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JCasale at activenetwe...
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:51 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

We had an outage from our ISP this afternoon that cut prevented us from connecting to our SIP provider (someone physically cut a line downstream). All our phones inside the office stopped working as well? Why is that, and how can I set this up so phones can still dial each other inside the office? Thanks! jlc

mgraves at mstvp.com
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:55 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

On Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:51:32 -0600, Joseph L. Casale wrote:

Quote:

We had an outage from our ISP this afternoon that cut prevented us from connecting
to our SIP provider (someone physically cut a line downstream). All our phones inside
the office stopped working as well? Why is that, and how can I set this up so phones
can still dial each other inside the office?

Thanks!
jlc

The exact question pose I must leave for others to answer.

However, I recently completed a project that overcomes the situation
you describe. I installed a cellular gateway giving me a wireless
trunk. If I lose IP connectivity I can route calls out through my cell
carrier. Works really well.

The project is documented here:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30469/82/

Michael
--
Michael Graves
mgraves<at>mstvp.com
http://blog.mgraves.org
o713-861-4005
c713-201-1262
sip:mjgraves at pixelpower.onsip.com
skype mjgraves
54245 at fwd.pulver.com

ddunkin at netos.net
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:58 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

Are they just a trunk? Or are they your full PBX? If they are the full PBX, they handle the dialplan for dialing between phones, so there is no way around this. You would instead have to have your own Asterisk box at the same location as your phones, and use them for trunking if this is what you wanted to do. -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Joseph L. Casale Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 15:52 To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com Subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup We had an outage from our ISP this afternoon that cut prevented us from connecting to our SIP provider (someone physically cut a line downstream). All our phones inside the office stopped working as well? Why is that, and how can I set this up so phones can still dial each other inside the office? Thanks! jlc _______________________________________________ -- 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

JCasale at activenetwe...
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:00 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

Quote:

mgraves at mstvp.com
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:13 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

On Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:00:50 -0600, Joseph L. Casale wrote:

Quote:

In my case I have a local Asterisk server, but I also use a hosted
remote IP-PBX for some things.

If I lost connectivity to the hosted service, and had no other inhouse
PBX, then things get pretty bleak. About all you can do is direct dial
by IP or SIP URI between phones inside the LAN. People often lose sight
of the fact that you can make connections directly between phones by IP
or SIP URI. Sometimes with a little internal DNS fiddling this can be
as convenient as email.

If you have your own Asterisk server (or other PBX) in-house and you
lost your SIP trunk then you have more flexibility. Your internal
diaplan should provide for internal service already.

What type of PBX hardware do you have on-site? Also what make/models of
phones?

Michael
--
Michael Graves
mgraves<at>mstvp.com
http://blog.mgraves.org
o713-861-4005
c713-201-1262
sip:mjgraves at pixelpower.onsip.com
skype mjgraves
54245 at fwd.pulver.com

JCasale at activenetwe...
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:49 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

Quote:

What type of PBX hardware do you have on-site? Also what make/models of
phones?

Michael/Darryl,
I do have a local asterisk box, which is why I am baffled. I am new to Asterisk
and there is lots to learn, but my config is pretty basic, my sip.conf simply has
the phones and single sip provider context in it. It doesn't make sense that
the voip provider going offline takes the whole setup out with it. I am suspecting
something else went south at the same time.

I have snom m3's and one Astra 480i.

Thanks!
jlc

matt at mattgwatson.ca
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:32 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

On June 9, 2008 07:49:13 pm Joseph L. Casale wrote:

Quote:

What type of PBX hardware do you have on-site? Also what make/models of
phones?

Michael/Darryl,
I do have a local asterisk box, which is why I am baffled. I am new to
Asterisk and there is lots to learn, but my config is pretty basic, my
sip.conf simply has the phones and single sip provider context in it. It
doesn't make sense that the voip provider going offline takes the whole
setup out with it. I am suspecting something else went south at the same
time.

I have snom m3's and one Astra 480i.

Thanks!
jlc

I've seen this behaviour from Asterisk as well... while I can't say I have
tracked it down and verified this... I've seen other talks about how Asterisk
gets rather unhappy when it can't preform DNS queries. I suspect that may be
your problem. Might want to check the archives for other issues that people
have talked about DNS as a possible cause and see if there are any
similarities.

