asterisk users - Oct 2005 - Polycom 501: takes calls, but fast busy on dial out?

Hi,

Has anyone seen this before?  The phones are
registered OK, and they can take incoming
calls, but all I get is a fast busy whatever
I dial.  I've tried regular numbers, *98, etc.

Looking at the Asterisk Command Line Interface, I
don't see any text outputted when I try to dial out.
I wonder if it's even getting to the Asterisk server.
Where does it get the fast busy from--inside the phone?

Another clue is the Flash Operator Panel.  The extensions
show up, but the "devices" are greyed out.

Here is what "sip show peers" has:

Name/username    Host            Dyn Nat ACL Mask             Port     Status

15102/15102      XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX  D   N      255.255.255.255  1044     OK 
(69 ms)
15101/15101      XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX  D   N      255.255.255.255  1043     OK 
(69 ms)

Do the ports matter?

Are you sure there is no firewall on the server?  Or are you sure that 
the Polycom phone is trying to connect to the * server on the expected 
port number?   What happens when you try to telnet to the SIP port on 
the * box?

Matt


Doug wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Has anyone seen this before?  The phones are
> registered OK, and they can take incoming
> calls, but all I get is a fast busy whatever
> I dial.  I've tried regular numbers, *98, etc.
>
> Looking at the Asterisk Command Line Interface, I
> don't see any text outputted when I try to dial out.
> I wonder if it's even getting to the Asterisk server.
> Where does it get the fast busy from--inside the phone?
>
> Another clue is the Flash Operator Panel.  The extensions
> show up, but the "devices" are greyed out.
>
> Here is what "sip show peers" has:
>
> Name/username    Host            Dyn Nat ACL Mask             Port     
> Status
>
> 15102/15102      XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX  D   N      255.255.255.255  1044     
> OK (69 ms)
> 15101/15101      XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX  D   N      255.255.255.255  1043     
> OK (69 ms)
>
> Do the ports matter?
>
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com --
>
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
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>   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>

At 15:17 10/4/2005, Matthew T. O'Connor, wrote:
 >Are you sure there is no firewall on the server?

Yep, pretty sure.  Also, we have a bunch of
other Polycom phones on the system that have
been working for over a month.


 >Or are you sure that
 >the Polycom phone is trying to connect to the *
 >server on the expected port number?

I set it up on 5060 wherever it asked for a port
number.


 >What happens when you try to telnet to the SIP port on
 >the * box?

As follows:
=========================================================Microsoft Windows 2000
[Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

C:\WINNT\system32>telnet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5060
Connecting To xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5060...Could not open a connection to host on 
port
  23 : Connect failed
=========================================================


 >
 >Matt
 >
 >
 >Doug wrote:
 >> Hi,
 >>
 >> Has anyone seen this before?  The phones are
 >> registered OK, and they can take incoming
 >> calls, but all I get is a fast busy whatever
 >> I dial.  I've tried regular numbers, *98, etc.
 >>
 >> Looking at the Asterisk Command Line Interface, I
 >> don't see any text outputted when I try to dial out.
 >> I wonder if it's even getting to the Asterisk server.
 >> Where does it get the fast busy from--inside the phone?
 >>
 >> Another clue is the Flash Operator Panel.  The extensions
 >> show up, but the "devices" are greyed out.
 >>
 >> Here is what "sip show peers" has:
 >>
 >> Name/username    Host            Dyn Nat ACL Mask             Port
 >> Status
 >>
 >> 15102/15102      XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX  D   N      255.255.255.255  1044
 >> OK (69 ms)
 >> 15101/15101      XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX  D   N      255.255.255.255  1043
 >> OK (69 ms)
 >>
 >> Do the ports matter?
 >>
 >> _______________________________________________
 >> --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com --
 >>
 >> 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
 >>
 >
 >_______________________________________________
 >--Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com --
 >
 >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
 >

At 10:24 10/4/2005, Doug wrote:
 >Hi,
 >
 >Has anyone seen this before?  The phones are
 >registered OK, and they can take incoming
 >calls, but all I get is a fast busy whatever
 >I dial.  I've tried regular numbers, *98, etc.
 >
 >Looking at the Asterisk Command Line Interface, I
 >don't see any text outputted when I try to dial out.
 >I wonder if it's even getting to the Asterisk server.
 >Where does it get the fast busy from--inside the phone?
 >
 >Another clue is the Flash Operator Panel.  The extensions
 >show up, but the "devices" are greyed out.
 >
 >Here is what "sip show peers" has:
 >
 >Name/username    Host            Dyn Nat ACL Mask             Port    
Status
 >
 >15102/15102      XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX  D   N      255.255.255.255  1044     OK
 >(69 ms)
 >15101/15101      XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX  D   N      255.255.255.255  1043     OK
 >(69 ms)
 >
 >Do the ports matter?

Just to document the solution to this problem:

Essentially, we did nothing except confirm the settings,
reboot the phones, restarted Asterisk, rebooted the Linux
server it runs on, etc.-- many times.  During one
observation of the Asterisk CLI, we saw some sort of
registration message for one or both of the phones, and
they started working--able to dial outgoing calls, *77,
*98, etc.

It's a mystery.  I suspect it has to do with some sort
of behind-the-scenes housekeeping that Asterisk does
that finally finishes, and the phones start working.
It would be nice if the developers would look into
this.

To say the least, if someone is under a deadline to
get a system up and running and they are doing
everything right, it becomes a very frustrating
and stressful exercise when the software is so
fickle.