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Various Problems


psykomotor

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Hi All,

 

I am having numerous problems getting a new VoIP telephony system working with an assortment of programs - I have been trying to solve these problems for 2-3 months now but am having no luck, sometimes I fix one, and it breaks another - Hopefully someone out there will know the answers to my problem.

 

Here is a diagram of my setup :

 

Management%20Network.jpg

 

- The orange lines represent communications of an internally developed XML protocol. This is a standalone system, and is working.

- The green lines represent general web traffic. This is a standalone system, and is working.

- The blue lines represent VoIP traffic. This is a standalone system, and is not working.

 

To give you a general overview of how the system works, (This is just for background reading, without problems) :

 

Developers are housed at the central development office, and some also work remotely. Each of them can access the central management server either via a web interface or thier desktop client which provides them with thier tasklists, auto-timesheeting etc. Currently all voice communication is done via normal landlines and mobile phones - what I want to do is create a system where calls can be directed to the correct developer (they work on different projects and clients should be passed to the correct developer).

 

To do this I have set up Axon, IVM, VRS + IMS, on the central management server which houses amongst other applications a webserver, dns server, database server. The IVM directs users through a few menus and uses an internally developed plugin to determine the appropriate extension to pass the user to. This part of the IVM system communicates with the management system perfectly fine and is working well.

 

The central management server is housed remotely in a data center with a 10MBps synchronous connection. The OS is Windows Server 2003. IPSec is the only 'firewall' as such. The box has 2 IP addresses (.76 and .77) on 1 NIC which is directly connected to the internet. The SIP Provider is aql - using single VoIP line.

 

So, onto the problems :

 

Dual IP Address not working

 

When running Axon on the server, it incorrectly sets its Public IP Address to use the second address (.77) when it should be using the first (.76). Using uPnP, STUN or manual override (and in any combination of the three) on the networking page of Axon has no effect. This has numerous strange effects including not answering/ringing for calls at all, one way audio, no audio - seems to vary.

 

This fault is quite easily overriden by removing the second IP Address from the NIC. This is not acceptable as a permanent solution - however, it is a slightly lower priority as the other issues persist despite this quick-fix.

 

One Way Audio

 

Have had this in all sorts of strange ways since setting the system up. Currently, an inbound call will ring through Axon to IVM, be answered, and will have bi-directional audio. (But this has been 'on and off' so to speak).

 

Audio from a softphone in the development office now has no audio in either (Hard to confirm outbound) direction.

 

I have toggled every different setting on the Axon line and tried several of my VoIP providers outbound proxies at thier reccomendation - Nothing has been effective and simply leaves different variants of the same fault (i.e reversing the direction which can be heard).

 

I have tested disabling the IPSec which effectively means the central management server has no firewall. this does not seem to have any effect whatsoever.

 

What would be most useful is if someone could confirm what the firewall settings should be used at any applicable point (i.e Central Server IPSec, NAT Routers, Development Office Server)

 

VRS has proven useful in getting some sort of insight into this issue - VRS seems to record both directions of audio in all circumstances.

 

Extensions not ringing

 

This was not always the case, but currently even if directly passed through Axon (using 'ring on' from the voip line) or called via a transfer from IVM, the softphones at the development office do not ring.

 

On-Hold not working

 

Anything that causes 'on hold' / 'ringing' to start, or any position where the on hold music from IMS should play, is instantly 'taken over' by music I presume to be from my VoIP provider. This includes pressing the 'hold' button (back when the extensions were sort of working), IVM starting a transfer, or using a group/queue set to use the IMS on hold player.

 

This problem probably has a lot to do with my VoIP provider but what I wonder, is why does the signal to hold ever get as far as my VoIP provider ???

 

Cannot use DNS Name on Extensions (FIXED : See later post)

 

When using a normal SIP gateway, the DNS name (+ possibly the port) is entered into the server field. If I enter the domain name of the central management server (which is working correctly, as it works for web/xml management client) - the extension will fail to register. Is this intended behaviour ? What if I ever wanted to put axon on a different server !?

 

I have been searching the forums quite a lot for the last 2 months but am really at a dead end with a lot of these errors. If anyone can help me solve these problems I would be VERY appreciative as they are driving me nuts !!! :(

 

Thanks in advance.