--
Matt Watson
http://www.mattgwatson.ca

JCasale at activenetwe...
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:47 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

Quote:

Good info! I am on this now. I hope I find why so I can prevent this...
Thanks!
jlc

Alex.Lopez at OpSys.com
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:08 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

Add your local Asterisk server hostname to your /etc/hosts.

I would also go as far as running a local DNS server and just having the
phones and server point to it. It is a small CPU load application so it
can be hosted on your own machine.

Use the tools for DNS and make sure your machine can resolv addresses
when the WAN is down. If this is OK you should be fine...

Alex

Quote:

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Joseph L. Casale
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 8:47 PM
To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion'
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

Quote:

I've seen this behaviour from Asterisk as well... while I can't say I

have

Quote:

tracked it down and verified this... I've seen other talks about how

Asterisk

Quote:

gets rather unhappy when it can't preform DNS queries. I suspect

that

Quote:

may be

Quote:

your problem. Might want to check the archives for other issues

that

Quote:

people

Quote:

have talked about DNS as a possible cause and see if there are any
similarities.

--
Matt Watson
http://www.mattgwatson.ca

Good info! I am on this now. I hope I find why so I can prevent

this...

Quote:

Thanks!
jlc

_______________________________________________
-- 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

mgraves at mstvp.com
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:08 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

On Mon, 9 Jun 2008 20:32:29 -0400, Matt Watson wrote:

Quote:

On June 9, 2008 07:49:13 pm Joseph L. Casale wrote:

Quote:

What type of PBX hardware do you have on-site? Also what make/models of
phones?

Michael/Darryl,
I do have a local asterisk box, which is why I am baffled. I am new to
Asterisk and there is lots to learn, but my config is pretty basic, my
sip.conf simply has the phones and single sip provider context in it. It
doesn't make sense that the voip provider going offline takes the whole
setup out with it. I am suspecting something else went south at the same
time.

I have snom m3's and one Astra 480i.

Thanks!
jlc

support at ocg.ca
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:19 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

Change the order of resolution (hosts first, then DNS) and add relevant
entries to your hosts table. That makes asterisk happy w/o an internet
connection.

MD

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Michael Graves
Sent: June 9, 2008 9:09 PM
To: Asterisk Users List
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

On Mon, 9 Jun 2008 20:32:29 -0400, Matt Watson wrote:

Quote:

On June 9, 2008 07:49:13 pm Joseph L. Casale wrote:

Quote:

What type of PBX hardware do you have on-site? Also what make/models of
phones?

Michael/Darryl,
I do have a local asterisk box, which is why I am baffled. I am new to
Asterisk and there is lots to learn, but my config is pretty basic, my
sip.conf simply has the phones and single sip provider context in it. It
doesn't make sense that the voip provider going offline takes the whole
setup out with it. I am suspecting something else went south at the same
time.

I have snom m3's and one Astra 480i.

Thanks!
jlc

I've seen this behaviour from Asterisk as well... while I can't say I have
tracked it down and verified this... I've seen other talks about how

Asterisk

Quote:

gets rather unhappy when it can't preform DNS queries. I suspect that may

Quote:

your problem. Might want to check the archives for other issues that

people

Quote:

have talked about DNS as a possible cause and see if there are any
similarities.

Yes, this is very true. Asterisk gets backed up trying to deal with
lack of DNS. I'd diable the SIP trunk then restart. Perhaps this would
permit internal calls to resume, as long as there are no attempts to
dial external numbers.

Michael
--
Michael Graves
mgraves<at>mstvp.com
http://blog.mgraves.org
o713-861-4005
c713-201-1262
sip:mjgraves at pixelpower.onsip.com
skype mjgraves
54245 at fwd.pulver.com

_______________________________________________
-- 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

dhartman at djhsolutio...
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:19 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

Michael Graves wrote:

Quote:

On Mon, 9 Jun 2008 20:32:29 -0400, Matt Watson wrote:

Quote:

On June 9, 2008 07:49:13 pm Joseph L. Casale wrote:

Quote:

What type of PBX hardware do you have on-site? Also what make/models of
phones?

Michael/Darryl,
I do have a local asterisk box, which is why I am baffled. I am new to
Asterisk and there is lots to learn, but my config is pretty basic, my
sip.conf simply has the phones and single sip provider context in it. It
doesn't make sense that the voip provider going offline takes the whole
setup out with it. I am suspecting something else went south at the same
time.

I have snom m3's and one Astra 480i.

