Anyone using 2 or more lines with m0n0wall or pfSense router ?

[Bob777]

I installed my Linksys router...and wow. Yipee...It works


And I didn't even need to use port forwarding.

What is wrong with my m0n0wall that my m0n0wall won't let me call my one VoIP phone?

Maybe it's a solution similiar to the pfSense VoIP solution, where cfpalmer previously posted a link to correct a similiar problem with pfSense, that was needed to get VoIP to work with pfSense. That pfSense solution had nothing to do with port forwarding either.

So it seems that it has to be something other then port forwarding in my m0n0wall, that my m0n0wall router won't let me answer VoIP calls on my one VoIP phone.

It's a simple Linksys BEFSR81 router that now allows my VoIP to work...all without port forwarding. Now I'm really curious why my m0n0wall gives such a problem. It has to be something in the m0n0wall configuration that I'm doing wrong.

[chpalmer]

Hi Bob:

Have you seen this? http://doc.m0n0.ch/handbook/

Seems there is a sip proxy available also...

[Bob777]

I'm don't even know what sip proxy is...lol.

I do have the m0n0wall manual printed out. I'll look at it to see if there is anything about sip proxy.

Are you saying I need to turn on something called sip proxy in my m0n0wall?

At least now I can receive phone calls with my linksys router installed...all without port forwarding.

I sure would love to figure out why m0n0wall won't let it work. Maybe that sip proxy you mentioned might be a clue. For best security, I believe m0n0wall disallows things unless specifically allowed. I must not be allowing something, where the Linksys is allowing the phone calls to go through.

[tritch]

I assume you are the same user (Airplane777) over in DSLR. If so, it appears your m0n0wall has caused more issues than your current one. Just out of curosity, is it really worth the headaches to continue to use m0n0wall? I'm not familiar with it at all, but for the average user a feature rich home router should suffice for most peoples needs and would likely eliminate the issues you've been having altogether.

So maybe I should get VoIPo to set me up with two phone numbers on just one ATA. That way I'll only have one ATA to worry with.

If you are intent on keeping m0n0wall, I would pursue the option you've stated above and move both phone numbers over to the ATA that is not having any problems at all. It's likely this would eliminate the firewall/port blocking issue you are having with 2 ATA's attached. This would also allow you to assign a port forwarding range if necessary to a single ATA. As it stands now, your port forwarding range options are limited because you can't assign the same port range to the static IP's of both ATA's.

To avoid violating the TOS limit of 5000 minutes per month, I would try one these options:

Option 1:
If you use more than 5000 minutes combined between the 2 phone numbers, then I would have Voipo combine both accounts (phone numbers) to just 1 ATA on line ports 1 and 2 respectively.

Option 2:
This option is cheaper and assumes that you never have need to have the phone accounts at a separate location or public network. If you use less than 5000 minutes combined between the 2 phone numbers, then I would close one of your accounts and convert/move that phone number into a virtual number over to the remaining account for $3 extra per month. Then you would convert the virtual number into an independent 2nd line on line port 2 by logging into vPanel, clicking the Beta tab, then "2nd line" and follow the procedures for converting the virtual number. You could also have Support do this process for you, just to keep problems from arising during the account closure and virtual number conversion process.

I'm sure Voipo's support group will help you get things working whatever your decision might be. Their Tier II support team is top notch and very knowledgeable. I would try to schedule a support call with them.

[chpalmer]

Bill-

How many ip's do you get with your ISP connection?

While I agree with tritch about keeping it simple I know that I got tired of running to the office to reboot my store bought routers over the weekend when they froze up due to the number of connections...

Generally a pc running a pf solution such as mono or pfsense will have less latency due to the faster hardware but it depends...

I used Monowall for about a week several years ago so can't speak for it other than some of the similarities to pfSense... but a proxy is simply a solution to point your clients to in order to get them tunneled through a specific way whether its a browser proxy that makes you see a certain page when you first sign on or in this case a program running on the router that makes all the ata's appear to the voip provider to be only one ata with multiple numbers with your public ip address... And there is other uses also...

