My ISP is blocking ooma and Skype

[ockhamist]

My ISP is blocking Skype, and now ooma won't work either. Is there a workaround to getting ooma to work without changing ISPs? Can I change ports? Can I run it though a VPN on my computer? My Internet is included in my rent, so changing ISPs means paying for a whole new one.

EDIT: I am in Morocco, and ooma has stopped working for all American expats using Maroc Telecom. If a solution is found it would help a bunch of people. Also, many Moroccans are complaining on French-language forums about the Skype issue. I am hesitant to buy a new ISP because they might choose to do the same blockage in a month. Sorry I didn't give all this info at the beginning, since I wasn't sure if using ooma overseas full-time would be frowned upon. Most expats use some sort of VPN (for Hulu, ESPN, security, etc) so could ooma be routed through a VPN?

[thunderbird]

My ISP is blocking Skype, and now ooma won't work either. Is there a workaround to getting ooma to work without changing ISPs? Can I change ports? Can I run it though a VPN on my computer? My Internet is included in my rent, so changing ISPs means paying for a whole new one.

Who is your Internet provider? If you don’t know, you can open http://www.speedtest.net/ in your computer browser window, and at the left lower side you will see an IP address, along with the name of the Internet provider.

How is your Ooma Connected, Modem-Ooma-Router or Modem-Router-Ooma?

Are all of the lights on the face of the Ooma Telo blue in color?

Can you hear the Ooma Dial tone?

What happens when you try to dial and talk on the Ooma phone system?

Does the Internet signal go through your landlord’s Router before it comes to your apartment?
If so, it could be that the landlord has setup restrictions in the router, or his router isn't configured correctly?

[tommies]

You are in a tight spot here. Does the landlord spell it out in the contract (i.e. blocking Skype,other voip, etc.)? Even if you complain to the Public Service Commission, it won't help in the mean time. However, I suggest you do complain to the PSC anyway.

You need to find out the real ISP (like Comcast, AT&T, Roadrunner, etc.) like Thunderbird suggest above and file a complain to the ISP regarding the reseller(landlord) restricting of internet services.

I'm guessing that the landlord want to sell you their (voip) phone service too. This is the reason they go out to block all voip traffic from their tenants.

However, all of the above won't help solve your problem now. You can try to negotiate a lower rent without those 'bargain' (unlikely) and compare to what you have to puny up from a new ISP, or moving on without ooma.

[ockhamist]

Thank you for the response. The Internet provider is Maroc Telecom, the largest in Morocco. I am an American expat, and the ooma systems are quite popular among the expat community. However, in the last month nobody on Maroc Telecom can use either Skype or ooma. I have control of the router, so to speak, and I have tried various configurations. Normally ooma is past the router because I take it between the office and where I am currently living.

I do get a dial tone, but after 30 seconds of a call the call quality is unusable and the call drops. This is the same experience that other expats have. Skype works the same way. I can connect but after a minute the call drops. However, Skype works when I am on VPN, so I would like to get ooma working either on a VPN or changed ports or something.

Also, many Moroccans are complaining about the Skype issue on French-language forums.

[thunderbird]

Thank you for the response. The Internet provider is Maroc Telecom, the largest in Morocco. I am an American expat, and the ooma systems are quite popular among the expat community. However, in the last month nobody on Maroc Telecom can use either Skype or ooma. I have control of the router, so to speak, and I have tried various configurations. Normally ooma is past the router because I take it between the office and where I am currently living.

I do get a dial tone, but after 30 seconds of a call the call quality is unusable and the call drops. This is the same experience that other expats have. Skype works the same way. I can connect but after a minute the call drops. However, Skype works when I am on VPN, so I would like to get ooma working either on a VPN or changed ports or something.

Also, many Moroccans are complaining about the Skype issue on French-language forums.

Ooma suggests that you have a minimum of 385 kbps download and 265 kbps upload speeds. More than likely the problem may be in this area.

Run http://speedtest.phonepower.com/ to see how your modem and Internet connection is doing. Then click on the Advance tab on the lower left side of the Phonepower page, and post the following values here in this thread, by clicking on "Quote" in the upper right hand corner of this Ooma Forum post. Then fill in the blanks.

