Best way to connect phones

[Rhys Haskell]

We have a customer we are signing up for 65 extensions, what would you recommend as the best way to connect these back to the hosted server?

VPN
STUN
Multiple SBCs

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Hello @Rhys Haskell

All methods will work but STUN will need a lot more firewall configuring for the number of phones you want to use. The VPN has the added benefit over the SBC that phones can be provisioned as local to the phone system and you can also use phones that do not support remote provisioning. Either than that the SBC is a good solution.

 

[eddv123]

Hi Rhys,

You need to let us know what phone models you are using - certain brands are supported/un-supported and will only offer you certain methods for remote connectivity.

Preferred = SBC and STUN.
Preferred & Supported = VPN
Un-supported = Good luck to you!

https://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/

 

[Rhys Haskell]

We are using Yealink T46, T48 and CP960's, we are edging towards a VPN due to the fact of the BLF's required over all 65 phones. I am just uneasy running VPN software on the same server as 3CX due to the fact this isn't supported by 3CX. Has anybody tested OpenVPN setup on the same server as 3CX and did it cause any issue?

 

[eddv123]

I know of resellers using open VPN and 3CX but would not recommend it would probably be deemed as unsupported as that method of setup does not exist on the supported networks for 3CX.

Why can't you use site to site?

 

[Rhys Haskell]

I know of resellers using open VPN and 3CX but would not recommend it would probably be deemed as unsupported as that method of setup does not exist on the supported networks for 3CX.

Why can't you use site to site?

How would this be configured and work if the 3CX is hosted in the cloud? Would this not only work if the phone system was on-premises?

We primarily use OVH and I have never seen an option for a VPN setup.

 

[cobaltit]

So the VPN portion isn't really a 3CX question. There's nothing wrong with OpenVPN, but the unsupported configuration is any VPN on the 3CX box itself. Not saying it won't work, just that it would be unsupported. So your supported configuration would be SBC on a PC/VM with enough resources for the number of endpoints (or multiple SBCs/VMs) or VPN on an edge device. Not familiar with OVH but I don't think they offer that kind of setup. Someone like AWS/Azure/Google Cloud will provide a VPN endpoint for you.

 

[eddv123]

To answer your point to point question.

Cloud service providers support VPN in their portfolio now, at least Google and AWS do.