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

[Bob777]

Hi chpalmer:

Thanks for the reply.

That could be the difference.

Sounds like you are using one ATA, with two VoIPo lines going to the one ATA. I have two seperate ATAs, with one phone line going to each.

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.

When you say,
"I do no port forwarding. Only built firewall rules to allow the servers access to the wan address..."
I'm not sure I understand.

Do you have a public static IP on your router wan port? I use public static IP.

What do your rules look like? Are they built into the Firewall>>>>NAT and Firewall>>>>Rules sections of pfSense?

My 2 ATAs are Broadstream model HT501. The one ATA that I can receive calls on, the "Phone 1" & "Phone 2" LEDs flash at the same time...when the phone is on the hook. But for the one ATA that I cannot receive calls on, the "Phone 1" & "Phone 2" LEDs do not flash at the same time. They alternate in flashing. One turns on, while the other is off. Then the other LED flashes on while the other LED is off. So something is definitely different (or wrong) there.

UPDATE: I got up this morning, and now the 2 LEDs are flashing simultaneously, just like the other one. That might be a good sign.

[chpalmer]

Hi chpalmer:

Thanks for the reply.

That could be the difference.

Sounds like you are using one ATA, with two VoIPo lines going to the one ATA. I have two seperate ATAs, with one phone line going to each.

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.

When you say,
"I do no port forwarding. Only built firewall rules to allow the servers access to the wan address..."
I'm not sure I understand.

Do you have a public static IP on your router wan port? I use public static IP.

What do your rules look like? Are they built into the Firewall>>>>NAT and Firewall>>>>Rules sections of pfSense?

My 2 ATAs are Broadstream model HT501. The one ATA that I can receive calls on, the "Phone 1" & "Phone 2" LEDs flash at the same time...when the phone is on the hook. But for the one ATA that I cannot receive calls on, the "Phone 1" & "Phone 2" LEDs do not flash at the same time. They alternate in flashing. One turns on, while the other is off. Then the other LED flashes on while the other LED is off. So something is definitely different (or wrong) there.

I use two ATA's... One with two lines that register and receive incoming calls as well as outgoing... and one ATA that does not register so it does not get incoming calls but only outgoing.

For that reason the second ata really does not count here.

But I do not have any port forwarding rules for the ata's. Ive never needed them.

I have two wan addresses here. One dhcp and one static. Voip stuff is on the dhcp.

http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/VoIP_Configuration Heres a pfSense doc...

Running out to a quick service call....

[Bob777]

Hi chpalmer:

Thank you so much for your info on this.

That pfSense link on adjusting pfSense for VoIP is so important. Did you adjust your pfSense that way? I wonder if m0n0wall has similiar settings? Hopefully so.

It's good to know you have 2 ATAs behind your router, with no port forwarding. Seems the only difference between your setup and mine, is you are using dhcp to your ATAs, and I'm using private static IPs there. And I'm using a public static IP on the wan of my router. That shouldn't cause any problems for me I don't think.

I guess you are using the Grandstream HT501 routers?

I have to run to church for now. I'll post a little more when I get back. My wife wants me to drive her to Gettysburg (about 30 miles away), so that might slow me down a little.

I do thank you so much for the input you are giving.

I wonder if there are any m0n0wll people here with 2 or more ATAs behind their router? Feel free to post. Thanks.

Bob

[Bob777]

I had an additional thought.

I see that port forwarding is suggested by VoIPo to various people that might have VoIP connection problems. After reading the link you gave me, I'm thinking there is a root cause other then port forwarding, since you don't need to do port forwarding at all and your VoIPo phones work find, with no port forwarding. I'm thinking the port forwarding solution is a work around to a root cause problem, which I haven't identified yet in my m0n0wall.

I was hoping to see some other people who use pfSense or m0n0wall post here also.

I'm thinking the link you posted (although I don't completely understand it yet), may be the root cause to the connection problem I have. I have to figure how to implement that solution in my m0n0wall. Otherwise I might switch over to pfSense.

When you use your ATAs, the ports have to be opened or your phones wouldn't work. Doesn't NAT automatically open those ports, when they are needed? Then close them when not needed? That way you have more security.

Well, I have to leave and drive my wife to Gettysburg. Thanks much

[burris]

Sorry to jump in, but the port forwarding issue has been on the table for some time now..

Every provider has different routes and different upstream carriers. Depending on how those carriers config their systems will depend on whether you need port forwarding or not.
For a long time with my Spa2102 ATA, I didn't need it. With my PAP2T and HT502 it seems to work better if I have the full range 5000-65000 enabled.
At the same time, I think the routers are pretty much the first line culprits...Many of them seem to do their own things no matter how they're set up..I've never had to use STUN.
My ISP provides dynamic DNS so my routher is set to DHCP, however, I point the forwarding route to a static IP imposed on my ATAs.

I come from the POTS telephony world and VOIP is still a constant learning process for me. Don't know if I'll ever learn.

[Bob777]

Hi burris:

Thanks for your post.

I called Verizon...my FIOS Internet provider...to see if they are blocking any ports. They say they aren't.

I did try to do port forwarding with my m0n0wall, but for some reason it didn't work. Either I'm not doing port forwarding right (although I did a lot of Googling on it), or my m0n0wall is malfunctioning.

I'm tempted to go to pfSense. Back around Feb., I bought the book about pfSense, by Chris Buechler. m0n0wall has no such book. It seems more difficult to get help with m0n0wall then pfSense...although I did get my m0n0wall set up to take credit cards for WiFi hotspots, and made it do captive portal, and dns, etc. It's just the port forwarding I can't do...yet.

I'm tired of not being able to answer my one VoIP phone. The other VoIP phone I can answer. This has gone on for 3 weeks. It use to work. I didn't make any changes on my end.

I was happy to see the link that chpalmer posted about setting pfSense up to work with VoIP. That means that very knowledgeable router people have recognized there can be a problem with passing VoIP ports through routers...and they posted a solution, which didn't have anything to do with port forwarding. chpalmer doesn't even use port forwarding with his two VoIPo lines. So maybe there is a chance for me yet.

I can call out ok though. For the most part, I like the good call quality of VoIPo.

[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.

[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)