VoIP, Fritz! and FastWeb ADSL

Image: Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I wrote this blog since it took me weeks to find out what was wrong with the VoIP-settings on my Fritz!box. Maybe this blog can help others to save time and to get things working right away.

My situation:
Since two months I am connected to internet via Fastweb ADSL at home. Because we live too far away from "civilization" I only get a 2Mbps max connection, but the VoIP quality is good (if not downloading at the same time). Before we were connceted via a wireless 4Mbps connection via EOLO which indeed offered faster downloads but because the distance between my receiver and their antenna was approx 13km the VoIP quality was unacceptable (packet-losses and -delays causing stuttering and echo).

Fastweb was in fact the only one offering us ADSL, the Italian Telecom's daughter Alice did not want to supply it. But although the connection is slow, too slow for 2010, it is stable and, most important, VoIP quality is good.

Setting up the Fritz!box 7170 for FastWeb (Router)
Already for quite some time (dating back when we still lived in the Netherlands) I am using the Fritz!box 7170 WLAN ADSL-modem/router for routing internet in our home and for connecting my Siemens SX353 ISDN Exchange to internet (using VoIP). With both EOLO and FastWeb the internal ADSL-modem is not needed (FastWeb delivers their own modem you are obligated to use), so it's only used as a router and FON.

After FastWeb delivered the line and the modem it was up to me to set up the Fritz. Piece of cake as far as internet is concerned.

1. connect a PC to the FastWeb-modem, wait for DHCP to receive all settings and then memorize: IP, subnet-mask, gateway and both DNS-servers;
2. now disconnect the PC from the modem, and connect the Fritz!box to the FastWeb-modem, using PORT 1 of the Fritz!box (very important) and connect your pc to the Fritz!box via LAN2,3 or 4 or WLAN;
3. Log into the Fritz!box (see their manual), go to Settings>Advanced Settings>Internet>Account Info and edit the settings: 
• Connection: internet via LAN1 (and not via DSL)
• Operating Mode: Establish own internet connection (NAT router with PPPoE or IP)
• Account Information: No account information required (IP)
• Connection Settings: here you fill in the information you memorized from your PC before (IP address, subnet mask, etc.)
• You might wanna set your connection speed so the Fritz can prioritize traffic (no idea if this really works, I have the impression it doesn't)
• Apply the settings and reboot the Fritz!box

The router is now ready to go, maybe you still need to set up your LAN: DHCP Server, WLAN (don't forget to protect it with WPA2) and so, but then you should be able to connect multiple computers (and printers, iPads, iPhones, etc) to the Fritz!box.

The (Italian) website VoceSuIP.com was pretty useful in the steps described until here. 

But then the problems started. 

Because FastWeb is not giving each customer (expensive) its own public IP-address but a static private IP-address (usually in the 10.x.x.x range) instead the VoIP-providers have difficulty finding the Fritz!box in case of an inbound call. Outbound calls are no problem, the Fritz connects to the right provider (based on the dialing rules) and the call can be set up. Basically the path between the Fritz, through the FastWeb router to the various providers is only kept "alive" (by FastWeb) for a few minutes after the Fritz!box connects (after a reboot for example). 

But after a while not using the line (not making a call) the FastWeb routers forget about it and the connection between Fritz and VoIP provider becomes one-directional (Senso Unico so to speak). The Fritz sees the VoIP-servers but not the other way around. So in case of an inbound call the VoIP-servers can't deliver it to the Fritz!box. There is a mechanism provided in the Fritz!box that should keep the connection alive (Settings>Advanced Settings>Telephony>Internet Telephony>Advanced Settings>Keep port forwarding of the Internet router enabled for Internet telephony), but playing around with it did not help.

