The Japan Page

I recently decided to try VOIP, and after looking through a bunch of offerings signed up for SipPhone.

Percieved Pluses to SipPhone
* Free VOIP calls inside the system (just like everyone else).
* Attactive and free software phone client (Gizmo Project) Nice, but my wife won't use it, she prefers a real phone thingey in her hand.
* Standards based protocol (See Wikipedia)
* Attractive rates for domestic and international calls to POTS (standard telephones). (Just like everyone else).
* And the biggy - purchased minutes for VOIP to POTS (VOIP to standard phones) don't expire. If you go with Skype check out the fine print, unused Skype-out minutes expire after 3 months. This is mitigated by free US / Canada Skype-Out until the end of the year, but I want to call Tokyo...!
* A great deal on the hardware - an unlocked, standards based VOIP router (D-Link 1402S) for $59.95.

Doesn't sound too bad eh? Well, just like everything else it's all in the details.

After ordering I received the VOIP router in about 4 days, not too bad. SipPhone is located in San Diego and the Japan Page is currently hanging around Palo Alto a lot, so quick delivery was a plus.

I opened the UPS Express box to find the D-Link 1402S truly crammed in. Took a bit of pulling to extract it, I would have expected better padding, yeah right. The next thing I notice is the shrink wrap has been cut and the box opened. Oh yeah, this is the SipPhone plug-n-play feature, just plug it in and dial out.

So, I plug it in and bring it up on my home network, give it a static internal IP and configure my external router into DMZ host mode for that IP. If you're a gamer you know what this does, opens all ports to the box. Next I plug a phone in and get a dial tone, almost done, right? Ha ha. I can dial anything I want and get a beautiful... busy signal.

OK, I'm a system engineer and pretty good with network equipment, so I decide to go to bed and mess with it tomorrow. Next day I'm rummaging for the manual, and guess what? Nothing but the OEM thing for the router, which is nearly worthless anyway. Not one shred of documentation from SipPhone on the service. I dig out the welcome e.mail and start troubleshooting. First up I remove my existing firewall and put the D-Link in to eliminate blocked ports. No go, just a busy signal.

Next, I surf the web for while and figure how to go root on the box and get into the SIP protocol config. The SipPhone support pages are almost worthless, and the search engine truly is. The forum is more helpful. Marketing calls this a completely open solution, with unlocked hardware. You just have to dig out the password from the web. With SipPhone, everyone gets a 747 area code phone number. A quick check shows my router was configured with someone else's SIP phone number. Hello shipping department, can't keep your boxes straight...? After I configure my SIP phone number and password, I find I'm finally registering with the SIP server and go "online". Next I dial and get... busy. It's not the firewall, it's not the config... hmmm...

I finally give up and submit a ticket to the support web site. 5 days later, having not heard anythin back I dig further through the forums and start to see the light... (read this). So I finally go over to the Gizmo Project web site and submit a ticket asking when SipPhone support will reply back to my first ticket. The router somehow has detected my frustration with poor service and... the power supply dies. Yup, plugging in my DVM confirmes it's dead. Since my D-link camera uses the same voltage and plug I can confirm the P/S is gone and the router is fine.

Conclusion

1. SipPhone is a dead-end company. They've pretty much given up and the only thing still running, other than the misconfigure-and-ship department is the Gizmo software thingey. How do they intend to make money on a free client?
2. SipPhone support bites. There's like one guy split between both, so don't expect a reply back in less than 10 days.
3. Printed documentation is non-existant. Web documentation is horrid and hard to find. Even if you're a CCIE you're going to have trouble dialing out on this one.
4. The bad P/S is a one-off. I have a generally good impression of D-link hardware, however the 1402S is not a consumer product. It's designed mostly for shady VOIP providers to resell as a contained (locked) hardware platform to end-users. Look on the web or e.bay, everyone has the "L" version for sale because it's locked.
5. SipPhone advertises this as an unlocked product, but you'll have to dig on the web for the unlock password (varies by firmware version).
6. I never got far enough to actually make a call. The Gizmo software won't do it for me, my wife want's to call her parents on a real phone....

Rating: On a scale of 1-10 Zabuton (Japanese floor cushions) SipPhone has to sit on the bare floor. Zero. Zilch. Ouch, that hurts...

Posted by John Seaman at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)