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Dual IP Address not working

- Have you tried enabling only the manual configuration (i.e. disabling UPNP and Stun)? This should force Axon to use the IP of your choosing.

 

One Way Audio

- To my knowledge the only (or at least major) cause of this problem is blocked ports on the router's firewall. I have no experience with IPSec, so I don't know exactly what it does, but if there was truly no firewall and you ran the network set-up wizard in the softphone, there shouldn't be any one-way/no-way audio problems.

- If your router has a DMZ option, try enabling it for one of your voip phones/softphones, this should truly disable any firewall and open up all ports for communication for the specified device. If there is still no audio after using DMZ, then there is something else causing the problem. (Also note there are usually several firewalls (both hardware and software based) in a typical network set-up, and each firewall will have to be modified to allow communication on the necessary ports to ensure two-way audio.

- If DMZ does work, then the issue is firewall related and you will need to determine how to forward specific ports on the router's firewall (as well as any other firewalls which may exist in between the Internet connection and the server/voip phones.

 

Extensions not ringing

- Make sure the extension is registered properly with Axon when the call takes place (Axon will report the IP address of the extension in the web config panel if it is registered)

- Make sure there are no errors displayed on either side (Axon or the softphone) which may indicate a problem

- Be sure to run the network set-up wizard on the softphone (assuming it's Express Talk) to fix and diagnose any network communication problems

 

On-Hold not working

- This is because the softphone will send a 'on hold' signal to the server end (e.g. Axon) to let the server know the call is on hold. If the server doesn't respond, the softphone (Express Talk) plays a simple chimes tune. If the server does respond, the call will then play the MOH (music on hold) provided by the server. Unfortunately what I think happens is Express Talk connects directly to the VoIP provider when in a call, so Express Talk is actually sending the signal to initiate MOH to your VoIP provider rather than using VRS.

 

- In some cases this is desired. For example, sometimes I use Express Talk with a remotely hosted PBX system (running Asterisk) which offers its own MOH system. When I put a caller on hold, I want and expect Express Talk to use the MOH from the Asterisk Server. Express Talk performs this task correctly, and for that I am pleased. But it is also undesirable in a case like yours where your VoIP provider offers its own MOH (not very common) and you wish to use IMS instead.

 

Cannot use DNS Name on Extensions

- I'm not exactly sure what the problem is? You should be able to enter an IP address or hostname/DNS name of the server, and I'm pretty sure appending the port number to that (e.g. mydomain.com:5071) should work. What exactly is it you are trying to accomplish, and how is it not working?

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Thanks, taken me a while to get through those :D

 

Dual IP Address not working

- Yes. Axon does not bind to the first address even if it is set using the 'Use static address and static mapped ports' option.

 

One Way Audio

- The way the IPSec is setup for all purposes consider it as a firewall. (Actually it's a protocol - but thats not what its being used for on the server). Enabling or disabling it seems to have no effect on any aspect.

 

- Network setup wizard on the server does not report any problems, and does not seem to behave differently using STUN,uPnP, or static IP/port binding. I seem to get better performance with the 'static IP/port' option at the moment so I am using that. This appears to be two way at the moment (EDIT: Within 30 mins of writing, I'm now getting no outbound audio, don't know inbound status. - (Call from mobile phone to IVM on server) Nothing has been changed.)- but just how consistent this situation is I'm not 100% on, i'll probably need to call it every 15 mins over the course of a day and make a note to get a good idea so I'll do this at the next opportunity.

 

- Network setup wizard on the softphone (phones in the development office on the diagram) reports 'symmetric NAT/cannot autodetect'. I am using the setting 'Use static address and static mapped ports' with the external IP address of the office and SIP port 5060, RTP ports starting from 8000. Registration with Axon occurs perfectly - 'Registered as sip:NUMBER@IP' shows up on the phone. The phone also shows up as connected in the extension list on Axons web manager - it does show up as XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:63640 (This high numbered port changes sometimes on re-registration) - where I would have expected 5060... this could be part of the problem ?.

 

- I cannot put the softphone in the DMZ at the moment though I will attempt to create a situation where I can, as the router is on a different subnet (192.168.0.X) from the internal network (192.168.1.X - DHCP provided by the server). The diagram should show the situation - consider most things from the 'development office' perspective, going through the server and then through the router. The router is effectively acting as a modem.