We use/have five different phone-numbers, two Dutch, two Italian and one Swiss number with three different providers. If you want to know why ask me via twitter or email, I don't think that it's relevant here. Strangely enough my Dutch numbers (from MottoVoIP.nl) were functioning but my Italian and Swiss weren't. After some mails between first/second line support of my Italian VoIP provider EuteliaVoIP and me I was contacted directly by one of their technicians via phone. I explained everything I tried, he did some suggestions that unfortunately did not work until as a last resort he suggested to dive into the heart of the Fritz via Telnet and change a configuration file (I just cut about 2 weeks of testing, probing, evaluating log-files, him contacting AVM-Fritz, etc. short into 3 lines). So I did as he said, enabled the Telnet, went into the Fritz, found the configuration-file, edited the settings he advised to edit, saved the file, rebooted the device and YES!!! even after hours not using the phone inbound call was working. Thanks to his support and a this site I found when Googling part of his solution I managed to get it working. Thanks a lot M.and EuteliaVoIP! We went really deep into this subject, I know many support-/helpdesks that would have blamed the provider, the hardware or whatever.

The reason my Dutch number were working has probably to do with the fact they are registered first in my Fritz!box and the keep-alive function only works for the first number and not the other ones. The solution, provided by AVM-Fritz themselves to the engineer at Eutelia, is to edit one by one the TTL-time of each SIP-subscription in the voip.cfg file. Why AVM doesn't put this option under the advanced settings is unbelievable, I have been trying various combinations/options (together with the Eutelia-engineer) but only this one works.

Setting up the Fritz!box 7170 for FastWeb (voip.cfg)

1. Enable Telnet on the Fritz!box by dialing #96*7* on a phone connected to the Fritz!box (I saw telnet enabled appearing in the display of my SX353);
2. Start a Telnet-session from a pc to the Fritz!box (the password is the same you use to enter the Fritz' web-interface)
3. Start the nvi-editor and open the voip.cfg file with the following command

• nvi /var/flash/voip.cfg

1. Careful the nvi-editor is a very basic one
• use / to search for ttl move to the 30m and with i enter in edit mode and change 30m into 3m (reducing ttl from 30 minutes to 3 minutes);
• ESC brings you back in command mode, search for all other subscriptions and for each and everyone change the ttl to 3m;
• when done :w writes the changes and :q quits the editor
• give the reboot command and wait for the Fritz! to reboot.
2. and afterwards don't forget to switch telnet off with #97*8*

This was what worked for me! 

Unfortunately this did not solve the same issue (no inbound calls) I have with my Swiss SIP-Account. So I am now about to get in touch with my Swiss VoIP-Provider (sipcall.ch) to find out how to get things working. I'll keep you updated.

update 17.Nov.2010
It seems that SIPCALL.ch is not capable of solving the problem. I get a lot of standard questions to check this, to check that, but at the end of the day it still doesn't work. Strang though that both MottoVoIP and EuteliaVoIP work perfectly now... and although the Fritz will be far from perfect Sipcall can't keep on blaming it if the other SIPs work without problems.

update 2012/2013
I changed provider again (back to EOLO but now with a faster connection of 8/1Mbps) and installed a Fritz!Box 7390 which is a lot faster and more flexible (apart from the extra features)

To Be Continued

Read It Later

I am pretty active on internet, especially on mobile internet! Sometimes I think the iPhone was invented just for me. My most used apps are Facebook, TwitBird Pro (Twitter) and FourSquare. With these applications/services I stay in touch with my real life friends when away and my new on-line friends. Although the iPhone is a nice device for reading tweets, scanning facebook updates and for quickly browsing the internet I prefer to use the iPad or a pc/laptop to read articles. So when there was a link in a tweet I read while mobile I rarely clicked it because I didn't want to read it, not at that moment. I used the Favorite button to mark the tweet for later reading. When I switched from one twitter app to TweetBird (Pro) I noticed TwitBird asked me if I wanted to save the link, or if I wanted to Read It Later, or just Read Now.

