Configuring Sangoma A-200 4 Port FXO with Netborder VoIP Gateway for 3CX Phone System

IMPORTANT: This guide has been tested with Netborder Express gateway Version 4.1.4 on both 32 and 64 bit operating systems.
Version 4 of Netborder express was tested with 3CX Phone System Version 10.
This guide is based on an A200 4 Port FXO PCI Card installed on the same machine as 3CX Phone System.
Supported Sangoma FXO Cards for both are the following: A200 (2, 4, 8 ports)

Setting up the Sangoma A200 Card
  1. Download the Commercial version of Netborder Express 4.1.4 for Windows from the Sangoma Website. http://sangoma.com/products/software_products/netborder_suite/netborder_express/download.html
  2. Extract the package and install the appropriate version (32 or 64 bit) of NBE depending on the architecture of the target computer. Follow the installation instructions. At the end you will be prompted to power off the computer to insert the card.
  3. Power off the computer, open the chassis and insert the Sangoma A200 card in an available PCI or PCI express slot on the mainboard depending on what PCI support the card offers. When done, power up the computer. Windows will detect the new hardware device and find the drivers accordingly for it.

Configuring the Sangoma A200 with 3CX Phone System

  1. Log in to the 3CX Management console, click on PSTN devices and click on Add Gateway.

     

  2. Enter a name for the Gateway Example Sangoma A200, Select “Sangoma” from the Brand Dropdown and select a model from the list of devices. In this case we will select the A102, 2 port E1, PCI Card for NBE V4. Click Next to proceed.

     

  3. Enter the Gateway Hostname or IP Address. In this example since the card is on the same machine as the 3CX Phone System installation we will enter 127.0.0.1 or the IP Address of the computer. The default gateway port that the Sangoma is configured with is 5066. All other options are pre-configured.

  4. Four ports are configured here – 10006 to 10009. Click next to continue. Configure an optional outbound rule for outbound calls. Click on Finish to complete the setup.

  5. Click on the Generate Config file button. A configuration file “Sangoma_A200_4FXO_cfg” will be created. Save this on the desktop. This file will be used to generate the full configuration into the Sangoma Card.

Importing the 3CX Configuration File into the Netborder Express

  1. First get the license files provided by Sangoma (netborder-express-gateway-license, netborder-express-gateway-license.txt.sig) and paste them in the Program Files path where Netborder is installed Default: “C:\Program Files\Netborder\Express\Gateway\config”

  2. Click on Start, All Programs, Netborder Express Gateway, Gateway Manager. The Netborder Express main screen will be displayed.

  3. Click on Configuration, Provisioning and in the “Provisioning XML Input File” field Browse to the file “Sangoma_A200_4FXO_cfg” generated previously from the 3CX Phone System Management console. Click on the “Generate Configuration” button.

  4. After the procedure is complete, you should see a message box indicating that the configuration was successfully created. At this point the Sangoma Card has all the files it needs to connect to the 3CX Phone System. Navigate to Status and Controls tab, and in the Controls tab click on the button Start Gateway. The Gateway will be started and the new configuration files will be loaded into the Netborder express gateway.

    Note: at the bottom right of the screen there is an indicator stating “Configuration Synched”. This means that the configuration added to the gateway is synchronized and that the Gateway has reloaded all the configuration files.

  5. In the Ports/Trunks Status node in 3CX Phone System Management console you should now see that the 4 Ports assigned to the Sangoma A200 are now Green and registered.

Tune the FXO Interfaces

  2. Click on System Status to check the latest Error Reports. In this scenario we will see that an FXO-Tune Calibration is needed.

  3. To perform an FXO calibration, click on Configuration / FXO Calibration tab. Click on Next to start the Calibration.

  4. Select the FXO Interfaces that are connected to the Sangoma Card and click on Start Calibration. In order to start calibration, the gateway will be restarted numerous times. You will see the progress on each port in the calibration status column. At the end of the tuning process, the calibration status column next to each interface will change to “Calibrated”. Click Finish to exit. It is recommended to restart the gateway by clicking on Status and Controls / Restart gateway.

  5. Congratulations: You have successfully configured the Sangoma A200 ISDN gateway with 3CX.
Optional Configuration for Sangoma to Drop Calls when Receiver Rejects Calls Before Call is Answered

If an extension (a SIP phone) cancels the call before picking up, the analog FXO line is in ON-HOOK state, while the PSTN line (Telecom Company side) is in RINGING state. Typically, the caller hears a continuous dialing tone, and the line remains unavailable until the caller physically disconnects the call. Due to the absence of digital signaling on FXO lines, there is no way for the Sangoma card to signal to the PSTN line that the call was rejected.

The only known way to change this behavior is to configure the Sangoma to answer all calls (rather than leaving the line in RINGING state), and disconnect the call if the destination Extension rejects the call. This obviously implies that the call will be billed as soon as the call is connected. If you want to implement this mechanism:

  1. Start the Netborder Express Gateway Manager web interface.

  2. Go to "Configuration -> PSTN Config -> Call Control -> Analog configurations -> FXO-config"

  3. Expand the "Disconnect Supervision Info" section.

  4. Set the field labeled "Ring Cadence Detector Active" to "No".

  5. Restart the Netborder Express Gateway.
Call Connection Detection for Sangoma Analog Cards

By default in Netborder Express Gateway 4.0, outbound calls over analog (FXO) ports are considered connected if no error signal happens within 5 seconds of dialing out the number. This behavior however would fail in the case of a Hunt Group or a Ring Group which forwards to an external number.

Enabling the "Battery Polarity Reversal" option on the Netborder Express Gateway may assist to resolve this issue, but is NOT supported on all analog lines. To configure this option:

  1. In the Gateway Manager GUI, go to "Configuration -> PSTN Config -> Call Control -> Analog Configurations -> FXO-config"

  2. Expand the "Outbound Call - Connect Info" section.

  3. Set the field labeled "Connect Outbound Side Condition" to "ON-BATTERY-POLARITY-INVERSION"

  4. Set the field labeled "Connect Inbound Side Delay (ms)" to "0"

  5. Restart the Netborder Express Gateway

NOTE: Not all analog lines support this detection mechanism.

VOIP Gateway Configuration Guides