asterisk users - Apr 2004 - Newbie Issues => SIP won't stay connected, and IAX Unable to Create Channel

I am terribly sorry to bother the list with such generic and bizarre
problems, but I have been racking my brain with these for the last week
working on it for at least 60 hours.  If anyone can even point me in the
right direction I would be eternally grateful.  So without further adu
here are my woes:

I have * (2004-04-09 CVS) running on a P4 1.6Ghz CPU, 512MB RAM, Debian
"Sarge", and basically no other programs (Other than the required ones
of course).  My SIP clients are 2 Win2000 machines running X-Lite, and 2
grand stream budgettone 101's.  All iptables default rules are set allow
and no other rules are entered.  The whole setup is a proof of concept
so that we can migrate our 25 agent call center app to *.

When I reboot the computer running * and run * via asterisk -vvvvgc
everything starts without any warnings, notices, or errors.  At that
point none of my SIP clients login to *.  If I do a sip debug it doesn't
even show the clients trying to connect, however on the X-Lite logs it
is sending the REGISTER message to the correct IP address.  If I ping
the client's IP address from the * server the client immediately
registers and can make calls.  If I stop pinging for at least 30 minutes
the clients are again unable to connect.  Upon discovering this I
thought that I had a physical network problem.  So I went out and got a
brand new 10/100 switch, and new network cards for the server and the PC
based clients.  After installing and configuring all the new equipment I
am in the same boat.  I simply cannot understand what is going on.  All
of the machines are on a local address scheme without any NAT's or other
firewalls in between.

The next problem that I have has to do with IAX.  I have accounts setup
with both NuFone, and VoicePulse just to try out the various services.
I have my iax.conf configure as instructed by both the wiki and from the
providers.  I also have a DID from VoicePulse so I have a register line
for that as well.  After I reboot the * server, run *, and ping the
clients both provider's work properly.  However after a certain period
of time(variable length) the register times out and VoicePulse becomes
"UNREACHABLE".  The same goes for the NuFone service.  When this
happens
occasionally I get a message on the console that says "Unable to create
channel".  

I am completely at a loss.  Again I apologize for wasting your valuable
time, but I couldn't find anything that helped me either on the wiki or
the list.  

Thanks in advance,

Robert Jackson

> When I reboot the computer running * and run * via asterisk -vvvvgc
> everything starts without any warnings, notices, or errors.  At that
> point none of my SIP clients login to *.  If I do a sip debug it
doesn't
> even show the clients trying to connect, however on the X-Lite logs it
> is sending the REGISTER message to the correct IP address.  If I ping
> the client's IP address from the * server the client immediately
> registers and can make calls.  If I stop pinging for at least 30 minutes
> the clients are again unable to connect.  Upon discovering this I
> thought that I had a physical network problem.  So I went out and got a
> brand new 10/100 switch, and new network cards for the server and the PC
> based clients.  After installing and configuring all the new equipment I
> am in the same boat.  I simply cannot understand what is going on.  All
> of the machines are on a local address scheme without any NAT's or
other
> firewalls in between.
> 
> The next problem that I have has to do with IAX.  I have accounts setup
> with both NuFone, and VoicePulse just to try out the various services.
> I have my iax.conf configure as instructed by both the wiki and from the
> providers.  I also have a DID from VoicePulse so I have a register line
> for that as well.  After I reboot the * server, run *, and ping the
> clients both provider's work properly.  However after a certain period
> of time(variable length) the register times out and VoicePulse becomes
> "UNREACHABLE".  The same goes for the NuFone service.  When this
happens
> occasionally I get a message on the console that says "Unable to
create
> channel".  
All the words that you've used tend to suggest a firewall is getting in the
way (eg, iptables). A few things you can do to help narrow down the problem.

1. on each system, do a "arp -a" before and after the connection fails
to
see what each system thinks is the current IP & MAC address. If there are
no entries, then that system has not even attempted communications at the
layer-3 level.  If the entries are present (on each system), then at least
you know each has made "some" attempt.

2. download and implement ethereal, and run it until the failure occurs.
Look at the packet displays and see if that helps point to an issue. If you
can't read packet traces from ethereal, there are lots of others on this
list that can. It at least helps point to the problem.

3. in the /etc/asterisk/logger.conf file, configure it for "debug".
Restart
asterisk (not reload). Asterisk will then write lots of detailed messages
in a file at /var/log/asterisk (if memory serves correctly).

Rich

It sounds like a layer three problem.  Are all of the Subnet masks and
gateways configured correctly?  Obviously, you can ping, but you are
unable to connect without the ping.  It sounds like both the SIP phones
and the IAX customers are unable to find a route back to your asterisk
server, but when you ping the devices, they 'see' the route and take it.

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-admin@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-admin@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Robert
Jackson
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2004 9:25 AM
To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Newbie Issues => SIP won't stay connected, and
IAX Unable to Create Channel


I am terribly sorry to bother the list with such generic and bizarre
problems, but I have been racking my brain with these for the last week
working on it for at least 60 hours.  If anyone can even point me in the
right direction I would be eternally grateful.  So without further adu
here are my woes:

I have * (2004-04-09 CVS) running on a P4 1.6Ghz CPU, 512MB RAM, Debian
"Sarge", and basically no other programs (Other than the required ones
of course).  My SIP clients are 2 Win2000 machines running X-Lite, and 2
grand stream budgettone 101's.  All iptables default rules are set allow
and no other rules are entered.  The whole setup is a proof of concept
so that we can migrate our 25 agent call center app to *.

