Is PennyTel down again? I have a dial tone but am not connecting to any numbers (including Support). Just end up getting an engaged signal after waiting 30-60 seconds. I'm in Melbourne.

I think so, i'm having the same problem in Sydney

Fine here in Sydney

Pennytel is down for me and I am in Sydney

Pennytel is not registering with Voxalot for me... First registration failure I have noticed

Please WHIM me your accounts so I can check.

Cheers,
Mark

Working for me, in Sydney.

rosco51 writes...

Is PennyTel down again? I have a dial tone but am not connecting to any numbers (including Support). Just end up getting an engaged signal after waiting 30-60 seconds.

A short while ago I was actually disconnected from a call I was on and when I tried redialling several times I just got reorder tone. After several attempts I was eventually reconnected.

I'm in Melbourne.

Me too.

Chris Parker writes...

Pennytel is not registering with Voxalot

I notice the SIP Broker site is showing PennyTel as unregistered too.

Mark,

Service is still down for me. Details whimmed as requested.

rosco51 writes...

Service is still down for me

Working OK for me in Melbourne.

S.

Seems that the CDR billing is down again - click on the "services" tab and you go to the invoices, not the usual live billing list.

BearDoc, can you please email your account detils to us at support@pennytel.com. Thanks.

No CDR details here either, and still no service.

rosco,

I have replied to your WHIM. CDRs are not available at the moment as our databases are re-synching.

Mark

Mark,

Diagnostics now shows status as offline.

rosco51 writes...

Is PennyTel down again? I have a dial tone but am not connecting to any numbers (including Support). Just end up getting an engaged signal after waiting 30-60 seconds. I'm in Melbourne

Its down here, its bloody annoying, I can make outgoing calls, no calls coming in so I activated voicemail and now cannot access voicemail via the web. Its been like this for pretty much all day

Daniel,

You left me a WHIM but didnt provide your account number. So WHIM me again with your account number.

Mark

Thanks Mark. Great service from Pennytel.

I was using Adoresoftphone, but today it stopped working and wouldnt work after a fresh installation. Using X-lite now, no problems. Anyone else having new issues from today with Adoresoftphone?

One of my friends who I help out had his account balance zeroed and the status shows blocked this morning. Several contacts with live support has had the balance restored, but the account remains blocked - "we need to consult with our engineers". No estimated restoration time and not much solace when you want to make international calls.

OldTech,

WHIM me your friend's account.

All,

It seems some softphone doesnt work and we are yet to find the cause of this problem. For now, I recommend you to use X-Lite which works for me.

Cheers,

Mark

Mark@PennyTel writes...

WHIM me your friend's account.

Done. Thanks for offering to look it.
Cheers

Edit: Wow!!!! Fixed within two two minutes. A new record? Thanks Mark!

Mind you, this speaks volumes about the quality of service from the help-desk/online-chat who could not fix it.

Hi Mark, would you be kind enough to look at my and my parents' account?? I sent you a whim already.

Edit 1: can't hear anything over the phone. Use the PT 'call me' feature, but couldn't hear anything! It's driving me nuts.

How long is the CDR billing down for?

Mark@PennyTel writes...

CDRs are not available at the moment as our databases are re-synching.
How long is that expected to take? Still no CDRs here now.

Im sorry guys I cannot give an official ETA at the moment. But personally, I hope it will be available early this week.

Mark

oblong writes...

How long is that expected to take? Still no CDRs here now.

pennytel is down for me since yesterday.

I get a dial-tone but when I call a number it takes about 60 seconds and comes back with a busy/engaged tone.

been like this all day for me like this.

Tried to call pennytel support on my mobile but it goes to voice mail or something :(

mark, I whim'd you my account details hoping you can have a look into this for me.

first real problem i have had since I joing pennytel, would've been at least 2.5 years ago.

cheers

EDIT--
just wanted to add;
diagnostics on the pennytel page says I'm online. I'm using a linksys pap2, and the call me feature rings my phone instantly.