Thanks!
jlc

dnsmasq is just the creature for the job. Very flexible and easy to
configure.

http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html

--
Darrick Hartman
DJH Solutions, LLC
http://www.djhsolutions.com
http://www.djhsolutions.com/wiki

asterisk at coltect.no...
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:33 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph L. Casale" <JCasale at activenetwerx.com>
To: "'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion'"
<asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

Quote:

I've seen this behaviour from Asterisk as well... while I can't say I

have

Quote:

tracked it down and verified this... I've seen other talks about how

Asterisk

Quote:

gets rather unhappy when it can't preform DNS queries. I suspect that

may be

Quote:

your problem. Might want to check the archives for other issues that

people

Quote:

have talked about DNS as a possible cause and see if there are any
similarities.

--
Matt Watson
http://www.mattgwatson.ca

Good info! I am on this now. I hope I find why so I can prevent this...
Thanks!
jlc

I had a recent experience the same.
The internet connection went down, and not even ZAP channels would work
anymore.
It seems that the guts of the problem (I think) is that Asterisk has a real
problem when it can't get DNS responses.

I found one forum post (a trixbox forum) that someone had worked out that
even if there was no SIP channels involved in a call, Asterisk still would
timeout on DNS before bridging ZAP channels. The post suggested creating a
dummy SIP trunk that registers to 127.0.0.1 and name it _something. This
apparently makes Asterisk check it first, Asterisk is then happy and can
bridge ZAP channels.

I have it fixed now by;
1. Running a DNS server with caching on the asterisk box, forwarding
requests to the ADSL router.
2. set srvlookup=no in sip_general_custom.conf (using freePBX, probably
really in sip.conf under [general])
3. created the _Dummy SIP trunk
4. put qualify=yes into any real SIP trunks.

1. Was what I thought might help. 2,3,4 were all google results.

As this was a production system, I didn't have time to try each of these to
see which would actually fix it, so implemented them all at once and then
tested.
They can now turn off their internet connection and everything works fine.
We left the internet down for 30mins.
I am worried that if the cache time on the DNS server runs out the problem
may come back, but this is set to 6 hours.

Hope this helps, and if anyone can shed some more light on this I'd
appreciate it. I'm still very much a novice.

Cheers,
Col

JCasale at activenetwe...
Guest

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:42 pm Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

Quote:

They can now turn off their internet connection and everything works fine.
We left the internet down for 30mins.
I am worried that if the cache time on the DNS server runs out the problem
may come back, but this is set to 6 hours.

Hope this helps, and if anyone can shed some more light on this I'd
appreciate it. I'm still very much a novice.

Cheers,
Col

Appreciate everyone's response here! Fortunately we are right in the middle of
setting up a xen box which will hold a few other servers one of which is in fact
a dns server with caching/recursion for local net clients. I'll implement this
with an extended caching time.

/etc/host.conf does have hosts before bind, so I suppose I could also add entries
for the sip providers in the register => lines but I hate to do that incase those
ip's change (however unlikely) it would be a bugger for someone else to chase down.
Checking into the syntax for register in sip.conf its not actually clear if it supports
an ip instead of a fqdn. That would also be easier to track down by someone else if need
be, can this be done? If so although the reg attempt would fail this would alleviate a
dns issue which I assume is the only issue (not failed reg attempts as well).

Once I get back onsite, or can connect remotely I will test this all and post back
for confirmation.

Thanks everyone!
jlc

eric at fnords.org
Guest

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:41 am Post subject: [asterisk-users] Interoffice phone setup

Asterisk gets very upset if it can't lookup the host name associated
with every IP on the system, normally it would use DNS to do this, but
since your Internet connection was down it could not do that. You
should look at /etc/hosts on the Asterisk machine and make sure that
each IP address of the system is listed and a name associated with it.
You may have the change the order of the items in /etc/nsswitch to make
sure "file" is consulted before "dns".

Joseph L. Casale wrote:

Quote:

Appreciate the quick response! What I am concerned about is that there are maybe two problems:)
Is that behavior at least normal? I don't want to wait until start of business to find out connectivity is up
but phones aren't.

Just seems odd.

Thanks!
jlc

_______________________________________________
-- 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

--
Consulting for Asterisk, Polycom, Sangoma, Digium, Cisco, LAN, WAN, QoS,
T-1, PRI, Frame Relay, Linux, and network design. Based near
Birmingham, AL. Now accepting clients worldwide.

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