FaceTime over 3G/LTE only works on direct APN?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › FaceTime over 3G/LTE only works on direct APN?

mattgreen

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#150308 18-Jul-2014 00:45

After a few months of hit and miss FaceTime calling the family when away from home I've finally bothered to do some troubleshooting.

Turns out that I can make call to our iPad just fine if I'm on wifi.. Just can't call it when I'm on 3G/LTE. The other end rings but when answered both ends get stuck on "connecting".

After upgrading both devices to 7.1.2 just to be sure I did a bit more digging. I've found it actually works fine if I switch my mobile to the "direct" APN. Guessing something about the inbound ports required for FaceTime is causing grief.

I'm now thinking the 3G calls that randomly seemed to work when I was out of town were probably when I was roaming onto Vodafone.

If any 2d guys spot this, is there any chance we can get FaceTime working properly on the "internet" APN? After all, you are an official Apple retailer now :)

sbiddle

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#1091149 18-Jul-2014 07:18

Blocking inbound uninitiated traffic is standard by default is pretty much the standard setup for every mobile carrier. The risks of not doing this are very significant.

SaltyNZ

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#1091150 18-Jul-2014 07:24

I'll look into it. I don't know why it wouldn't work on the internet APN; after all if it works on Wifi it has to be able to cope with NAT already, and that's the main difference between 'internet' and 'direct'. Unfortunately there's no-one else in the office at the moment with an iPhone or iPad, and I don't use Facetime myself so I have no real baseline as to how well it generally works over cellular.

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

SaltyNZ

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#1091151 18-Jul-2014 07:25

sbiddle:

Blocking inbound uninitiated traffic is standard by default is pretty much the standard setup for every mobile carrier. The risks of not doing this are very significant.

This is true, but I'd expect FT to be able to cope with that already; 99% of Wifi networks would be NATs too.

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

mattgreen

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#1091232 18-Jul-2014 10:53

SaltyNZ:
sbiddle: Blocking inbound uninitiated traffic is standard by default is pretty much the standard setup for every mobile carrier. The risks of not doing this are very significant.

This is true, but I'd expect FT to be able to cope with that already; 99% of Wifi networks would be NATs too.

And 99% of mobile networks.. FaceTime over mobile data is supported by Apple for iPad3/iPhone 4S and above so you'd expect the protocol to be carrier friendly.

Thanks for looking into it Salty.. Some of this info might help - http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/FaceTime

In terms of performance when it's working.. Way better than Skype video calls over 3G. FaceTime seems to be pretty light on bandwidth and dynamically changes the bitrate depending on your current bandwidth.

Happy to help test if you need a device to call. Just PM me for my number.