Fair Use Policy, Unique IP Address and InternetCalls.Com etc

Hello All,

Just trying to get my head around the details of how InternetCalls.com, Voipwise etc determine the identity of a user.

I have used InternetCalls.com in the UK with no problems - used it daily and never exceeded the FUP (Fair Use Policy) mark. But I have now moved to rural Spain and each day I am exceeding my FUP even though my call list history shows I am nowhere near the 300 free minutes per week. After getting no responses from InternetCalls.com to any of my emails I thought you guys might be able to help explain the intricacies.

My ISP in Spain supplies me with a radio broadband connection. It appears this ISP does this by taking the landline Telefonica broadband connections into their building and shoving them through one or more routers then using transmitters over radio to reach each of their client base's PCs (I have an aerial on my roof). But, it appears to me that all their clients share the same IP address(es) as we are just given internal ones (192.168.etc) from their router. I checked this with a friend of mine who uses the same system and our external IP address were indeed identical (naturally we had different 192 internal IP addresses). If this is so, could another customers potentially be using up my freedays allotment, even before I make a single call, thereby causing me to exceed the FUP because we are in effect using the same IP address ? If your answer is "YES THAT IS HOW IT WORKS" well do all free/cheap VOIP packages share this weakness ? There are a couple of ISPs here in rural Spain that offer broadband in the same manner to 100's of people.

Thank you in advance

Hi

By what you describe, then you are snookered.

Code:

* Max 300 minutes per week of free calls, measured over the last 7 days and per unique IP address.

and that will per external address not internal. In reality your ISP should realy have a block of IPs and give each user a unique external one. but it sounds as if all they have done is created a radio lan.

Ian

Thank you for confirming that Ian. I don't suppose there are alternative cheap VOIP suppliers that go one step further and use the hardware address of your connecting network card, in addition or instead of the IP address, to recognise uniqueness ? Just a stab in the dark of desperation.

Hi

Being that 99% of the cheap suppliers are the same company realy, I dont know.

Ian

Yep, I see your point. Any advantage in attempting to go through a proxy to get me a different IP address ?

Quote:

Any advantage in attempting to go through a proxy to get me a different IP address ?

Better to get a commercial provider and pay for your use level.

But a proxy could work, although you'd need to proxy signalling and media, and that may mean running the media through a less than optimal server somewhere.

Thanks Dean and Ian for your help. I live in the hills with only goats to talk to, so the Internet is my only means of communication (and my mobile phone is sellotaped to the window at the highest point of my house, being the only place I can get a signal, so using that for long calls is tantamount to shoving bamboo shoots under my fingernails!) :¬)

I am no expert but have used Tor/Privoxy before so may see if that works, although I do now remember the performance issues with that software now you mention it. InternetCalls call quality has always been leagues better than Skype for me (Skype always sounds like you are underwater while constantly chewing a never ending toffee).

When you say commercial provider, I assume you are talking VOIP Commercial Providers - any suggestions for me to try ?

Thanks again

We don't recommend specific providers here, but there are plenty around to choose from.

When did you last use Skype? They changed to the AMR codec a while back and audio quality has improved substantially.

I have the latest version of Skype (v3.6.0.248) although I have to admit that I haven't tried the 3.8 beta yet.

The delay lag is a lot worse than Internetcalls and the continual voice breakup is too bad to be usable. I have tried on 3 different PCs so I know it can't be my hardware. Strangely enough, Internetcalls sounds like the person I am talking to is in the next room (although there is still naturally a delay but that is easy to get used to).

Thanks for the help - it has been very useful. One day, Telefonica may agree to give me landline broadband sometime in the future and then all my problems will be solved - hopefully before I trade in my own teeth for false ones and start wearing incontinence pants!

Hobster

i suspect the reason you are getting better quality with internet calls than skype is that you have limited bandwidth on your internet connection through the wireless ISP and that internetcalls is automatically using narrow band g729 codec.

the betamax FUP issues is always a problem when using congregation services like PBXes, voxalot, and mysipswitch that share IP address with multiple users. some(but not all) people have had success using voxalot since they do have a deal with betamax to help with fraud prevention and they send the originating IP address in addition to there own when initiating calls. this may work if there are not others users of your ISP also using voxalot.

spg

p.s in general i would not recommend any betamax companies. they have a reputation of blocking accounts without explanation or refund. contrary to popular belief there are alternatives out there.

Thanks SPG