All of a sudden I'm getting a staccato dial tone

[GregM]

This morning when I picked up the phone, I began getting a staccato dial tone. The dial tone is broken for a couple of seconds before it's a steady tone (da-da-da-da-da-daaaaa). What happened? It used to be a solid dial tone immediately when I picked up the phone. This new behavior is messing up the modems on my satellite receivers and it's a general PITA. Any of you VoIP experts have any ideas?

[IronHelix]

Thats called stutter dial tone, its a way of indicating that you have a voice mail message. Check your voice mail and it will go away.

the option to permanently kill it is in your pap2 setup, not sure exactly where (you may need your admin passwd)

[GregM]

The "voicemail" was a 0 length hangup. I don't ever want it to happen again and I'm not currently using my VT voicemail. I have my admin password.

[Brian188]

is it still stuttering even though you don't have a VM? Is so it could be indicating that the line is forwarded or that DND is set in the Adapter.

[GregM]

There was a voicemail. My settings should never go to VT voicemail. There was a 0 second 0k recording...a hangup.

[sbradshaw]

The "voicemail" was a 0 length hangup. I don't ever want it to happen again and I'm not currently using my VT voicemail. I have my admin password.

If you are not using your VT voicemail (meaning you are using your own answering machine), then go into your CP and set the Ring Seconds to infinite. That way your VT line will continue ringing forever...or until your own answering machine picks it up.

[Brian188]

Did you set your ring seconds to infinite in the CP? If so VM should never pick up. If it did you might want to give VT a call.

whoops posted a little late. Got beat to the punch...

[GregM]

Did you set your ring seconds to infinite in the CP? If so VM should never pick up. If it did you might want to give VT a call.My ring seconds was set to "infinite" the day I began my service. This could be related to the complaints of hangups being recorded as voicemail.

[sbradshaw]

My ring seconds was set to "infinite" the day I began my service. This could be related to the complaints of hangups being recorded as voicemail.

Then I would submit a ticket for this. It should not have gone to voicemail with "Infinite" set in place.

[DracoFelis]

If you are not using your VT voicemail (meaning you are using your own answering machine), then go into your CP and set the Ring Seconds to infinite. That way your VT line will continue ringing forever...or until your own answering machine picks it up.
True. However, there are still some situations where you can get a VM, even if/when your ring seconds is "infinite". A few cases that come to mind:

If another call comes in while you are on the phone, and you don't immediately pick it up when you hear the "call waiting tone", than that 2nd call will go to voice mail.

If you have "Do Not Disturb" enabled, one of the common options is to send such calls to voice mail. I personally use DND to avoid getting calls in the middle of the night.

And ditto for "Custom Call Routing", as VM is also an option for where to custom route a call to.

[GregM]

True. However, there are still some situations where you can get a VM, even if/when your ring seconds is "infinite".Then ViaTalk needs to change their description of the ring time settings;
This page lets you set the number of seconds your phone will ring before it goes to voicemail. If you select ‘infinite’, incoming calls will not go to voicemail at all.That description tells me that incoming calls will not go to voicemail, ever, under any condition.

[efrost]

I had the same issue. For me, rings were set infinite, and a call waiting was coming in. If a 3rd call comes in, it will automatically go to voice mail. You'll have to submit a ticket for them to shut off the voice mail.

[DracoFelis]

Then ViaTalk needs to change their description of the ring time settings;
This page lets you set the number of seconds your phone will ring before it goes to voicemail. If you select ‘infinite’, incoming calls will not go to voicemail at all.
That description tells me that incoming calls will not go to voicemail, ever, under any condition.
Good catch. I actually like how VT currently has the "Infinite" setting behave. However, I agree that the description on the CP (or maybe the new CP when it's released?) needs to be updated to properly describe what is happening.

[GregM]

I don't want to have to submit a ticket to disable voicemail. I can see scenarios where I want to turn it back on and I don't want to have to submit more tickets to reenable/disable. Hopefully they'll add a VM disable/enable option to the CP.

[Agrajag]

Then I'd suggest getting used to the tone. This is going to happen from time to time. It's inevitable.

