Calls intermittently going directly to voicemail

[lost_]

If you have the VOIPo device connected to a router or a modem with a built in router, it's very important to have ports 5004-65000 forwarded on your router when using VOIPo service in order to be sure to receive all calls.

Tim, is 5004-65000 the new, recommended UDP port forwarding range? Previously, the common recommendation for UDP port forwarding was 35000-65000, and 5060-5080 TCP/UDP.

[VOIPoTim]

Tim, is 5004-65000 the new, recommended UDP port forwarding range? Previously, the common recommendation for UDP port forwarding was 35000-65000, and 5060-5080 TCP/UDP.

Yes, this is the new range we are recommending. It's the range our CLEC partners use for media now.

[zcnkac]

Aren't these ports what the CPE (linksys/grandstream) selects for the local media stream, rather than what the CLEC media server use ? Linksys by default uses - 16384-16482. Usually only these ports need to be forwarded. In another thread someone mentioned that the router might map the ports to something else externally and therefore a lot more ports need to be forwarded.

I have Asterisk and limit it to ports 14020-14030. I have a Linksys WRT running Tomato and forward only these ports.

[VOIPoTim]

Aren't these ports what the CPE (linksys/grandstream) selects for the local media stream, rather than what the CLEC media server use ? Linksys by default uses - 16384-16482. Usually only these ports need to be forwarded. In another thread someone mentioned that the router might map the ports to something else externally and therefore a lot more ports need to be forwarded.

I have Asterisk and limit it to ports 14020-14030. I have a Linksys WRT running Tomato and forward only these ports.

I guess it depends on router, but am not 100% sure of the technical reasoning. What I do know is that most of the time when people report issues and we check logs, we see the traffic coming in from the remote media gateway on a port within to 5004-65000 range and the router blocking it or misrouting it. Some routers let it through, but the ones that analyze it sometimes see the connection as "unknown" since it's from a different IP on a port not already being used, etc.

[Brian]

I guess it depends on router, but am not 100% sure of the technical reasoning. What I do know is that most of the time when people report issues and we check logs, we see the traffic coming in from the remote media gateway on a port within to 5004-65000 range and the router blocking it or misrouting it. Some routers let it through, but the ones that analyze it sometimes see the connection as "unknown" since it's from a different IP on a port not already being used, etc.

I guess, since it's not within VOIPo's network, it isn't possible to narrow this range down, or specific ports? What do those of us with multiple VOIP providers/lines do?

[stevech]

For my ATA connected on the LAN side of the router, why do I not need to do port forwarding for VoIP? I do have a couple of servers: HTTP and IP cameras with single ports forwarded.

[Russell]

I guess, since it's not within VOIPo's network, it isn't possible to narrow this range down, or specific ports? What do those of us with multiple VOIP providers/lines do?

I would agree with Brian. That's a huge range to open. It really does not matter what port the CLEC uses - it's what port the CLEC is trying to access on the ATA on our (customer) side and only those ports need to be forwarded. For one provider to hog a range that wide is (in my opinion) unreasonable. Surely you can work with your partners that they use a certain range for VOIPo customers? As I previously mentioned: my basic understanding is that there is a port/ports on the CLEC side and a port/ports on the customer side that talk to each other and while the CLEC gateway could be talking to many many customers and so will need a wide range of ports in operation on the CLEC side, they can still target a narrow range on the customer side.

[holmes4]

In particular, that port range overlaps ranges used by other services.

[caseydoug]

I guess, since it's not within VOIPo's network, it isn't possible to narrow this range down, or specific ports? What do those of us with multiple VOIP providers/lines do?

I would carve out the assignments for other devices, and give the rest over to VOIPo. For example, I have several other adapters, for both voice and security, which I assign ports 5060, 5061, 5063, 5065, etc. VOIPo's two lines get 5079 and 5080. Ports in the 5060-5080 range must be assigned to the appropriate VoIP adapter for signaling. But I can still assign 35000-65000 to VOIPo for RTP (audio), and it does not seem to interfere with the other devices. I suppose I could also extend that to 5081-65000 if I were having problems with my VOIPo line.

I also have other devices, such as a Slingbox and a digital audio server (or I occasionally run servers such as HTTP or Remote Desktop), which require that I forward other ports. These are generally TCP ports, however, so they don't interfere.

The point is that if you need to forward other ports for other purposes, do it, but give VOIPo as many of the UDP ports between 5004 and 65000 as you can. The chances are pretty slim that the ports you have forwarded to other adapters will ever be needed by VOIPo.

[voipinit]

That does seem like a huge range to open unnecessarily. My ATA is behind my router and I don't forward any ports, also have my router SPI firewall enabled and rely on a STUN server to open the appropriate ports.