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fwdOUT™

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From the people who brought you the
Free World Dialup™, introducing
The fwdOUT™ Network’s Phone Sharing Service!

Where %RED% The Love You Take Is Equal To The Love You Make

%BLACK% Frequently Asked Questions

Overview

Operation

fwdOUT is currently in Beta Test. Please help shape it!

What is it?

The fwdOUT™ Network’s Phone Sharing Service is a worldwide association of users who want to exchange small amounts of their local phone service in exchange for the use of each other’s phone server.

For Instance, Erik lives in New York City, and he gets free local phone service, his family is in Holland. Joe is an expatriate from New York living in Holland that calls New York on a regular basis. Using the Free World Dialup Phone Sharing Service, Erik shares his number. Joe also shares his number. When Joe calls New York, he uses Erik’s line and Erik uses Joe’s Line. The sharing is not done on a one-on-one basis, members share with the entire community and accumulate credits when their line is used. These credits can be used to place calls through other member’s phones. Free World Dialup maintains the tallies so that no line is used more than the owner has permitted.

fwdOUT™ Network’s Phone Sharing Service only supports the IAX (Inter Asterisk eXchange) protocol at this time.

See the OverView for more high-level detail.

How does the fwdOUT™ Network’s work?

The fwdOUT™ Network maintains a list of available member phone lines and when you place a phone call, it attempts to use all matching lines until your call reaches the PSTN (traditional phone network).

What if there’s no one to route my call?

The fwdOUT™™ Network will search for other available paths, but, there are no guarantees.

Does fwdOUT™ use Free World Dialup?

The fwdOUT™ Network is a separate network created by the same team that created FWD®.

Are there dial patterns where I should use caution?

Yes, the actual list of numbers which may incur significant expense depends on your location. We currently block this list of +1 numbers on our personal nodes:

        ;block bahamas, etc
        exten => _1900.,1,congestion    ; N11
        exten => _1XXX976.,1,congestion ; N11
        exten => _1XXX555.,1,congestion ; N11
        exten => _1X11.,1,congestion    ; N11
        exten => _1867.,1,congestion    ; Yukon (sorry mike)

        ;exten => _1NPA Country
        exten => _1242.,1,congestion;   BAHAMAS
        exten => _1246.,1,congestion;   BARBADOS
        exten => _1264.,1,congestion;   ANGUILLA
        exten => _1268.,1,congestion;   ANTIGUA/BARBUDA
        exten => _1284.,1,congestion;   BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
        exten => _1345.,1,congestion;   CAYMAN ISLANDS
        exten => _1441.,1,congestion;   BERMUDA
        exten => _1473.,1,congestion;   GRENADA
        exten => _1649.,1,congestion;   TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS
        exten => _1664.,1,congestion;   MONTSERRAT
        exten => _1758.,1,congestion;   ST. LUCIA
        exten => _1767.,1,congestion;   DOMINICA
        exten => _1784.,1,congestion;   ST. VINCENT & GRENADINES
        exten => _1809.,1,congestion;   DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
        exten => _1829.,1,congestion;   DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
        exten => _1868.,1,congestion;   TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
        exten => _1869.,1,congestion;   ST. KITTS AND NEVIS
        exten => _1876.,1,congestion;   JAMAICA
        exten => _1787.,1,congestion;   Puerto Rico 787, 939 $0.07
        exten => _1939.,1,congestion;   Puerto Rico 787, 939 $0.07
        exten => _1671.,1,congestion;   Guam 671 $0.08
        exten => _1340.,1,congestion;   U.S. Virgin Islands 340 $0.06

Note Well: These area codes are not blocked by the fwdOUT™ Network, but we do block them on our personal participating nodes.

Note REALLY REALLY Well: fwdOUT™ does NOT block any phone numbers. You need to do this on YOUR system. For example, if you sign up for a +1 route, you better make sure U.S. premium/+1.900 numbers are blocked. (Okay, we block +1.900 because we're convinced no one would ever want to provide such a free route, but, it is your responsibility to make sure that regardless of what number is routed to you from fwdOUT, you only accept the calls that you are willing to carry and, if necessary, pay for.)

