Thanks, that fully backs up the testing that I did.
I have been able to reproduce the issue on the Spark V100R001C227B011 and Vodafone V100R001C206B013 firmwares.
This suggests to me either both networks are blocking the traffic OR there is something broken in the base firmware/hardware that these firmwares share.
On a side note, the Vodafone model comes populated with the default Vodafone SIP settings. I put some bogus info into it to see if I'd get a different response. Guess what the logs show... "Registering with VoIP number 07xxxxxxx to Register server sip01.vodafone.co.nz failed: Reason: no answer from remote station received."
It's not locked on the device itself since it works with the ethernet WAN port. It may be locked on the VDSL WAN port somehow? But it doesn't make sense that we get the same error as a response when trying to connect to their own SIP server. This looks more like a bug.
It's pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if the device only allows VOIP on the WAN port intentionally.
Spark has no VOIP offering yet, so no incentive to allow 3rd party VOIP connections full stop. When they eventually get a VOIP service up and running, it may make sense to only make this available to UFB customers, as xDSL customers could still be offered a bundled standard phone line on their copper. To future-proof the current hardware, they have enabled VOIP, but only on the WAN port, and removed any references to VOIP from the advertised feature set of the device.
I've previously had VoIP working on my Vodafone HG659 when on an ADSL connection but it was only for 20mins before my connection was upgraded to VDSL. I posted the results in another thread but the Vodafone guys basically said that it was impossible because VoIP is locked down to Vodafone only on that router. Having also flashed the Spark firmware, I too am getting the same errors. Personally, I think that Huawei have used similar firmwares for Spark and Vodafone except for minor changes. I'm trying to track down a non NZ firmware for the HG659 but can't find one. Has anyone noticed the complete lack of information about this router on the web? At one stage I was investigating the HG658 as they appear similar.
I can confirm the Vodafone version seems to work fine 2talk when using ADSL (also WAN if connected to another modem). You do need to log in with the Admin username, the password is widely mentioned elsewhere. (So the SIP isn't locked down quite as much as Vodafone suggested, hopefully they don't change.) Won't be to the 8th that I find out if it works with VDSL. I do hope it does since I was hoping to skip the need for an external ATA, but it's not sounding good. I may try fooling around via SSH and BusyBox shell to see if I can do anything if as expected, it doesn't work. For some reason I thought Vodafone was letting people get VDSL & VoIP with them (I guess since most others with VoIP seem to allow this), but looking more carefully I don't think they do.
Since this is intended for businesses on Spark, I'm surprised that Spark would be intentionally so limiting. (Although I think they have disabled DECT on at least one of their devices in the past.) My guess was and is it's more of Ruphus mentioned, Huawei never bothered to fix it properly because no one cares. Unfortunatelly this device seems to be very rare outside NZ currently, so I don't know if there's much chance finding other firmware. Also from what I've read with other cases, I think they often have slightly customised hardware depending on the ISPs particular requirements. This may be the case with the HG659b vs HG659.
Some of this may repeat what's already been said, I wrote it for another post I never made and lazy to edit it hope people won't mind too much. If you look at the Spark site, they have pictures for both http://help.spark.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/35153/~/huawei-hg659%2Fhg659b-gateway---help-%26-support . The obvious difference seems to be in case design, the 659b has a sleeker looking flat shiny plastic casing (although I have no idea how much of that comes from postprocessing) and is more square. The 659 has a more ordinary white plastic look and is more rounded. In all the photos, the 659 is also Huawei branded on front (but does have Telecom stickers on the back), while the 659b is Spark branded. Of course, it's possible Spark have both in both (for that matter with the case differences too).
There are warnings in various places on Sparks site not to flash the wrong firmware so I presume they do have some internal hardware differences. Although the Vodafone one does say VER.B on the web portal, I think it's still the HG-659 not HG-659b. You can see internal hardware of the Vodafone HG659 here http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=939393 (or could look like they now require registration). Haven't come across any for the Spark HG-659b yet, since it's only businesses it's a lot rarer (as borne out my TradeMe) so not surprising it's harder and they also have the HG-659 which I'm guessing is the same as the Vodafone.