It was then when I discovered ReadItLater, a typical why-did-I-not-think-of-that kind of application. Quite simple but so useful! ReadItLater (and also Instapaper by the way) offer you the possibility to quickly bookmark links and webpages. All you need is to do is register and you can save your links, articles, pages, etc. to read them later, when you're behind a larger screen or when you have more time to dedicate. Just login to ReadItLater and you can read everyhting you saved/bookmarked. I've also seen people sharing their lists with others but I just use it for myself, to save those possibly interesting article I can't read now.


The Save-to-ReadItLater functionality is integrated in many (mobile) Twitter apps. But you can also add extensions/bookmarklets to your PC's browser so that you can quickly bookmark an interesting page/article for later, just have a look at all the various options on the ReadItLater homepage.

Digest

Last week I read about the new Digest functionality and I immediately liked the idea of it so I asked for more details. I received an invitation to trial the Digest Beta for a couple of days.

Whereas the standard ReadItLater just lists all your saved links in chronological (or alphabetical) order Digest groups them. Some of the groups are auto-generated, others can be created by the user himself. In Digest the links are presented in a better looking interface, with preview of the text and picture (if available). I have immediately paid the fee (now Early Beta Price) to be able to use the Digest functionality also after my trial period is over.

FlipBoard
One thing that immediately crossed my mind was: can I use it together with FlipBoard on iPad ? I have send this question/suggestion to Nate, the man behind ReadItLater and let's hope he and/or FlipBoard can develop something to have RIL-Digest in FlipBoard. All I need then is permanent access to an iPad (which is now exclusively owned by my wife), so I will probably have to buy one for myself. You don't have an iPad yet and so you don't know what FlipBoard is, take a look at this clip. I think it's is one of the best apps made for iPad. I won't spill any words on FlipBoard here, the clip tells it all!



/edit ON
YouTube just suggested this clip for me (how do they do that?), anyway, see Read It Later explained in this clip:


and a "confrontation" Instapaper vs ReadItLater (including Digest) in this clip:


/edit OFF

SPQR I: Sono Pazzi Questi Romani (Friday 15 Oct)

the Colosseum

This weekend my wife, our kids and I visited Rome. For them their first visit to the eternal city, for me the second real visit. I already visited Rome in May 1989 with the entire fifth grade of the RK Gymnasium Rolduc and for work I've been there once or twice, although those were typical business trips, from the plane to the meeting and back into the plane.

Ever since her classmate held a presentation about Rome my daughter Giulia (the oldest of 9 years old) wanted to visit Rome and the Colosseum in particular. So Friday morning (October 15th) we flew with EasyJet from Milan-Malpensa (MXP) to Rome-Fiumicino (FCO) where our B&B arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the Airport and drive us to our B&B near Vatican city. After we dropped our luggage in our spacious and nice room of B&B Sweet Vatican we walked to the Ottaviano metro station, just 50 meters from our B&B. From there it could've been a 15min drive to the Colosseum, changing lines at Termini if it wasn't for an illogical deviation to get from Line A to B at Termini station. Apparently the Termini station is being renewed but the deviation is ridiculously long: climbing stairs, walking through small hideous tunnels, exiting the metro station, walking through the train station, enter the metro station again, descend some stairs, walk through tunnels again and finally arrive on the right platform. In the evening the trip back in opposite direction was just one stair down, around the corner and there we were.... they are crazy these Romans!

Fantozzi

Anyway, after a 15min metro trip and a 15min walk through the metro building we arrived at Colosseo Station. And right outside it was: the Colosseum Giulia was longing to see for over a year. We were immediately caught prisoners by a crazy Roman with sword and everything who wanted to throw us for the lions if we did not take a picture with him, and of course wanted to get paid for this service. There are quite a few of these leftovers from the once so mighty Roman Empire, some of them in good shape, some of them reminded me of Fantozzi, an Italian slapstick actor (see photo on the left). But Rome is overloaded with tourists, even in October, and if they are photographed over 25 times a day they might make a better living then the average Roman craftsman.And of course we donated him as well.

