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[asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones


 
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kevin.smith at mercury...
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:37 am    Post subject: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones Reply with quote

Hi everyone,

I have been running into a few issues with Asterisk/polycom and I am
running out of ideas. This problem has been ongoing for the last couple
of weeks. I will try to be as detailed as I can, but I might leave out a
few details. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Our setup: Asterisk 1.2.22, Fedora 4. Co-located to our PRI providers
facility. Comes to us via a DS3 to our other co-lo, then is sent via
wireless to our office. We also have another office in another state but
the connection is pretty much identical (they may have different
wireless equipment) except the path it takes.

About 3 weeks ago, our phones started to reboot randomly. Sometimes
within 5 minutes, and sometimes up to an hour, but they were pretty
consistent, and it didn't matter if the agent was on the phone or not.
Asterisk would only tell me that the phones were not reachable, which
clearly was the case since it was rebooting. At the time, they were
running I think SIP version 1.6.6. However, the odd factor to that, was
the office in the other state was not having this problem (running
1.6.6) and my phone and my supervisors (which we were testing SIP 2.2.2).

After having our phone company test the DS3, there were some errors
found, and correct and that solved the problem for a few days. Which of
course, it started to happen again. However, this time there were no
errors on the DS3, and again the same problems were occurring, but my
phone, my supervisors, and the other states were fine. So I decided to
upgrade all of the phones to version 2.2.2. So that at least solved the
reboot problem, but I ran into another problem.

Now, the phones lose their registration with Asterisk. My bosses phone
does it every time he receives a voicemail. Most people can go a few
hours without having to restart, but then sooner or later, it loses its
registration. From what I can tell, there are no errors in Asterisk, no
errors in the logs from the phones booting. I can even ping the phones
from the asterisk box when this happens, but they just won't re-reg with
the system. Now my phone has been up almost 3 days now, but other phones
are still having this problem. Also the phones in the other state are
not having this problem AND are still on 1.6.6.

Anyone have any suggestions on something to look at, test, try, etc? I'm
completely stumped.

Thanks,
Kevin
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jmr.richardson at gmai...
Guest





PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:42 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones Reply with quote

Quote:
I have been running into a few issues with Asterisk/polycom and I am
running out of ideas. This problem has been ongoing for the last couple
of weeks. I will try to be as detailed as I can, but I might leave out a
few details. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Our setup: Asterisk 1.2.22, Fedora 4. Co-located to our PRI providers
facility. Comes to us via a DS3 to our other co-lo, then is sent via
wireless to our office. We also have another office in another state but
the connection is pretty much identical (they may have different
wireless equipment) except the path it takes.

About 3 weeks ago, our phones started to reboot randomly. Sometimes
within 5 minutes, and sometimes up to an hour, but they were pretty
consistent, and it didn't matter if the agent was on the phone or not.
Asterisk would only tell me that the phones were not reachable, which
clearly was the case since it was rebooting. At the time, they were
running I think SIP version 1.6.6. However, the odd factor to that, was
the office in the other state was not having this problem (running
1.6.6) and my phone and my supervisors (which we were testing SIP 2.2.2).

After having our phone company test the DS3, there were some errors
found, and correct and that solved the problem for a few days. Which of
course, it started to happen again. However, this time there were no
errors on the DS3, and again the same problems were occurring, but my
phone, my supervisors, and the other states were fine. So I decided to
upgrade all of the phones to version 2.2.2. So that at least solved the
reboot problem, but I ran into another problem.

Now, the phones lose their registration with Asterisk. My bosses phone
does it every time he receives a voicemail. Most people can go a few
hours without having to restart, but then sooner or later, it loses its
registration. From what I can tell, there are no errors in Asterisk, no
errors in the logs from the phones booting. I can even ping the phones
from the asterisk box when this happens, but they just won't re-reg with
the system. Now my phone has been up almost 3 days now, but other phones
are still having this problem. Also the phones in the other state are
not having this problem AND are still on 1.6.6.

Anyone have any suggestions on something to look at, test, try, etc? I'm
completely stumped.

Here are some things to check from my experience:

1. The polycom phones are a bit sensitive to low power, more so on the
older 301/501/601 models. Say you have refrigerator plugged into the
same power ckts supplying power to several phones, when the
refrigerator compressor kicks on (randomly), it draws down the voltage
on the line, the phones reboot. So, if several phones reset at the
same time, look at power, new equipment installed sucking down power,
check the voltage coming in from the street, maybe you are getting
brown-outs from the power company and don't realize it. Summer time
is a huge draw on the power grid.