Can I block certain calls?

Yes, feel free to block premium calls if you are accepting traffic for a city, area, or country. For instance, we block ‘+1.900’ numbers on our personal lines.

Can Record calls or play announcements?

This is explicitly prohibited by the fwdOUT™ terms of service.

Can I limit access to certain times of the day?

If you want to allow fwdOUT™ incoming calls just part of the time (off business hours, for example) simply have Asterisk reject the calls at times you're not interested in providing service. fwdOUT™ will continue looking for an available line to complete the call.

Here is an example extension.conf entry that only allows calls in during non (American) local business hours:

      exten => _.,1,GotoIfTime(9:00-17:00|mon-fri|*|*?fromfwdOUT-catchall|1|1)
      exten => _1973437XXXX,2,Dial(ZAP/1/${EXTEN},60,T,L(1800000:1790000))

See: voip-info for addition discussion.

What if you want to stop others from using my routes for a brief period?

You can set the ‘calls remaining’ to ‘0’ in the web site which will prevent anyone from using your line. The “calls available” for other to use will be increased every hour by the number of “calls per hour” you specify. So, if you want to disable the route, set both fields to “0.”

How many calls can people make using my line?

You specify the maximum number of calls per hour when you define a route. This maximum rate is computed as an average over 10 hours.

How quickly are new routes added to the system?

New routes are available immediately for routing.

How does fwdOUT™ choose which are routes is selected?

Route selection is done heuristically favoring the least used of the most direct (or more fully specified) routes. Many routes are attempted until the call is successfully routed.

For instance, if you were calling +1(775)738-1234

All routes that match

+1(775)738-1234
+1(775)738-123
+1(775)738-12
+1(775)738-1
+1(775)738-
+1(775)73
+1(775)7
+1(775)
+1(77
+1(7
+1

would be tried in this same order until the call goes through. (Of course, the punctuation is for human readability.)

If this search fails to match an available gateway, dundi-test will be queried.

Does fwdOUT™ use DUNDi ?

The fwdOUT™ Network uses DUNDi to route calls if there are no other routes available. See http://iax.fwdnet.net/dundi.php and http://www.dundi.org/ for more detail.

Installation

How do I install Asterisk?

There are many resources on the net that will help you do this. Our favorites are http://www.asterisk.org and http://www.voip-info.org . Of course, you can always buy a system from us.

Does Asterisk run on Windows?

Asterisk was designed for linux, however, there is a windows port. See http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php?page=AstWind for more information.

Other Issues

Are there any rules against letting others use my phone line?

This situation varies depending on the service provider and locale. If you’re uncertain of the rules on your service, please check with your service provider

Should I be concerned about privacy?

fwdOUT™ takes privacy very seriously, but, we do not control the entire experience. As with any system running over open networks, care should be taken to guard your privacy. You should not use fwdOUT™ for calls of an extremely private nature.

Calls through fwdOUT™ can be traced. There are records linking each call together. In addition, Using 'caller id blocking' does not guarantee that the number you are calling from is completely anonymous. In the US, caller id blocking may be bypassed when calling toll free numbers, certain government agencies, and of course, by the phone company. Furthermore, there are certain numbers which are known to disregard the privacy indicator and if properly used, will reveal the calling number to the recipient.

Who pays for all this?

You do. It is a cooperative system. To use the system you must contribute. Initially, you get ‘10’ credits for every call you provide and use ‘1’ for every call you place. We will tune these factors over time to provide the most useful service possible.

What about phone bills for these calls?

The fwdOUT™ Network has built a system to distribute the phone network access that others are willing to provide. Pulver.com operates the servers, but it all phone services are member provided.

What do you mean by “The love you take is equal to the love you make”?

This parable is from the Beatles song “The End” And is the philosophy of the Free World Dialup. In essence, the more you give, the more you get, and the better everyone does!

Why aren’t there any flashy graphics?

The fwdOUT™ Network implements the original Free World Dialup vision to Share Phone lines around the world, Free World Dialup was conceived in 1994 when web sites were Functional, to the point, and not cluttered with plug-ins or other interoperability problems. We simply require cookies.