Before visiting the Colosseum we needed to lunch though, it was already past noon and the brioches of that morning were already digisted. So we walked into the smaller car-free streets not too far from the Colosseum where we found some nice looking restaurants with interesting menus. We choose Gli Angeletti; after a small antipasto with a selection of Salami and Bruschette al Pomodoro we all had a pasta. The original Roman Spaghetti Carbonara was really fantastic, I won't say it was the best ever, but it certainly got close. Having our stomachs filled we went back to the Colosseum where we wandered around for some time. Meanwhile I explained to the girls the fascinating and sometimes horrific history I recalled from History- and Latin classes in the past. But also from Asterix & Obelix and films like Spartacus and the Gladiator to be honest.

After having walked around in and outside the Colosseum Maddy could use some rest. Her leg, still recovering from an accident and operation, was not enjoying all those Roman steps and ancient roads. I wonder by the way how these Romans could ever drive on their roads with wooden cars and wooden wheels without suspensions... The chiropractor must have had enough to do. The trip back to our B&B went a lot faster.

Our legs (and eyes) got some rest before we went back into Rome, but not without passing the Saint Peter, it was getting dark and the church is so beautifully lighted that we shot some nice pics out there. From here we took the bus into the centre, to arrive near Piazza Navona, one of world's most beautiful squares. Just walking around, absorbing the atmosphere, enjoying the liveliness of a city always gives me a pretty damn good feeling, I could do that all day and night long. Of course dining on the Piazza Navona is something for the Japanese, so we strolled into the streets one or two blocks away from the square and found a typical bar to have an Aperol-Spritz (and some bites for free): Bar del Fico. Next stop Ristorante La Scaletta degli Artisti, friendly owner and waitress, fair prices for decent food (nothing spectacular though).

We concluded the evening with an ice-cream before heading back to the B&B where we all fell asleep before our heads hit the cushions....

(to be continued)

About Me 2.0

My first "About Me" in this Blog was written in Dutch over a year ago so it needed both an update and a translation.

I am Dagmar Sporck, 39years old, married to Maddy (Maddalena) and father of two fantastic girls (Giorgia of 7 and Giulia of 10 years old). I represente Dutch and German companies in Italy and Ticino-Switzerland with my company Sales4Italy. And for the German readers: Yes, I am a male Dagmar!

Since 1996 I am a proud member of the Round Table, first in RT171 Kerkrade, NL and since 2008 in RT64 Varese. Last year as IRO, this year as Vice-President and as of June 2011 as President. I hope to be able to attend some interesting RT-meetings in the next two years: the Gala in the Academy of Siena in November this year, the Italian AGM in Taormina, Sicily June next year and various international meetings as well. In Switzerland I try to visit as much RT's as possible, combining the business trips with visits to the local RT-meetings.



End of this month (28-31 October 2010) the Twinning partner of Morazzone, Wimblington will visit Morazzone. I am honored to be part of the organisation of this event as chairman of the Morazzone Twinning Committee.

The so called Social Media are getting quite a lot of my attention as well. I was an early adapter of XING and LinkedIn, one of the first to move to facebook in the Netherlands (where the national equivalent Hyves is still far more popular), Over a year ago I discovered Twitter and after a slow start I now can't stop tweeting, RT'ing and replying. This might be my only real addiction!

What's more to say? I like cooking, but even more I like to eat honoust food with a good glass of wine. If money wasn't an issue I would be travelling around the world a lot more. Especially city-trips.
I have a lot of experience playing around with computers (started with C64, self build PCs, Macs), operating systems (Windows 3.x, XP,7, Ubuntu 9.x/10.x, Mac OS X), software-applications (office suites, graphical, DTP), mobile devices (iPhone, Windows Mobile 5.x/6.x, pda's), and so on. I like to watch movies, listen to music and I can't stand disorganized CD/DVD collections so I put everything on my server (WD MyBookWorld) and play it on PC, laptop and of course the fantastic XBMC Live box (on a Foxconn NT330i barebone).

