[General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

[General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan
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dajabon @ 9th Sep 11:47AM:
[General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

Hi All,

A few years ago I floated a topic called "Most Reliable US VoIP to take to Japan?" (»[General] Most Reliable US VoIP to take to Japan?). I went with a Nuvio reseller then and had great service. Now I am back in Japan without Nuvio and dead in the water with my ViaTalk service.

I had it working twice for about 10 minutes each time. To ViaTalk's credit they stuck with me trying to help me get it working even though their T&C says that they don't support overseas usage. Nevertheless, it did not work. I never tried running the soft-phone with ViaTalk's info in it.

However, Skype did work! It worked everytime for calls that lasted for hours. I ran it from a PSP mostly.

So now, I must ask, is there anyone out there with experience in successfully using a US-based VOIP service in Japan, using a VOIP adapter (not the softphone)?
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RockyBB @ 9th Sep 11:59AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

If you're going to be there for an extended period, that Nuvio reseller is still around! :D

So long as your service provider is not blocking based on non-US IP addresses, the normal gremlins about setting up an ATA will still apply regardless of location: firewall, ports, address conflicts behind your router, etc. You might pick your provider based on strength of customer support and troubleshooting. F9 and VOIPo both seem to have their act together on the troubleshooting side of the business, without significant penalties if you don't last a full year.
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PX Eliezer @ 9th Sep 12:23PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

CallCentric would be good to look into.

I just checked their customer directory (listing is voluntary) and they list multiple customers in 9 out of 10 of Japan's largest cites. (Only Sapporo is missing). They even have customers in smaller cities such as Tokushima and Fujisawa.

They have excellent customer service, they don't require long term commitments, and their service tends to be quite good at getting through firewalls and routers with no need for extra harrypottering.
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PX Eliezer @ 9th Sep 01:24PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

Oh, and BTW---

If you are using CC for paid outbound calls, you can add an iNum number at no extra charge for inbound calls (free not just from other CC customers, but also from Gizmo5, Voxalot, and other providers).

»www.inum.net/what-is-inum/inum-partners/

Someone could call your iNum number for free from the US/Canada or many other countries by using an access number (see list of access numbers on that same page).
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nitzan @ 9th Sep 01:26PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

I'm using OCN Hikari using a PAP2T with no problems to Future Nine. (my company)

Haven't tried other providers but pretty sure it'll work. One thing you may want to watch out for is latency. Try to get a provider with servers on the west coast to minimize latency. Somewhere like LA is ideal.

We don't have servers on the west coast yet - but will probably later this month. (more to come in another thread/announcement)
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redshift @ 9th Sep 07:26PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

You might want to try looking into VOIPo.
--
"So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause."
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garys_2k @ 9th Sep 09:06PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

You could try Future-Nine at no cost or obligation, it will terminate calls to U.S. toll-free numbers without an account. That would give you a good feel for the audio quality, time to connect, etc.

I've been more than pleased with them, so no complaints about their service.
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dajabon @ 10th Sep 01:32AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

I will defiantely look into all of these suggestions thank you. My ATA is locked to ViaTalk, otherwise I would consider loading up future-nines info and testing it.

NTT Docomo is my ISP and my landlord has their DSL configured such that I cannot connect directly to the DSL modem, but only through their wired router for which I don't have the admin password. So this could be my problem.

Back in the US I had to put my ViaTalk ATA in my router's DMZ to get it to work right and I can't do that here now. This could be my trouble, because otherwise ViaTalk was working well for me.
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nitzan @ 10th Sep 01:45AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

I don't think that's the problem. ViaTalk blocks foreign IP addresses at their firewall. Since Japanese ISPs change your IP address pretty often there is no real way for ViaTalk to unblock your IP address (it'll just change a day later).

ViaTalk will actually give you the admin password to your adapter if you open a support ticket asking for this. You should be able to setup the second line to any other provider.

Are you anywhere near shinjuku? if you can't get it to work and would like to give it a try with a new adapter, I should have a couple of spare ones laying around here...
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dajabon @ 10th Sep 08:18AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

Too funny! I bicycle to Shinjuku on my mamachari everyday and night (nearly). I just got back from there (Takashimaya Times Square area, or as my toddler calls it "Yoyogi Tower", referring to NTT Docomo's tallest clock tower in the world). I live in Jingumae.

I do have the admin password so I need to take a crack at this one with my ViaTalk adapter and see if I can get it working. If I don't succeed, I might want to take you up on your offer.

BTW, nitzan, thanks for the advice and help! Wow! I never expected near as much! And certainly not from someone so close, what a small world!!! Thanks!
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nitzan @ 10th Sep 11:53AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

tokyoapartment.com by any chance? ;)

I'm a couple of miles northwest of you in nakano-shinbashi. Give it a try and if you can't make it work with the VT adapter just let me know. :)

Out of curiosity- what are you doing in Tokyo? work? school?
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dajabon @ 11th Sep 09:01AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

Sakura House is the only way to go for us.

