"Port Forwarding" vs "Port Range Forwarding"

[VOIPoTim]

Why is it randomly assigned? For security purposes? Would it be possible to narrow this down to maybe a several hundred ports range, so we can minimize the number of ports we forward?

Most of the audio streams are directly from remote media gateways and don't pass through us so most is out of our control.

[statustray]

We find the vast majority of issues related to one way (or no way) audio as well as other connectivity problems to be NAT related. As such, we strongly suggest applying port forwarding (UDP/TCP) as a solution.

Think of the port range 5060 - 5080 as the 'control range,' whereby the adapter communicates back and forth with VOIPo's data centers, providing instructions on how to handle the call.

Separated from this control functionality is the audio stream (RTP), which connects on a randomized port between the range of 35000 - 65000. One key point to consider is that incoming audio is often proxied from different locations throughout the country, depending on the incoming audio's origination and geography.

Because of this separation in call handling and call audio, it is not uncommon for an incoming audio stream to reach the adapter from a completely different (and previously unseen) IP address. Occasionally, some hardware firewalls and SPI filter algorithms (erroneously) detect this incoming data as illegitimate, and block or otherwise prevent/manipulate it from reaching the adapter in tact.

What if one has more than one adapter?

[caseydoug]

What if one has more than one adapter?

I don't think he's saying that everyone should forward all these ports, but if you are having problems, this is the quickest way to fix it. I was having some problems, but I have at least three other adapters running on my network, not counting soft phones. I forwarded a smaller range of ports, and reduced that further once it was clear that the problems had diminished to an acceptable level. I still get the occasional dropped call, but it's hard to know whether this is caused by my network, cell phone reception at the other end, someone's ear hitting the "end" button, or what. It's fairly infrequent.

[statustray]

I don't think he's saying that everyone should forward all these ports, but if you are having problems, this is the quickest way to fix it. I was having some problems, but I have at least three other adapters running on my network, not counting soft phones. I forwarded a smaller range of ports, and reduced that further once it was clear that the problems had diminished to an acceptable level. I still get the occasional dropped call, but it's hard to know whether this is caused by my network, cell phone reception at the other end, someone's ear hitting the "end" button, or what. It's fairly infrequent.

Yes, I have more than one adapter too- thru different providers. I have been with VoicePulse for years now, and with VoiPO for a year. I even switched my landline (AT&T), over to Comcast several months ago as they had a special of $19.99 per month for the first 12 months. Why didn't I switch that line to Voipo? I figured Comcast because they have free calling to Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and a few others places which I call quite regularly.

I have had some issues with Voipo's call waiting, and am have been sent a RPT but haven't received it yet. I do like how quickly Voipo responds to trouble tickets, and their overall feature set!

I was just trying to be sure that under normal circumstances, having multiple adapters wouldn't ordinarily cause a problem.

Thanks for the clarification ;-)

[caseydoug]

In addition to the PAP2 from VOIPo, I have another PAP2 from NextAlarm, and a couple of old Azacall/UTStarcom adapters from Lingo that I use for fooling around with other services (Google Voice, SipSorcery, Callcentric, IPKall, etc.). Some of these setups require that I be able to reach the adapter directly from another adapter -- i.e., without a SIP proxy in between. These direct connections could not be made without port forwarding, since an external caller needs to be directed to the appropriate device. However, several people have reported using multiple adapters without any port forwarding at all, with no problems. YMMV.