I just registered for a Pennytel account and setup everything. I can receive calls but I also can't seem to make any calls, just returns with a busy tone. Tried on both hardware and software.

broadbandconsumer1 writes...

pennytel is down for me since yesterday.

I get a dial-tone but when I call a number it takes about 60 seconds and comes back with a busy/engaged tone.

been like this all day for me like this.

This is the same problem I've been having since yesterday, only with an SPA3000. My brother in Qld is also having exactly the same problem, also with an SPA3000. We've not been able to make any outgoing calls since the system upgrade. Mark requested me to log a support ticket which I have done, but I've heard nothing back yet.

I just helped a friend sign up for a new PT account. On the first attempt the system reported an error mid process. Managed to sign up on the 2nd attempt but the system bombed out again when trying to verify the credit card. It's such a hassle for new customers to get on board it's become a pain.

I canceled my pennytel account, being on naked dsl I wanted something reliable

I must be the lucky one, because Pennytel's been good all day for me :)

Both my PennyTels accounts have been unusable since the maintenance on Saturday morning.

We cannot make outgoing calls from both PennyTel numbers. The numbers (including other PennyTel numbers) we are trying to reach don't ring.

However, our PennyTel numbers ring when we receive incoming calls. But when we pick up the receivers, we can't hear a thing.

This is the second weekend in a short span of time that PennyTel is down for such a long time and it is frustrating that we can't get through to Support despite repeated attempts. We keep getting, "All lines are busy, please try again later. This has been a free call."

PennyTel, please fix the issues.

My Pennytel stopped working for 2 days ago.

I just use the softphone on 2 x PC's and they both logon but when they try to dial a number they disconnect within one second.

What's going on?

TechMan writes...

My Pennytel stopped working for 2 days ago.

I just use the softphone on 2 x PC's and they both logon but when they try to dial a number they disconnect within one second.

That's happening to me too....

Hi Guys,

If you are using a softphone, I recommend X-Lite for now. I think so far, the problems WHIMmed to me are mostly softphone related.

Cheers,

Mark

i've found out Similar problems with my nokia N82 on sunday that's unable to make call "connection error". My nokia N82'd been making internet call fine b4. Also i checked pennytel support center diagnostics said my N82 registered with unknown agent and no sip port. NOW pennytel can detect N82 as the agent but still no sip port and unable to call out still.

Note: Netcomm ATA and x-lite work fine.

Note2: None of my ata devices or softphones work now "failed to register or timeout" @5:00 am

Note3: ATA now works, Nokia N82 registered, but still without sip port and call out connect error. Edited @8:43 am tue May 20 '08

I have not been able to make a call since about 2pm Saturday. I have an SPA3000. Pennytel web diagnostics says my device is connected and the 'call me' button calls my phone. I can receive calls, but I cannot make any outgoing calls. After 30+ seconds, I just get the beeping that says it's going nowhere.

I can't even call direct to another Pennytel number. The 777 support number also goes nowhere. I raised a call on the web, but it's gone nowhere. The 1300 number just goes to an answering machine after telling me all the engineers are busy...

I'm now bypassing PT to use Iinet for now. This is really frustrating!

Hi Antony_B,

Send me a whim with your account details so we can look into this for you.

Bret writes...

How long is the CDR billing down for?

I see that CDR info is restored this morning, however no records prior to Saturday's maintenance are available. Will these be restored too?

OldTech writes...

however no records prior to Saturday's maintenance are available.

Same here. I hope they haven't been lost.

Zyxak writes...

I hope they haven't been lost.
All of my records are gone as well! WTF

I can't see the link anywhere in my profile to upgrade my account. When will this be back?

Hi Guys,

Dont worrie your CDR's are fine, update from our engineers we are hopeful they will all be back early this week.

Jim

hmmm...have just setup my sipura and can't seem to dial out, and calling my number I get the message "all lines are busy etc etc". This is the first time I'm using voip.

The pennytel web support-diagnostics page shows status: offline, so where do you look to see if I'm registered properly?