Oh although it doesn't sound like it's relevant, I should mention I'm still using the old/non plus 2talk. I signed up to 2talk a while ago but only used it for faxing once and never again. Decided to keep it on the current platform until I've gotten it working with VDSL (or they for me to).
I tend to think if you rely on VoIP your equipment should reflect the importance.
An ISP supplied gateway device has, and always will be, a basic router that will let people surf the web. They are never going to be that good for people who actually need a bit more configuration options. When going VoIP you need really good control over your firewall and I am yet to see a Huawei device with a decent firewall config page. If it were me I would be throwing it away, replacing it with DV130, Mikrotik and a SPA112. No mucking around. It will just work, and keep working for many many years.
I don't think Telecom or Vodafone are going to intentionally 'block VoIP' on just their VDSL services because seriously, why would they. The vast majority are still paying for a POTS line and only a small minority of their customers will be on VoIP. There isn't a huge incentive to shift to VoIP with them because they offer such competitive plans.
chevrolux: I tend to think if you rely on VoIP your equipment should reflect the importance.
An ISP supplied gateway device has, and always will be, a basic router that will let people surf the web. They are never going to be that good for people who actually need a bit more configuration options. When going VoIP you need really good control over your firewall and I am yet to see a Huawei device with a decent firewall config page. If it were me I would be throwing it away, replacing it with DV130, Mikrotik and a SPA112. No mucking around. It will just work, and keep working for many many years.
I don't think Telecom or Vodafone are going to intentionally 'block VoIP' on just their VDSL services because seriously, why would they. The vast majority are still paying for a POTS line and only a small minority of their customers will be on VoIP. There isn't a huge incentive to shift to VoIP with them because they offer such competitive plans.
One of my favorite quotes is "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Not saying it's either though. Emails have been sent to people that may know......
Chevrolux, your point is valid and taken. To be clear, I'm not pursuing this because I am reliant on a VOIP connection and I insist on getting my basic ISP supplied equipment (that Spark does not advertise as VOIP-capable) to fulfil this role.
My interest at this point is more curiosity. The device clearly has VOIP functionality built-in, and this functionality works perfectly well in certain situations, but not others - as someone with an interest in technology (and keeping my setup as simple and uncluttered as possible) I'm interested to know why.
If VOIP was that important to me I'd just buy a dedicated ATA and be done with it.
In my case it's just for a home connection and the VoIP isn't that important. Provided it normally works is good enough. I have used a OpenWRT (until recently), PFsense and m0n0wall in the past, but found I used hardly anything besides basic port forwarding and perhaps QOS/traffic shaping (in a cooperative environment) so I'm not sure what I'll end up with. The current system is more intended to allow me to test VDSL speeds & see if they are up to what I want (with BigPipe so no install/contract, as I already have a splitter) for 2 months or so, then I can re-evaluate whether I want to stay with my current hardware, ISP etc. I do like the idea of DECT provided by the SIP device but that tends to expensive so I'm not sure if I'll bother.
BTW, I should clarify that I meant to say "I would be surprised if Spark were really intentionally so limiting". I'm not so surprised about Vodafone, partially because they're also sending it to their home users, partially because they keep insisting it's disabled from quite early on, partially because ISPs seem to randomly disable stuff in routers even there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason relating to how it affects their services/costs/etc. (I guess the supplier just gives them a list of stuff and they select what they want to disable. Often probably not someone very high up in the tech department.)
@jourdant, have you tried accessing accessing your HG659b via telnet/SSH with the VF firmware installed? I don't think the Spark HG659b telnet password is known publicly (admin/admin does not work), but it appears that some have managed to get into the VF version of the HG659 and run diagnostic commands. I'd be interested to know if the VF HG659b can be accessed in the same way.
Yeah it's pretty easy to get the busybox shell through SSH. You can run some nice VDSL diagnostics. But I haven't seen anything related to the VoIP side of things (except for the call record database). The shell is quite primitive and restrictive, can't do much.
I should note that I have the HG659 ver b, not the HG659b. How confusing.
OK, interesting, I was a little surprised that VF was offering the HG659b as I hadn't seen that anywhere on their website, I believe that this is only offered by Spark ATM.
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