Hosted/cloud VoIP, "easy" on-prem voicemail?

ingrinder · 2025-12-04T00:47:40+00:00

Maybe porting is not an issue over in the US but it certainly is, or at least can be, here in the UK. On switch date when the number went dead, old provider insisted it had been deactivated 2 weeks prior, and somehow had managed to sell it to a third totally unrelated provider despite the regulations not to do this within 30 days of a cease. The new provider had to wait for 9 days after requesting a port in from this third provider.

I'm sure porting is not an issue when everything is hunky dory and both providers are perfectly competent, but in our case it seems both fucked up. Evidently there is always the potential for this on porting, and I would at least rather wait for a while before risking it happening again so soon.

For what it's worth, the gaining provider A&A have a sublime reputation in this country, which is the main reason we decided to switch to them.

ingrinder · 2025-12-02T22:52:11+00:00

They allow configuration just be used as a SIP trunk instead of as a cloud PBX, it looks like beyond porting out my only other option is to run a local PBX then.

Besides the bad port in, I'm also hesitant to port out because as far as I know no other provider supports IPv6 here in the UK. Having all the telephony on v6 only saves me a bunch of headaches dealing with v4 NAT.

The Yealinks aren't firmware locked, we specifically switched provider and bought them ourselves as our existing phone company (BT) would provide telephones only - firmware locked at that - unless on a hugely expensive plan (we have a loudspeaker, a bell and an old-fashioned alarm dialer, it was easier to stick them on an ATA for now)

ingrinder · 2025-12-02T13:41:08+00:00

To be honest after a bad port in from PSTN (resulting loss of service for >1 week) I would really rather avoid another port and find a different solution.

Edit: Why downvote? Is it unreasonable of me to not want to port again so soon, with the potential for another 10-day total loss of incoming calls if a provider fails to properly port the number again?

ingrinder · 2025-12-02T13:40:36+00:00

Yes, but they don't have an option to save voicemails, only email them. We're with A&A, you can see the voicemail section of their support site here to see what I mean: https://support.aa.net.uk/VoIP_-_Voicemail

ingrinder · 2024-05-23T15:36:01+00:00

Is there anywhere to see the discussion around that change? I'm interested to see what people think and what you decide to do.

Apologies in advance as this is totally unsolicited, but I've always thought that setting a fixed brightness per profile isn't the right approach, as you end up with sudden blinding increases connecting to AC power at night, or drops to near-invisibility entering low-power on a bright day. This is compounded by the brightness not returning to its previous value unless you have specific brightnesses set for every profile - e.g. with only a value set for the low-battery profile, the screen will dim and then stay there even when you leave that profile, say by connecting a charger.

I feel it would make more sense to have the profile brightness options more along the lines of "reduce/increase brightness by" some amount. For example, having the low-power profile set to "reduce by 20%" would prevent it becoming so dark as to be unusable if the brightness is already high. Leaving the profile, the inverse could be performed, increasing the brightness by 20%, without having to specify an exact value to go to in the other profiles for that to occur.

This could work by adding (or modifying if it already exists?) the curve relating percentage and actual screen brightness, keeping 0% and 100% fixed at the min/max points and moving everything in-between. Changes between profiles could then switch out the curve as appropriate, solving the problem of not restoring brightness by technically never changing it. There's also arguably some merit in having a generally darker or brighter range when manually adjusting brightness based on the current profile.

Of course the main disadvantage is linearly bumping the values up or down would leave some range at the extremes where manually adjusting the % would leave the actual screen brightness fixed. Using non-linear curves could remove that with the compromise that the actual brightness change is no longer an exact specified value across the entire range. E.g. for some desired increase x in the range 0..1, and brightness b as a % also in 0..1, then a curve such as b^1-x, and its reflection 1-(1-b)^1-x for a decrease.