Download Speed: ________________
Upload Speed: ________________
Download Consistency of Service ________
Upload Consistency of Service _________
Maximum TCP Delay _____________
Jitter you server __________
Jitter server you _________
Packet loss: you server_______
Packet loss: server you ______
Packet discards _________
Packets out of order _________
Estimated MOS score ________

If you do the Java fix in your computer, instructions located at viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12085. Then you can click on the Speedtest Phonepower Advanced tab, then "view test" at the bottom. Instead of filling in the blanks above, you can select CTRL+A to highlight, CTRL+C to copy; CTRL+V for paste into the Ooma Forum.

[ockhamist]

Thank you for the response. The Internet provider is Maroc Telecom, the largest in Morocco. I am an American expat, and the ooma systems are quite popular among the expat community. However, in the last month nobody on Maroc Telecom can use either Skype or ooma. I have control of the router, so to speak, and I have tried various configurations. Normally ooma is past the router because I take it between the office and where I am currently living.

I do get a dial tone, but after 30 seconds of a call the call quality is unusable and the call drops. This is the same experience that other expats have. Skype works the same way. I can connect but after a minute the call drops. However, Skype works when I am on VPN, so I would like to get ooma working either on a VPN or changed ports or something.

Also, many Moroccans are complaining about the Skype issue on French-language forums.

Ooma suggests that you have a minimum of 385 kbps download and 265 kbps upload speeds. More than likely the problem may be in this area.

Run http://speedtest.phonepower.com/ to see how your modem and Internet connection is doing. Then click on the Advance tab on the lower left side of the Phonepower page, and post the following values here in this thread, by clicking on "Quote" in the upper right hand corner of this Ooma Forum post. Then fill in the blanks.

Download Speed: _______281kbps_________
Upload Speed: ________________718kbps
Download Consistency of Service ________54%
Upload Consistency of Service _________85%
Maximum TCP Delay _____________491ms
Jitter you server __________0.0ms
Jitter server you _________0.6ms
Packet loss: you server_______0.0%
Packet loss: server you ______12.4%
Packet discards _________0.0%
Packets out of order _________0.0%
Estimated MOS score ________1.0

If you do the Java fix in your computer, instructions located at viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12085. Then you can click on the Speedtest Phonepower Advanced tab, then "view test" at the bottom. Instead of filling in the blanks above, you can select CTRL+A to highlight, CTRL+C to copy; CTRL+V for paste into the Ooma Forum.

http://speedtest.phonepower.com/myspeed ... ?id=340373


The download speed strikes me as odd, because I regularly download from usenet at much higher speeds (1000kbps+). I ran the test a few times and got about the same results. The advertized rate is "DSL 8Mb/s", which is 1 megabyte per second I think.

speedtest.net gave me a result of 330kbps.

Also, ooma worked perfectly for me for over a year on this same service.
Thank you for the assistance.

[thunderbird]

ockhamist:
Download Speed: _______281kbps_________.....should be a minimum of 385 kbps
Download Consistency of Service ________54%...is usually around 80%
Maximum TCP Delay _____________491ms.......is usually 100ms or less
Packet loss: server you ______12.4%..............must be zero
Estimated MOS score ________1.0................is usually 4.0 or better

You have to get your Internet provider to get the download speed corrected/increased.
Also the packet loss must be zero.

If you can't get the Internet provider to make corrections:
Having traveled with the Ooma Telo, I found Internet connection conditions like these in China sometimes.

In China I found that I had to reboot the Modem and Ooma Telo, then run Phonepower Speed test, over and over again, until I was able to establish a better Internet connection. To make sure that I got a different Internet connection, I ran http://www.speedtest.net/ , and at the left lower side of the page you will see the IP address and Internet provider name that you are connected to. Every time you reboot the Modem and Ooma device, you should see the IP address change.
Some times I had to do the Modem and Ooma Telo reboots up to twenty times to find a better Internet connection. Once I established a better connection with the minimum download and upload speeds, zero packet loss, and jitter less then 5ms, everything worked fine.