Although the names of my 3 girls might make you think at least 3 of us are Italian we all have the Dutch nationality and are all born in the Netherlands, in the utmost south-east, Limburg. To Italians I do like to say we're the Olandesi Pugliesi (the Dutch from Puglia). Just like Puglia, the heel of the Italian boot, is hanging on to the rest of Italy as an appendix, Limburg is the Netherlands' appendix.
The four of us moved to Italy in August 2008. Our motivations were not business nor did we want to open a B&B, we just liked the idea of living in Italy, close to the mountains, the lakes, Varese, Milano, Lugano, etc. So one day in 2007 we took the decision, put our house on sale (which we sold) and we moved from Kerkrade to Morazzone (VA), Italy, where we bought a house. After some time off (sabatical) I wanted to start doing something not involving too much travelling away from home. So I joined Engel&Völkers Real Estate at the Lago Maggiore. Not the best choice ever but I learned a lot, and I got to practice my languages every day. Languages I use every day being in touch with business relations from the Netherlands, England, Germany, France, Belgium and of course Italy and Switzerland!

So I live in Italy where people still know how to enjoy life and (at least as important) good and honoust food!

Wanna know more about me, just ask!

to be continued...

More then 10 months ago I wrote my last blog-entry, how to get more out of your iPhone. Surprised by its success, it got over 1000hits within 2 hours after iPhoneclub.nl tweeted about to it, I didn't know how to continue. Should I focus on iPhone related stuff? A personal nightmare, my mother's cancer and her death in July this year, a new job in Switzerland I started in March, and lots of other less important things dragged my attention away right at the moment  my blog had gotten some attention. I don't mind. There are more important things in life then MY Blog.

I decided to restart blogging and to write about anything that I feel the urge to write about. About life in Italy, work in Switzerland, gadgets I use and the stuff (apps) I put on them, what I cook and what I eat, and God knows what... I also decided to switch to English in my blog. I started in Dutch, since at that time I saw my blog as a way to inform friends and relatives back in the Netherlands about my/our life in Italy. But on Twitter, where I have become pretty active lately, I currently have quite a variety of nationalities following me, mostly from the Netherlands and Italy but also some Swiss. In order to avoid spending too much time writing my blog in Dutch, Italian and German I'll stick with English.

Keep in mind: the fun of social media and blogging is not in the writing and reading alone but above all in the INTERACTION. So please respond, react, interact and whatever; in a reaction under the blog or in a tweet!

break-a-leg

Vandaag hebben we weer een nieuw hoofdstuk aan ons Italiaanse avontuur toegevoegd. Een harde kennismaking met het Italiaanse rijgedrag. Maddy is op haar fiets aangereden en heeft daarbij haar been gebroken en een snee in een arm opgelopen.

Op weg van de supermarkt naar huis op haar fiets stak ze de weg over, een auto die achter een afslaande auto reed zag haar te laat en reed haar aan. Maddy op de grond op haar boodschappen, waaronder een aantal kapotte glazen potten. Gevolg een flinke snee in de linkerarm en een gebroken scheen- en kuitbeen (thv de enkel).

Ambulance, carabinieri, polizia locale iedereen op de been (behalve Maddy dus) en ook een aantal buren waren meteen ingelicht (toch fijn dat we ondertussen bekend zijn). Ik was net 2uur op het werk in Zwitserland toen ik door een buurman gebeld werd. Maddy lag toen nog op de grond en werd van nekkraag voorzien. Spullen bijeen geraapt en weer terug door de tunnels en de Alpen naar het ziekenhuis. Toen ik aankwam was een buurvrouw nog in het ziekenhuis om mij op te wachten. Maddy werd nog onderzocht (volledige CAT/MRI van haar hoofd en buikholte, Xrays van zowat alle beenderen en in ieder geval vd benen en ruggegraat).

Conclusie:
een gecompliceerde been-/enkelbreuk en een gapende snijwond (die was inmiddels al schoongemaakt en gehecht). Operatie was al ingepland.

