Sponsored Links

Community Fibre VoIP behind pfSense

Matt.Rowley.1990

Top Member
Hello all,

I have a bit of a niche problem that I’m hoping you’ll be able to help me with.

I have community fibre (1 gig, no CGNAT) with their VOIP service. It uses a Grandstream HT-801 ATA device which connects to the phone via RJ11 and network via Ethernet. Nice and simple.

With the stock Community Fibre router (Linksys Velop) it works absolutely fine. Behind my pfSense router, it will only accept incoming calls but outbound do nothing; just a line open beep after 20 seconds of dialling a number. On an incoming call, audio works both ways and is crystal clear. No weird one way stuff going on. I have also tried the ATA on a Virgin Hub 4 and it works perfectly, so there’s no weird router/MAC address lock going on.

On pfSense, I feel like I have tried absolutely everything. I’ve tried manual NAT, allowing all UDP traffic to the Grandstream, I’ve tried traditional SIP ports on port forwarding. I’ve even tried disabling the firewall and even that does absolutely nothing to help. I’ve tried packet capture on my pfSense box and cannot see anything unusual that wouldn’t be allowed through by my overly generous testing configuration. I’ve even removed all devices and plugged directly into the LAN port on the pfSense box. No change.

Unfortunately the Grandstream ATA is pre-provisioned and remotely managed by community fibre, so I can’t see the configuration. That being said, if it works fine on a big standard router from a different provider, it can’t be doing anything too special.

I’m really running out of ideas here, short of trying a fresh pfSense install or trying OPNSense. Before anyone says to use the community fibre gear and be done with it; I use a lot of the in-built pfSense features and cannot do without them now.

Would really appreciate the hive mind’s help!

Matt
 
On my Draytek I have

VoIP Prioritization
Enable the First Priority for VoIP SIP/RTP:


which takes the UDP port number my ATA uses. It's in the QOS section, pfsense may have a similar setting.
 
Last edited:
Not much help, but reads like a SIP registration issue through your pfSense box.

The standard SIP registration period may be too long for the pFsense box... see "Set Conservative state table optimization" below:


Shame you haven't got another indy VoiP test account (like Sipgate) to test with. If you can replicate the issue then you know its common and not just a quirk of their VoIP implementation.
 
Sponsored Links
Not much help, but reads like a SIP registration issue through your pfSense box.

The standard SIP registration period may be too long for the pFsense box... see "Set Conservative state table optimization" below:


Shame you haven't got another indy VoiP test account (like Sipgate) to test with. If you can replicate the issue then you know its common and not just a quirk of their VoIP implementation.
Indeed, it does sound like that. Strange that inbound calls are absolutely fine!

I wish I could say I was seeing that knowledge article for the first time. I think I’ve read it 100 times and confirmed over and over.

I’m going to try a fresh Pfsense install tomorrow and if that fails, something like Sophos UTM.
 
Without being able to see what's going on under the covers of the Grandstream box, you're a bit one hand tied behind the back when it comes to diagnosis unfortunately.
 
Without being able to see what's going on under the covers of the Grandstream box, you're a bit one hand tied behind the back when it comes to diagnosis unfortunately.
I know, very frustrating!

I’ll keep this thread updated for anyone else who may end up using community fibre voip behind pfSense.
 
Quick update:

I tried it on a relative’s Virgin Media connected pfSense box with absolutely no configuration and it worked right away.

I can only assume there is some stale configuration somewhere causing an issue. I’ll do a fresh install tomorrow to see if this resolves the problem.
 
Sponsored Links
Quick update:

I tried it on a relative’s Virgin Media connected pfSense box with absolutely no configuration and it worked right away.

I can only assume there is some stale configuration somewhere causing an issue. I’ll do a fresh install tomorrow to see if this resolves the problem.
Fresh install of pfSense appears to have rectified the issue. Who knows what it was but nice to know that there are no special NAT rules needed out of the box!
 
Fresh install of pfSense appears to have rectified the issue. Who knows what it was but nice to know that there are no special NAT rules needed out of the box!
Might be too late, but could be worth comparing the XML configuration file from the non-working pfSense to the freshly installed one, it may indicate what the different setting was for future reference.
 
Might be too late, but could be worth comparing the XML configuration file from the non-working pfSense to the freshly installed one, it may indicate what the different setting was for future reference.
I'll give it a go. For what it's worth, I did a fresh install with the old config and the issue came back, so it is in there somewhere!
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Shell Energy UK ISP Logo
Shell Energy £26.99
109Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5472)
  2. BT (3505)
  3. Politics (2524)
  4. Openreach (2291)
  5. Business (2251)
  6. Building Digital UK (2234)
  7. FTTC (2041)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1961)
  9. Statistics (1778)
  10. 4G (1654)
  11. Virgin Media (1608)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1451)
  13. Fibre Optic (1392)
  14. Wireless Internet (1386)
  15. FTTH (1381)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules