Frequently Asked Questions

Troubleshooting

I can't make outgoing calls from the Freshtel internet phone. What do I do?
I can't call landlines or mobiles. What should I do?
I can't receive incoming calls. What should I do?
I can't hear other people on Freshtel. What should I do?
Other people can't hear me on Freshtel. What should I do?
Other people complain of an echo when I call them on Freshtel. What can I do?
The keypad and screen of my USB phone won't work. What can I do?
I'm getting poor call quality. What can I do?
How can I allow Freshtel internet phone through my firewall?
How do I set up port forwarding on my router?

I can't make outgoing calls from the Freshtel internet phone. What do I do?

Firstly, check that you are connected to the internet. Can you reach freshtel.net from your browser?

Next, check to see if you're connected to our network. Restart the Internet Phone and make sure you are logged in. Ensure your Freshtel Number and Password are entered correctly.

Make sure the number you are dialling is correct. Check your Call Log (found online via the My Account website) to see if there have been any errors with the number dialled.

If using the Freshtel Internet Phone and you're running a software firewall on your PC (such as Norton, McAfee, Zone Alarm, etc) it may be blocking the Freshtel internet phone. You may need to set your firewall to allow the Freshtel internet phone to connect to the internet. Please refer to the firewall user Manual for instructions on adding an "exception" or allowing applications full access to the Internet.

Finally, try switching to the Secondary Connection Mode. This can be found under Menu > Options > Advanced. Secondary Connection Mode may allow you to use the Internet Phone in some circumstances where the Primary Mode does not function.

I can't call landlines or mobiles. What should I do?

You may be formatting your numbers incorrectly. The dialing rules have changed slightly between Freshtel internet phone version 3.0 and 3.2 to make it easier to dial phone numbers.

Please see the table below for how to dial using the new formats.

Dialling Scenario	Old Method	New Method
Firefly number	80001234	*80001234
Landline number	+89524000	89524000
Mobile number	+0401411370	0401411370
International number	+0011628179797921	0011628179797921

When dialing from the Freshtel internet phone, make sure you're dial landline numbers using a country code if applicable and then the area code before the number. For example, to call the USA you might dial 0011 1 <area code> <number>.

Also, make sure you don't put a "+" before the number.

Finally, make sure that you have sufficient credit in your account. You will be notified at the start of the call if you need to top up your credit.

I can't receive incoming calls. What should I do?

Make sure that your firewall is allowing incoming connections to the Freshtel internet phone or ATA. If your account does not have a Standard Australian Phone Number then only other Freshtel users will be able to call you. When calling another Freshtel virtual number be sure to include the * prefix - such as *80001234 to listen to our test message.

I can't hear other people on Freshtel. What should I do?

Check that your volume levels are set high enough. Also, if using the Freshtel internet phone, make sure that it's set to use the correct audio device and that you have the audio device correctly connected. Allowing the UDP ports 4569 and 5070 through your firewall or switching to Secondary Connection Mode in the softphone may also help resolve this issue.

Other people can't hear me on Freshtel. What should I do?

Other people complain of an echo when I call them on Freshtel. What can I do?

If you're using the Freshtel internet phone, you may need to mute your microphone.

Go to the Volume Control near the clock on the bottom right of your screen.
Select Options
Select Properties
Under Show the following volume controls, check the Microphone checkbox.
Click OK. You will be returned to the main Volume Control window, and the Microphone sliding control should now be visible.
Under Microphone, check the Mute checkbox.

Generally, the above does not actually mute the microphone - instead, it mutes the microphone playback, which is a leading cause of echo.

Freshtel Internet Phone also contains inbuilt Echo Cancellation which can be found under Menu > Options > Audio devices. Make sure this is enabled.

The keypad and screen of my USB phone won't work. What can I do?

The Freshtel 2070 USB Handset is designed to work with the Freshtel network. If you're using a third-party handset that does not support Freshtel, you may find that the screen & keypad do not function correctly. However, the speaker & microphone should function correctly in all cases.

I'm getting poor call quality. What can I do?

Applications that use a high proportion of your internet connection, such as streaming video or peer-to-peer downloading (for example Limewire, Bittorrent etc), can cause poor call quality regardless of your internet speed. We recommend that upload speeds of at least 128kb be available for good call quality. You can test your internet connection by opening the Help Centre (Menu > Help Centre) and clicking on the "Test your internet connection" link.

Also, call quality can be affected by using an older sound card or input device. Switching to a USB sound device can solve both these issues.

Some laptop/notebook PC's have very poor sound devices. The recommended setup for a laptop is to use an USB headset or handset.

How can I allow Freshtel internet phone through my firewall?

If using a software firewall, you'll need to allow the Freshtel internet phone full access to the internet when asked. You can change this later by viewing the list of programs configured in your firewall, and changing the access settings for the Freshtel internet phone. Generally, the Freshtel internet phone is fine when you use the modem/router firewall (that's called a "Hardware Firewall"). By default Freshtel internet phone uses the UDP ports 4569 and 5070 - these should be allowed through the firewall and forwarded to the PC running Freshtel Internet Phone. If need be, the default ports can be changed from Menu > Options > General > Edit Network Settings.

If you experience any problems with this, don't hesitate to contact our friendly helpdesk staff on 1300 373748.

How do I set up port forwarding on my router?

If using an ATA, it can be useful to enable port forwarding in your router. First, you'll need to set your ATA to a static IP address. Next, you'll need to set your router to forward UDP port 4569 (for the Freshtel 3010 ATA) or port 5060 (for a SIP device) to that static IP address. A useful guide to doing this can be found at portforward.com

The Freshtel Internet Phone softphone uses port 5070 and with an RTP port range of 10000 - 65535 when in the default Primary Connection Mode, while Secondary Connection Mode uses port 4569.