BCM 50 IP phones - VPN required? 1

[ljclives]

I was always told a VPN was required to install IP phones - thus I have always done that. Is it possible to get them working without a tunnel? Can you port forward a port on the network router where the BCM is installed and tell the IP phones to hit that?

 

[RLSbutton]

Correct me if I sound ignorant, but I am still learning terms.....I currently have a BCM50 setup at home with 5 1140E IP phones, a BES 50 Stack to connect the phones to, a BSR222 router, and a DSL modem.....I don't have any type of VPN routing or switch set up. I've setup all of the components myself. Would the network I just described to you be a VPN? In essence it is a VPN in the fact that it's a virtual private network in my place.....but I think a VPN is much more than that.

Please teach me a bit.....

Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast

 

[ljclives]

That would not be a VPN because the IP phones are just connected to your local network - in this case the BES 50. If you had an office say at the other side of town and wanted to connect an IP phone to the BCM 50 at your home a VPN would be required. At least that is always what I've been told - anyone know different?

 

[RLSbutton]

Thank you for your information Ljclives....so to sum it up, I am operating a BCM and IP phones without a VPN. You can also use the remote worker feature to use the phone offsite.



Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast

 

[ljclives]

Definitely RLS - is the Remote Worker a Nortel feature? Never have used it. Where can I get more info?

 

[RLSbutton]

Remote Worker is something new on RLS6. It is keycoded enabled and I don't know if "Try and Buys" are still available? From what I know from a friend at Avaya/Nortel, they Remote Worker lets you plug in a phone set anywhere outside the BCM network and then set the phone to the IP address of the BCM system and it should work off of the BCM, similar to plugging in a SIP phone into any modem and having it come alive.

I've heard there are some NAT and firewall issues, so I haven't tried it yet. I've been experimenting with standalone SIP platform.

http://ip-telephones.blogspot.com/2010/09/avayanortel-business-communications.html

Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast

 

[RLSbutton]

Actually Remote Worker has existed before, but this new feature is enhanced for easier use.

Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast

 

[telcodog]

Actually you can connect IP phones remotely to the BCM without a VPN but Nortel really frowns on the practice because there is absolutely no security with this setup and hackers can access your network through them.

You can set them up with VPN routers to alleviate the problem but you really need to know what you're doing to get them set up. How it's done varies by what brand of router you use. The most common with Nortel sets are Nortel's BSR222 models. They're not too horrible to set up but you will pull out a few hairs and curse Nortel more than once while doing it though. There are two ways to set them up. One is to set up a branch office tunnel between two of them, the other is to have one at the main site and use the built-in VPN client of the set and use client termination in the BSR. Both ways are somewhat complex to do but if you read slowly and follow the manual you should be alright.

The best way theses days is to upgrade your BCM to release 6.0 and use the Remote Teleworker feature. There are no VPN routers required and you can get a phone set up in about 60 seconds. You will need to get the remote teleworker license, enough licenses for the number of sets you want to register and the associated programming. The biggest thing you need to do is get the right ports forwarded in your internet router. You need to forward UDP ports 7000-7002 and 30000-30099 (BCM50) or 60000-60099 (BCM450) to the BCM's local ip address. Once you have that done, set your S1 address in the phone to the public ip address of your router. Plug the set into any internet connection and voila!

I've done this on a few systems now and it works fantastic! It is by far the easiest system out there as far as remote ip sets are concerned. A real feat on Nortel's part considering their sets were the worst nightmare out there to get working remotely.

 

[bpdphone]

Telcodog, do you know how to configure a Nortel BSR222 to allow IP 1120E phone to connect to a BCM 50 R3? We are unable to get the remote (home office) phones to connect to the BCM. We are forwarding the external IP to the BCM (internal) IP and have opened UDP 7000-7002, 30000-30099. I think that the BSR NAT is causing the problem but have not determined what needs to be set to let the NAT work with the remote IP phones.

We do not want the complexity or cost of deploying home phones with a BSR222.

Thanks
Brian