voip problems

[icenews]

Hi

I have the latest update to Untangle
I have a remote office connecting to my Pbx in a Flash PBX using Xlite.

I am beginning to feel there is a bug in the bypass rules in Untangle.

Supposedly all VOIP SIP protocol is bypassed, and this does not seem to be the case. The past few months now, I have had many complaints about poor quality voice transmissions, choppiness, breaking up in the voice.
It normally starts later in the day, after about 1:00pm, although it will act up mostly through out the day.

This is baffling me. I have the bypass rules set to by pass all traffic, by ip, and UDP coming from my remote office, PBX, turned on QOS and and still to no avail, I am having the same daily issues.

I also replaced the cisco router - with no solution.
I turned off - Attack blocker - and still no solution
I turned everything off on the rack - and still no solution.

I am baffled, I am beginning to feel, that the bypass rule is not doing its job.

Any help is appreciated

Thank you
Walt

[255]

Ok,

I'm happy to help but it would be better if you email m direct.

Is the external extension registering Ok or are you not even getting that far?

How are you connected to the Internet? Are you doing NAT? If so what device?

Is the UT box in transparent or router mode?

Thanks

Alan.scott@codeblue.co.nz

[icenews]

HI and thank you for your help

Yes - External Extensions (using X-lite) is registering)
people calling on the phones through out the day
So far (3 people) - using a T1 Connection to the internet

I have the X-lite registered with my main pbx in the main office

Voice quality varies from good to bad through the day - with choppiness.
mostly bad thru the afternoons - on and off with every phone call
sometimes customers experience the problem, other times our people hear the problem in the voice clairty.

I thought I solved the problem when I turned off attack blocker. It went good for 3 days, then simply went back to its old routine.

I am bypassing, the 2nd office by IP, by Server destination, and today decided to by pass all UDP traffice - and will see what happens tomorrow.

I have the UT box connected to the Cisco Rouiter, and It is handling my NAT - I believe. I am not using NAT on my Win 2003 Servers.

How do I know if my UT Box is in Transparent or router mode ?

Thank you
Walt

[255]

So the Cisco is connected to the T1 and the other side of the Cisco is connected to the UT box?

Has the UT box got 1 IP address or two? If UT is in bridge mode (I call it Layer 2 Mode) then it will only have 1 IP address which is used to manage it.

If both interfaces on the UT box has an IP address then it is in router mode.

Are your trunks connected to the Asterisk sever via SIP?

Thanks

[icenews]

Hi and how are you today

Cisco Router has three interfaces
- 1 connected to the Provider (t1 - Port A) PRI
- 1 connected to the PBX Server (t1 - Port B) PRI
- 1 connected to the Untangle Box (Port C) not t1

PBX Server has two interfaces
(Asterisk using PBX in a Flash Setup Scripts)
- 1 connected to the Cisco Router (t1 - Port B)
- 1 connected to the Local Network (Port D1)

Untangle has two interfaces
- 1 connected to the cisco router (Port C) (External IP)
- 1 connected to the Local Network (Port D2) (Internal IP)

I guess this means UT is in router mode
The trunks are connected to the Asterisk Server via PRI (t1 - Port B)
The Phones are registered to the Asterisk Server via SIP

I setup BYPASSed ALL UDP protocols into Untangle - Last Night
Today - There are NO reported problems
except the following:
Only problem reported - was when I saved some paramaters on Untangle
They immediately called me and said it acted up
Apparantly - when I Update and Save new settings in Untangle,
for that moment while the sytem does a save, their Voice is affected

Will monitor more closesly about the ALL UDP Bypass - to see if it solved my problem

Thank you
Walt

[icenews]

Hi

After setting up the Bypass on the UDP, and changing my Cisco Router

We had no problems for a week - Until it started up again Friday.

Today we have problems again.

This is very strange it seems like everytime I make a change, things are good for a few days, and then it reverts back to us having problems

I have tried to reduce the QOS to 50% on Office 1 - see if that helps

If you have any suggestions, it is deeply appreciated

Thank syou

[Zanthexter]

From your diagram, I would expect that SIP (xLite) clients in the home office should work fine pretty much all the time, and the remote SIP users would have problems during periods of heavy internet use.

I'm guessing at a few pieces here, but:

You sound like you have AT&T as your VOIP provider (and them insisting on a PRI connection to an "uncertified" PBX.) Maybe not, but it sounds awefully familiar

The Cisco will classify as "voice" calls made over PortB (the virtual PRI by your labeling) and "data" anything over PortC. In other words, calls made directly from the PBX on PortB get priority over everything else.

So, in effect, PortC doesn't have a "fixed" amount of bandwidth, it's not 1.44 up and down. When there are "voice" calls from the PBX on PortB the Cisco reduces the bandwidth available to PortC, the Untangle. If Untangle is told the bandwidth available is 1.44Mb, QoS will not work correctly when the bandwidth available is less than that amount.

Untangle's QoS and Bypasses ONLY affect SIP from your remote users. Local users are not connecting through Untangle. They connect directly to the PBX, wich connects directly to Cisco, no Untangle involved.

For Untangles QoS to have any effect at all, you need to take into account what bandwidth is realistically available to it during heavy voice usage. Each call sent to the PSTN via the Cisco reduces the bandwidth Untangle has to work with.

Try setting the Untangle QoS settings to half a T1, say 768k. See if that helps. If it does, start notching it up each day until you reach a point where problems occur. Then back off.

If internal SIP users are having problems as well, again noting that for them Untangle is not part of things, you may have bandwidth issues internally. Whether its a malware infection flooding the network or something else, having QoS on your switches can help.

It might help to draw a diagram of each peice and each step with arrows to see what talks to what when a call is made, and how it affects everything else. At this time I don't think there's a problem with Untangle, I think you have a "dynamic" T1 with a variable amount of bandwidth on the internet side of things.

If I might suggest - See if you can get cable in for cheap ($100 / mo) bulk internet. Use the T1 primarily for voice and as backup internet.

Edit: To clarify one point, the REMOTE users come in via the Internet, the "data" connection on PortC, are dealt with by Untangle QoS and Bypasses, as they are then rerouted to the PBX, which sends them out on PortB, now as voice calls. Thats why remote users are affected, but internal are not.