2. Network congestion combined with poor phone performance, mostly on
the older models 301/501/601, will cause the phones to randomly drop
off from the PBX. Sniff the network and ensure you don't have a
broadcast storm or high network congestion, like pc's with viruses,
when the phones drop off. If the phones become unreachable, then
reachable within 10 seconds (look in the asterisk message log) then
this points to network congestion. Ensure the sip users are set to
qualify=yes (2000ms).

3. Poor switch performance, switch going bad, not responding in a
timely manner forwarding packets. You can run an extended ping
through the switch, pings are low priority so if the sip packets are
latent, you will definitely see latent ping times as well.

Good Luck,

JR
---------------------
JR Richardson
Engineering for the Masses
Back to top
kevin.smith at mercury...
Guest





PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:02 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones Reply with quote

JR Richardson wrote:
Quote:
Quote:
I have been running into a few issues with Asterisk/polycom and I am
running out of ideas. This problem has been ongoing for the last couple
of weeks. I will try to be as detailed as I can, but I might leave out a
few details. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Our setup: Asterisk 1.2.22, Fedora 4. Co-located to our PRI providers
facility. Comes to us via a DS3 to our other co-lo, then is sent via
wireless to our office. We also have another office in another state but
the connection is pretty much identical (they may have different
wireless equipment) except the path it takes.

About 3 weeks ago, our phones started to reboot randomly. Sometimes
within 5 minutes, and sometimes up to an hour, but they were pretty
consistent, and it didn't matter if the agent was on the phone or not.
Asterisk would only tell me that the phones were not reachable, which
clearly was the case since it was rebooting. At the time, they were
running I think SIP version 1.6.6. However, the odd factor to that, was
the office in the other state was not having this problem (running
1.6.6) and my phone and my supervisors (which we were testing SIP 2.2.2).

After having our phone company test the DS3, there were some errors
found, and correct and that solved the problem for a few days. Which of
course, it started to happen again. However, this time there were no
errors on the DS3, and again the same problems were occurring, but my
phone, my supervisors, and the other states were fine. So I decided to
upgrade all of the phones to version 2.2.2. So that at least solved the
reboot problem, but I ran into another problem.

Now, the phones lose their registration with Asterisk. My bosses phone
does it every time he receives a voicemail. Most people can go a few
hours without having to restart, but then sooner or later, it loses its
registration. From what I can tell, there are no errors in Asterisk, no
errors in the logs from the phones booting. I can even ping the phones
from the asterisk box when this happens, but they just won't re-reg with
the system. Now my phone has been up almost 3 days now, but other phones
are still having this problem. Also the phones in the other state are
not having this problem AND are still on 1.6.6.

Anyone have any suggestions on something to look at, test, try, etc? I'm
completely stumped.


Here are some things to check from my experience:

1. The polycom phones are a bit sensitive to low power, more so on the
older 301/501/601 models. Say you have refrigerator plugged into the
same power ckts supplying power to several phones, when the
refrigerator compressor kicks on (randomly), it draws down the voltage
on the line, the phones reboot. So, if several phones reset at the
same time, look at power, new equipment installed sucking down power,
check the voltage coming in from the street, maybe you are getting
brown-outs from the power company and don't realize it. Summer time
is a huge draw on the power grid.

2. Network congestion combined with poor phone performance, mostly on
the older models 301/501/601, will cause the phones to randomly drop
off from the PBX. Sniff the network and ensure you don't have a
broadcast storm or high network congestion, like pc's with viruses,
when the phones drop off. If the phones become unreachable, then
reachable within 10 seconds (look in the asterisk message log) then
this points to network congestion. Ensure the sip users are set to
qualify=yes (2000ms).

3. Poor switch performance, switch going bad, not responding in a
timely manner forwarding packets. You can run an extended ping
through the switch, pings are low priority so if the sip packets are
latent, you will definitely see latent ping times as well.

Good Luck,

JR
---------------------
JR Richardson
Engineering for the Masses

_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

Thanks for the suggestions JR, I realized reading your responses that I
left out some detail :-/ . All of the phones are 601's. Maybe this may
make one of your suggestions valid, or trigger another thought.

Connections at our office.
Computer---[PC jack on the back of the phones]----Phone----Netgear
Switch---Mikrotik Router--- Wireless Connection to router--ds3---asterisk

The Netgear switch is a fsm7326p PoE switch. Below is the current status
of the PoE system (I removed the ones that are not using PoE). Now, I'm
pretty sure this equipment is on it's own breaker, it used to house most
of our co-lo equipment before we moved it to another office. Mainly I'm
providing this information in case there is something that is a miss
that maybe I am over looking that you may clearly see being a problem.

