Avaya (Nortel) 1100-series SIP phone unregister issue.

[lowen]

I have 40 Nortel/Avaya 1120E phones that were donated to us (we're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit), and I have set up my TFTP provisioning server for those phones to deliver the appropriate SIP firmware and configuration files to set up for the connection to 3CX as the SIP proxy.

The phones register, and outgoing and incoming calls work ok. After 30 minutes, however, I see the following in my log (I'm including the register message as well):

27-Sep-2013 05:13:39.104   [CM504002]: Endpoint Extn:854: a contact is unregistered. Contact(s): []
27-Sep-2013 04:43:37.214   [CM504001]: Endpoint Extn:854: new contact is registered. Contact(s): [sip:[email protected]:5060 / 854]

After the phone is unregistered, I can still make outgoing calls on that extension, but incoming, as you may have figured, goes straight to voicemail. I can make the time shorter by shortening the Avaya's REG_REFRESH_INTERVAL parameter in the [DEVICE_CONFIG] file to below 1800 seconds, but making that parameter greater than 1800 seconds does not make the time longer; the default for REG_REFRESH_INTERVAL is 86400 seconds. Now the phones do re-register periodically, typically around 18-22 hours after unregistering, but the re-register doesn't appear to be correlated to much of anything else, like DHCP lease expiry or similar.

Now, I know the Avaya 1100-series is not officially supported, but I have seen posts here and there on various forums that say people are using these phones, and they're working, but no one seems to post how they got them working (and I've done a lot of searching!).

This is 3CX V11, SP4, build 28976. The Avaya firmware is the latest version, 4.3.18 (SP2, I believe). I've tried older SIP firmware on the phones; neither 2.2 nor 3.2 fix the issue.

Oh, and the phones do not do this if I set them to point to a FreePBX Distro (Asterisk-based) server that I set up specifically to test this issue; the phones Just Work (TM) like one would expect, using the same settings as with 3CX, same firmware, and using SIP, not UNIstim (UNIstim, the native protocol, is supported on Asterisk, but not 3CX). So the basic phone configuration sent to the phones through TFTP seems to be OK (and I can post that if needed).

I have six Cisco 7960's (SIP firmware 8.5.4) and four Cisco ATA-186's (latest 3.2 SIP firmware) working perfectly with the 3CX server, but these Avaya phones in theory should work. It seems like 3CX isn't handshaking with the phones the same way as FreePBX is; to the point that when registered to FreePBX the phones show the date and time, but not when registered to 3CX. Now, the 7960's registered to 3CX do show the date and time. Incoming and outgoing calls to and from the 7960's and the ATA-186's work perfectly, and DID's coming in from our RBS/CAS T1 via a Patton SN4960 are properly routed. So the basic system is working, except for the Avaya phones.

In any case, if anyone has made an Avaya 1100-series phone (1120E specifically, running the 4.3 SIP firmware) work properly with 3CX, please post how you did it. And any advice on how to get these phones working with 3CX would be appreciated (getting other phones is not an option, so please don't suggest that......).

Thanks in advance.

 

[lowen]

Well, I was hoping to be able to deploy the REG_REFRESH_INTERVAL change without having to reboot each phone.... but, no, even when the daily TFTP update occurs and the new REG_REFRESH_INTERVAL is read in, the registrations continue with Expires set to the REG_REFRESH_INTERVAL loaded upon bootup.....

 

[lowen]

Ok, here's the latest on this effort from here.

I've been able to get a relatively good (well, livable at least) result by using the following values:

In the 3CX System/Security/Anti-hacking setup:
1.) "Failed Challenge Requests (407)" is set to 28. (times)
2.) "Blacklist time interval" is set to 180. (seconds)
Everything else is default.

In the 1120E config:
REG_REFRESH_INTERVAL 1500
REGISTER_RETRY_TIME 30
REGISTER_RETRY_MAXTIME 1800
SIP_PING YES

Here's the timing, as listed in the server activity log:

11-Jan-2014 15:08:45.089   [CM504001]: Endpoint Extn:851: new contact is registered. Contact(s): [sip:[email protected]:5061 / 851]
11-Jan-2014 15:06:06.852   [IPBL] Packet from banned IP/range: ip = 192.168.1.117; Comment: PBX: blocked for too many failed authentications
11-Jan-2014 15:05:06.753   Blacklisted (Too many failed auth)
IP = 192.168.1.117; Failed auth: 0; unauth: 0; auth: 0; 407: 28
11-Jan-2014 15:01:21.053   [CM504002]: Endpoint Extn:851: a contact is unregistered. Contact(s): []
11-Jan-2014 14:36:03.820   [CM504001]: Endpoint Extn:851: new contact is registered. Contact(s): [sip:[email protected]:5060 / 851]

So the endpoint hangs unregistered for seven minutes. I can live with that, but would like to see fixed firmware.....

A packet capture of the port to which ext 851 is connected shows that, after the successful registration at 15:08:45 the phone re-registers properly, with Expires set to 1500, at consistent 1470 second intervals, from then on. The trick is getting the first failover to occur quickly enough, but not to timeout the blacklist too quickly (I tried first with 120 seconds, but that didn't work, and settled on 180 seconds, which seems reliable).

So there is a workaround, even though it is a bit of a kludge.

 

[lowen]

Just upgraded to 3CX V12SP3.

The 1120E behavior is the same as with V11. FWIW.

 

[lowen]

Well, through the 12.0 series up through 12.0SP6.1 the Avaya 1120E phones worked the same way as always, and were reliable when they stayed registered.

Upgraded to V14 this week, up through SP3, and now the phones are getting unregistered and reregistered roughly every thirty minutes. While I know the 1120E and kind aren't officially supported, to have something that worked stop working is more than a bit annoying, especially after just paying the annual maintenance renewal.

 

[icns01]

Well, through the 12.0 series up through 12.0SP6.1 the Avaya 1120E phones worked the same way as always, and were reliable when they stayed registered.

Upgraded to V14 this week, up through SP3, and now the phones are getting unregistered and reregistered roughly every thirty minutes. While I know the 1120E and kind aren't officially supported, to have something that worked stop working is more than a bit annoying, especially after just paying the annual maintenance renewal.

Iowen,

You really have contributed an outstanding body of work here wrt trying to get the Avaya 1120Es working.

A real demonstration of tenacity and technical acumen....

Thank you very much, you have no idea how much you have helped myself and others, who have been trying to do the very same thing...get one of the most popular legacy IP phone series: the 1100 series (Nortel as so huge) working with the 3CX.

After spending considerable time troubleshooting this de-registration issue (including even a call to 3cx tech support on the registration timers) I was about to do the very same thing by sniffing the registration traffic between the 1120 and the 3CX when I came upon your (very instructive and detailed) thread. Again, brilliant work on your part and very nice of you to share with the community.

Yes it is indeed a terrible shame that an upgrade broke your work around.

Seeing that we are now at release 15.5 (we are running the Linus version) can you post an update on your experience since your last post in 2016?

Thanks again much.

Brian D. Browne