Freephoneline registration failure

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Freephoneline registration failure

Postby hieppo » 01/17/2022

Hi,
Every so often whenever there is some sort of power failure or ISP service issue, my ATA would have issue registering with FPL sip server. This does not happen 100% whenever there is internet trouble but I would see it approximately every 6 months or so (but this is really random). The occurrence is not a lot but I should not be seeing this issue since this is only happening at my parent's home. My setup with FPL is working 100% without any glitch whether power outage, service failure or self restarting of my router/ATA.

My parent's is on DSL 25/5 with a small ISP using their router/modem which I have enabled as a bridge (bypassing the routing capability) and going into my Asus router. Then all the LAN devices are plugged into the Asus which includes the Linksys ATA.

I configured the ATA to register to one server voip. When the issue of registering appears, no matter how many times I reboot the ATA or router, it would not register on voip. However, as soon as I changed the server to voip2. I register right away. The next time the registration happens, I then swap the server back to voip and everything is good again.

So I have to switch back and forth between voip and voip2 every so often. Does anyone have any insight on what is happening and if there is any solution other than the manual method I have been doing?

Thanks in advance.
hieppo
Just Passing Thru
 
Posts: 9
Joined: 12/03/2012
SIP Device Name: PAP2
Firmware Version: Sipura 3.1.8
ISP Name: Distributel
Computer OS: Ubuntu
Router: Tomato v1.28

Re: Freephoneline registration failure

Postby Liptonbrisk » 01/17/2022

hieppo wrote:Does anyone have any insight on what is happening and if there is any solution other than the manual method I have been doing?


I never have to reboot anything or switch proxy servers after recovering from an internet outage because my UDP timeouts have been adjusted correctly in my router for use with Freephoneline.




1. The next time the problem occurs, specify a new high random sip port in the ATA between 30000 and 60000.
Navigate to Line 1 (or whatever is being used for FPL)-->SIP settings, change SIP Port to a random number between 30000 and 60000.
Do not use the same random SIP port for any other Line. Always choose a different random local SIP port for each FPL account you're using.
Save setting. Reboot ATA.

If changing local SIP Port works, you were dealing with a corrupted NAT connection in your router.
Possibly a NAT router connection was never disconnected or never timed out properly. And, then, the
ATA keeps the corrupted connection in a persistent state over and over again. (Credit goes to Mango for
this information). Possibly, this problem is due to the router's UDP timeout being in excess of the ATA's
Failure Retry timer. With FPL, that's 120 seconds.

Thanks to Mango, many of us now understand that in order for ATAs to remain registered and working properly with a VoIP SIP provider like Freephoneline, in particular after power failures, the following conditions must be met:

UDP Unreplied Timeout (in your router) < NAT Keep-alive Interval (in your ATA; for Obihai ATAs this is X_KeepAliveExpires; for Grandstream, the setting is SIP OPTIONS Keep Alive Interval) < UDP Assured Timeout (in your router) < SIP Registration Failure Retry Wait Time (or RegisterRetryInterval in Obihai ATAs)

“<“ means less than.

When a modem leases a new IP address, a problem can arise where prior associations using the old IP address are maintained in the router. When the ATA attempts to communicate using the old IP address, the response is unreplied, and then if the UDP Unreplied timeout is greater than the Keep Alive Interval (and UDP Unreplied timeout is often set to 30 by default in consumer routers) a problem arises where the corrupted connection persists. If UDP Unreplied timeout is, for example, 15, and the NAT Keep Alive Interval is 20, then the corrupted connection will timeout or close. A new connection will be created, and everything will work fine.

Another problem can occur when the Keep-Alive interval is greater than UDP Assured Timeout (often 180 by default in consumer routers): the NAT hole will close due to the ATA not communicating frequently enough with the SIP server. In turn, incoming calls may, intermittently, not reach the ATA. Again, X_KeepAlivesExpires (SIP OPTIONS Keep Alive Interval) is supposed to be 20 with FPL.



Getting access to both UDP Unreplied Timeout and UDP Assured Timeout settings in consumer routers may be difficult, if not impossible. Asuswrt-Merlin (I would avoid any model below/less powerful than an RT-AC68U), third party firmware for Asus routers, does offer easy access to these two settings, which are found under General–>Tools-->Other settings. My understanding is that third party Tomato firmware has these two settings as well. So if your router supports Tomato firmware, that may be another option. Note that I will not be held accountable any damage resulting from failed firmware updates. Apparently, Mikrotik routers also allow users to change both Assured and Unreplied UDP timeout settings as well: https://forums.redflagdeals.com/recomme ... #p28059363.

Router firmware that allows users to adjust Assured and Unreplied UDP timeouts include

Asuswrt-Merlin
Ubiquiti
Mikrotik
pfSense
Tomato
DD-WRT


The keep alive interval for FPL is 20. The SIP Registration Failure Retry Wait Time is 120. I use 15 for UDP Unreplied Timeout and 115 for UDP Assured Timeout.



