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Making Outgoing call using GV - sometimes they can't hear me (FIXED)

Started by emachac, July 05, 2011, 09:10:27 PM

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emachac

Making Outgoing calls using GV - sometimes they can't hear me (happens maybe once or twice a week). I end up having to reboot the OBi110 and everything works just fine. I've noticed it both ways - direct and speed dialing.

I am at the latest rev - using a Cisco E4200 router (OBi is set to high QOS) - using a cable modem...

Any ideas?

RonR

One-way audio problems are frequently due to Network Address Translation (NAT) problems in your router.  The easiest way to eliminate your router is to temporarily connect your OBi directly to your cable modem and see if the problem goes away.  If it does, then it's likely your router is at fault.

If your router is the culprit, sometimes forwarding SIP (5060 - 5061) and RTP (16600 - 16998) ports to your OBi will eliminate the problem.

emachac

RonR - thank you for the reply. It doesn't happen often enough to setup the 'direct connection' test.

But, I did the SIP and RTP port forwards as you suggested and we'll see how it goes! :-)

pc44

Quote from: RonR on July 05, 2011, 09:30:32 PMIf your router is the culprit, sometimes forwarding SIP (5060 - 5061) and RTP (16600 - 16998) ports to your OBi will eliminate the problem.

What do you do when you have 2 (two) Obi's behind 1 (one) router?  :)

MichiganTelephone

Quote from: pc44 on July 06, 2011, 05:08:10 AMWhat do you do when you have 2 (two) Obi's behind 1 (one) router?  :)

Test to see that it is, in fact, the router by forwarding the ports to one of the devices.  If the audio problems magically go away for that device only, then sorry to say but you probably will need a new router.  When you buy it, make sure you can return it if it doesn't solve the problem, just in case you get another one that doesn't handle NAT properly (most new routers do, but there may still be a few lemons on the shelves).

Don't forward any ports on the new router - both OBi devices should work fine.  If by chance they don't, return that router and try a different model or brand.

On the plus side, if it's an older router, you'll probably get faster speeds on your local network after you replace it.

On our system we have a two OBi devices, a few older Linksys/Sipura devices, and an Asterisk server.  The ports mentioned in RonR's post above are within the range that we forward to the Asterisk server.  Yet all of the devices coexist happily behind one router (and some of them do connect to providers other than our Asterisk server that are not on our local network).  I mention this only to say that if forwarding the ports to the OBi actually makes a difference, it's really time to start thinking about splurging for a new router, because a good router will keep the packets flowing smoothly even if you have to forward those ports to a different device or server.
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

pc44

Great advice MichiganTelephone!  Thanks for that.  Good to know that even with forwarding the port range to one device, the other voip devices still function smoothly for you.  This is helpful info.

pc44

RonR

Quote from: pc44 on July 06, 2011, 05:08:10 AM
Quote from: RonR on July 05, 2011, 09:30:32 PMIf your router is the culprit, sometimes forwarding SIP (5060 - 5061) and RTP (16600 - 16998) ports to your OBi will eliminate the problem.
What do you do when you have 2 (two) Obi's behind 1 (one) router?  :)

I have two OBi's behind one router.  The second OBi has its SIP ports changed to 5062 - 5063 and its RTP ports changed to 17600 - 17998.  Everybody gets along perfectly.

RonR

Quote from: pc44 on July 06, 2011, 07:20:08 AM
Good to know that even with forwarding the port range to one device, the other voip devices still function smoothly for you.

I have loss of audio problems on the second (new) device when I do that with multiple OBi's and/or PAP2's.

MichiganTelephone

#8
Quote from: RonR on July 06, 2011, 09:14:00 AM
Quote from: pc44 on July 06, 2011, 07:20:08 AM
Good to know that even with forwarding the port range to one device, the other voip devices still function smoothly for you.

I have loss of audio problems on the second (new) device when I do that with multiple OBi's and/or PAP2's.

There are unfortunately a few routers out there that can't seem to handle the packets correctly.  We use a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH with factory firmware (I believe you can install DD-WRT or Tomato on it, but we've never felt the need to) and it handles multiple devices sharing the same ports just fine.  I think a lot of older routers have more issues than newer ones, but that not to say you won't find a few clinkers among the current models.

Also, you want to make sure that if the router has a SIP ALG setting, it is turned off (also see this).

This thread has some other recommendations.

Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

emachac

Checked the router and SIP ALG is turned off.

I did do more web searches and it sounds like the E4200 router has some problems with NAT..... fortunately, this problem is fairly sporadic... hopefully the port forwards will help! :-)

emachac

Just a follow-up - - - haven't had anymore problems since I added the SIP and RTP ports.

atothek

Thanks for letting us know.  I am having the same issue, so I will try the same and post back.  Thanks, everyone!


Quote from: emachac on July 18, 2011, 07:30:47 PM
Just a follow-up - - - haven't had anymore problems since I added the SIP and RTP ports.

Tack

Please allow me to muddy the water even further.

I am unable to conveniently directly attach my Obi110 to my router, s I have employed a Netgear WNCE2001 wireless bridge.  So far, it works reasonably well.

However, if I wanted to forward IP-phone port from my Netgear router, as suggested above, do I forward them to the wireless ethernet's IP (192.168.1.8) or to the Obi attached to it (192.168.1.10)?

Also, if port forwarding is foing to be employed, is a static IP set-up required?

Thanks.

RonR

Quote from: Tack on July 28, 2011, 10:22:13 AM
However, if I wanted to forward IP-phone port from my Netgear router, as suggested above, do I forward them to the wireless ethernet's IP ( 192.168.1.8 ) or to the Obi attached to it ( 192.168.1.10 )?

Also, if port forwarding is foing to be employed, is a static IP set-up required?

Forwarded ports should target the OBi's IP address.  If your router doesn't give a consistent IP address to the OBi, then you would obviously need a static IP address.  Many routers support something called static DHCP which allows you to assign a particular IP address via DHCP on a per MAC address basis.

Tack

My Netgear N150 router shows in port forwarding the options to send TCP and UDP ports, but no mention of RTP, etc.  Are the TCP ports the ones i wish to forward?  Anything else?

Thanks.

RonR

TCP and UDP are trasnsport protocols, whereas RTP is a service protocol.

RTP service protocol uses UDP transport protocol.  In cases where you aren't sure whether to specify TCP or UDP, it's usually safe to select Both.


pennywaltz

thanks, port forwarding fixed my problem. weird the many months I had obihai never had an issue till now

RonR

I unconditionally forward SIP and RTP ports as well as use a STUN server in all VoIP installations simply to avoid problems arising at a later date.  If you don't, you will in all likelihood experience issues at some point.

earthtoobi

what i noticed is that when i use google voice, the port number range for the trunk is not followed.