Problems with voice dropping calls - had been working fine

[DocT]

We have a problem with our HughesNet phone service for the past 2-3 weeks.  After 8-10 minutes or so the call drops.  Sometimes we cannot reestablish the call without trying 5-6 times; then when we reestablish the call it drops within 2-3 minutes or less.

Sometimes, after dropping the call, we will get a phantom ringback (caller ID shows the number we were just talking to) as though the system is trying to reestablish the connection.  When we pick up, it’s just a dead line.

It happens at all times of day, but seems to be worse in the evening, or perhaps that’s when we tend to be on the phone with family and friends.

In any case, this is making it very difficult to do business during the day or call our daughter in the evening.

This problem did not arise until 2-3 weeks ago; prior that that it was fine for 9 months, so I would assume that the handset equipment, wiring, setup, and configuration are not the problem.  Perhaps the voice adaptor?

I have done numerous power cycles of just the phone adapter and of the whole system; doesn’t seem to make any difference.

Can we run some remote diagnostics to check the modem and ATA?

[Liz]

Hi DocT,

I see it's your first post here, so welcome to the community! Thank you for the useful information, this helps. I ran diagnostics and the equipment looks fine. I've escalated your case to our VOIP team to see what we can do for you. I'll reach out when I have an update to share.

  Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

[DocT]

Thanks for the quick reply.  Let's see if we can make it work again!

[DocT]

I haven't heard from the VOIP team.

Last night, our first call was dropped after about 12 minutes.  The phone began ringing repeatedly as though the person we were talking to was trying to call back (she wasn't) and when we would answer, the line was dead.  Hang up.  Repeat.  I turned off power to the ATA to make that stop.  After that, we could make a call and it would last a minute or two before disconnecting.

I hope to hear from the VOIP team soon.  We have no cell phone signal at home, so we can't really call customer service.

[Liz]

Hi DocT, 

Thanks for the additional details. Our corporate VOIP team isn't going to reach out to you, I only just escalated your case yesterday after you posted in the community. I will post back once I have any updates from the team.

[Robp1]

Hello, I am fighting this issue at the moment to. So what helps sometimes is reset the moron and VIOP bad at the same time, make sure they are powered off for a minute. Plug them back in let the network connect and then attempt to make your call. I hope it helps.

[Robp1]

*modem 😐 lol love IOS 😀

[maratsade]

Darn that autocorrect! LOL

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@Robp1 wrote:
*modem 😐 lol love IOS 😀

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[DocT]

I do this multiple times every day!  Often, when it drops a call, I start getting a ringback, as though the system were trying to reestablish the connection.  When I pick up, the line is dead.  As soon as I hang up, it rings again.  The only way to stop this is to cycle the ATA.  Sometimes, I cycle both, but getting everyone out of what they're doing and off the internet is a bit more hassle.

In any case, that has not helped yet.  Once it has started dropping calls, the chances of making another call of more than 2 minutes or so diminish dramatically.  Cycling the sysytem fully or partially does not seem to change that.

I hope I can get some response soon.  For obvious reasons, I can't *call* customer service on the VOIP.  We are in a rural area with no cell phone service.

(To be fair, the only wired phone provider in this region is Frontier, and their products, pricing, and service are terrible!)

HELP!  Please!

[Liz]

Hi DocT,

Haven't heard back from the team yet, but I will follow up again Monday morning.

[DocT · Accepted solution]

OK, it looks like we have a fix!  Happy dance!

I had an online chat with customer service yesterday afternoon, posting the same description that I have above.  The rep I chatted with was Angela Gray, and she was methodical and patient.  (I have an IT background and I understand the need for tedious detailed steps.)  I will admit that I was skeptical of her solution, but I think she was absolutely correct.

This is how I had things wired.  It was installed this way, and worked fine for 9 months.

MODEM
MODEM - - - - - - - - - - - ATA- - - - - - - - - - -ROUTER - - - - - - other stuff

MODEM

MODEM

Angela said that the wiring should look like this:

MODEM

MODEM - - - - - - - - - - - ATA

MODEM - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -ROUTER - - - - - -  other stuff

MODEM

That is, NOTHING should be plugged into the fourth (green) port on the ATA.  The internet comes in from the modem on the yellow port, the phone jack plugs in to Phone 1 (blue?) port.  That's it.

The modem has four internet out ports on it, so plugging the router into one of those was simple, once Angela got it through my thick head that this was an option.

We have not had a call drop since.  We talked to my daughter for over an hour last night.  I'm calling this a solution.

I commend Angela's patience, clarity, and knowledge.

[DocT]

Epilogue.

Angela (customer service rep from the chat conversation) called me this morning to ask if the problem had resolved.  I told her it had.

So good job to HughesNet customer service for fixing the problem, and again for followup.

I'm impressed.

t

[BirdDog]

@Liz, based on the fix it appears the ATA hookup instructions may need a review and possible revision.

[Liz]

Good morning DocT,

Thank you for this wonderful update, I'm glad Angela helped resolve your concerns. Curious, which instructions did you follow to hook up your ATA? Here are two PDFs, one for each Innomedia ATA model:

http://voice.hughesnet.com/activate/docs/innoQuickStart.pdf

http://voice.hughesnet.com/activation/docs/mini.pdf

Any feedback or concerns about the setup instructions are much appreciated. Thanks!

This is a great reminder to me double-check the basics with the customer, even if they say they've done it already. XD

[DocT]

I'm getting a "directory not found" on the second link.

In any case, I didn't really follow those directions (although having that document around would have been useful last week).  We signed up through a local distributor in Houghton Lake, MI and they did the installation.  Our previous system (Exede) had a modem with only one LAN port, so carrying the internet signal through the ATA to other devices was the only way to go. 

The directions on the first link look fine to me, and quite clear.  Perhaps our local distributors need a refresher!

t

[Liz]

Wow! ok good to know! Thank you! Glad it's all sorted out now. Feel free to drop by again if you need anything else.

Have a good rest of your week!

[Robp1]

The last call to HughesNet was a bit heated as they still had not fixed anything. Finally a rep from account management looked through all the problems, and had a tech out to my house in less than 48 hours. Clayton was excellent, he had the problem diagnosed and fixed in two hours. The original install on the dish was done incorrectly, the ground wire was faulty, the dish was all over the place, and the coaxial wire wasn’t installed correctly. Clayton made sure everything was in place, realigned, and up to 100% before he left. It’s been a few days MY PHONE HAS NOT DROPPED A CALL and my internet is WORKING! A big shout out to the The team, I really can not thank everyone enough!

[Jay]

Robp1,

Thanks for the update! We're glad to hear that your issue has been resolved and that you had such a great experience!

Thank you,

Jay

[Robp1]

I completely understand your frustration and Frontier is our only alternative here as well. Networking called me back today and I would recommend that you be blunt and make sure that you tell them they have to call you back. It is more than frustrating because of the drops in service, but the team is finally helping. By chance have you tried a corded phone when you attempt to make a call? Sometimes the frequency of the wireless handset can mess with the HT2000w modem. I hope they get it fixed for you soon.