In a typical WiFi hotspot a wireless client is assigned a private RFC 1918 IPv4 address. When accessing the Internet this address needs translating to a public IPv4 address, this will happen on a gateway/router (you can verify what you appear on the Internet as with sites such as whatsmyip.com). For 'standard' TCP & UDP applications that use a single or multiple connections outbound (i.e. the connection is initiated from the client and the return traffic is permitted via the gateway/router because state has been created) this works fine.
For other protocols such as H.323 & SIP where inbound connections are required ALG/Application Inspection Engines are required that understand the protcols and automatically open the required 'pin-holes' and also modify the payload to translate embedded IP addresses. For example with SIP when settingg up a call the SIP-URI will contain the IP address and port number for the RTP stream. If NAT is involved the IP address and maybe the port will need to be modified by the gateway/router for the call to work.
I use SIP on my Android smartphone and can usually register with my SIP provider regardless of which WiFi hotspot I am using. When making a call however it will work with some hotspots but not others. My assumption is that some providers gateways/routers in these hotspots have SIP ALG/Protocol Inspection enabled where as others don't - the ones who do it works, the ones who don't it doesn't.
Is this just how it is and its pot-luck or should providers be 'obliged' to enable such features so our more complicated protocols work?
Andy
For other protocols such as H.323 & SIP where inbound connections are required ALG/Application Inspection Engines are required that understand the protcols and automatically open the required 'pin-holes' and also modify the payload to translate embedded IP addresses. For example with SIP when settingg up a call the SIP-URI will contain the IP address and port number for the RTP stream. If NAT is involved the IP address and maybe the port will need to be modified by the gateway/router for the call to work.
I use SIP on my Android smartphone and can usually register with my SIP provider regardless of which WiFi hotspot I am using. When making a call however it will work with some hotspots but not others. My assumption is that some providers gateways/routers in these hotspots have SIP ALG/Protocol Inspection enabled where as others don't - the ones who do it works, the ones who don't it doesn't.
Is this just how it is and its pot-luck or should providers be 'obliged' to enable such features so our more complicated protocols work?
Andy