Do I need to verify my credit cards to enable calling?

I signed up with Pennytel last week (Thursday night I think) and downloaded the Softphone but keep getting a "Log on timed out!" error whenever I try to connect.

Is this due to a system problem or am I doing something wrong at my end? I am using the username and password provided to me in the "Welcome" email.

am2605 writes...

I signed up with Pennytel last week (Thursday night I think) and downloaded the Softphone but keep getting a "Log on timed out!" error whenever I try to connect.

Is this due to a system problem or am I doing something wrong at my end? I am using the username and password provided to me in the "Welcome" email.

Try x-lite

I think that worked.

NOw I just need to call someone and see... :-0

My DID is not forwarding to my mobile anymore and voicemail not working. Anyone else got this happening. Only since Saturday. I just getting "user unavailable". Not much help from pennytel yet :)

Hi kartweel,

Can you whim me your account details to look into the issue?

am2605 writes...

NOw I just need to call someone and see... :-0

Ring your own PSTN number.
It is easier to check the quality and lag.

Is there any ETR for those of us still unable to dial out?
I have whimed my details earlier today (along with leaving messages on the support line and via support live chat over the weekend) and was told I would be contacted when my service was restored.

I have opened support tickets and left a message with support over the weekend and no response. DID not working, mobile not working, can only dial out from my home system.

What's going on??

Hasn't PennyTel heard of Change Management and backout plans?

I had a 'live chat' session with Jim@Pennytel this morning who advised:

Jim@PennyTel: ok it may be that since the upgrades your account did not resync correctly, sorry for any inconvienince caused
Jim@PennyTel: i will pass on your details to our engineers
Jim@PennyTel: they will correct your account and email you once done

I asked for an ETA but was advised it would be "sometime today".

I'm still waiting.

PennyTel down for me too
I can't dial any number

Pennytel is down for me tooo. Tried support and all that. Does any one know of a good reliable voip I could use for backup or something?

I have heard good things about MyNetFone and have nearly signed up several times over the past couple of days.
Pennytel have been a good provider up until now, and I would like to give them a chance to rectify the problem, but 3 days, woeful support, and I still have no idea if it is going to be another few days before I am up and going. I've got to draw the line somewhere.
Check out https://www.mynetfone.com.au/whirlpool

i have had the problem since a few days of all of my incoming calls going direct to voicemail, but i can make outgoing calls.

the live support also does not seem to work at the moment. after the login screen it just disappears although it says someone is online.

Me too, same problem, no response. I'm checking out My Net Fone.

A good backup provider for us is NodePhone although this is not the cheapest provider (it certainly is the most reliable however).

One of my PennyTel accounts can now receive incoming but cannot make any outgoing calls. The other one is totally hopeless. What is the point of paying monthly subscription fees for non-existent service and support?

I've still had no reply from Customer Support despite logging an online ticket and after so many extended outages (that go on for days) from PennyTel over the past few weeks, I've decided to put my money elsewhere.

Thanks to Usul69 for posting MyNetFone link. It might seem to cost slightly more than PennyTel, but the reliability will save me far more in the long run. Seeing the number of awards MyNetFone has won over the years, I'm looking forward to joining them and saying goodbye to PennyTel.

Jim@PennyTel writes...

Dont worrie your CDR's are fine, update from our engineers we are hopeful they will all be back early this week.

That's good to know as I would like to check what happened to my credit vanishing after the maintenance break. In the meantime, the auto recharge has kicked back in and I can now make calls again.

is Pennytel still down ... no go here on gold coast

This morning the ATA will not even register, nor will x-lite. If that is progress, so be it! At least it confirms there is a problem.

rosco51 writes...

confirms there is a problem

I believe that it does, I was online last night, woke up this morning and the ATA is offline.

EDIT: just after posting, the ATA registered.

PennyTel is back up again.

Good thing we set up a second port with a more reliable provider (nodephone). My wife is at home though so she will not be too happy to find the phone not working!

The ATA is now registered. STILL cannot make outgoing calls via it, but X-lite is now working for outgoing calls.

