asterisk users - Aug 2003 - BudgeTone NAT issues

Just for the record and to possibly help with others who get BudgeTone 
phones.

My asterisk box is behind NAT, and I use Vonage, NuFone, and 
iconnecthere for my "POTS backhaul."

On the front end I have an ATA186, a Digium TDM20, and now a BudgeTone 102.

The BudgeTone definitely has issues wrt the RTP stream and NATting, 
although unfortunately I haven't yet been able to dig deeply enough to 
be greatly more specific.

However, I do know that:

Using NuFone as backhaul, the BudgeTone works fine except in the cases 
of the called party's line being busy.  In this case, I don't get any 
busy indication, and eventually the call "times out" at the NuFone
end,
all the while giving the user at the instrument a ring indication.

Using the BudgeTone with iconnecthere, outgoing calls set up just fine, 
and I get call progress messages from asterisk.  The connection dies 
immediately the called party picks up, with a SIP "486 Temporarily Not 
Available" error.

The phone appears to work mostly normally with Vonage, EXCEPT it appears 
that the RTP stream has to have something "fed into it" at the calling
end; i.e. the called party cannot hear me, nor can I hear the other end, 
until *I* have said something once the call picks up.  Then conversation 
proceeds normally.

I don't have these issues with either the ATA186 nor the TDM20.

FYI.

B.

>Just for the record and to possibly help with others who get BudgeTone
phones.
>
>My asterisk box is behind NAT, and I use Vonage, NuFone, and 
>iconnecthere for my "POTS backhaul."
>
>On the front end I have an ATA186, a Digium TDM20, and now a BudgeTone 102.
>
>The BudgeTone definitely has issues wrt the RTP stream and NATting, 
>although unfortunately I haven't yet been able to dig deeply enough 
>to be greatly more specific.
>
>However, I do know that:
>
>Using NuFone as backhaul, the BudgeTone works fine except in the 
>cases of the called party's line being busy.  In this case, I don't 
>get any busy indication, and eventually the call "times out" at
the
>NuFone end, all the while giving the user at the instrument a ring 
>indication.
I am uncertain that this particular problem you describe is a 
NuFone-specific problem.  I have seen similar problems with my own 
IAX2 connections which don't involve NuFone, and I've had 
circumstances where calls fail at the PSTN side but IAX2 and/or SIP 
don't get the message, and continues to "ring" in my ear despite
the
Zap line on the other end having hung up.  I am currently swamped 
with bug tasks, so I suspect it will be some time before I narrow 
this problem down and submit an official report with full diagnosis. 
Anyone else is welcome to the task.  :)

JT

>Using the BudgeTone with iconnecthere, outgoing calls set up just 
>fine, and I get call progress messages from asterisk.  The 
>connection dies immediately the called party picks up, with a SIP 
>"486 Temporarily Not Available" error.
>
>The phone appears to work mostly normally with Vonage, EXCEPT it 
>appears that the RTP stream has to have something "fed into it" at
>the calling end; i.e. the called party cannot hear me, nor can I 
>hear the other end, until *I* have said something once the call 
>picks up.  Then conversation proceeds normally.
>
>I don't have these issues with either the ATA186 nor the TDM20.
>
>FYI.
>
>B.