 

- There are no software firewalls on any workstation, (Windows Firewall is disabled by Group Policy - the server is also a W2K3 domain controller). There is no firewall on the development office server, only NAT.

 

- The only firewall is at the router/modem (192.168.0.1) which port forwards 5060 and 8000-8100 to the server (192.168.0.2).

 

I will refresh the diagram ASAP to reflect some of this further detail.

 

Extensions not ringing

-As indicated above, registration occurs.

-No errors are shown during the registration process (Nor at any other time either).

-Networking setup wizard results as indicated above.

 

On-Hold not working

-Ok, is there any way to force Express Talk/Axon not to communicate hold information directly to the VoIP provider ? Or more importantly any connected device - as the IP phones may well not offer this sort of option.

 

I have quizzed my VoIP provider about this and they took a look at my line and informed me of the following (quoted from a support ticket) :

 

"Your PABX is currently asking us to put the call on hold, rather than putting it on hold itself. You would need to configure your PABX differently."

 

FIXED : Cannot use DNS Name on Extensions

- One down ! (Thanks :D) It was missing the port off that caused this (i.e. i was just saying 'mydomain.com', not 'mydomain.com:5060'). I wanted to use a DNS name incase I ever needed to move the axon server as part of expanding the infrastructure and would not want to have to issue the new IP to everyone using the system.

 

Curiosity : High CPU Usage

 

This might not be related to any of the problems at all, just an observation. I was performing some routine health checkups and caught axon using 50% of the servers CPU at highly regular intervals. Axon certainly wasn't 'doing anything' i.e. no calls, only 2 extensions registered. Is this normal ? What is it doing ?

 

Axon%20CPU.jpg

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Dual IP Address not working

- I'm going to have to assume this is a bug in Axon then. You'll have to report the bug to NCH directly or put it in the suggestions topic. This is unlikely to be fixed soon though.

 

One Way Audio

- I still have to think about this one. I'm not used to working with such complex networks. They tend to have so many variables that it's hard to pin-point where a problem lies. Just a note, I think you will need to forward ports for each PC running the softphone. The softphone needs to connect directly to the VoIP provider for the call and I find I get much better performance out of ET when I forward the port directly to the computer which is running the ET software at that port. I'm not sure forwarding everything to the Axon server is going to helping much.

 

Extensions not ringing

- I don't know what to suggest, this seems very strange to me. Does the other end report any error code (e.g. Busy, no response, etc.)? If you can, try and post the SIP trace log of the call (from both ends if applicable).

 

On-Hold not working

- Just make sure Express Talk is set to "Link to IMS On-Hold Player (Professional Option)".. other than that, there is no other option to try and force ET to use IMS over the VoIP service's MOH. Nor is there an option in either ET or Axon to disable signalling of MOH to the VoIP server. This leaves you with 5 options:

1) Contact NCH about the issue, see if they can help you (will take a while for response, no guarantees)

2) Use the NCH development service and request the feature to allow disabling of MOH signalling to the VoIP provider. They will charge you to program the custom feature, but they will probably also give you a large discount if you let them use the feature in the next public release of Axon/ET

3) See if your VoIP provider can disable their MOH system for your account

4) Switch VoIP providers

5) Live with it the way it is :(

 

Curiosity : High CPU Usage

- This is very abnormal, and I don't know what would cause this. For me axon uses "0%" processor usage (according to task manager; using a P4 2.4 GHz processor) when idle, and not much more when active.

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Thanks again for your help so far, do they pay you for this ? :rolleyes:

 

Dual IP Address not working

To report the bug to them directly, will I need to pay for support ?

 

One Way Audio

Seem to have got some improvements between the server and the SIP gateway - I don't really know how, because I haven't changed anything. Call performance is intermittent though, sometimes the audio just doesn't work. (To clarify : I've tried the 'prevent forwarding odd ports' option, but it has no effect.).

 

No audio between anywhere and the softphone at the moment (If it rings). I'll get a siptrace up here for both axon and ET ASAP.

 

Extensions not ringing

Well, some developments... After rebooting the pc with the softphone, the extension will ring again. After a VoIP blind transfer from IVM the softphone will ring indefinately (beyond the point that the caller disconnects). The phantom call can be picked up, at which point it instantly disconnects. After this the softphone no longer rings - but it still sends outbound dial requests (which do get answers, but there is still no audio). I can see that axon is sending the INVITE messages to it. Rebooting ET, the softphone, alone has no effect.