Tried calling my DID from the mobile, got "we regret that all lines to the area you have dialed (Melbourne) are busy - please try again later".

calling from mobiles still not working.

I've has some issues that have been persisting for some time... I raised jobs on both of my accounts, but so far no action from PennyTel.

The accounts are mainly for incoming calls, and they have the following problems:

Canberra-number: diverted to my office landline 24/7 - half the time tells callers that the user is not contactable in a female voice. Has credit, and I was going to make this my main contact number at home.

Gosford-Number: diverted to the above PennyTel number 24/7 - has never worked, and tells callers that all lines to the area are busy. No credit and will never be used for outgoing calls or diversions to non PennyTel numbers.

I was going to get more numbers/accounts, but I'm having 2nd thoughts now.

BTW I have an iiTalk account that seems to be working really well. How hard can it be, PennyTel?!

Mike.

Hi rosco51, how can you tell if the ATA is registered. I'm looking at the status page of my sip 3102 and can't really tell. What do I look for?

Are PennyTel doing anything at all or will they just keep talking about 'engineers', 'escalations' and 'thank you for using PennyTel'? Can someone from PennyTel please explain what is going on?

Hi smackus,

I use an SPA3000 and on the info page, it tells you whether it is registered and when it was last restarted. Also you can go to your PennyTel user portal. Logon and go to the User Support tab, then select Diagnostics. It will show the device registered (or offline as the case may be). If registered is will also show the IP address and port being used. For the SPA3000 it identifies that device and also shows the firmware version it is running. I assume is will do similar for the 3102.

Hope that helps.

smackus writes...

how can you tell if the ATA is registered.

Look for registration on the info page, it should say online, you may need to use the admin login to see it

With all these outages and CDR's not working, it would be great to see Pennytel put the Notifications page to better use by displaying updates and more information about outages/upgrades.

I can clearly see they have done this for Saturday, but there's nothing on the page as to why my CDR is down or if it should be down. With Pennytel only informing us on Whirlpool's Forums.

I'm sure in the process it would save them a lot of trouble dealing with users who are constantly asking about it (like myself) because they have not been officially informed.

I mentioned this to them on the live chat, I was told they would pass it on to Engineers. Engineers? I would have thought it's just common sense.

Thanks heaps rosco51 and jok11n.

My ata reg state says Failed and the web diag says offline, and pennytel is down so I can't really determine if I've set this ata up right. oh well.

Still cannot make any calls out since saturday.

My support ticket is still un-actioned.

Is there anyone here that I can whim my account details so they can have a look at this?

I have tried ringing their numbers. The (02) & (03) numbers are not getting through. Saying that the area I am calling is not available at the moment. This is from my mobile.

I'm thinking of calling their SNG or HK office number :(

Great thread - unless something major happens to change my mind, I have now decided that Pennytel is not for me!

Hi Guys,

There should be no problems making or receiving calls, if you are having issues please let me know your details and we will look into your issue.

Jim,

I've noticed my ticket was updated today to say that there does not appear to be any problem. If this is the case, why can't I make calls? I'm not the only one in this position - is it just coincidence that all those affected seemed to lose our service after the maintenance upgrade on Saturday. If there was no hardware or software change at our end, and the account has been working fine for months, why has it stopped now?

Yes, I can make calls using x-lite, but I have an ATA connected to the home phone and x-lite is not a satisfactory substitute when all the hardware was working before the PT maintenance.

Yesterday you advised via online chat that "it may be that since the upgrades your account did not resync correctly, sorry for any inconvienince caused" and that it would be passed to the engineers with an email to me when it was fixed.

I've not received any email and I still cannot make outbound calls via the ATA although it is registered. It does receive incoming calls (via my DID) so to me, that indicates the hardware at my end is not at fault.

