[voip] FPBX & Gamma Support

[Sc00by]

Hi all

 

I currently look after an on-prem FPBX v16 (Asterisk v18) system which has around 250 extensions. Mixed between Polycom IP650 and Cisco VG224 analog gateways due to the nature of the site. We've been using FPBX for around 13years now and refreshed from v2.11 to v16 in December. It's never let us down the entire time however on our refresh to v16 we also migrated from ISDN to SIP trunks. In 20+years the ISDN only went down twice however since december our SIP trunk with Gamma has gone down at least 4 times. The previous issue was a 3 day outage and we're now into our 5th outage. One way audio (people can hear us, we can't hear them). Started yesterday morning. We have a second Gamma trunk that routes through a broadband line in the workshop. Was aimed at testing but has morphed into a backup SIP route. We are able to route our outbound calls down this trunk and this is working fine but the problem is our incoming DDI's are still pointing to the primary trunk which has the problem.

 

It's been a full day of back and fourth with Gamma saying it's our problem and us saying it's not. We've rebooted everything, there's no errors in FPBX and the fact that we're able to route to the backup trunk without issue points squarely towards a Gamma problem on the other trunk.

 

Has anyone experienced any similar problems lately? - We're a bit stumped. is there anyone out there able to assist? - Does anyone have any recommendations for any companies who provide support to Asterisk based systems?

[Oaktech]

I had a support contract with Gamma for another product and always found their support to be somewhat combative unless they had 100% control of all aspects.

 

I currently have Asterisk support with Logicall https://www.psdgroup.co.uk/logicall

[PythonPro]

We've using freePBX for a while now, ED-UK technologies do our support for it. Might be worth getting in touch with them, always been very helpful in the past.

 

https://www.eduk-technologies.co.uk

[localzuk]

Only issues we've had with our Gamma SIP trunks were caused by our firewall and PBX setup being slightly misconfigured so far. Gamma's side has been spot on. We use 3CX rather than FreePBX, though that shouldn't really make much difference.

[Sc00by]

Thanks all for the replies so far. We have, what I would class, as a relatively simple setup (deliberately so). everything sits on an ESXI server. Two pfsense fw's and two PBX installs. One FW does nothing else except route for the primary trunk and the other does the secondary. We have a primary PBX which does everything and a second PBX which manages the outbound route out to the broadband. There is an IAX link between the two servers. We had to go this route due to Gamma's authentication based on IP and felt this was the simplest way to achieve this. We've not changed, upgraded, tweaked or modified the system in any way for weeks. I wasn't anywhere near it when it stopped yesterday which makes me suspicious that it's an external issue.

[localzuk]

Can you ask Gamma for a SIP trace? That might identify the issue if you can read through it.

[Sc00by]

Can you ask Gamma for a SIP trace? That might identify the issue if you can read through it.

They ran a trace yesterday afternoon and stated that they could hear both sides. They've ran another trace this morning and I've gave them 15 test calls this time - Just waiting on feedback

 

When we dial out we hear the standard remote ringing and can hear the far end but they can't hear us. When dialling IN, for example, from a mobile you don't hear anything at all on the mobile. You don't hear the ringing tones but internally the phone rings and can be answered. We can hear them but they can't hear us. Comparing an Asterisk log from a successful call days ago to a failed one today is identical with no errors

[localzuk]

We had a problem with a previous SIP provider with specific mobile networks. Does the issue you're seeing happen for all callers? Does it happen from a normal landline?

[Sc00by]

We had a problem with a previous SIP provider with specific mobile networks. Does the issue you're seeing happen for all callers? Does it happen from a normal landline?

 

The last problem we had with Gamma was a routing problem with Vodafone mobiles. Took 4 days to fix!

 

Just tried a traditional landline but the problem is the same. Dial a number and its just total silence with no ringing but the person you are calling can still pick up and hear me but I couldn't hear them. Yes it happens for all inbound and outbound calls including international

[mavhc]

One way audio is usually a case of a firewall or router either blocking or changing packets, once our Fortigate firewall decided to be "helpful" and some SIP management thing got enabled which broke stuff, Gamma's SIP tracing was very using, the Fortigate had changed one of the IPs in the packet

[localzuk]

The only times I have experienced one way audio the causes were:

 

1. Our firewall port forwarding being slightly misconfigured.

2. Our SIP headers being misconfigured in our PBX - we had multiple external IPs, and the SIP server was using the wrong one to say where traffic should reply to in the SIP headers. So, calls went out, but traffic coming back was directed to the wrong external IP, so audio didn't get through.

 

Gamma should be able to give you a copy of the SIP trace, and you can then inspect the headers to see if anything looks wrong.

[Sc00by]

The only times I have experienced one way audio the causes were:

 

1. Our firewall port forwarding being slightly misconfigured.

2. Our SIP headers being misconfigured in our PBX - we had multiple external IPs, and the SIP server was using the wrong one to say where traffic should reply to in the SIP headers. So, calls went out, but traffic coming back was directed to the wrong external IP, so audio didn't get through.

 

Gamma should be able to give you a copy of the SIP trace, and you can then inspect the headers to see if anything looks wrong.

 

We're into day 3 now with still no fix. Requested traces from them (we're having to go through another supplier) but nothing back yet. I ran a packet capture on the firewall yesterday, loaded into wireshark and can hear both sides of the call. This, to me, proves we are sending Gamma audio, it's getting lost beyond that as far as I can tell (we can always hear the remote side they can't hear us)

 

With all that's gone on we've now started the ball rolling on moving provider. What's everyone else using as a SIP trunk provider? - Given our past experience with Gamma any alternative needs to have SLA's, 24/7 support etc

[Steve21]

Have you tried putting the PBX outside your firewall just to test it? And see if it’s working without anything in its way

 

There are so many things it could be related to with filtering inspection firewall etc

 

Most of the time it’s more likely to be a firewall issue than gamma I would say! And obviously if it is firewall related it wouldn’t fix it with another supplier normally

 

Steve

[Sc00by]

Have you tried putting the PBX outside your firewall just to test it? And see if it’s working without anything in its way

 

There are so many things it could be related to with filtering inspection firewall etc

 

Most of the time it’s more likely to be a firewall issue than gamma I would say! And obviously if it is firewall related it wouldn’t fix it with another supplier normally

 

Steve

 

Hi Steve

 

A tricky one to move the PBX beyond the firewall but we have calls routing fine through our secondary trunk. No firewall changes and no system changes just a sudden stop. For us the biggest issue at the moment is the complete and total lack of support and feedback from Gamma. No traces when requested and on looking back at one of the few emails early on they did allude to seeing both audio streams at their end so if they are receiving audio from us it's then not being send on through their network