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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and the team discuss driverless cars, more password sharing restrictions, WhatsApp new feature to silence calls from unknown callers, smart TV usage patterns, , and more.
Terry in Carthage, Missouri mashed that “AskDave” button at IntoTomorrow.com and asked: “Calling in with the three items to remember: backup your data, check your spam filter and subscribe to the newsletter. I also have a question. I have problems with my iPhone accessing Wi-Fi calling in my house. I’m using an Apple iPhone 14 Pro and I have an Eero mesh system. I have a good Wi-Fi signal and I can’t seem to receive phone calls or messages on my phone when I’m in the house. I do have a metal roof on my house, but I never had any problems when I was on a Galaxy. Any suggestions, I would appreciate.”
Terry, the roof shouldnt interfere in this case. WiFi calling doesnt repeat the outside signal (which the roof could potentially block), instead it connects to your service provider via the internet and routes the call that way. That means that as long as your WiFi has internet service, you should be able to use WiFi calling.
To start out with the basics, there are two things that will need to happen for WiFi calling to be an option:
1. That the company providing you with cell phone service supports it, most do these days but not all. If youre using the same company that you were using when you were making WiFi calls with your old phone, that shouldnt be a problem. If you changed phones because you went to a different carrier, it may be worth checking.
2. That its turned on in your phones own settings. You can check that in your phones settings within your Settings app.
Assuming both of those are not causing the issue, the other problem can be that the phone may just not be able to connect with your carriers servers because of blocked ports.
Depending on how your router is set up, it may be negotiating the ports your phone needs directly with it, but it may also be set to force you to manually select which ports to open.
In this case, youd probably want UDP ports 500 and 4500, and TCP port 143, but thats just the generic setup, if that doesnt work you may need to reach out to the phone company to find out if they require different ports.
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