Freelancer Panel has had a sales toll-free line for a few months now. Originally I had it forwarding to a Skype setup that I had set up for business use.

Without getting into a big fiasco about the software I was using with Skype, but they began to charge a ridiculous sum of money for the little use of the addon that it added. So I started looking into alternatives.

So after much researching and playing, I went with an Asterisk base system. It cost a bit of money to get it up and running, but I was able to do it with a bit of help. I had already chosen an Asterisk provider for my calls. I had originally signed up with a non-tollfree number to keep my previous number forwarding, just change it to the new number. But after a month, I realized it was cheaper both in the short term and long term, and would provide better quality.

I tried to port the number over, but since I was only “using” it and didn’t technically own it, that was not an option. So not that big of a deal, I went ahead and got a new number and updated the website to reflect that. All was fine up until about two months ago…

My toll-free number got ported over to a different provider. I had the option to wait (and the number was not available while waiting), get a new number or a new provider. I might as well wait, how long could it take, right?

The answer is 2+ months, my inbound calls not working at all. Apparently the transfer had hit a bureaucratic wall, just great. I had the same options, a new number, or a new provider. Seeing how I did not know of many providers that would work for my situtation, I went ahead and got another new number…for quite a bit more than I was originally paying. I was not too happy about that, at all.

Overall, I just wish numbers could be a bit more universial, like domain names for an example. But one can only dream.

Long story short, the new number is: 1-800-655-8805

The versioning system in Freelancer Panel has been updated to reflect 1.5.0 is stable. I’ll blog about that shortly, once I prepare the email about the update, so stay tuned…