Sorry if I sound frustrated and fed-up, but I am. This is day 4 without a properly working service.

rosco51 writes...

es, I can make calls using x-lite, but I have an ATA connected to the home phone and x-lite is not a satisfactory substitute when all the hardware was working before the PT maintenance

sounds more like you havent port forwarded correctly in your router, or there is a port conflict somewhere.
google for "port forwarding spa3000" and see if anything applies and can help you.

The fact that the x-lite is working with the same pennytel account may indicate it is your spa3000 or your router settings.

bluebay writes...

you havent port forwarded correctly in your router

The ATA (SPA3000) has been set up in the DMZ behind a WRT54GS so port forwarding is not the issue here.

have you followed this thread? People are saying that everything was fine until they mangled their systems last week and settings have not been changed etc. PennyTel is not responding. And support if they do respond just say they 'test' something and all is fine. That is their standard response to me with every problem I have ever raised. Now they just don't bother responding at all. I am going to demand a refund of my remaining credits to use with another provider. A week now and this is ridiculous.

My situation's the same as rosco51. x-lite works OK, but my SPA3000 does not. 35+ seconds and I get the beeping that tells me nothing worked.

I've been whimming Jim as he responds to my case roughly once every 1-2 hours, but it's so frustrating. As soon as it hits 5pm, I know I still won't be able to make any calls for another 16 hours. Nothing is happening quickly as it goes into its 4th day. Everything was fine until Saturday and has been fine for the last 1.5 years. I haven't changed anything on my network.

I find it really bizzare that we have to talk to people on Whirlpool to liase with Pennytel's engineers instead of being able to get access via the official web site. My online support calls only got looked at this morning and were simply told that "everything's fine now". Now I'm confused as to who actually is providing the support and I have to look in two places to see if someone is looking at my problem.

The lack of information on the web site giving some kind of feedback is woeful! Compare this to the continuous feedback given during the Skype outage last year. I am sure that Jim and others are working hard to try to solve the problems, but it's leaving me with a bitter taste and a desire to go elsewhere. That'd be a real shame as Pennytel give me exactly the service I want.

The free SMS feature is fantastic and other excellent value, but they could at least place an update on the website or a notification. It's the fact that they are trying to hide the fact that anything is wrong that is more frustrating.

I'm going MNF even though they are a significant drop in value (free SMS's etc) but at least MNF *works*.

sounds more like you havent port forwarded correctly in your router, or there is a port conflict somewhere.

I have a Linksys PAP2, its got 2 ports on it, one's configured for Pennytel and the other is iiTalk. I think its been setup with pennytel since 2005 and never had an issue that I can remember. Like a few other people posting there, I too lost my service on SATURDAY and have not been able to contact anyone in support to talk to.

My ticked was updated about an hour ago saying it should all be working. Asking me to restart my device. unfortunately this didnt resolve my problem.

EDIT--

I should say that I can successuflly make calls out using my iiTalk line.

rosco51 writes...

The ATA (SPA3000) has been set up in the DMZ behind a WRT54GS so port forwarding is not the issue here.

okey doke - guess its back to Pennytel then - they are having their fair share of issues at present - thats for sure-

Come on PT - it's very clear to all who are grieved for last few days (myself included) that you should come clean on this and handle the PR aspect of this much better.

Post some BIG messages apologising immediately to all on their front web page and should not be seen to be fobbing customers off with excuses and non-replies. This should reduce the number of people swamping their support desk which it seems they dont have the man-power to handle anyway...

Customers are getting mighty pissed of if they dont have a reply for total service failure (in some cases) and they dont see all the posts in these forums.

Will be hard to win customers trust back again - I've just opened an MNF account myself...

I started using Pennytel last year for mobiles only on the Free Access Timed plan due to their good value and good quality of calls. I was using another provider for calls to landlines and also set up my brother in QLD with the same provider so we could have free on-net calls. Eventually the reliability of the on-net calls got worse and I switched both accounts to PennyTel Free Access Untimed Plans with the included DID around Christmas time. Except for the PT problems on 21st April and now, I have had excellent call quality and good reliability.

At the same time I moved everything to Pennytel in December, I did set up a MyNetFone account on the Whirlpool Saver Plan as a backup in case Pennytel let me down, but I've never had to use it.

