Question

MagicJack : Anybody able to open UDP ports 5060/5070 & Disable SIP ALG

  • 18 January 2023
  • 1 reply
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Userlevel 2
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Hello, 

Our Magic Jack will no longer work with T-Mobile Home Internet. It was working for 25 days and only after we ported our landline #  to Magic for $23.30 is the service no longer working fully.

As of Yesterday Jan 17, Incoming calls can be heard on the Magic Jack users end, but the outbound  caller can not hear the Inbound Magic Jack at all.

Out going calls from MagicJack are working with full duplex audio with both parties able to hear one another. 
I spoke with Magic Jack Technical support yesterday on two calls (1st call was disconnected). I spent over an hour  troubleshooting & trying to diagnose the problem.  The Rep had me do a firmware update to the device.

He concluded that the issue is with the Internet Service Provider (T-Mobile Home Internet Fixed Wireless Broadband)  and that we need to disable SIP/ALG & Open UPD ports 5060-5070.  T-mobile Provides an Arkadyan gateway (Integrated Router /Modem). There is Zero options on the device to make the necessary changes ourselves.

Evidently, the issue with incoming calls is packet data is being blocked by the T-Mobile Home Internet gateway.

Other users experiencing the same or similar issue with either Arkadyan or Nokia devices 


https://community.t-mobile.com/other-devices-11/magic-jack-voip-over-t-mobile-home-internet-works-mostly-but-parties-at-the-other-end-receive-chopped-up-words-from-my-end-especially-on-long-distance-calls-47592

https://community.t-mobile.com/tv-home-internet-7/voip-with-t-home-internet-34971#comments


Below are Magic Jack trouble shooting steps, which would be easy to implement on my end, if T-Mobile's Gateway were like "normal" routers that allow users to make changes to the router via an administrator user interface. 

https://help.magicjack.com/faq/support/technical-support/troubleshooting-calls/#post_id=2373


1) How can I fix likely connnection problems for my magicJack that is connected to a router?

Disable SIP ALG on your router. This is enabled by default in most routers. However, it is known to cause conflicts with external VoIP devices. 


What issues can SIP ALG on the router cause?

There are various ways SIP ALG can impact VoIP service. These often happen without the user knowing and can include:

One-way or no-way audio, intermittently or consistently

Inbound or Outbound calls fail to connect
Audio cuts out completely while on a call and doesn’t return

Phones ring and can’t be answered

Phones do not ring when called

Calls go straight to voicemail for no known reason

Faxes do not complete

Disabling SIP ALG on the router may help resolve the issues above. These are the general steps to change this setting in most router models:

Login to the router’s user portal

Navigate to the Advanced Firewall settings
Ensure that SIP ALG (Application Layer Gateway) is disabled

Refer to the router user manual for specific steps on how to disable SIP ALG or contact your Internet Service Provider for assistance.

Note – SIP ALG does not cause problems such as static, echo or poor audio quality, these are generally due to network (Internet) connectivity issues.


2) Why do I hear static on my calls?

Contact Your Internet Service Provider  - request assistance with opening ports 5060 and 5070 on your router/modem. 

The T-Mobile Arkadyan Router is locked down. There are zero options to open up ports (port forwarding) or to disable SIP/ALG.

After spending over an hour with Magic Jack support,  we spent another 1.5 hours (after an hour on hold)  yesterday with T-Mobile Supervisor going over these settings, she was documenting and forwarding issue to some team via email. 

Others have posted that they too contacted T-Mobile and were told they could open up the ports 5060-5070 & Disable SIP/ALG but they never received any confirmation that changes were made & their Magic Jack or other VOIP devices still failed to work !

There is nowhere on T-Mobiles website that they state that VOIP services including Magic Jack are not compatible with T-Mobile Home Internet. 

They simply state on their FAQ page 

https://www.t-mobile.com/home-internet/faq

"Are Voice Over IP (VOIP) services compatible with Home Internet?

Third Party VOIP services and devices that support IPv6 are compatible with T-Mobile Home Internet"

They even highly promote Ooma (Competitor to Magic Jack)  with a promotion to get a Free $90  Ooma Telo device  when you agree to 18 months of Premium service ($10/mo) for total cost of $180!

After reading reviews & comparing features & cost we decided Magic Jack was the much better value and as I have stated we have had zero issues for 25 days until yesterday. 

So  does MagicJack  Service & Device support IPv6? If so then the owness is on T-Mobile to find a solution for Magic Jack to work? 

Also do you have any other ideas, resolution if we can not get the Magic Jack device to work with T-Mobile Home Internet?

We purchased the device from Amazon  for $40 plus tax as well we paid MagicJack $23.30 ($19.95 + tax /fees) to port our number from  which was completed.

We greatly appreciate your help & hopefully we can find a resolution 

Thank you


1 reply

Userlevel 5
Badge +7

With all the info you provided, I am not sure which T-Mobile gateway you are using. I'm going to assume that you have the Arcadyan KVD21 5G Gateway, which unfortunately, cannot be accessed for the customization you're looking to do. In fact, you can't do much with the T-Mobile router at all because T-Mobile has locked it down so it is essentially plug-n-play.

 

I'm a bit bewildered that you were able to have normal phone calls with MJ before you ported your number, and now you can't. I'm not a telephony expert, but the change occurs on the backend of MJ and not on your router. If it was working before the number port, there is no reason it shouldn't work now.

Where is the MJ plugged in: your computer or the router?

I'd check out Nater Tater on YouTube . If there is a way to modify the KVD21, most likely he has a solution.

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