Problem with VPN

[sunnyphone]

Hi

I have a vpn tunnel between a two site.

I used netgear routers, on one site I have an small office edition and on the other site i have an 5602.

When i tried to registered the phone, the phone stay with a blank screen, or it put "extension in use", or discovering.

I can ping the ipo from the remote site with no problems, i can open the configuration with the manager but i can't save it.

Do you already encountered this type of situation using vpn with netgear routers, and do you have solutions.

Thank you in advance for your response

Regards

 

[tlpeter]

if you have "extension in use" just do what the phone says
press # till it says unregister user
then # to confirm
that happens with ip phones

about saving config in the ip office, do you use the password ?
or without a password

 

[NewbieTC]

I have the exact same problem sunnyphone, did you ever figure it out...I have 2 netgear routers as well...VPN...I even log in my remote IP office 403 the TFTP log that the phone as been sent the upgrade.scr files and the settings.txt files and then no more log information and the phone sits in discovering mode...

I have a SBS 2000 network on the IP Office side that has a domain controller...do you think the domain controller is the cause of the issue?

Please respond I have been racking my brain over this...

 

[NewbieTC]

I have the exact same problem sunnyphone, did you ever figure it out...I have 2 netgear routers as well...VPN...I even log in my remote IP office 403 the TFTP log that the phone as been sent the upgrade.scr files and the settings.txt files and then no more log information and the phone sits in discovering mode...
I have a SBS 2000 network on the IP Office side that has a domain controller...do you  think the domain controller is the cause of the issue?
Please respond I have been racking my brain over this..

 

[sunnyphone]

Hi NewbieTC,

I don't think your problem is due to you domain controller. I think the VPN on netgear routers cause problem with the H.323.

What it strange with your problem is your phone is always on "discovering" mode.Can you ping the ip office from your remote site ? If yes, Did you put the 802.1Q off on your phone, if it note the case it's why your phone pass in discovering mode.

 

[NewbieTC]

Yes I can ping the IPOffice from the remote site. The VPN is up and I have done what you said about turning off the 802.1Q off on the IP phone. It still does not work...

Any other suggestions...I am stumped...you said the Netgear product causes problems with the H.323 protocol?

 

[MCCIT]

I am having the same issue. I have a VPN setup between an FV114 at the remote end and FVX538 at the office end, I suspect it is my 538 unit that is at fault so I am going to try 2 x fv114 routers and see what happens. Will keep you posted.

 

[MCCIT]

forgot to mention the thread for my ongoing problem is at thread940-1159108,

 

[NewbieTC]

actually when I read the TFTP log on the IPOffice 403 it now tells me that it is unable to process the Boot request for the IP hardphone (shows the IP address and MAC address).

Error as it exactley shows up in the log...
Wed 28/12/2005 12-10:52 Received BOOTP request for 00e08100adkfle 192.168.0.40, unable to process


What does this mean? Please help...

 

[MCCIT]

My VPN from home to office which was using netgear routers, FVX114 at remote end and an FVX538 (so called flagship 200VPN connection model) at the office end. I could never get passed the Extension in use problem.

I suspected the FVX538 was at fault so I installed an additional router on the office network a netgear FVX114 very cheap entry level prosafe firewall, this router was to act a VPN only router for remote home users (3 of us) installed this and setup some static routes on the FVX538 (still being used as the main LAN internet gateway, the static route on the FVX538 pointed the remote IP addresses 192.168.1.x to the FVX114.

As soon as I had a VPN connection from home to the 114 unit the phone connected and instantly found its extension and I could make and receive calls without problem.

If any one needs the exact config let me know I will happy send it to you.

The 114 units are really cheap (approx £40.00) and I must say work well.

As for the 538 (cost around £250) I am very dissapointed and will be speaking with netgear about a solution this week, there is obviously a bug when it comes to VPN routing.

So to summarise,

Office VPN router (netgear FVX114)
Home User (DLINK ADLS modem) with a netgear FVX114 unit behind it to create the VPN tunnel)

Plug the IP phone into the router and bingo!

 

[NewbieTC]

Thanks MCCIT ,

I will buy and try the 114's and set it up and get back to all on this issue as well...

It must be the 538's dual wan ports that does deal with the VPN traffic properly. That is a pure guess, but it is plausable...

I will keep you all posted...

 

[MCCIT]

One interesting thing I noticed with the 538 is that if I create a VPN with from remote to the 538 you cannot access the 538 internal web admin page however if I create the VPN with 2 114 units I can then access the 538 internal web address as if I was in the LAN, very strange, it seems that with a VPN on the 538 it still treats you as an outsider and not part of the internal LAN.

I am still using the 538 as I have many public addresses routed to internal services and the 538 is great for that purpose and it was the initial reason for purchasing it, but I must admit I am very dissapointed with the 538 VPN issue as I have wasted a lot of man hours trying to get VOIP to work through the 538 and it seems a bit odd that the cheapest 114 unit around £40 does a better job than the 538 unit costing 6 times as much, I have now put in a support ticket with netgear and will post any info I get, not holding my breath though....

You may well be right with dual wan thing this could be the issue, I am not too concerned as I am thinking of setting up a dedicated ADSL connection just for VOIP to help with bandwith issues and that way my VOIP and internet pipes will be seperate to some extent, so anyone downloading large data files through the main internet connection will not effect the VOIP traffic.

It would be nice to be able to use the 538 as it does have some QOS features that could be helpful for priority VOIP traffic.

For FYI I have also successfully setup the same VOIP connection through a ZYXEL 662-61H ADSL modem that has VPN endpoint capability. This unit connects perfectly to the 114 unit in the office and in my honest opinion gives a better VPN uptime than 2 netgears together also its one less box at the remote site, the ZYXEL unit handles both ADSL modem and VPN connection in one unit and so far has kept the VPN connection up for 4 days without failure and the IP phone works all the time with no problems.

For now I am going to roll this setup out to our other home workers, the only restriction being the 114 unit can only handle 8 VPN connections I think.

 

[NewbieTC]

I hear you when you speak of many lost man hours of goofing with the 538. QOS was the reason I kept goofing with the 538 and I have to agree with you that it is very dissappointing that this product has a real problem with VOIP! But don't give up yet I believe Magix2kewl and this thread:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1169271

(The latest entry and status of this thread)
magix2kewl (Vendor)
2 Jan 06 10:03
Well guys,
Tier 3 from Netgear and AVAYA both are involved now.  Actually Netgear submitted the problem to the engineers.  It may require a firmware revision.  When I monitored the IP Office it seems the phone uses random ports to request a setup message however the destination port is always 1719.  If the phone is on the lan traffic is fine but when I monitor the Ip Office with the phone through the vpn it never get their.  I even put a packet sniffer on the remote end and you see the RAS messages go out and nothing come back... Will let you know.

 

[MCCIT]

Hi NewbieTC

I will keep an eye on this thread, I am also speaking to Netgear about the issue so hopefully this will speed things up, although my past experience with netgear support has not been that great....

We shall wait and see...

 

[NewbieTC]

Hello MCCIT

I have had the same luck with Netgear (3-4 months ago tech support said I was the only one with this issue), in the past as well...that is why I am very interested in seeing what comes of Magix2kewl's ticket with Netgear and Avaya's involvment...

A agree, we shall wait and see what comes of Magix2kewl and your ticket with Netgear...