Remote Phones / SIP Proxy Manager

[Dave King]

Hi All

I am sure this has been covered, ran a search though and cannot find. We have a number of clients on Gamma Horizon and looking for a new solution to offer clients. I have installed 3cx and its all working great, except when someone takes a phone home, they cannot make a call. I have looked into this and its down to the SIP proxy manager, which I installed on a laptop and now the phone works. Just so I understand it though, is this correct? As on other voip systems people can just take phones home, say on a snow day. Also the mobile app works without the SIP Proxy. Ideally we want to sell this in "you can take your phones home if you need to" and "we can run it totally off of the cloud"

https://www.3cx.com/blog/releases/sip-proxy-manager/

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Dave

 

[eddv123]

The 3CX proxy manager was replaced by the 3CX SBC which can be downloaded for free and run on Windows Linux or Raspberry Pi.

You will then need a supported/preferred handset such as a Yealink which will connect via the SBC for PnP provisioning via the SBC.
https://www.3cx.com/docs/3cx-tunnel-session-border-controller/

 

[leejor]

In a one-off situation, the set would pretty much have to use STUN, at the remote location, some sets are not equipped fort that, or if set to use it, at home, then have a problem, when it is used, in the office. You could install a Raspberry Pi SBC at each location.

In addition, short of re-provisioning to accommodate the change from office to home each move, the set would have to be run on a system using FQDN in the office. The same FQDN (server destination) could then be used whether the set is in the office, or at home.

 

[Dave King]

Thanks for the replies guys. This seems like a major downside though? Other systems I can just plug the phone in, no need for any additional software. Is there a reason 3cx is like this? And how come the mobile app just works?

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Hello @Dave King

Please note that if you use the 3CX SBC to provision the phones then the users cannot take them home and have them working as the phones will look to connect to the SBC.
If your server is in the cloud however and the phones are provisioned using STUN then theoretically the users can unplug the phone and take it home. You will then depend on the home route of each user to allow traffic through.
The 3CX clients work as they connect through the 3CX tunnel which is used by the clients and the 3CX SBC.

 

[Dave King]

Thanks guys. So with STUN the home users will need ports forwarded to the phone, correct?

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Thanks guys. So with STUN the home users will need ports forwarded to the phone, correct?

That will depend on the home router. If the router does not allow traffic then you will need port forwarding.

 

[leejor]

Thanks guys. So with STUN the home users will need ports forwarded to the phone, correct?

Generally, no. I've travelled quite a bit with my trusty old SPA-1001 ATA, many times. I can't recall having an issue with it working wherever i have plugged it in (hotels/motels, friends homes, sometimes using a Wifi adapter). Same with the 3CX Android App (not using the tunnel, in many cases). That said, it can depend on the router, and whether there are any other SIP device also sharing the network. If you avoid assigning the phone port 5060, 5061, 5062 (some of the more common local ports), and use something like 507X, then you lessen the likelihood of a conflict. That still doesn't guarantee there won't be an audio issue. Setting the extension options to PBX delivers audio, usually fixes that.

 

[Dave King]

Thanks guys, will give it a try and revert

 

[Dave King]

Quick question, can you have all phones on a remote site using STUN?

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Quick question, can you have all phones on a remote site using STUN?

Of course but you will need to assign a unique SIP port and RTP ports to each of the phones.
https://www.3cx.com/3cxacademy/videos/intermediate/configuring-remote-extensions/

 

[Dave King]

Of course but you will need to assign a unique SIP port and RTP ports to each of the phones.
https://www.3cx.com/3cxacademy/videos/intermediate/configuring-remote-extensions/

That sucks. Why with other voip systems you can just plug phones in? So if you don't need to forward ports to the phone then once setup you could take them anywhere, correct?

 

[leejor]

Why with other voip systems you can just plug phones in? So if you don't need to forward ports to the phone then once setup you could take them anywhere, correct?

In some cases, they may be using a proprietary method of signalling, not standard SIP, or assuming that only one instance, will ever be at one location. What examples are you thinking of?

 

[Dave King]

In some cases, they may be using a proprietary method of signalling, not standard SIP, or assuming that only one instance, will ever be at one location. What examples are you thinking of?

Gamma Horizon and Daisy also have one that is similar.

 

[leejor]

Well doing a quick search...it seems that Daisy provides trunking to a PBX that you provide, and Gamma doesn't provide a lot of information about what is required at the customer end. i suspect that they would not just drop off a bunch of sets or do an install without access to the local router, to possibly modify port forwarding, or want to replace the local router, if it doesn't meet their specs.

 

[cobaltit]

@Dave King Ok so there's two different things going on here. First of all, you don't HAVE to forward ports for STUN to work. There are many firewalls that multiple STUN phones work fine without doing that. But things change, be it phone firmware or firewall firmware or solar flares, and some times they will stop. So to avoid that and to make sure it works 100% of the time the 3CX supported configuration is to forward separate ports per phone.

As far as your other question you aren't comparing apples to apples. Despite the fact that you can host 3CX in the cloud it's not the same as these pure-play hosted phone providers. Those providers are using a SBC on their end to help the firewall traversal issues because their phones are always remote and always behind firewalls they can't control so they have one large SBC (or more often a cluster) that all of their endpoints use. I know one large 3CX partner invested in a hosted 3rd party SBC product that they used because the early sip proxy manager and then SBC software from 3CX worked poorly. and was unstable. The latest iteration is a much better/more stable product but it's still client side.

That being said I believe 3CX is working on a server-side SBC solution. This is my own interpretation of some comments I've seen in the forums and not any that that 3CX has confirmed.

 

[Kane Hinchliffe]

Could you set up their mobile devices and use the 3CX client. We do that with our clients and is a very easy method, alternatively install the 3CX software on their workstation and utilize the 3CX softphone client. It uses the 3CX Tunnel to communicate back to your PBX.