 

On-Hold not working

Express talk isn't set to use IMS (I can see the logic behind your suggestion, that hold request must be starting somewhere). Before I could even try it though I'd need to buy the business version, which I would (I'd buy serveral, infact) - but I've already gambled on the software I've already purchased and its lining up to be my worst investment to date, so I don't really want to stake any more :(. It wouldn't be a viable fix for the hardphones either.

 

The on hold player is on the server and should be connected to axon. It is axon that should be providing and intercepting the MOH though surely - could this be a bug ? It certainly seems to be in Axons product description that it provides this service.

 

I will query my VoIP provider again, who have been very helpful and provided replies to 14 support tickets in the time since starting this thread, usually within a few hours, often less than one, all for my measly £4 a month. *cough cough*.

 

I don't really want to leave them either, as on top of the great support the fax and sms services work brilliantly. They also operate some crazy idea where you don't pay (well, more than the call cost) to talk to tech support - how mad is that ? it'll never catch on...

 

Curiosity : High CPU Usage

Weird huh :mellow:

 

A straight up question : Are these products and technologies really suitable for commercial use ?

 

Thanks again.

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Thanks again for your help so far, do they pay you for this?
No, but they did offer me a product of my choice from their website once, I accepted.

 

Dual IP Address not working

To report the bug to them directly, will I need to pay for support ?

You can report software bugs directly here: http://www.nch.com.au/software/bug.html

You can also contact NCH about Axon here (bottom of page): http://nch.com.au/pbx/support.html

 

Extensions not ringing

Well, some developments... After rebooting the pc with the softphone, the extension will ring again. After a VoIP blind transfer from IVM the softphone will ring indefinitely (beyond the point that the caller disconnects). The phantom call can be picked up, at which point it instantly disconnects. After this the softphone no longer rings - but it still sends outbound dial requests (which do get answers, but there is still no audio). I can see that axon is sending the INVITE messages to it. Rebooting ET, the softphone, alone has no effect.

I remember once having a problem where the extension would continuously ring after the caller had disconnected. Unfortunately I can't remember how I solved the problem. Also, it only happened with ET I think, and now I use hardware based phones and/or VoIP ATA adaptors which perform well and have greater stability (in my opinion).

 

On-Hold not working

Express talk isn't set to use IMS (I can see the logic behind your suggestion, that hold request must be starting somewhere). Before I could even try it though I'd need to buy the business version, which I would (I'd buy serveral, infact) - but I've already gambled on the software I've already purchased and its lining up to be my worst investment to date, so I don't really want to stake any more sad.gif. It wouldn't be a viable fix for the hardphones either.

 

The on hold player is on the server and should be connected to axon. It is axon that should be providing and intercepting the MOH though surely - could this be a bug ? It certainly seems to be in Axons product description that it provides this service. I will query my VoIP provider again, who have been very helpful and provided replies to 14 support tickets in the time since starting this thread, usually within a few hours, often less than one, all for my measly £4 a month. *cough cough*.
I would say you're correct in suggesting that Axon should interface directly with IMS and use that for MOH when an extension initiates an MOH request. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that, at least not in this version and I believe the client phone (i.e. ET) is supposed to hook-up directly with IMS with the option you mentioned.
Note, you can download Express Talk business edition free to try for 14 days (last time I checked). If you already installed ET or ET business on the computer, use another computer for testing. You should be able to use the IMS on hold feature to test it before purchasing the product.

 

Curiosity : High CPU Usage
If you can, try installing Axon on another test computer with similar specifications (and if possible, running the same OS), monitor the CPU usage and see if it reports similar results. Perhaps there is some other software running on the OS that is causing a conflict, I'm not really sure what to make of this, in fact I'm not really sure what to make from a lot of what you have said (most of the problems are new to me).

 

A straight up question : Are these products and technologies really suitable for commercial use ?
What I will say is that these products were intended for (and I believe are also suitable for) small to medium sized businesses and home offices. For large corporations or high reliability services (e.g. Emergency Call Centres, Help lines, Hospitals, etc.) if I did decide to use NCH products, I would make sure I had back-up/redundant systems which could be deployed instantly in case of problems.

 

Thanks again.
Your welcome.
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