atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Allworx Telephones & Systems Optimum, Edgemarc 4552, Sip, Allowrx 6x and idiots?

Here is the snafu. This is going to be long.. Maybe more so by writing it out I will see something or by chance some one else has dealt with Optimum


In Fairfield County CT the cable company is Cable vision / optimum Business.

Optimum Equipment:
SIP cable modem to an edgemarc 4552 SIP Gateway w/ 8 sessions enabled

Client Equipment:

Allworx 6x vs 7.4.8
Zytel router and I forget what model we are using but for the issue we are having that does not come into play


Problem. Any call in or out utilizing the Optimum SIP if a 6x user presses a digit (makes a DTMF tone like you were calling another company's auto attendant and press 2 for sales) the outbound audio mutes. They can press a digit and I can hear that, I can talk and they can hear me but I can not hear the caller from the 6x.

Upon closer look at a packet trace in the 6x the audio ports are changing when we press a key.


We know that the Allworx is Out of Band only for DTMF. We know that cable vision only supports in band. We know that is why we register to the edgemarc 4552 as it converts to in-band:


11. The Cable vision network only supports in-band DTMF tones. The Allworx PBX only supports sending out-of-band DTMF tones. In order for the Allworx PBX to operate correctly with the Cable vision network, the Optimum SIP Trunk Adaptor must be enabled to convert out-of-band DTMF tones sent by the Allworx PBX to in-band DTMF tones. To enable this conversion, log into the Optimum SIP Trunk Adaptor using the login and password specified in the Optimum SIP Trunk Adaptor Set-up Guide.  On the SIP Trunk Configuration page, you must check the Convert Inband DTMF checkbox, and click the Submit button to update this setting.


Here is what we are finding out. Cable vision's 'engineers' will not speak with us. My guy who dwarfs me in networking, programming and this level of trouble shooting, they will not speak with him. They will only speak to their operators who in turn speak to us. Their operator don't know the difference between a POTs line and a bong.

My tech set up our office system as a SIP trunk provider (Like a via talk or vonage or VoiP.ms) over the internet and we registered the 6x to it and we can place a call in/ out and can press 0-9 *# and no audio problems.

Numerous calls with optimum. I contacted some managers at a division called Light path that are the high end fiber delivery for REALLY big businesses and got some strings pulled.... and all that did is get a different operator to field our calls to their engineering. Do they really have in house engineers or are they using Edgemarc?


I called Edge marc as it really seems like this piece of optimum equipment is doing something. We register to it and that goes back to, well I don't know what Opt has at their CO but obviously it goes back to them. The firmware is only 10.2.6.. Current Vs 11.6.50 Their support said you need to upgrade this! It is not a piece of equipment we sell, service installed. It is also a custom build for Optimum as you can see by the web browser their is the Optimum logo all over the place. We do not have the admin password to it.

Edgemarc also noted that they really are not supposed to talk to us as optimum is a really big account. But despite that I could understand him and when I said the firmware was still 10.2.6 and if we bypass the Edgemarc and Optimum it works...."Oh.... well that's interesting" We'll submit a ticket to optimum.

Today in a conf call with Optiumu, my customer, myself and another 'Lead operator' he said Yes our engineers upgraded the firmware in the Edgemarc. Asked my customer on sight if he could check that - BTW my customer is this firms IT guru and he also dwarfs my knowledge of networking. The Edgemarc is still 10.2.6.

Yes we know about PAD DTMF so that out of band DTMF signals are still 64 bits in length. Tried that. Pretty much myself and my engineer went through any and everything that could affect DTMF or SIP signaling but the fact remains that when we press 0-9 * # the audio ports change. That is not a function of the allworx.

When we use another SIP provider no problems. We have put 6x on other SIP trunks - just not with optimum.

Any advise to get them to work with us? We are going to wire in POTs line for now just for the outbound but their IT guy is FUMING not at me but at cable visions inability to allow anyone who might actually be knowledgeable of this to talk to us. That cable vision refuse to allow Edge marc to work with us.


