Re: Router settings with VoIP - any explanatory documentation?

"Ed" <a.@.invalid> wrote in message
news:1121112865.3c626b862f27123b1918ff40db8abde9@t eranews...
> When I first started to use a softphone (X-lite) with VoIP, I was told
> that my router needed to be set with particular parameters to get it
> to work. The parameters I was told to use were:
> SIP port 5060
> RTPLang port 5004
> Voice, ports 8000..8012
> STUN, port 3478
>
> This mean that I had to ditch dhcp and set my PC to a fixed IP
> address.

Why? Hasn't your modem/router got an option to reserve IP addresses? Most
have an option under DHCP to reserve IP addresses for certain
devices/computers etc.

Although my set-up works with X-lite, I got no explanation as
> to just as to what exactly all these parameters mean and why there are
> necessary. The problem now is that I have added an ATA in addition to
> my softphone and I heed to know if I need to set up yet another set of
> parameters to handle my ATA. As I have no documentation whatever, the
> whole process is a black art to me. Can someone please point me to
> some documentation showing me what exactly all these parameters are
> and how to use them. Do I have to go through the same pain with my
> ATA?

If you have an modem/router with DMZ, just enter the IP address of the ATA
into the DMZ option of the modem/router
That will open up all ports to the ATA's IP address and you will be fine.

Tony

"Ed" <a.@.invalid> wrote in message
news:1121115066.4539bb9570ccb08425d5ddd18f52156e@t eranews...
> On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 21:29:51 +0100, Tony wrote:
>
>>
>>"Ed" <a.@.invalid> wrote in message
>>news:1121112865.3c626b862f27123b1918ff40db8abde9 @teranews...
>>> When I first started to use a softphone (X-lite) with VoIP, I was told
>>> that my router needed to be set with particular parameters to get it
>>> to work. The parameters I was told to use were:
>>> SIP port 5060
>>> RTPLang port 5004
>>> Voice, ports 8000..8012
>>> STUN, port 3478
>>>
>>> This mean that I had to ditch dhcp and set my PC to a fixed IP
>>> address.
>>
>>Why? Hasn't your modem/router got an option to reserve IP addresses?
>>Most
>>have an option under DHCP to reserve IP addresses for certain
>>devices/computers etc.
>
> Sure, so as I've said, I've had to ditch dhcp for my PC and go through
> the pain of setting up a static IP address.
>
>>If you have an modem/router with DMZ, just enter the IP address of the ATA
>>into the DMZ option of the modem/router
>>That will open up all ports to the ATA's IP address and you will be fine.
>
> I don't have DMZ.
>
> In any case, I'm not looking for a quick answer like that. As
> explained, I'm looking to find out what the following parameters mean
> and how they're used:.
>
> SIP port 5060
> RTPLang port 5004
> Voice, ports 8000..8012
> STUN, port 3478
>
> Can you refer me to some documentation that explains these? That's the
> only way I will learn about setting up the parameters.

>
Port 5060 is the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) control port. This is
used for connecting to the SIP proxy server. This communicates with the
provider and then It opens other ports for the streams of voice data
(commonly ports in the range of either 8000-8012 or 16348-32768 provider
dependant) Service suppliers and/or devices differ in their choice of port
ranges to use for the voice streams, these are the high numbered ones
normally.

Port 5004 is used for SIP signalling, this is used to start the handshaking
procedure and define the ports which are to be used for the carriage of
voice data once the session is started.

Ports 8000-8012 These ports are used to carry the voice data by some
providers, technically known as RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol), and RTCP
(Real-time Control Protocol) multimedia streaming ports.

Ports 16348-32768 UDP These ports are used to carry the voice data by some
providers, technically known as RTP, and RTCP multimedia streaming (again
they are provider dependant)

Ports 3478 and 3479 STUN service; (Port 10000 UDP is also used by some
providers for the STUN)

The STUN server ((S)imple (T)raversal of (U)DP through (N)ATs), along with
help of the proxy/registrar at your SIP provider should normally do
everything else for you. Basically STUN enables a device to find out its
public IP address and the type of NAT service its sitting behind. The
problems in STUN have to do with the lack of standardized behaviors and
controls in NATs. The result of this lack of standardization has been a
proliferation of devices whose behavior is highly unpredictable, extremely
variable, and uncontrollable. STUN does the best it can in such a hostile
environment. Ultimately, the solution is to make the environment less
hostile, and to introduce controls and standardized behaviors into NAT.
However, until such time as that happens, STUN provides a good short term
solution given the terrible conditions under which it is forced to operate.

The best way to discover what ports your provider uses, is to define these
port ranges above into your modem/router firewall rules (services) and then
keep a watch of the log files to see which ports are active (being logged)
during a session of service use.

The use of a DMZ server, means you don't need to worry about opening any
ports individually, as the DMZ opens up all ports to the IP address of the
ATA unit only, ensuring that whatever ports your provider uses, they will be
open to the ATA only. This is a quick way of ensuring the needed ports are
open for cummunication to the internet.

I hope that makes things a bit clearer Ed.

Tony