When I reboot the computer running * and run * via asterisk -vvvvgc
everything starts without any warnings, notices, or errors.  At that
point none of my SIP clients login to *.  If I do a sip debug it doesn't
even show the clients trying to connect, however on the X-Lite logs it
is sending the REGISTER message to the correct IP address.  If I ping
the client's IP address from the * server the client immediately
registers and can make calls.  If I stop pinging for at least 30 minutes
the clients are again unable to connect.  Upon discovering this I
thought that I had a physical network problem.  So I went out and got a
brand new 10/100 switch, and new network cards for the server and the PC
based clients.  After installing and configuring all the new equipment I
am in the same boat.  I simply cannot understand what is going on.  All
of the machines are on a local address scheme without any NAT's or other
firewalls in between.

The next problem that I have has to do with IAX.  I have accounts setup
with both NuFone, and VoicePulse just to try out the various services. I
have my iax.conf configure as instructed by both the wiki and from the
providers.  I also have a DID from VoicePulse so I have a register line
for that as well.  After I reboot the * server, run *, and ping the
clients both provider's work properly.  However after a certain period
of time(variable length) the register times out and VoicePulse becomes
"UNREACHABLE".  The same goes for the NuFone service.  When this
happens
occasionally I get a message on the console that says "Unable to create
channel".  

I am completely at a loss.  Again I apologize for wasting your valuable
time, but I couldn't find anything that helped me either on the wiki or
the list.  

Thanks in advance,

Robert Jackson
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Robert Jackson wrote:
> I am terribly sorry to bother the list with such generic and bizarre
> problems, but I have been racking my brain with these for the last week
> working on it for at least 60 hours.  
No need for excuse, we're here to help. You've obviously spent time
looking
for an answer...

   All iptables default rules are set allow
> and no other rules are entered.  The whole setup is a proof of concept
Without knowing much about iptables I would say that the "default
rules"
sounds like a good candidate for further inspection. Can you disable
iptables and test without it?

Sounds like the iptable fw needs traffic from the inside (ping) to allow
anything from the outside. So client's can't register unless the server
spoke to them first. And there seems to be a timeout as well on this
"session" in your iptables setup. Why an ICMP ping opens up for UDP
is a mystery...

I'm on very thin ice here, so treat this as a friendly guess from my side.
I've seen a few similar mails, but no solution so we need to come up
with a problem description and a solution for the FAQ.

Good luck! And please tell us what it was that caused the problem when
you've solved it.

/Olle

Thanks for the info.  I am not sure how to disable iptables, but I will
be scouring the net for the next couple of hours or so.  I simply
couldn't believe that * was as unstable as it has been seeming.  At
least now I know that I'm not crazy.  Rich, a previous poster, suggested
the following path:
>All the words that you've used tend to suggest a firewall is getting in
the way (eg, iptables). A few things you     >can do to help narrow down
the problem.
>1. on each system, do a "arp -a" before and after the connection
fails
to see what each system thinks is the      >current IP & MAC address. If
there are no entries, then that system has not even attempted
communications at the         >layer-3 level.  If the entries are
present (on each system), then at least you know each has made "some"
attempt.
>
>2. download and implement ethereal, and run it until the failure
occurs. Look at the packet displays and see if     >that helps point to
an issue. If you can't read packet traces from ethereal, there are lots
of others on this list     >that can. It at least helps point to the
problem.
>
>3. in the /etc/asterisk/logger.conf file, configure it for
"debug".
Restart asterisk (not reload). Asterisk will     >then write lots of
detailed messages in a file at /var/log/asterisk (if memory serves
correctly).

That is may current game plan.  Since I do not have any idea how to read
the output from step 1 or step 2 I may need to post the results and see
if anyone on the list will be able to decipher them.

Thanks for your help,

Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: Olle E. Johansson [mailto:oej@edvina.net] 
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2004 4:24 PM
To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Newbie Issues => SIP won't stay connected,
and IAX Unable to Create Channel


Robert Jackson wrote:
> I am terribly sorry to bother the list with such generic and bizarre 
> problems, but I have been racking my brain with these for the last 
> week working on it for at least 60 hours.
No need for excuse, we're here to help. You've obviously spent time
looking for an answer...

   All iptables default rules are set allow
> and no other rules are entered.  The whole setup is a proof of concept
Without knowing much about iptables I would say that the "default
rules"
sounds like a good candidate for further inspection. Can you disable
iptables and test without it?

Sounds like the iptable fw needs traffic from the inside (ping) to allow
anything from the outside. So client's can't register unless the server
spoke to them first. And there seems to be a timeout as well on this
"session" in your iptables setup. Why an ICMP ping opens up for UDP is
a
mystery...

I'm on very thin ice here, so treat this as a friendly guess from my
side. I've seen a few similar mails, but no solution so we need to come
up with a problem description and a solution for the FAQ.

Good luck! And please tell us what it was that caused the problem when
you've solved it.

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

Well, the stupidity just keeps on coming.  Thanks for all of your posts
I followed all of your advice and was able to resolve the problem.  As I
wrote in the first post I have been banging my head against this problem
for around 60 hours, until I finally gave up and decided to post.  

The answer is a bit embarrassing as I should have checked this issue
within minutes if not hours of these problems cropping up.  

Here goes: The IP address that the Network Admin gave me was being used.
DUH!!!!!

I was able to determine this from the arp -a and the ethereal packet
traces, and found that on a very irregular basis the packets would get
sent to the wrong system.  Obviously this explains all of the problems
that I experienced.  

Again, I should have checked this as one of the very first things, but
for what ever reason I assumed that those most basic of configurations
was correct.  Wrong!

Sorry for the rabbit hole guys, but if I had not gotten these
suggestions from ya'll I would have been stuck at this point until I
just gave up.  (Or decided to shoot the damned thing, whichever came
first.)

Thanks again,

Robert Jackson