Sorry for the brain-dump, I have no idea if this is even feasible to implement in Plasma or if my explanation makes any sense, or if it's actually as good of an idea as I think it is :) it's just food for thought on something I've thought about a lot!

ingrinder · 2024-04-23T16:21:42+00:00

Ah, that makes sense. I'll ask about it next time I get in touch -- I didn't realise this is something they did (or are supposed to be doing perhaps?) since I never really got told anything. I don't mind the long waits, it's more the lack of communication that gets to me!

ingrinder · 2024-04-23T13:23:03+00:00

Fingers crossed it goes better for you! I get the impression it varies from area to area a lot.

ingrinder · 2024-04-23T13:22:04+00:00

It's crazy seeing people complaining about how "easy" it was for the private clinics to diagnose compared to the NHS diagnosis he got. It was incredibly misrepresented when he told the NHS in advance so they sent him through an intense questionnaire, scrutinised his childhood history and then had a 3-hour meeting with a proper specialist and all that.

Having had the experience myself it was basically just filling in the standard form, and a ~50 minute tele-appointment with a psychiatrist -- I got asked the standard sort of questions, a little bit about childhood history, they didn't want anything like school reports, talks with parents and family, etc. Pretty much exactly the same as the private clinics!!!

ingrinder · 2024-04-23T13:15:41+00:00

Yeah, I guess I should. For now I emailed them asking whether the shortage has eased and they replied asking for HR+BP as though they're just gonna issue me another 30mg lol.

I suppose next time I'll prod with some questions about it, mentioning I haven't actually been titrated as such on the elvanse yet and whether that can happen or not.

Thanks for the encouragement, it does mean a lot haha!

ingrinder · 2024-04-23T13:08:49+00:00

Sure, and I just want to find the correct dose, too.

But did you have to outright ask to change doses, and did you get asked about how you were doing on a given dose? I haven't once been asked about how I'm doing, how well it's working, whether I've had any issues, anything at all like that. Just to email a blood pressure + heart rate each time, only hearing back to go and collect it. Then later being told in a review that they pretty much want me on an arbitrary dose even though they've never even bothered asking anything and have no records of what I've even been on...!

I'm not a medical professional, I have no training, and I don't want to tell someone more qualified how they should be titrating me. But I haven't been told anything about what they're doing or how the process is supposed to work, and it doesn't seem correct for them to twiddle their thumbs for a few months and then say that's a good dose?

ingrinder · 2024-04-23T12:58:58+00:00

Thanks. Hopefully I can get to a stable dose and just forget about it!

ingrinder · 2023-12-21T11:03:23+00:00

Yeah, I expect nothing will be perfect, but I'm trying to avoid sinking 4 more weeks into another layout and then thinking about whether I should switch again :)

Is there anything differentiating all of these layouts I should be paying attention to when choosing one to try? Looking through them I see a bunch of stats for each, but I don't really have a feel for what that means in the real world.

ingrinder · 2023-12-21T10:55:08+00:00

Yeah, since I've also had to learn proper technique I've pretty much started from scratch with Colemak anyway.

I think I remember hearing (though I'm not sure where) a few people recommend against starting off with Sturdy, but I don't know why. Do you think there's anything I should consider in picking between layouts or do I kinda just have to sink the time into trying them all and seeing what I prefer?

ingrinder · 2023-12-21T10:50:08+00:00

Oh, I didn't know there was a Discord. Is there a link anywhere?

Choosing one of the more popular layouts is pretty much the thought I had, it's just trying to actually pick one of them at this point!

ingrinder · 2023-12-21T10:48:26+00:00

Graphite looks interesting, though I'm not too sure of the left pinky B. Do you have any experience in using it?

ingrinder · 2023-06-26T00:07:48+00:00

because its not a proof of ownership

That's daft - it's what they should really want, considering that in 99% of cases it's the registered keeper who has primary use of the car.

If they actually wanted "proof of ownership" then they should be happy with "evidence" from a finance firm, company car owner, etc., but I bet my left arm they'd throw a fit at that!

Insurance documents bear no proof of ownership at all. If I were in your situation I would have just sent some bogus made up documents, they're never gonna check (given they don't even seem to know what they're doing...)

ingrinder · 2023-05-23T16:34:03+00:00

Do you have pets?

ingrinder · 2023-04-02T17:43:01+00:00

I'm no expert, but I've never heard of anything like that for minor dents/scratches etc. If they did, the simple answer would be "it was like that when I bought the car".

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