So, something I have been meaning to write SDF Membership about but also think
is worth bringing up here is the fact that for the past few weeks the SDF VoIP
PSTN gateways have been "marked as spam" by a group called Free Call Registry;
or, more correctly, their website, freecallregistry.com is where you register
your number as not spam.

Call's don't go through -- you just get a message that the number has been
marked as spame and that's that - you can press 1 if you "think this is a
mistake" but that doesn't do anything in that particular call.

Interestingly, the calls that trigger this ALWAYS work -- I don't have the
normal issues with SDF VoIP where calls fail for various reasons, but that
may purely be coincidence.

It's more than a bit annoying, especially since I just set up some local
numbers, like a time-and-temperature number -- nothing crazy -- to be callable
from my Asterisk instance on PhreakNet. A quick 7 digit number on the network
would get you my local time and temp, for what value it had. It was useful for
me, and even though PhreakNet has a quality time-and-temp service, the idea of
bridging a real-world number into the network was obviously awesome, especially
for non-locals to call without them actually knowing the real number, or if
long distance charges are still an issue dealing with those.

So, yeah, that happened like a week later, quite suddenly, and it was more
than annoying. I'm pretty sure I know what happened, as well:

SDF VoIP used to give out the primary incoming DISA as the caller ID. Now
the CallerID being sent is, generally, the VoIP extension ID of the user
making the call.

Of course, the ANI for the number is still the outgoing gateway, and with
the two numbers not matching, it appears to the system to be some kind of
spam call attempt using spoofed CallerID. That's my theory anyway.

So that's where we stand. International works like it always does -- iffy at
times but sometimes you can get a call out -- but I rarely make any calls
internationally that actually go anywhere, so that's about it that works.

Otherwise, most anything is better in the long run for domestic US use, and
that really sucks. I'm overdue for ordering outgoing service with CallCentric,
but I'm also a cheap fuck who prefers my money to go to something like SDF
than to another company... It's just more than a bit annoying, that just as
I set up things and really take advantage of the service this happens.

I'm not blaming SDF either, not at all -- I'm blaming the bullshit state
of telecommunications in the world today, between the garbage wastes of
life that are scammers to telco's not wanting to actually improve telephony
service at all, it's just pretty damn fucked.

Anyway, that's my rant today. Got any feedback let me know.

~Chris