OK, this weekend I will take a crack at setting up Future-Nine on my ViaTalk's ATA's 2nd line.

BTW, I am just here escaping the western world for a few months (limited by visa), my work is mostly web-based so it is fairly portable.
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burgerwars @ 11th Sep 10:53PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

I'm just returning from Japan and Skype and VOIP.MS worked fine via WiFi using the Skype Application and the SipPhone for iPhone application on my iPod Touch (2nd Generation) with a headphone with a mic. In fact, while calling back to the U.S., who I called said my sound quality was excellent. Only problem was finding a WiFi hotspot to use. I didn't take a VOIP adapter with me, so I can't say how that would have worked, but I don't think there would have been a problem.
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JTS33 @ 11th Sep 11:26PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

nitzan - Never would've guessed you were in Japan. :o Cool. :) Do you have one of those gigabit fiber connections to the home for cheap? My friend in Tokyo has a 100mbit fiber connection and apparently that's pretty standard.
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nitzan @ 12th Sep 02:10AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

I tried to get Gigabit fiber but apparently it's limited to larger apartment buildings only. Managed to get the 100mbit service though. :)

Was worried about working over here and the lag, but it's actually not too noticeable. Worse than being in the US - but better than being in Europe for example. VoIP works OK too. Again not as good as inside the US - but no real problems and no noticeable latency that I can hear.

Speeds however are crazy fast inside Japan. I was transferring a file the other day and got about 10mbit throughput upstream - awesome. :)
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dajabon @ 20th Sep 02:37AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

OK, sorry for the long delay...

So when I fired up the PAP2T from ViaTalk out of no where all of the lights lit up before I even tried to all my new Future-Nine info. The service worked flawlessly for a few days. Then my son attacked all of my netowkring equipment and after the necessary reset of everything it was back to two lights and no dial tone. :-(

I knew my luck wouldn't last, I just never thought it woudl last that long. Afterwards I added my Future-Nine info to the second line and nothing. No change in lights, no dial tone. After a little while, guess what, all my changes were gone. This happened to me before when working with ViaTalk, I made changes they recommended and then it seems their server had a different view of what those settings should eb and it wiped out my changes.

So now I am wondering if:
1) I should just record the info on the device and put the Future-Nine stuff on the first phone line and test?
2) Should I hit you up nitzan to borrow an adapter and test again?
3a) I am also wondering what kind of Future-Nine account I need and (3b) if I need to fund it to be able to complete this test? I was hoping to test without spending any money (to a toll free number) as suggested by garys_2k.

No good results yet and a few head scratching questions. Please help me out again guys.
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nitzan @ 20th Sep 05:05AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

In the provisioning screen, try to set Provision Enable: NO. This should (I think) disable provisioning and disable your config from being overwritten.

If this doesn't work, just add a few characters to the profile rule so it doesn't resolve. Something like http ://www.DONOTRESOLVEviatalk.com/path/to/profile.xml (just change what's in there so it doesn't resolve but you can still change it back in the future if you need to).

1) After turning off provisioning, you can put F9 on the 2nd line.
2) Sounds like you can get it working with this one once provisioning is turned off. :)
3) Any account. You can test toll-free calls without a deposit.

Let me know if it doesn't work after turning provisioning off. :)
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dajabon @ 20th Sep 09:37AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

Thanks again nitzan!

I flipped everything to "no" on the "provisioning" tab and still no worky.

Perhaps the problem lies in my configuration attempts. I am following these instructions:
»www.future-nine.com/faq/index.ph···tlang=en
...on my ViaTalk provided PAP2T.

Sorry for the trouble and filling this topic with non-topic discussion.
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nitzan @ 20th Sep 06:02PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

ohayou! (or oyasumi, actually :P)

Please send me screen shots of the System, SIP, and Line screens in Admin, **ADVANCED** mode. I'll probably be able to figure out what's going on there with that. ;)

Send to email nitzan at NOSPAMfuture-nine dot com (remove the NOSPAM of course).
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dajabon @ 22nd Sep 02:17PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

STATUS UPDATE

Well as we have all come to expect nitzan came to my rescue and helped me figure out how to "unlock" my ViaTalk provisioned ATA (PAP2T) to allow me to setup F9 on the second line. Wow, the PAP2T has a lot of configurations.

Anyway, after I implemented his recommendations (after viewing the screenshots I sent him of my settings) everything just worked! Even ViaTalk is working again on the other line (go figure). I have made some calls and only a few times noticed a lost packet or two, but the latency has been good. I assume it will get better when that west coast server comes online. I added some funds to my account and have tried toll and toll-free calls.

So to the point of this topic... Future-Nine works great from Japan. ViaTalk does not. I will keep testing it, but so far I am feeling like I have a winner here. Nitzan is also a great selling point. I don't want to make promises for/of Nitzan, but I think from his dedication to customer service, we can derive some confidence in his company, Future-Nine.