To prove a point, I have just entered the MyNetFone settings into the SPA3000 and surprise, surprise, I can make outgoing calls through it via MyNetFone. This proves the hardware is not faulty. When I put the Pennytel settings back in, still can't make outgoing calls via Pennytel.

Unless I can get a resolution from PennyTel soon, I looks as though I will be getting my brother a MyNetPhone account and we will be ditching Pennytel. Yes, he's in the same position as I am - has not been able to make any outgoing calls since Saturday via his SPA3000. Costs are slightly more than Pennytel, but at least the service works, and it's MUCH cheaper than Telstra.

Newsflash! After PennyTel responded with another 'it's fine' message about something else - I asked about the general service failure - their response (surprise surprise!) "we're working on it".

How much time does this waste to respond to people when they could just post something on the web site??

I have had some polite correspondence with a Pennytel Rep. The position seems to be that PT acknowledge that the system work on Saturday was necessary due to their growing network but has unfortunately caused a lot of problems which their engineers are working overtime to fix. My own problems are only on certain Pennytel DID's where I can make outgoing calls but incoming ones are not received despite registration apparently being successful. Overall Pennytel offer great value, I am very happy with them and am prepared to put up with a few problems from time to time. However, I do expect to be kept fully informed and hopefully given some information as to what is causing the problem and when it will be fixed. Looking at this forum it appears that PT have a history of dealing with the Public Relations side of any problems very badly, though their reps on Whirlpool do seem to be doing their best.

At present I have been told to contact the rep again if I don't get a response to my support ticket with 7 days. Makes me wonder just how bad these problems actually are.

I am sticking with Pennytel for now, but I do expect them to do better in the future. Problems will inevitably occur from time to time, but please let us know what is happening!

Their 'support' told me that they will post an update when the problems are fixed after forcing them to admit they even *had* problems, which is completely useless.

The only other response was 'please check your ports are open'. It seems as though they have a complete internal disconnect or just can't be bothered saying 'we are having problems and this is what we are doing to fix it'.

PennyTel support has generally been hopeless. I avoid it and go to Whirlpool instead which is pretty embarassing for PennyTel - even to see that there *are* actually problems going on.

Hi guys we just posted an announcement on our announcement thread to keep you informed.

rosco51 iv sent you a message in regards to your query.

Jim@PennyTel writes...

rosco51 iv sent you a message in regards to your query.

Jim,

Thanks for the update and the whim.

Jim, thanks for resolving my incoming call issue. I feel that i should mention what the issue was for others who may be experiencing the same problem.

My problem was that all incoming calls were going straight to voicemail without ringing at all, however i could make outgoing calls.

I have largely had trouble free experience with pennytel, the odd call dropping out at 1 hour, but nothing too huge. but this was really frustrating as it continued for several days and seemed to echo problems others were having.

I've been told that the problem was resolved by extending my voicemail pickup time to 30 seconds - jim kindly did this on my behalf (and i do appreciate his prompt address of this following my whim). however i never changed these settings to begin with. This suddenly changed by itself pretty much at the same time as the upgrade/maintenance or whatever the outage is being described as. I dont doubt that managing a voip company is massively complicated, however these outages have been so badly handled, and unfortunately have done some pretty major customer relations damage.

I think that an easy way of keeping people happy is to be upfront and simply announce network problems and not leave these issues to manifest on these forums. no doubt you will field complaints even when you do announce problems, but it will do a lot of good for your customer relations compared to the state of things now.

And to state the glaringly obvious, you do have customers that are paying for a service.

My Pennytel service has stopped working also over the past few days.

Nothing has been changed or altered my end in months, yet for some reason the services has failed.

I also use other providers like VoXaLot and Free World Dial up etc. These continue to work fine.

I was told by pennytel to try using a softphone.

Now here's the interesting thing.

Currently it's only outgoing calls that don't work.

