self hosted 3CX Deb ISO - incoming FAX ok, outgoing double speed busy

[nexusis]

I have a problem that has been the source of many grey hairs over the last week.

My dedicated fax number is provided via my SIP provider and routed through a Grandstream HT801 to an Office Jet 9010. Incoming FAX calls on the FAX line are directed to extension 880 (attached to the HT801) and the Office Jet picks them up. No problem there.

Outgoing FAX calls however can be seen attaching to the HT801 (the phone indicator light flashes showing the line in use) and the FAX dialer recognizes the dial tone and dials. Almost immediately, a double speed busy signal is heard. If I connect the Office jet to my home phone line (a VOIP line using a CISCO ATA box not going through 3CX, but with the same SIP provider) it works fine. Clearly there is something in the 3CX connection stack that is the problem
Now, I did have some weird things happen about a month ago in which my UPS fully drained (over 4 hrs with no power - and the auto shutdown failed...so all my systems hard crashed. Some of my VMs didn't enjoy that, including 3CX... I had to restore a 3CX configuration backup, and not everything came back right, so I may have a broken config somewhere. But I can't see it.

Around the same time, my internet connection was "upgraded" and my ability to port forward was lost. The 3CX firewall is quite unhappy with me, however voice calls with 3CX are working both incoming and outgoing.

I'm going to stretch and say its something in my configuration of the HT801
- The HT801 is brand new (replaced an HT802 that was questionable).
- The network port the HT801 is using is not the same as the HT802.
- The HT801 (as well as the HT802) are using a static IP. 3CX recognizes them by their MAC addresses.
- The FAX/DECT server page has both the HT801 and HT802 on it, but the 802 has no attached extensions. The HT801 only lists extension 880 (the Office jet port)
- The FAX server is configured with ext 888 (though I dont use it - is this a default? is there a way to unconfigure this?)


- Incoming faxes on my incoming FAX SIP DID are sent to ext 880 The OfficeJet recognizes the incoming call and picks up just fine (I dont have a second fax machine to test with)
- When I look at the extensions list, 880 is saying its not registered (!! How is anything being sent to it then? !!) 888 is showing as registered (Should it be? Is it conflicting with 880?)
- The Phones page lists the Grandstream HT801, but it doesn't really let me edit anything. Its not showing in red, like an old firmware warning does, but it does show in bold. It still lists the ext as "New" (880 is only showing as an extension on the FAX/DECT page HT801 configuration)


- This is not simply a FAX problem as attaching a standard telephone in place of the Officejet results in the same.

I have followed the directions on https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/fax-server/ as closely as possible - The line called Fax Extension Authentication ID on the doc indicates to use the extension 888 again, but my 3CX version demands a secure password(??)

Despite 4 or 5 days of fiddling with this, and replacing hardware which might have been questionable at best...I cant seem to get outgoing FAXes to function



Any help would be appreciated

 

[SweetAction]

Wow, this is a detailed out post.

- The FAX server is configured with ext 888 (though I dont use it - is this a default? is there a way to unconfigure this?)

No, but you can change the number if you want, but it really doesn't matter. Leave it for now.

- When I look at the extensions list, 880 is saying its not registered (!! How is anything being sent to it then? !!) 888 is showing as registered (Should it be? Is it conflicting with 880?)View attachment 35968

This is what I am going to focus on as it's likely the root of the issue.

What does the HT say? On it's main webpage, does it claim to be registered?

I'm willing to bet the HT isn't registered with 3CX. I can't say how it's getting any inbound faxes (this makes no sense at all), but I'm willing to bet that you don't have the correct firmware on there as well. So lets start there and once we fix that we can check what else is broken.

 

[nexusis]

What does the HT say? On it's main webpage, does it claim to be registered?

Yes, the main page of the HT801 shows that it is registered

I'm willing to bet the HT isn't registered with 3CX. I can't say how it's getting any inbound faxes (this makes no sense at all), but I'm willing to bet that you don't have the correct firmware on there as well. So lets start there and once we fix that we can check what else is broken.

This is a brand new unit. Fresh from Amazon Tuesday.



Now this is a possibility - 3CX does show that a 1.0.45.2 firmware is released. I just really disklike creating bricks unless all other avenues are explored.

The active port does seem to be configured to point to my 3CX server VM



Additionally, I see this in my event log:

Provisioning file for MAC (redacted) of user Grandstream HT801 requested by 192.168.1.129 was successfully generated
3CX Template Parser ID: 10029 06/14/2023 8:00:57 PM

So it seems that the HT801 requested provisioning, and it was granted.

Finally, as one more debugging step, I can telnet from a machine on my network to the specified 3CX server ip/port and get a connection.

 

[SweetAction]

Is the PBX you are logging into 192.168.1.207? Is it possible that you have a duplicate IP or something else on network with the same IP?

I'm still hung up on the 3CX doesn't think the extension is registered issue.

If you plug a phone into the ATA and dial your voicemail extension (typically 999 for 3 digits), do you get 3CX voicemail menu? Or *777 (echo test) does it work?

 

[nexusis]

Is the PBX you are logging into 192.168.1.207? Is it possible that you have a duplicate IP or something else on network with the same IP?

NMAP is only seeing one replier for my 3CX ip, and ESET is not telling me about any duplication.

I'm still hung up on the 3CX doesn't think the extension is registered issue.

If you plug a phone into the ATA and dial your voicemail extension (typically 999 for 3 digits), do you get 3CX voicemail menu? Or *777 (echo test) does it work?

after running those tests I have to agree. Both voicemail and echo test returned the double busy, just as the outgoing fax attempts did.

I rebooted my 3CX server today - part of moving it to a different VMHost - and when it came back up I noticed two differences from earlier this week.

1. The Grandstream HT801 is no longer listed under phones. Only my 2 normal extentions exist.
2. The 3CX log does not show any log entry about provisioning the HT801

to test a theory that the HT801 didnt like losing track of the 3CX system, I power cycled the HT801 and when it finally rebooted I see these entries in the log:


and the HT801 is showing again in the phones page, still listed as new, and in bold. (I'm surprised it didn't retry re-provisioning after a timeout period)

Now when I dial voicemail I am getting the voicemail assistant. In fact dialing out any number is intercepted by 3CX. Straight faxing at this point got a message which said something like "this number is not in service". (Hard to tell for sure, the NAS and servers are inches from my head and they are louder than the phone or printer in my ear.)

This one I got around by setting an outbound dialing rule, where calls from Ext 880 are directed to my SIP provider, with the caller ID set to my FAX number. (this step isn't listed on the 3CX installation instructions at https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/fax-server/)

Thank you for your time in helping debug this weird little problem! Now I can enjoy what's left of my Saturday night.

 

[SweetAction]

Glad you got it working. Ping back if you need anything else.