VCA sign fails continually. Now won't go online
viafax999
Community Leader
Community Leader

For the past few weeks have been receiving sporadic (multiple) VCA sign on failure messages during the day, I'm not attempting to sign on, I just receive the pop up.

Last night received 89 of them!!!

VCA says it's offline.  I've tried loging in it says sign on failed.  I uninstalled and reinstalled and still sign on says failed.

Guess this is now a DEFUNCT app??

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Re: VCA sign fails continually. Now won't go online
lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

Since the app runs in the background, it's probably continuously polling for information and in order to get your information it must "sign on" with Verizon even though you, yourself, are not doing anything specific with the application.

Can you get in via the website?  https://www22.verizon.com/callassistant

If not, sounds like somethings wrong with your account.

If you can signon via the web and the popups are still occurring, I would re-enter the credentials into the application (the same you just used to get into the website) and see if the problem goes away.

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Re: VCA sign fails continually. Now won't go online
viafax999
Community Leader
Community Leader

@lasagna wrote:

Since the app runs in the background, it's probably continuously polling for information and in order to get your information it must "sign on" with Verizon even though you, yourself, are not doing anything specific with the application.

Can you get in via the website?  https://www22.verizon.com/callassistant

If not, sounds like somethings wrong with your account.

If you can signon via the web and the popups are still occurring, I would re-enter the credentials into the application (the same you just used to get into the website) and see if the problem goes away.


If you believe this is not an app/server problem then I have a bridge in NY that you might be interested in.

The only way to download the software is to log on via your account so obviously the credentials are OK. I to would guess that it might poll the server however now there is just no way to get it online.

2.7.79 has been an absolute shambles ever since they released it a couple of months back.  They did appear to manage to get it working about a week after it was released but it now appears to be back where it was then.  Having to logon to the web site to see who the caller is defeats the purpose of the pop up caller id and call screeing.

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Re: VCA sign fails continually. Now won't go online
lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

Sorry, don't need any bridges, I do however have some ocean-side property in Nevada I'd be glad to part with.   Sounds like you've confirmed that the account is active (and someone hasn't changed the password out from under you or Verizon hasn't "accidentally" cancelled the account) and that you've confirmed the credentials match what's in the client ... in which case, you're probably right that it's an app/server problem.

Curious, have you tried disabling the firewall software on your PC to see if the problem goes away?  Perhaps the application has started making or relies on non-typical ports for communication and the firewall is silently blocking these (particularly if they happen to be using UDP instead of TCP connections).

Along the same lines, have you tried designating the PC with VCA running on it as the "DMZ" host on your router? (be careful if you do this while you have the PC firewall turned off as it will leave you potentially vulnerable to attack).  If the VCA is using UDP, the packets could be getting dropped by the router for being non-stateful.

If either (or both of them together) of the above work -- then there would be a way to put a rule in the PC firewall or router to keep things working without needing to leave it in the DMZ or disabling the firewall.   If it doesn't have any effect, then we're back to your theory that it's wholly and app/server issue.  Short of putting a sniffer on the PC to capture the traffic to see what's it doing when the failure "pops up", it's hard to tell.

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Re: VCA sign fails continually. Now won't go online
FairfaxKid1
Enthusiast - Level 2

If you can find a copy of it, the old IOBI software seems to work for VCA customers. I never have problems logging in - or staying connected - unlike with VCA. Verizon took one very big step backwards when it discontinued IOBI.

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Re: VCA sign fails continually. Now won't go online
viafax999
Community Leader
Community Leader

@lasagna wrote:

Sorry, don't need any bridges, I do however have some ocean-side property in Nevada I'd be glad to part with.   Sounds like you've confirmed that the account is active (and someone hasn't changed the password out from under you or Verizon hasn't "accidentally" cancelled the account) and that you've confirmed the credentials match what's in the client ... in which case, you're probably right that it's an app/server problem.

Curious, have you tried disabling the firewall software on your PC to see if the problem goes away?  Perhaps the application has started making or relies on non-typical ports for communication and the firewall is silently blocking these (particularly if they happen to be using UDP instead of TCP connections).

Along the same lines, have you tried designating the PC with VCA running on it as the "DMZ" host on your router? (be careful if you do this while you have the PC firewall turned off as it will leave you potentially vulnerable to attack).  If the VCA is using UDP, the packets could be getting dropped by the router for being non-stateful.

If either (or both of them together) of the above work -- then there would be a way to put a rule in the PC firewall or router to keep things working without needing to leave it in the DMZ or disabling the firewall.   If it doesn't have any effect, then we're back to your theory that it's wholly and app/server issue.  Short of putting a sniffer on the PC to capture the traffic to see what's it doing when the failure "pops up", it's hard to tell.


Suddenly started working again then just as suddenly today has stopped again.

Don't run any firewall software on machine.

Can't designate as dmz as machine is several layers away from the VZ router

PC has wireshark on it but I'm not big on the idea of wading through all of that.

Just tried it on my win7 media center machine and it fails there too.

Guess I'll have to wait for a few days until it magically starts working again

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Re: VCA sign fails continually. Now won't go online
viafax999
Community Leader
Community Leader

I guess it's not an app problem, it appears to be tied to one of the phones in the house!!!!

Have a 2 line cordless phone, actually several.  One in particular has a VM waiting indicator that has been flashing since last November. If I disconnect that phone from the wall jack I can login to VCA - BSOM, what can a pots phone have to do with causing interference with a client/server tcp application.  Of course it could just be a coincidence though I did disconnect the same phone when VCA last started to work.

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Re: VCA sign fails continually. Now won't go online
lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

Do you have a DSL connection?   If so, do you have DSL filter on the jack where your suspect phone is located?  

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Re: VCA sign fails continually. Now won't go online
viafax999
Community Leader
Community Leader

@lasagna wrote:

Do you have a DSL connection?   If so, do you have DSL filter on the jack where your suspect phone is located?  


25/25 Fios connection.  There only ever was one dsl filter when I was on adsl, split the connection at the NID and filtered one side to the house and had a dedicated unfiltered connection to the Westell adsl modem.  Threw the filter away when they removed the NID and all the outside copper.

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