Max System Power Available 180 (Watts)
Current System Power Used 55.9 (Watts)
Slot/Port Admin Mode Class Priority Output Power (watts)
Output Current (mA) Output Voltage (volts) Power Limit
(watts) Status
0/1 Enabled 0 Low 4.18 82 49 18
Delivering Power
0/6 Enabled 0 Low 4.18 82 49 18
Delivering Power
0/7 Enabled 0 Low 4.116 84 49 18
Delivering Power
0/8 Enabled 0 Low 4.18 82 49 18
Delivering Power
0/10 Enabled 0 Low 4.116 84 49 18
Delivering Power
0/11 Enabled 0 Low 3.871 79 49 18
Delivering Power
0/14 Enabled 0 Low 4.704 96 49 18
Delivering Power
0/15 Enabled 0 Low 3.871 79 49 18
Delivering Power
0/16 Enabled 0 Low 4.18 82 49 18
Delivering Power
0/17 Enabled 0 Low 3.871 79 49 18
Delivering Power
0/18 Enabled 0 Low 3.871 79 49 18
Delivering Power
0/19 Enabled 0 Low 3.871 79 49 18
Delivering Power
0/20 Enabled 0 Low 4.18 82 49 18
Delivering Power
0/21 Enabled 0 Low 4.18 82 49 18
Delivering Power

From a sniff point of view..where would the best place to sniff in your
opinion? From the Asterisk server or from somewhere within our office,
or both?

Also, I have combed through the configuration files enough to where I
may be overlooking something, is there anything in the configuration
that you could think of that may cause the problems?

Thanks again for the suggestions,
Kevin

--
Kevin Smith

---
Mercury Network
Technical Support
Phone: 989.837.3790
Toll Free: 888.866.4638
www.mercury.net
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jmr.richardson at gmai...
Guest





PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:08 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones Reply with quote

Quote:
Connections at our office.
Computer---[PC jack on the back of the phones]----Phone----Netgear
Switch---Mikrotik Router--- Wireless Connection to router--ds3---asterisk

I'm curious about the Mikrotik Router and the Wireless Connection, is
the router setup to NAT or route? VoIP across a wireless connection
is not a good thing unless it is setup with QOS layer2/3. Optimally
the PBX should be on the LAN side of the router.

Quote:

The Netgear switch is a fsm7326p PoE switch. Below is the current status
of the PoE system (I removed the ones that are not using PoE). Now, I'm
pretty sure this equipment is on it's own breaker, it used to house most
of our co-lo equipment before we moved it to another office. Mainly I'm
providing this information in case there is something that is a miss
that maybe I am over looking that you may clearly see being a problem.

The switch doesn't look overloaded as far as power goes. Is it on a
UPS or plugged straight into building power? You could still be
having brown-outs that would cause some, ports to drop below
acceptable voltage. Make sure the switch is on a good UPS to
eliminate this as a possibility.

Quote:

From a sniff point of view..where would the best place to sniff in your
opinion? From the Asterisk server or from somewhere within our office,
or both?

Mirror the switch port going to the router on the LAN side and sniff
there for broadcast storm/viruses/congestion.

Sniff the WAN side of the router to seek congestion on the DS3.

What is the router utilization, how many open NAT translations, is the
router over loaded, has your traffic increased over last several
months?

Quote:

Also, I have combed through the configuration files enough to where I
may be overlooking something, is there anything in the configuration
that you could think of that may cause the problems?


The only configuration is qualify=yes and nat=yes. If the network is
routed between the phones and the PBX and not NATed, set nat=no and
qualify=no and see how that works.

You mentioned this started happening 3 months ago, what happened then?
Network changes, equipment changes, traffic increased, new users
(downloading allot during the day, surfing porn), wireless
interference?

Good luck.

--
Thanks.
JR
---------------------
JR Richardson
Engineering for the Masses
Back to top
list at virtutel.ca
Guest





PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:23 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones Reply with quote

Quote:
Quote:
I have been running into a few issues with Asterisk/polycom and I am
running out of ideas. This problem has been ongoing for the last couple
of weeks. I will try to be as detailed as I can, but I might leave out a
few details. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Now, the phones lose their registration with Asterisk.

Are you using a numeric IP address or a name for the Asterisk server in the
Polycom config? I had the same issue (only from 2.2 up IIRC) until I put in
the numerical IP.

Can't explain it, maybe somebody else can.

Mick
Back to top
kevin.smith at mercury...
Guest





PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:10 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones Reply with quote

Yes, I was using a name instead of an IP address. And if memory
serves....I *think* it is using TCPprefered...but I could be wrong.