But if I route through VoXaLot and let it connect to Pennytel, or if I use a softphone I can make outgoing calls. (Well at least make a phone ring, I haven't actualy bothered doing a complete call yet).

So whats the difference?

Why all of a sudden is it that Pennytell won't take outgoing calls from my Billion 6404VGP ATA?

Pennytel's web site shows my ATA as registered ok.

Status : Online
Agent : BiPAC 6404VGP 5.54b
Contact : sip:61731219xxx@58.111.147.xxx:506­ 0

I have been reading that pennytel is having problems. Is there any info on when they will be solving things? Or is this a taste of things to come under the new management? If so I guess it could be time to jump ship and look for a better option.

.-.-.

I have been on and off the Live Chat the past few days, it does not always seem to be available. I have been attempting at all hours of the day and sometimes I can get on, other times not in which it allows me to leave a message (which never get replied to).

What are the actual business hours or operation times of the live chat?

vk4akp writes...

Now here's the interesting thing.

Currently it's only outgoing calls that don't work.

Same problem here tonight. Can get incoming calls using VOIP on my N95, but get a connection error when trying to ring out.

Bret writes...

What are the actual business hours or operation times of the live chat?

No-one really knows

PT staff seem selective and appear willing to only respond to "Dorothy Dix"ers :-)

Even if the live chat box closes by itself, I now know that they do read the message. In my case, they did respond and my simple question took three days and a ridiculous number of emails back and forth to resolve.

So my advice regarding Live Chat is to compose the message as if it is an email - they do get to read it even if it appears the chat failed.

OldTech writes...

So my advice regarding Live Chat is to compose the message as if it is an email - they do get to read it even if it appears the chat failed.
I thought you couldn't type anything into live chat until someone actually answered. Am I wrong?

Typo writes...

I thought you couldn't type anything into live chat until someone actually answered. Am I wrong?

I thought that too - I would type a message then the box closed when I hit send. I was very surprised when I received an email next day requesting more info. So it is wrong to assume (like I did) that the message went nowhere.

OldTech writes...

I thought that too - I would type a message then the box closed when I hit send.

OK, I just tested it. Yes it appears you can send a message; but this is working differently than when there are people answering "on-line". When they (the so called experts at Live Chat) are answering, you cannot leave a message, the chat box keeps refreshing saying something like "You will be answered shortly".

Regardless, it is good that Pennytel answer these messages...better than Gotalk who just seem to prefer to ignore everything!

looks like Pennytel found me a solution to my problem of outgoing calls, in the line settings for my spa3102 set Display Name equal to the account id or if that does not work, set Display name to blank,
This solution worked on my ata
The pennytel softphone doesn't work but xlite does

Good luck

Hey guys!
Pennytel SoftPhone doesn't work since 16th May and I ried XLite it does work either. What the hell!!!

When ever I dial a numer the Softphone shows "Calling" and shows "Disconnected" straight away and when ever I try with XLite shows "Discovering Network..."and sits idle for long.Some tine it somehow logs in but after dialing it shows "Calling" for a long time and then says " Number is not available".

Any clue guys?? Any help. Pennttel service is really Sh17.

crazyphil writes...

looks like Pennytel found me a solution to my problem of outgoing calls, in the line settings for my spa3102 set Display Name equal to the account id or if that does not work, set Display name to blank,
This solution worked on my ata

Thanks heaps crazyphil.

I've made the same change (set field to account id) on the SPA3000 for both me and my brother and YES, it works!!! We can both make outgoing calls again.

Me too! Outbound calls via my SPA3000 now work again, thanks crazyphil.

I have similar problems on Pennytel...softphone used to work like a charm, but lately used to sign on before but showed disconnected as soon as I dialled a number, and now it would not even connect (gives time out error). Same timout 408 error with X-lite. My 7404VGO gives me "Registration failure" when trying to connect to Pennytel.

Any ideas????

Hi all,

We have been getting a few questions on whether the service is working or if calls are working and the simple answer is yes. But in saying this you may need to change the settings on your ATA as mentioned above in order to continue with the upgrades that occurred. If you are using a softphone please use xlite this is working, if you are having registration issues make sure you have port 5060 open on your network. Id like to thank everyone for their patience.

