Kitz ADSL Broadband Information
adsl spacer  
Support this site
Home Broadband ISPs Tech Routers Wiki Forum
 
     
   Compare ISP   Rate your ISP
   Glossary   Glossary
 
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Pages: [1] 2

Author Topic: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?  (Read 1762 times)

peteS

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 36
VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« on: January 30, 2021, 11:38:31 PM »

I wondered if anyone had used VOIP on an 8924 running in Bridge mode.  Whatever I try, it just shows as "Not Registered" in the VOIP Status page.

I set a second 8924 up as a router, connected the ethernet WAN port of that 2nd 8924 to my router (Draytek 2860) - basically just to test VOIP.  VOIP then actually works OK, so I wonder if VOIP doesn't work in Bridge mode - hard to know if it should work without knowing where the internal VOIP is trying to connect into the internal switch.

I've got the vdsl wan in a separate interface group so that I can see the GUI from the router, get stats etc..  I'm guessing at the moment that the VOIP client in some way ends up in the LAN interface group, so can access the WAN port.

ta

pete S
« Last Edit: January 30, 2021, 11:59:01 PM by peteS »
Logged

j0hn

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 4093
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2021, 12:01:22 AM »

As the modem has no connection to the internet when used in bridge mode I wouldn't expect it to work.

It may be possible to configure it to work with some firewall rules on the router.
I managed to get NTP working on the Zyxel in bridge mode using a static route.
Logged
Talktalk FTTP 550/75 - Speedtest - BQM

peteS

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 36
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2021, 12:07:53 AM »

As the modem has no connection to the internet when used in bridge mode I wouldn't expect it to work.

It may be possible to configure it to work with some firewall rules on the router.
I managed to get NTP working on the Zyxel in bridge mode using a static route.

Thanks - yes, that's kinda what I was thinking.  Can you share anything on your NTP success?  I wondered if I needed to actually force a route back via the router in some way...
Logged

j0hn

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 4093
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2021, 04:16:13 AM »

Thanks - yes, that's kinda what I was thinking.  Can you share anything on your NTP success?  I wondered if I needed to actually force a route back via the router in some way...

No prob. Here's my post on the subject.

https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,19966.msg358884.html#msg358884

It's discussed throughout that thread.

Looking again it seems I added the static route to the Zyxel and not the router.
I was using a Zyxel VMG1312-B10A but as you'll see from the thread it also worked on the VMG8924-B10A.

You would need to add the I.P address (not the hostname) of the VOIP server you want the Zyxel to connect to.

It may be that the VOIP ports are completely disabled in bridge mode and the workaround for NTP just doesn't work.
Logged
Talktalk FTTP 550/75 - Speedtest - BQM

peteS

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 36
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2021, 02:08:27 PM »


Thanks.  Yes, this works for NTP - setting up a static route back via the router to get out through the bridged modem.  I had a good dig around and couldn't see any way to route dns requests via the lan ports, which is a shame, and setting the name in /etc/hosts doesn't stick past a reboot and there doesn't seem a way to save it.  So, adding the IP address directly works fine for time.

However, it looks like a non-starter for the VOIP ports.  There's a clue in the VOIP Server Settings, which talks about which WAN ports you want to bind the server to to activate VOIP.  It seems like you can't get the client to start unless it's bound to a WAN port, and then want to use the WAN port for its comms.  Setup static routes for the lan side, I still don't see anything appearing on the LAN side.  However, if I setup a ethernet WAN and just plug that into the router to get a DHCP address, the VOIP client immediately connects, even though I haven't routed data from the LAN ports to the router via the WAN port - i.e. i can't ping the router from the LAN side.  So, seems like the VOIP client is on the WAN side of the switch in some way sadly.  Not the end of the world, but always niggles me when I can't get something to work.
Logged

burakkucat

  • Respected
  • Senior Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 38300
  • Over the Rainbow Bridge
    • The ELRepo Project
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2021, 06:50:52 PM »

Hmm . . . I am not sure if the following is relevant but I'll mention it, just in case.

I use a VMG1312-B10A (for completeness, in modem/router mode) and at the bottom of the "WAN Configuration" screen there is the option to use "Bridge and Routing mode in the same WAN" with a "tick-box" labelled "Enable Con-current WAN". (sic)

I am uncertain as to how that option is used and so have never tried to use it. Also, I am unsure if any other ZyXEL VMGnnn-B10 series device has that option.
Logged
:cat:  100% Linux and, previously, Unix. Co-founder of the ELRepo Project.

Please consider making a donation to support the running of this site.

peteS

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 36
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2021, 08:59:16 PM »

Hmm - interesting - thanks for looking at this. ... Yes, those options do exist

As you say, not entirely sure what they might do.  They don't appear on a bridge broadband connection, or on the router one if i just create a new one.  I'll crack out the second 8924 tomorrow and have a play around to see if I can work out what it does.
Logged

burakkucat

  • Respected
  • Senior Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 38300
  • Over the Rainbow Bridge
    • The ELRepo Project
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #7 on: January 31, 2021, 09:19:01 PM »

Thank you for posting the snippet of the help screen. A VDSL2 (ITU-T G.993.2) service does appear to be able to provide both bridged and routed connections, to defined LAN ports, originating from the same configured VLAN.

As to what could be done with the routed output . . .  :-\
Logged
:cat:  100% Linux and, previously, Unix. Co-founder of the ELRepo Project.

