1. Australia - Adelaide 08 7070 8048
2. Australia - Brisbane 07 3811 5071
3. Australia - Canberra 02 6108 4381
4. Australia - Darwin 08 7905 7005
5. Australia - Melbourne 03 8813 2100
6. Australia - Perth 08 6365 2856
7. Australia - Sydney 02 8412 8300
8. New Zealand - Auckland 09 2804740
9. Hong Kong - 3973 3909

Notes:
a. You can also use SIPBroker to call FreeCall members
b. Use any access number and dial *210 + [M'ship no]
c. Access numbers can be found at www.sipbroker.com

Answer:

Many routers will shut port 5060 after an idle period to protect your internal network from hackers. When an incoming call comes from the Internet to port 5060 of your router, it'll be blocked hence your VoIP phone/adaptor can't receive the call.

To overcome that, you've to port forward 5060 (both protocols TCP and UDP) on your router to the internal IP address of your VoIP phone/adaptor so incoming packets will be sent there.

For details on how to setup port forwarding, please consult your router manual.

Answer:

Usage Instructions can be downloaded here

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Make sure your plan is Foundation or Platform (single channel plan can't make conference call)

a. Place 1st call
b. CONF (1st call will be on-hold with music)
c. Place 2nd call
d. CONF (all 3 parties are now in conference)