Thanks to all. I think I will keep Skype as a backup. Now to start thinking about cancelling ViaTalk and getting some money back.
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meister_sd @ 22nd Sep 03:47PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

said by dajabon :

Anyway, after I implemented his recommendations (after viewing the screenshots I sent him of my settings) everything just worked!

When I was there last month, I used my X10000P and voipstunt to make calls and I didn't have any problems. When I needed to call Nitzan, I just used my Tokyo cell phone. ;)

I used my F9 account when I was there too, and it worked well.

Also, you can get a Tokyo DID from F9 for pretty cheap and have a system much cheaper than the phone company. Even calls to cell phones are very reasonable.
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dajabon @ 22nd Sep 06:04PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

I have a prepaid Japanese Softbank cell phone and I'm thinking that I will use the "callback" feature as it has a Tokyo interface number and would result in a savings to any calls I generate while away from my ATA and not near any Wireless hotspots.

Getting a Tokyo DID sounds like an interesting idea. Wow, then I will really look less like a tourist! With thei new laws and my new Softbank preparid flip phone I already look like I've been here for years. Now if my home phone were a Tokyo DID... just imagine. Oh wait, I don't really care what others think. ;-) :-P
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nitzan @ 23rd Sep 12:20AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

The problem with callback is the latency- you're essentially going across the world twice (once to call you - once to call the destination) so the latency can get noticable. It will however work if you need to make a few calls on the road. Make sure to enter your cell number to the No-CID list in both formats: 090xxx 819xxx

Another thing to note is we do not currently have CID termination to Japan. Will probably have that in the future, but not just yet.
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dajabon @ 23rd Sep 02:32AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

Thanks Nitzan! I was wondering about both things. I will test them out.

I owe some recognition/explanation to/of Nuvio (Radius). I only dropped the service because of the hefty monthly charge (relative to ViaTalk) and the fact that toll-free calls counted against their 500 minute outgoing quote of the cheaper plan. To be honest, Nuvio worked like a charm, even when using it through Internet Connection Sharing from a laptop with a wireless LAN connection. So if you are reading this and you want options (a famously reliable one too) than Nuvio is a great VOIP service to use in Tokyo too.

**************

UPDATE 2: I had what I thought a hiccup (call would not go through) this morning/evening (who know anymore) but sicne ViaTalk was still working I tried teh call using it as well and experience the same issue. So I think the problem was in the telephone network to which I was calling (which as I recall has had issues before).

So I can still say that F9 is kicking butt from Tokyo still. Thanks!
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dajabon @ 2nd Nov 11:57AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

UPDATE November 2, 2009
********************************
I ended up cancelling ViaTalk, it was useless from Tokyo and they just kept billing $3-4 each month for E911 that I was not using. I still need to follow-up with them to see what I get back. I think I returned all of the equipment and box for their ATA.

I ordered a new Linksys-PAP2T ATA from Future-Nine and it worked out of the box. F9's service has worked everytime. On some calls I do notice a random half second of missed audio, but this happens maybe once in a 30 minute call and there is never any delay or echo. I suppose I could look at putting the ATA in the DMZ or maybe even adding a switch and taking it off my router. As it is right now I just attached it to the router and started using it without any QoS of any other configuration on the router.

Voicemail did not work immediately, but F9 worked some instant magic and it was good to go. So far, there have been no dropped calls, no lag, no echo, and service downtime.

I have opted to use it with Google Voice, but I haven't tested it rigorously with it. I did not a slight echo when I connected calls initially using Google Voice.

Also, I obtained a free sipgate number and added that as Line 2 on the ATA. This will be my fallback and secondary line. I have added it to Google Voice to complete the fallback solution.

I am not sure if F9 and nitzan were able to get that west coast server up and running yet. If not then I suspect I can only expect things to get better when they do. Regardless, I am very satisfied with F9, nitzan, and this forum. Thanks to all!
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burgerwars @ 2nd Nov 02:51PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

When I was in Japan in September, I couldn't get Future-Nine to register (using SipPhone for iPhone on an iPod Touch 2nd generation). VOIP.MS was reliable. I found myself needing to head to the Apple Store in Ginza to make calls (a free WiFi spot). I didn't bring an ATA or laptop with a softphone, so I can't say how good that would have worked.

In early December I'm off to Hong Kong. I'll be trying the same set up for making calls. I like to travel light, so I won't be bringing my laptop. I'm thinking of getting a netbook, but probably won't be purchasing one before my trip.
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jmelcher @ 3rd Nov 08:34PM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

I just recently returned from Iraq where I had great luck using Vonage on a 256K/128K satellite ISP shot. Had to set the bandwidth setting on the adapter to 30K, but quality was like talking next door.

Skype also worked great.
--
Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia. (Charles Schultz)
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wadonoel @ 12th Nov 08:42AM:
Re: [General] Good US-based VOIP for Use in Japan

At the time of the old post, I was using Lingo and Stanaphone. This summer, I used T-Mobile's Hot Spot phone and Skype with Jcom cable internet service. Both worked with no problem.
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