Skype for Bizness on Mac, incoming call delayed ring or not ringing at all

[Brad Johnson]

The University is on a VOIP system that uses Skype for Business as our phone system and SfB isn't playing nice on Mac machines. The problem is incoming calls. They have a much-delayed ring on the answering party's end, that is if they ring at all. The caller will hear the phone ringing properly but the VOIP phone on the other end is doing nothing, or maybe catches part of the last ring. Certainly not with enough time for the called party to actually answer the call before it kicks over to voicemail. A cursory application of Google Fu shows it to be a common problem with no consistently successful solution other than switching to a PC.

Anyone else run into this and find a reliable solution?

If it were up to me I would chuck all the Mac products in the trash and get something less expensive and more enterprise-friendly. Unfortunately, being an institution of higher education, we have a larger than usual Cult of Mac contingent who insist on using nothing but Apple products. Anyone else run into this and eventually find a way around it?

Brad

[Calumus]

Just a guess, as I don't use Skype, but have they ever worked reliably? If they did, and then it changed around April or May, it could be an update to the router they're behind that is causing the issue. My largest client is on vonage for business and ran it for over two years without a hiccup.

Once the router was updated for whatever the major security problem was that was revealed that month, they started dropping calls. That plus call quality that went to hell has ended up being my biggest headache of the summer. Put in a separate connection from the isp just for the phones, and used the modem/ router from comcast with all security disabled. Everything is now back to the way it was.

You could also try turning off the firewall on one Mac that was having issues, and seeing if that helps. If so, find out how to make exceptions for Skype in it.