Client Connection Confusion

[cylonraider]

I am new to the DIY VOIP system. I have been using Packet8 for many years. I haven't had to do anything special to make my Packet8 DTA function. I just plug it in and it connects to their servers and I have a dialton. But, I am not really happy with several factors, costs and features to name a few. So I started looking for various vPBX systems and I am really impressed with the simplicty of the AXON server. I know there are others out there that may be more complex and expensive, but I am looking for simple and cheap at this point.

 

I have a colocated server in a datacenter. I am running Win2003. I installed AXON and connected a callcentric account to the outbound lines. I setup a few extensions and I can log into those extensions with Express Talk from the server's desktop (via Remote Desktop). I am now trying to get the clients to connect from remote locations to the AXON server. On my local router/firewall, if I open port 5060 and point it directly to my workstation, I am able to get Express Talk to connect just fine. But the other computers in my network can't connect to AXON remotely. If I turn off the 5060 port forward, I can't connect to AXON.

 

The confusing thing to me is that I can connect to my Callcentric account just fine regardless of whether 5060 is forwarded or not. So my question is.. what is callcentric doing that I am not? I turned off my firewall on my AXON server so that I could rule out the firewall. I don't believe my datacenter is blocking any ports besides some SQL ports for security.

 

Other bits of info that might be helpful:

1)I have UPnP on my router. It is enabled.

2)ET says i have a symmetric NAT and that it can't use uPnP

3)ET says it can't connect to the default STUN servers. stun.fwdnet.net and stun.xten.com

3)I have tried entering in my network's pulic IP and set port to 5060 and 8000

 

I feel that I am either just totally missing some aspect of this or my local router just won't accomodate this without some changes.

 

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed some light on my issues.

CylonRaider

[pythonpoole]

I'm sorry I don't really have an answer for you.

 

I have set my system up to allow both local and remote IP phones (in other countries) to connect to my personal Axon server and all works well.

 

To get the remote ones to work I had to forward the appropriate ports from WAN to LAN to point to the Axon server.

 

So to me, this sounds like a router issue, although I cannot be positive.

 

Is there some way of changing port forwarding rules for specific types of connections? For example on my router I can set rules for: WAN to LAN, LAN to WAN, LAN to LAN, WLAN to LAN, WLAN to WAN, LAN to WLAN, WAN to WLAN

 

PS: The CallCentric thing is a bit different since you are registering your account with them, where as in this situation remote phones are registering an account with you. A typical Axon setup would allow you to connect to CallCentric without problems, but wouldn't allow remote IP phones to connect to your system until further configuration was done.

[ahoman]

My example:

 

Assume your Axon pbx server and the extensions are in different locations.

 

At Axon server side , open the ports forwards to your Axon server

5060-5999 ( depends on how many extensions need to login)

8000-9999

 

At the extensions side, port forwards depends:

5060 to extension 1

5062 to extension 2

5064 to extension 3

and so on

8000-8999 forwards to all extensions

 

For STUN server, also open port 3478 to all extension because different softphone handle STUN differently.

 

Anyway, I suggest you setup a point to point VPN tunnel between server/extn sides as it is the simplest way, no port forwarding is needed.