[GregM]

Thanks for the suggestion.:rolleyes:

I just wish that a "feature" didn't interfere with normal telephony operations. Now that I know what it is, and for what I'm paying for service, I can live with it.

[connervt]

As long as I keep getting a dial tone... :p

[Brian188]

Thanks for the suggestion.:rolleyes:

I just wish that a "feature" didn't interfere with normal telephony operations. Now that I know what it is, and for what I'm paying for service, I can live with it.

You could always turn off the MWI in the pap2, or change the stutter dial tone to a regular dial tone. Then you would never hear it again. But on the rare occasions when someone does leave you a message you wouldn't' know it.

[DracoFelis]

You could always turn off the MWI in the pap2, or change the stutter dial tone to a regular dial tone. Then you would never hear it again. But on the rare occasions when someone does leave you a message you wouldn't' know it.Good point. That would pretty much turn off the (message waiting) "stutter tone" (if that's your desire). :) As for me, I think I'll leave my "stutter tone" on, as I kinda like knowing when I have a VM.

And while we are on the subject, here's the "dial tone" I have installed in my adapter. I think it sounds a little more "realistic" (as a dial tone) than the default one that the adapter comes with:

350@-17,440@-17;20(*/0/1+2)


Oh, and here is my "off hook warning tone". Unlike the default one, this one will clearly let you know if/when the cat knocked the phone off hook. ;)

480@-10,620@-16,1400@0,2060@0,2450@0,2600@0;30(.2/0/1,.2/0/2);*(.1/.1/3+4+5+6)

[tonyquan]

You could always turn off the MWI in the pap2, or change the stutter dial tone to a regular dial tone. Then you would never hear it again. But on the rare occasions when someone does leave you a message you wouldn't' know it.

if your phone has a visual voicemail indicator (a light or message on the LCD telling you there's a voicemail) one option is to turn off the MWI, and then turn on the VMWI. the VMWI uses frequency shift keying (FSK) and not a stutter dial tone to tell the phone when there's a voicemail. here's my post on how to turn on VMWI:

http://forums.hostrocket.com/showthread.php?t=20654&highlight=vmwi

this assumes you have a phone that understands FSK, most phones that have a voicemail waiting indicator do understand FSK though.

[Brian188]

Oh, and here is my "off hook warning tone". Unlike the default one, this one will clearly let you know if/when the cat knocked the phone off hook. ;)

480@-10,620@-16,1400@0,2060@0,2450@0,2600@0;30(.2/0/1,.2/0/2);*(.1/.1/3+4+5+6)


Nice off hook warning. I turned up the "volume" a bit on it so it can be heard a couple feet away. The baby always leaves the phone off the hook.

[DracoFelis]

Nice off hook warning.
Thanks. Although I can't take all the credit for it, as the original (which I modified some) came from a post over on DSLreports.

I turned up the "volume" a bit on it so it can be heard a couple feet away.
You needed to turn up the volume on the off hook warning? Did you listen to it all the way through (which can take over a minute, before the loudest portion of the tone occurs), or just listen to the earlier (less annoying) parts?

That off hook warning tone has three parts (or four parts, if you count the dial tone itself as the first part), and each part is designed to be more loud and annoying than the previous one (the idea here is to start with less annoying tones, and keep building up to something sufficient to get your attention). So unless you waited a minute or so to hear the last part of it, you might have thought that off hook warning was quieter than it really is.

Specifically, the last part of that off hook warning (if the previous parts didn't get your attention) is designed to resemble that very annoying (and loud) old style telco "the phone is off the hook" tone, that really ought to get your attention. And that last part also has no ending time (i.e. that last part will keep going for HOURS, if you leave the phone off hook that long). So if you come home to find a phone off hook, you will probably first know about it do to that loud annoying "off hook" sound coming from your phone...

[Brian188]

Yeah I let it run for about 2.5 mins. I saw it was long staged one. I keep the handset volume at a min. So it was bit hard to hear from a distance. I do like the "forever" (or at least until the battery dies) warning too.