mettech

We have several users that work from behind SonicWall TZ-170 units and are connected over DSL or Cable links. There are two issues we are trying to resolve.

1) Calls can be made and received without issue, but if the call last longer that a couple of minutes it is dropped and sometimes the 4620 phone will reboot.
2) When making a call from one remote user to another the phone will ring but once it is picked up there no audio. Checking the manager console shows the call between the two remote extensions is connected.

Any ideas on what I could check to start to trouble shoot these probelms.

Thanks for any help

Cephas

Not sure on issue 1, being unfamiliar with SonicWall. However for issue 2, either ensure there are secondary direct vpn tunnels between all remote users, or (more likely) ensure that "Allow direct media path" is NOT ticked in the voip tab of the extension form.

Peter

PBXtech.info

 

cg111

Your problem is most likely the sonicwall not being fully H.323 compliant. The IP hardphones will reboot automatically when its link is cut to the IP Office. I would use Avaya's Secure gateways. They are specifically designed for VoIP and are easy to configure using the http interface. SG5s are great for small offices and are cheap. The SGs will keep you audio quality at it's best and maybe even eliminate your problems. The end users themselves, may be saturating your the DSL/cable connections . The SGs will stop this from occuring. Keep in mind that there is no way to control internet congestion beyond your DSL/cable modem unless you want to spend $$$ for dedicated circuits.

ACE...........

Cephas

cg111, you have clearly used the SG's a lot. My one experience with them was a total nightmare, but I strongly suspect I got a dud. Updated to all the very latest firmwares, etc. but it simply would not work - even had Avaya data support engineers log into it and try to configure it. I can't remember all the problems, but the biggest was the throughput - on a 4M adsl circuit they were getting about 20k downstream. A simple swap to a linksys or multitech router gave full speed.

What do you think, did we get a dud? Certainly sounds like you're a fan of them - maybe I should look at them again.

Peter

cg111

Peter, SGs work good, as you mentioned, make sure you have the latest firmware. You must have had a dud. What device did you use at the remote end? Another thing, make sure your IP Phones also have the latest firmware, 1.5, 1.6 1.7 had one-way voice and disconnect problems.

What SG were you using on the 4Mb DSL circuit? The SG5s have about 800k throughput. You probably just needed to purchase a more powerful SG (not much more$).

__________________
ACE.....

Cephas

SG200 (actually a VSU500 upgraded with SG200 firmware) on the 4M end - it was the unit giving me all the grief. At that point we were still only using Avaya VPNRemote client software for the client end.

We lost our shirts on that install thanks to that SG200 - hours upon hours, as I said even had Avaya remote into it and try to get it going, in the end took it back and sold them a Cisco.

So you think SG200 with SG5 clients should work well? You mentioned 800k throughput on the SG5 - this is for unencrypted traffic? Ie if the clients are downloading a file off the web with no voice calls in progress the best they can hope for is 800k?

Peter

PBXtech.info

 

cg111

The SG200 has plenty of ponies to fill your 4Mb DSL (10Mb running 3DES). The SG5 will give you about 600-700Kbps running 3des and around 800Kbps running DES and about 1.5Mbps not running encryption. When set up properly, inet traffic will not be encrytped, so an inet download would be low priorty and any voice will be high priority. When the link begins to saturate, the inet traffic will be the first to be dropped. There are 3-4 priorty queues to work with. You really only need to set up 2 queues in a small office environment, one for voice and one for everything else.

The SG5x has:
QoS including DiffServ marking and class based queuing (great if carrier support DiffServ marking, this is ideal)
8-port 10/100 switch built in (perfect for economy DSL or cable circuits )
Class-Based Queuing (CBQ) bandwidth manager

The SGs are really a good deal and out perform most everything out there. Just look at the features of the smallest model at: http://www1.avaya.com/enterprise/vpn/sg5/techspecs.html

I am curious, though, how is your voice quality on DSL? there is no QOS or COS.....

Another thing, I have seen viruses/hackers kill WAN links. Any chance that this was going on while you were installing th SG200?

__________________
ACE.....

Cephas

virus/hackers: not a chance. Plug in SG200, 20k download. Plug in linksys, 350k download. Back to SG200, 20k. Back to linksys, 350k. Definately the SG200.

For voice quality: I was able to get all the endpoints on the same ISP's network, and they were able to promise QoS for any packets that ONLY traversed their network: perfect for what we were doing. It worked great, once I finally got the customer onto the right routers :-)

Peter

cg111

Peter, How long ago did you attempt to deploy the SG200 and what version of code did you have?
I'd like to know so that I can steer clear of it...........thanks.....

__________________
ACE.....

Cephas

That was about 5-6 months ago. Don't remember what firmware it was - whatever was the very latest at that time.


Peter