Kevin

Mike wrote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
I have been running into a few issues with Asterisk/polycom and I am
running out of ideas. This problem has been ongoing for the last couple
of weeks. I will try to be as detailed as I can, but I might leave out a
few details. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.




Quote:
Quote:
Now, the phones lose their registration with Asterisk.


Are you using a numeric IP address or a name for the Asterisk server in the
Polycom config? I had the same issue (only from 2.2 up IIRC) until I put in
the numerical IP.

Can't explain it, maybe somebody else can.

Mick


_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Back to top
kevin.smith at mercury...
Guest





PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:20 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones Reply with quote

JR Richardson wrote:
Quote:
You mentioned this started happening 3 months ago, what happened then?
Network changes, equipment changes, traffic increased, new users
(downloading allot during the day, surfing porn), wireless
interference?


The initial problem started when our DS3 was throwing errors. Once that
was resolved, it was fine until about a week later when the problems
started again...but this time no errors from showing on the DS3.

Otherwise, I will try some other suggestions the next time I am back in
that office.

Thanks again,
Kevin
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list at virtutel.ca
Guest





PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 11:50 am    Post subject: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones Reply with quote

I`m curious: did going with numerical IP addresses fix your problem?

Mick

Quote:
-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Smith
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 13:10
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones

Yes, I was using a name instead of an IP address. And if memory
serves....I *think* it is using TCPprefered...but I could be wrong.

Kevin

Mike wrote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
I have been running into a few issues with Asterisk/polycom and I am
running out of ideas. This problem has been ongoing for the last
couple
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
of weeks. I will try to be as detailed as I can, but I might leave out
a
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
few details. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.




Quote:
Quote:
Now, the phones lose their registration with Asterisk.


Are you using a numeric IP address or a name for the Asterisk server in
the
Quote:
Polycom config? I had the same issue (only from 2.2 up IIRC) until I put
in
Quote:
the numerical IP.

Can't explain it, maybe somebody else can.

Mick


_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users



_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Back to top
kevin.smith at mercury...
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 2:10 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones Reply with quote

Hi Mike,

The odd part, is some of the phones now are not having this problem
anymore. Mine phone for example, has been fine since last Saturday
(which I had to move it so it of course rebooted Wink ). However, I did
change this value today on another couple of phones with this problem
still. So we shall see if this helps.

Thanks,
Kevin

Mike wrote:
Quote:
I`m curious: did going with numerical IP addresses fix your problem?

Mick


Quote:
-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Smith
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 13:10
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones

Yes, I was using a name instead of an IP address. And if memory
serves....I *think* it is using TCPprefered...but I could be wrong.

Kevin

Mike wrote:

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
I have been running into a few issues with Asterisk/polycom and I am
running out of ideas. This problem has been ongoing for the last

couple

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
of weeks. I will try to be as detailed as I can, but I might leave out

a

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
few details. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.




Quote:
Quote:
Now, the phones lose their registration with Asterisk.


Are you using a numeric IP address or a name for the Asterisk server in

the

Quote:
Polycom config? I had the same issue (only from 2.2 up IIRC) until I put

in

Quote:
the numerical IP.

Can't explain it, maybe somebody else can.

Mick


_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users


_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users



_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

--
Kevin Smith

---
Mercury Network
Technical Support
Phone: 989.837.3790
Toll Free: 888.866.4638
www.mercury.net
Back to top
kevin.smith at mercury...
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 6:25 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones Reply with quote

No, even with the numerical IP addresses they still had the problem.

Kevin

Mike wrote:
Quote:
I`m curious: did going with numerical IP addresses fix your problem?

Mick


Quote:
-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Smith
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 13:10
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Trouble with Polycom phones

Yes, I was using a name instead of an IP address. And if memory
serves....I *think* it is using TCPprefered...but I could be wrong.

Kevin

Mike wrote:

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
I have been running into a few issues with Asterisk/polycom and I am
running out of ideas. This problem has been ongoing for the last

couple

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
of weeks. I will try to be as detailed as I can, but I might leave out

a

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
few details. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.




Quote:
Quote:
Now, the phones lose their registration with Asterisk.


Are you using a numeric IP address or a name for the Asterisk server in

the

Quote:
Polycom config? I had the same issue (only from 2.2 up IIRC) until I put

in

Quote:
the numerical IP.

Can't explain it, maybe somebody else can.

Mick


_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users


_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users



_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

--
Kevin Smith

---
Mercury Network
Technical Support
Phone: 989.837.3790
Toll Free: 888.866.4638
www.mercury.net
Back to top
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