Well.... sorry to say SIP calls from my mobile (Nokia E65) still has "connection error" on outgoing calls (as from the weekend)- incoming is fine.

Priesh from PT support called me this morning to suggest trying my account using X-Lite softphone. I tried it and it works for outgoing and incoming. This is using the same wireless broadband connection though the E65, so it's not an issue with my 3 wireless broadband...

I ever tried re-naming the mobile SIP profile name and the internet tel. setting name to be the same as my PT account username in line with the earlier posts today but sorry - PT tech support still need to fix this one for me. :(

PennyTel support just whimmed me and suggested I use 203.166.6.160 to replace the string sip.pennytel.com - I replaced every instance of this string including realm, public username, address etc and I made a successful call to voicemail.

Trying other numbers now and will also try DID again later.

Normally I am the only one who has problems, while everyone else seems to experience no outages.

This must be the first time I have had no breaks in service, but almost everybody else appears to have.

My ATA is also up and going again, thanks to crazyphil.
For the record, I have a Draytek Vigor 2700VG, and all that I needed to change was to set the Display Name equal to the Account ID. No need to upgrade the firmware of the router, as per the current suggestion from the support staff.

demosthenes writes...

PennyTel support just whimmed me and suggested I use 203.166.6.160 to replace the string sip.pennytel.com - I replaced every instance of this string including realm, public username, address etc and I made a successful call to voicemail.

yup - same here - substituting the raw IP address instead of sip.pennytel.com in my Nokia E65 fixes my outgoing "connection error" problem, just made one that stayed up for 45 mins... :-) Thanks Mark and PT! I guess this helps to nail down this issue - maybe some timing changes in the DNS causes the SIP protocol to time-out...??? who knows..

crazyphil writes...

in the line settings for my spa3102 set Display Name equal to the account id or if that does not work, set Display name to blank,

Interesting...

I've always had a different Display Name and User ID and my SPA3102 hasn't skipped a beat.

FYI my firmware version is: 5.1.7(GW)

Crazyphil, Thanks for the feedback from PT this reminded me of similar problem with Astratel and the "Display Name".
My Dad has a Linksys 3102 & My brother has a Netcomm V100 on PT and were both having the problem, but are now fixed.
I believe must PT have installed new SIP proxies which can't handle non alpha characters in the "Display Name". Both users had name like Fred & Wilma, and Barnie & Betty in the "Display Name". I just REMOVED the "&" and changed it to "and" and now it WORKS OK. I am not sure what other non-alphas characters cause problems.

In summary if you can, I suggest trying the Display name fix before changing the SIP Proxy address.

Galileo writes...

Both users had name like Fred & Wilma, and Barnie & Betty in the "Display Name". I just REMOVED the "&" and changed it to "and" and now it WORKS OK. I am not sure what other non-alphas characters cause problems.

You are right Galileo, I also had the & in the Display name for my SPA3000 and I changed it to the account Id after CrazyPhil's comment, which worked. I just put the original back and replaced & with 'and' and it also works. Just to be sure, I put back the & and it stopped working again.

Galileo writes...

Both users had name like Fred & Wilma, and Barnie & Betty in the "Display Name". I just REMOVED the "&" and changed it to "and" and now it WORKS OK.

Yes Galileo, you are right. I also had an "&" in the "Display Name" field. I put the names back in with an "and" instead, and it still works OK.

rosco51 writes...

Yes Galileo, you are right. I also had an "&" in the "Display Name" field. I put the names back in with an "and" instead, and it still works OK.

One would think that when PT made changes to their system they would know exactly what the changes were and how those changes would affect SIP logins and be able to advice customers upfront with the potential problems. It appears to me the PT is very disorganised internally and there is little communication between the different departments.

My problem dialing out was fixed last night. Thanks Jim for the email about changing my display name to my number thingie.

I had (02) in my display as it showed my full number.