Rond 16:00 ben ik vertrokken omdat Maddy naar de OK ging. Giorgia was door de buren vd bus gehaald en opgevangen, maar wist nog van niks. Dat heb ik haar verteld. Om 19:30 waren we terug in het ziekenhuis en gingen we op zoek naar Maddy, ze bleek over 5min opgehaald te kunnen worden van de recovery en naar haar kamer gebracht te worden. Goeie timing dus!

Ik schrijf dit aan haar bed en Giorgia zit erbij. Alles gaat -naar omstandigheden- redelijk goed. Het been is voorzien van wat plaatwerk en verzegeld met een laagje gips.

Engelse toestanden

Zoals de oplettende Dagmar-volger wel weet ben ik sinds een tijdje voorzitter van het partnerstad comité van de gemeente Morazzone. We hebben momenteel 1 verband met een Engelse gemeente (het buurtschap Wimblington in de buurt van Cambridge). En nadat in juni vorig jaar een jeugdige delegatie uit Morazzone Engeland had bezocht (voor de 2e keer) is het dit jaar onze beurt om gastheer te zijn. En omdat een en ander met Brusselse subsidie gepaard gaat dienen we ons aan bepaalde richtlijnen en deadlines te houden.

Er werden wat voorstellen van data voor een bezoek per e-mail uitgewisseld met een voorkeur voor die en die data. En uiteraard hoord daar een vergadering aan de ene kant en een vergadering aan de andere kant bij. Dus kort voor kerst is de kogel door de bekende kerk en is er overeenkomst over de data, nu kunnen beiden kanten gaan voorbereiden en organiseren. Degenen die de subsidie aanvraag moeten indienen dienen dit vóór een bepaalde datum te doen en daarom wordt er 2wkn vóór die datum nog eens geïnformeerd naar de EXACTE reisdata en de aantallen personen (opgesplitst naar geslacht en leeftijdscategorie). Uh.... ja daar moeten we nog even over vergaderen, morgen weet je meer... 8-o???
vergaderen???

Anyway... dag erna de email, nee, niet zoals afgesproken in juni maar in juli of anders in oktober!
:-?

Even voor de duidelijkheid:
in de ITALIAANSE gemeente Morazzone worden vergaderingen binnen 5 dagen bijeengeroepen en gehouden. Er wordt snel en duidelijk per email of evt. telefoon gecommuniceerd en er is vaak alleen een formeel vergadermoment nodig waarna het comité de kroeg induikt voor de nodige sociale (en politieke) interactie.
in de ENGELSE gemeente Wimblington worden vergadering uiteindelijk na ca. een maand gehouden, lijkt niemand over mobiele telefoons en email te beschikken en worden reeds overeengekomen data (juni 2010) geschrapt en worden nieuwe suggesties gedaan.

Dus hadden wij (van Morazzone) voor kerst laten weten hun voorstel voor een ontmoeting in juni 2010 wel te zien zitten en dus dat bevestigd; de lokale verenigingen zouden hun activiteiten matchen zodat er evt. door de Engelsen aan deelgenomen kon worden. 31 januari was de deadline voor het subsidieverzoek aan Brussel (mijn taak). Medio januari had ik nog geen exacte data en aantallen ontvangen en dus meldde ik mij even. een week later bel ik toch maar even op en krijg ik te horen dat er die avond een vergadering is en dat ik daarna meer krijg te horen. HELAAS!!! De (vrijdag)ochtend erna tref ik een email in mijn Inbox aan met de mededeling dat ze in juli of in oktober 2010 kunnen komen en dat ze met ca. 25 man zullen zijn. :(. Meteen mijn comité gemaild en een vergadering voor dinsdagavond belegd (bijna het voltalige 15-koppige comité is aanwezig) en 30min later nemen we een besluti: oktober 2010. bellen dat ter plekke meteen even door om e.e.a. te verifiëren.

Wie is er nu chaotisch en bureaucratisch ???

maar ach, nu nog even de aanvraag naar Brussel opnieuw schrijven (gelukkig is de termijn verlengd tot 15 febr) en dan op naar de meeting in oktober!