Fall From VOIP Heaven

[nalorite]

I fulfilled my quest to get a data only plan on the Atrix by buying an AT&T mifi and just putting the SIM card in my atrix. This required creating a new APN for isp.cingular, and for about 4 months this worked great with a pure voip setup.

A few days ago something happened. My Atrix seems to be stuck on EDGE. It will no longer connect to HSPA in the same locations that it used to be H+ 24 hours a day.

The basics have been covered: power cycling, airplane mode cycling. No use. The SIM itself seems okay since I tried putting it back in the mifi unit, and it got 3G like normal. That also rules out a tower problem.

Anyone have any ideas? I feel like an ass now since I bought the mifi on contract.

 

[danjbry]

You can call At&t and switch it to a voice plan with an hspa data plan so you can use your atrix.

Kind of admitting defeat though.

Sent from my MB860 using xda premium

 

[TheSmokingAndroid]

Perhaps try flashing a different radio on the atrix. It could be an Incompatibility issue ? Worth a shot I would say

Sent from my MB860 using xda premium

 

[nalorite]

So, I tried flashing different radios. No luck. After that I thought maybe some fresh ROMs might do it some good. No luck on Alien, and then I installed CM7 and noticed something interesting. The "Use only 2g networks" setting is stuck on. I turn it off, go back, and soon as I look again it's on. Is there something special you have to do to save it, or could this be pointing to an underlying problem?

 

[_Dennis_]

So, I tried flashing different radios. No luck. After that I thought maybe some fresh ROMs might do it some good. No luck on Alien, and then I installed CM7 and noticed something interesting. The "Use only 2g networks" setting is stuck on. I turn it off, go back, and soon as I look again it's on. Is there something special you have to do to save it, or could this be pointing to an underlying problem?

Nothing special is needed to save it. It could be throttling by AT&T do to your imei being that of an Atrix vs a mifi.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

 

[cesierra]

try another at&t sim on your Atrix

 

[drpratik]

try another at&t sim on your Atrix

I suspect att has caught you with imei check and you should try with other sim card.
but i suspect it may not work.
why not use it with MiFi only?

 

[nalorite]

I suspect att has caught you with imei check and you should try with other sim card.
but i suspect it may not work.
why not use it with MiFi only?

The problem with the mifi is its terrible battery life. It only gets 4 hours in hotspot mode. If it could last as long as my phone, I wouldn't even mind carrying around two devices, but it doesn't.

Anyway, great news. After listening to everyone's suggestions I took the SIM out of my phone and noticed that I was then able to properly disable "Use only 2G networks". So, I ordered a new AT&T SIM online, called and had it activated, and now 3G and H are working properly again. And along the way I fell in love with CyanogenMod.

I expect I'll probably have to repeat this process every few months if they continue to slap down my SIM cards, but I consider it worth it for not having to pay for a voice/text plan. I am still on contract, but to anyone who is considering doing something like me, T-mobile recently started offering a $30 a month plan that gets you 5 GB of data, 100 minutes, and unlimited text, and it's for phones! The only hitch is that it's a month by month thing (no contract) and it's promotional, so who knows when they'll decide to cut it. But personally, I'm hoping it's a sign that carriers are finally moving in the right direction.

 

[xxgmon3yxx]

The problem with the mifi is its terrible battery life. It only gets 4 hours in hotspot mode. If it could last as long as my phone, I wouldn't even mind carrying around two devices, but it doesn't.

Anyway, great news. After listening to everyone's suggestions I took the SIM out of my phone and noticed that I was then able to properly disable "Use only 2G networks". So, I ordered a new AT&T SIM online, called and had it activated, and now 3G and H are working properly again. And along the way I fell in love with CyanogenMod.

I expect I'll probably have to repeat this process every few months if they continue to slap down my SIM cards, but I consider it worth it for not having to pay for a voice/text plan. I am still on contract, but to anyone who is considering doing something like me, T-mobile recently started offering a $30 a month plan that gets you 5 GB of data, 100 minutes, and unlimited text, and it's for phones! The only hitch is that it's a month by month thing (no contract) and it's promotional, so who knows when they'll decide to cut it. But personally, I'm hoping it's a sign that carriers are finally moving in the right direction.

what do you use for voip?

 

[nalorite]

what do you use for voip?

I setup a google voice enabled PBX with pbxes.org, back when they let you make them for free. I know for a while they stopped doing that; not sure what the current policy is.

Basically the pbx pretends to be a google talk client, so when someone calls my google voice number it goes to the pbx. Then I have an extension on the pbx that I register on my phone with the native android SIP client, which on CM7 works like a dream. Seriously far smoother and more reliable than sipdroid or csipsimple.

Oh and this does work for outgoing too, but if you're using a solution that doesn't (like google voice -> sipgate/ipkall -> pbxes.org), you can get around it with an app called Google Voice Callback. And it's still all free.

 

[anupash]

I setup a google voice enabled PBX with pbxes.org, back when they let you make them for free. I know for a while they stopped doing that; not sure what the current policy is.

Basically the pbx pretends to be a google talk client, so when someone calls my google voice number it goes to the pbx. Then I have an extension on the pbx that I register on my phone with the native android SIP client, which on CM7 works like a dream. Seriously far smoother and more reliable than sipdroid or csipsimple.

Oh and this does work for outgoing too, but if you're using a solution that doesn't (like google voice -> sipgate/ipkall -> pbxes.org), you can get around it with an app called Google Voice Callback. And it's still all free.

What is the native android SIP client? May I know the app?

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

 

[nalorite]

What is the native android SIP client? May I know the app?

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

In 2.3 they added SIP calling to the android OS. It's not an app. Of course, in stock android it only works on wifi. Cyanogen unlocks its true potential by letting you use it on cellular too.

 

[wintermute000]

In my experience, on stock ROM SIP is an epic fail, both native and via apps (tried acrobits, sipdroid, csipsimple, sipagent). There is something funny about moto's audio routing stack, its not a network or settings issue.

Same settings and SIP providers - yes I tried two lol - , same apps, same network i.e. home Wifi, 100% perfect with nexus one. So I'm sure its Atrix specific. This happened on both stock 2.2 and 2.3 AT&T.

Custom ROM fixes this, CM7 native SIP works perfectly.
Can't remember for other ROMs, but they seemed to get apps working if not native SIP.

YMMV