Ive been curious for a while about trying a sip proxy here and this seems like a good time to try...

[tritch]

I don't know if support has tried this already, but I'm curious if assigning different SIP servers to the ATA's would alleviate the problem. Maybe the SIP communication will properly traverse the firewall to the correct ATA if the SIP information is coming from different SIP server IP's. The data is either being blocked or being routed to the wrong ATA.

1st ATA - sip-east01.voipwelcome.com (Washington DC)
2nd ATA - sip-central01.voipwelcome.com (Dallas)

[Bob777]

Hi tritch:

Thank you for your post.

I did post on another thread about possibly using one ATA. That was when I thought that might be my only solution. That was when I thought my problem was port forwarding. Now I don't think it is a port forwarding issue because...

1. When I installed my Linksys router my two VoIPo phones are working quite well now. And there is no port forwarding set up in my Linksys that I could find...not even with UPnP.
2. chpalmer has a pfSense router with two ATAs and he isn't using port forwarding.
3. There is a pfSense link that chpalmer posted that recognizes that there can be VoIP problems if pfSense isn't configured correctly. Which means some smart pfSense router guru out there wrote up that configuration info for people who have VoIP connectivitiy problems.

I like the features that m0n0wall and pfSense has. For instance I have a seperate firewalled WISP subnet on my m0n0wall, seperate from my home network. Now with my Linksys I have to run the WISP network along with my home network. I prefer not to do that for very long.

I will probably try upgrading to a later version of m0n0wall, just in case I have a bug in the version I'm using now. But I'm also thinking of moving over to pfSense. Especially since chpalmer is having such success with it.

I'm looking into taking a seminar on pfSense when one is offered in the USA. I'm on an email list now to be notified when one is offered.

You are right. The commercial Linksys router did fix my problem. Both ATAs are now working. But I will probably be testing out a newer version of m0n0wall to see if that fixes the problem. I don't want to give up on finding a root cause answer to the problem. For instance, I will see if I can interpret the logs that are generated. Someone on the other thread suggested that I can probably see what is being blocked by viewing my firewall logs and that can probably give me an idea of the root cause of the problem.

I will probably eventually switch to pfSense, since I know it works for chpalmer. Thanks for your suggestions.

One big reason I went with VoIPo is I know they are associated with HostGator, and I like the HostGator service. When I get to where I feel pretty confident with using router configurations with this VoIP service, I have even thought of reselling VoIPo service, since I think it is a good value for the money.

[Bob777]

Hi guys:
Today I finally got around to loading a newer m0n0wall firmware version...v 1.33. Yipee...it worked.

The old firmware version was the culprit.

Now I can answer the one VoIPo phone when it's called...all without port forwarding.

I still have an old lingering problem with one way audio when one VoIPo phone calls the other VoIPo phone...only when my m0n0wall router is used. It's a problem caused by my router.

If I use the Linksys router I have two way audio just like I should. So there is some kind of an issue in m0n0wall causing one way audio, but thats not a big deal since no one ever calls me thats using a VoIPo phone.

So I thank everybody for the great posts and help.

[draymondchm]

The old firmware version was the culprit.

That just saved me. That did it for me as well!

[djrobx]

I just wanted to add to this thread, since it's what shows up at the top of a google search for PFSense and VOIPo. I have a GrandStream TA.

I was experiencing 1 way audio on inbound calls once I installed PFSense. I noticed looking at the firewall logs that the external servers were attempting to connect on low ports outside the "standard" port forward ranges VOIPo recommends. The problem is caused by an outbound port remapping feature, which is enabled by default for security reasons:

https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Static_Port

This link describes the feature and includes instructions on enabling a "static port" which disables this feature for a specific device. Once you do that, the generally prescribed port forwarding options will work and the 1 way audio problems stop.

I had seen a few other posts suggesting setting up some specific mappings for specific external servers, but I didn't want a solution that was dependent on knowing external IPs. VOIPo might change those. I figured it had to be something simpler, since the port forwards work OK with most generic routers