We are going to get another SIP provider... but that also means we can't use a cable modem as optimum will bandwidth limit any voice traffic to their competition.

Oh One last thing - If you have had this issue before and know of a setting we should look at..... let me know.


and also Optimum now says they do not support the latest firmware 7.4.8.4 Sept 2012... They support only up to 7.2.6.

Well that did not help. Reading this back I have no bright ideas.

Wow welcome to the world of SIP and cheap telcos. I work alot with Cablevision but not with the SIP product. Sounds like I will not be for a while. On pots, internet and PRI they have been fine. You are on the bleeding edge with SIP and them.

A couple of things. Is Alworks certified on Cablevision SIP?

Why not just use a PRI handoff from Cablevision and get the DID and number of channels you want. Why go with SIP at all. Price is the same and you are going with safe (PRI) proven spec.

I have done hosted voice over a cable modem and they do not cut back on the bandwidth because of it. So switch to somebody else if Cablevision does not work.

Hi Jim,

Thank you for your insight on Cablevision. I always thought they limited the bandwidth when you tried to use a competitors voice service on their network. We will get SIP trunks for less elsewhere.

Yes the Allworx is certified with Cable Vision. They provided the white paper telling us how to set it up.

11. The Cable vision network . .in order for the Allworx PBX to operate correctly with the Cable vision

>Why not just use a PRI
The 6x does not have a PRI ... but it does support SIP out of the box.


A PRI might still be handed off from the Edgemarc 4552. It has a T1, PRI, 4 POTs, 2 WAN, 2 USB and some other interfaces it supports.


I like your idea. We can set them up with another SIP carrier remotely.

I should really take advantage that the auto attendant says this call may be monitored and recorded and there for I can record it as all parties know it is being recorded.

After this level of ignorance we don't want anything to do with them. These people are so stupid they don't even know they are stupid! It was even more comical when the said Here's the problem. We're seeing your PBX at 192.168.2.252 "You can't use that subnet."

Ahhhh 2.252 is the ip address of YOUR Sip gateway. Well you can't use that subnet. We're not.. The 6x is .254, the router is .253 your gateway is .252


"You can't use that subnet."
OK what do you want us to change your Gateway to? How about 3.252? DEAD AIR.... You can't have 255.255.248.0 WHAT???? What are you talking about changing, the subnet masking or the IP address? That's what your equipment is dishing out. Can we use 3.252? ahh no you need to change the subnet..... FINALLY they made some sense when he said Well .252 is reserved for a TelnetUSA testing equipment. You can't use anything .252 So WHY THE F&*$ did you guys set up your equipment with that IP address?

Well an update. Friday Evening Nov 9th a solution was had.

The Edgemarc 4550 Sip Gateway has a bug in it, Updating the firmware did not fix that.

Friday evening they replaced the 4550 with a 4601 Broadband Controller Sip Gateway- or what ever name they call it, It took the carrier quite a while to configure but after the issue of the DTMF tones that were received were NOT being moved to OUT-OF Band signaling (hence the Allworx did not know what to make of 'hearing' a touch tone) it finally worked.


The carrier swears that the 4550 does work with Allworx but they have only tested up to a much older firmware.

Thanks for the Update. This is all good stuff to know.

Hey Guy;

Had that issue here on Lng Island last month (April), made Cablevision upgrade the Edgemark Software to latest untested version. Now the ALlworx and Cablevision play follow the port together allowing Phonetic Attendant and other audio to pass as well as Busy signal and no longer in service messages. I initially got the brush off and "Version not supported" crud but I insisted to speaking with SIP Support.

Have fun man and be careful!

Rememeber when phone lines just worked and the telephone company had people who knew what they were doing? What happened? The idiots have taken over and now we have what is described above. Nothing we can do about it but it is sad.