Please consider making a donation to support the running of this site.

meritez

  • Content Team
  • Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 1623
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #8 on: February 01, 2021, 10:08:48 AM »

Hi,

I set my Zyxel VMG1312-B10A, B10D and VMG3925-B10C as per this guide: https://kitz.co.uk/routers/zyxel_VMG8324-B10A_bridge.htm and have had no issues with VoIP.

Logged

peteS

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 36
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #9 on: February 01, 2021, 10:41:46 AM »

Hi,

I set my Zyxel VMG1312-B10A, B10D and VMG3925-B10C as per this guide: https://kitz.co.uk/routers/zyxel_VMG8324-B10A_bridge.htm and have had no issues with VoIP.

Hi

I don't have any overall issues with VOIP, but I can't use the built in VOIP ports on the 8924.  Are those working for you?

pete S
Logged

peteS

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 36
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #10 on: February 02, 2021, 07:32:03 PM »

Thank you for posting the snippet of the help screen. A VDSL2 (ITU-T G.993.2) service does appear to be able to provide both bridged and routed connections, to defined LAN ports, originating from the same configured VLAN.

As to what could be done with the routed output . . .  :-\

I had a chance to play around with the "Enable concurrent WAN" option.  It basically seems to do the same as you do manually by setting up a bridge route and then automatically setting up an interface group with the chosen lan port and wan interface in it.  It seems quite nice because it's automatic and there must be something under the covers to share the WAN port.

However, there's a couple of tricky bits.  Firstly, since you're now routing here as well, you need to have the zyxel on a different subnet to your router and then setup a vlan on the router and a static route on the zyxel so that you can route between the 2 subnets.  Tiny bit fiddly, but works fine so that you can still access the stats.

However, it only works if you disable the firewall.  Since you're now routing on the Zyxel as well, you can't have the firewall disabled.  If you enable the firewall, it blocks traffic coming in from another subnet.  The built in ACL doesn't seem to give you the ability to enable routing between subnets, and if I try and add a new INPUT & OUTPUT rule in iptables, I can't make it make any difference.  I'm no iptables expert, but I thought just adding the subnet of the router as an ACCEPTed -source and -destination would do it.

Anyone got any ideas how to allow the firewall to pass traffic from the router's subnet?  I haven't had a chance to actually test the concurrent wan live yet (need the internet), but would be kinda useless anyway if I can't sort out the firewall.
Logged

burakkucat

  • Respected
  • Senior Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 38300
  • Over the Rainbow Bridge
    • The ELRepo Project
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #11 on: February 02, 2021, 08:23:21 PM »

Thank you for "filling in the gaps" with regards to that configuration option. It's not something that I will use.

Anyone got any ideas how to allow the firewall to pass traffic from the router's subnet?

No, sorry.
Logged
:cat:  100% Linux and, previously, Unix. Co-founder of the ELRepo Project.

Please consider making a donation to support the running of this site.

peteS

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 36
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #12 on: February 02, 2021, 08:47:02 PM »

TBH, I'm not sure I'd use it even if I could get it working.  Although it's interesting, I don't want to open up the network with another route in, it feels like it's bound to impact performance with extra load on the Zyxel, and two PPPoE connections at the same time with the same details over one VDSL connection seems odd.

I just don't like things I can't get to work - feels like an itch to scratch.  However, it might be time to park it for now - it's on my spare 8924, so it's no trouble to play around but don't think it'll actually pay any dividends at this point as the firewall problem will rule it out.  Would have been nice to get the voip ports working, but not the end of the world.
Logged

Alex Atkin UK

  • Addicted Kitizen
  • *****
  • Posts: 5260
    • Thinkbroadband Quality Monitors
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #13 on: February 03, 2021, 04:41:47 AM »

In bridge mode though the router is doing the PPP not the modem, so its already under much less load than it would be as a router.  But still, it seems an awkward configuration its not designed for so likely not worth fighting with.
Logged
Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

peteS

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 36
Re: VOIP with 8924 in Bridge mode?
« Reply #14 on: February 04, 2021, 10:27:50 PM »


OK, so the combined mode for the VDSL port was a false start, so I revisited the original "how to get VOIP working when setup in bridge mode" problem.  As j0hn posted, we haven't been able to find a way to get the 8924 to see a DNS.  Also, by default as well, there's no way to specify a different default route.  So, first two steps are as per the time server access

Specify everything with IP addresses, not names
Setup static routes to specify the router as the route for the IP addresses.

So, I specify the VIP Service using the IP address for sip server, registration server etc.
Create a static route to the IP address of the sip server with the gateway as the router.

So, that's as per the time server approach.  As I mentioned before, we're still stuck because the SIP service has a setting specifying which port to bind VOIP to, and it only lists WAN ports.  So, it won't activate VOIP unless it see one of the WAN ports active - and it can't see the WAN port since it's not in the same interface group.

However, I saw something very interesting in the manual.  The screenshot there for the list of ports to bind includes LAN as well and the WAN ports, but the UI now doesn't have LAN.  So, looking at the command line, Voice Show tells you the list of commands ....  Oh ...

voice set BoundIfName ServiceName port

is one of the commands.

So, let's just give it a try

voice set BoundIfName Voipfone LAN

Ah - no error message.  Disable and re-enable the SIP account in the UI - and hey presto - VOIP now registers and works.

So, you need to setup a static route for the sip server via the router gateway, use IP address since there's no DNS, make sure the firewall is turned off, and get it to look for an active LAN port rather than WAN port.  The only other thing I noticed is that it doesn't auto connect at that point.  You need to go and mark the SIP account as inactive then active again to kick it into action, or maybe do voice stop, voice start at the cli (didn't test that).

Hope that makes sense....
 
Logged
Pages: [1] 2