Troupleshooting Tips
Home Phone
I don't hear a dial tone. What should I do?
My phone does not ring, and my calls automatically go to voicemail. If you get dead air when you pick up the phone instead of a dial tone, you might want to go through the following checklist:
- Make sure you have plugged your telephone into the appropriate port on your phone adapter.
- Make sure you have Internet connection by checking your internet modem.
- Make sure you have Internet connection by unplugging and re-plugging the telephone cable between the router/modem and the telephone handset. Make sure your router is functioning properly.
- Make sure your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is not down
If you still hear dead air, then your phone adapter needs to be rebooted. Follow the instructions included with your Times Telecom Start-Up Kit or refer to the next question “How do I reboot my phone adapter??to learn how to quickly reboot the device.
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How do I reboot my phone adapter?
If you are having problems accessing your Times Telecom service, in most cases your phone adapter, cable or DSL modem, and router needs to be rebooted. simply, follow these instructions:
- Turn off your cable or DSL modem by unplugging its power adapter
- Turn off the router by unplugging its power adapter
- Turn off the phone adapter by unplugging its power adapter
- Wait 2 minutes, and then turn on your cable or DSL modem by plugging its power adapter into an electrical outlet
- Wait 2 minutes, and then power on the router by plugging its power adapter into an electrical outlet
- Wait 5 minutes, and then power on the phone adapter by plugging its power adapter into an electrical outlet
- Reboot one of your networked computers, and check to see if you have an active Internet connection
- Pick up the telephone. You should now have a dial tone
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The front panel on the phone adapter is flashing a red light. What does that mean?
If the front panel of the phone adapter is flashing a red light, you might want to go through the following checklist:
- Unplug the power adapter from the phone adapter. Wait 5 minutes, then re-plug the power adapter into the phone adapter again.
- You may be using the wrong power adapter. Make sure the power adapter you are using is the one included with your phone adapter.
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When I'm on the phone, my call will suddenly end. How can I improve this matter?
Commonly referred to as a "dropped" call, this problem usually occurs when your Internet Service Provider's (ISP) network experiences severe latency or packet loss. In essence, the performance of your Internet connection could temporarily decrease, affecting the speed at which your voice data travels across a network and thus resulting in lost information. There are several reasons why your calls will suddenly drop.
- Heavy bandwidth usage, e.g. online gaming, videoconferencing, TV streaming, or file sharing
- Oversaturated network links causing Internet congestion
- Corrupt packets that are rejected in-transit
- Defective networking hardware
- Temporary ISP technical problems
You can improve this matter by:
- Go on the Internet and verify whether some websites you regularly visit are performing slower than usual; if it is performing slower, than your ISP is most probably experiencing problems.
- If you are using more bandwidth than normal, i.e. you are uploading/downloading files via the Internet, try pausing this activity and see whether you cancel any dropped calls.
- If you are using a wireless router, your static may be caused by interference with other electronic device(s). Try moving them away from each other.
- Try activating the Bandwidth Saver feature by logging into your account portal and reducing the bandwidth requirements for your service.
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