2. You mentioned an Asus router. If Asuswrt-Merlin supports the router model being used, I would switch to Merlin: https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/about. I will not be held responsible for failed firmware updates.
Afterwards, adjust UDP timeouts as described above.


3. Double check the Registration timers.

a. Voice-->Line-->Proxy and Registration-->Register Expires needs to be 3600 seconds
b. Navigate to Voice-->SIP-->SIP Timer Values (sec). Ensure that Reg Retry Intvl is 120 seconds

c, Also, navigate to Voice-->SIP-->NAT Support Parameters. Ensure that NAT Keep Alive Interval is 20 seconds

These recommended settings can be found at https://support.freephoneline.ca/hc/en- ... redentials.


If the ATA makes more than 5 registration attempts in 5 minutes (this limit may have changed; I don't want to test to find out),
you may end up being temporarily IP banned by the specific FPL server the ATA was sending
registration requests to.
If you're temporarily IP banned, you could then try switching ProxyServer
to a different FPL server than the one you were previously using (voip.freephoneline.ca,
voip2.freephoneline.ca, or voip4.freephoneline.ca:6060), unless you need to use
voip4.freephoneline.ca:6060 because you have SIP ALG forced on in your router. The purpose of
voip4.freephoneline.ca:6060 is to circumvent SIP ALG features in routers.

4. You can also try rebooting the modem–>router (wait for it to be fully up and transmitting
data)–>ATA (in that order). That is always proper device reboot order.
Please do not send me emails; I do not work for nor represent Freephoneline or Fongo. Post questions on the forums so that others may learn from responses or assist you. Thank you. If you have an issue with your account or have a billing issue, submit a ticket here: https://support.fongo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. Visit http://status.fongo.com/ to check FPL/Fongo service status. Freephoneline setup guides can be found at viewforum.php?f=15.
User avatar
Liptonbrisk
Technical Support
 
Posts: 2764
Joined: 04/26/2010
SIP Device Name: Obihai 202/2182, Groundwire
Firmware Version: various
ISP Name: FTTH
Computer OS: Windows 64 bit
Router: Asuswrt-Merlin & others

Re: Freephoneline registration failure

Postby hieppo » 01/20/2022

Wow, what a nice detailed response.

I really appreciate it. I will appreciate it even more if it will resolve the issue. I have implemented the change as suggested. I am using Asuswrt-Merlin firmware so all the settings are there and as indicated.

I will keep track of this the next time power or internet goes out.

Thanks again.
hieppo
Just Passing Thru
 
Posts: 9
Joined: 12/03/2012
SIP Device Name: PAP2
Firmware Version: Sipura 3.1.8
ISP Name: Distributel
Computer OS: Ubuntu
Router: Tomato v1.28

Re: Freephoneline registration failure

Postby Liptonbrisk » 01/21/2022

You're welcome. If you ever do see the same issue, wait at least another 120 seconds (Reg Retry Intvl) to see if the ATA registers before attempting to change anything.

I strongly suspect the problem in this case was due to point #1 (corrupted NAT association), which can be proven (the next time this situation occurs) by just selecting another random local (UDP) SIP port in the ATA, saving settings, and then rebooting it. If that step doesn't work, and if changing proxy server afterwards works instead, then you were temporarily IP banned by the proxy server the ATA was attempting to register with (unless--and this is less likely--you're dealing with a DNS issue or, possibly, the FPL proxy server is down).


With respect to temporary IP bans, please note the following: when there are multiple devices/softphones/lines using the same FPL account, only the most recent registration is valid. The previous device will lose registration, and, consequently, incoming calls will not work on it. This is especially important to consider if someone else is using your SIP credentials (username and password) that are found after logging in at https://www.freephoneline.ca/showSipSettings or if you're trying to register your FPL account with a smartphone SIP app (or FPL desktop app) or with another device. Registration is required for incoming calls. It is not required for outgoing calls. Only one registration per FPL account is allowed at any time. A single line on an ATA is one registration. A SIP app is another. A more significant concern, though, is that multiple registration attempts can lead to temporary IP bans. The more devices being used with the exact same FPL account can make the temporary ban happen more quickly. Each time you reboot or restart your ATA or a SIP app, it's attempting to register with Freephoneline again. Multiple registration attempts within a short period can result in temporary IP ban with the proxy server being used.

hieppo wrote:. I am using Asuswrt-Merlin firmware


That's smart (to use router firmware where you can change UDP timeouts).

I'm currently using Asuswrt-Merlin version 386.4
Please do not send me emails; I do not work for nor represent Freephoneline or Fongo. Post questions on the forums so that others may learn from responses or assist you. Thank you. If you have an issue with your account or have a billing issue, submit a ticket here: https://support.fongo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. Visit http://status.fongo.com/ to check FPL/Fongo service status. Freephoneline setup guides can be found at viewforum.php?f=15.
User avatar
Liptonbrisk
Technical Support
 
Posts: 2764
Joined: 04/26/2010
SIP Device Name: Obihai 202/2182, Groundwire
Firmware Version: various
ISP Name: FTTH
Computer OS: Windows 64 bit
Router: Asuswrt-Merlin & others


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