[asterisk-dev] SendText() on a SIP channel in 1.8 ?

[Mark Michelson]

On 03/05/2011 03:56 PM, Pavel Troller wrote:
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> Hi!
>>> I'm adopting my PBX for Asterisk 1.8. I've found that I can't see
>>> messages
>>> sent to the SIP phones anymore.
>>> I've done just a basic debug: The SendText() app is called and
>>> ${SENDTEXTSTATUS} shows SUCCESS. However, there is no output on the
>>> phone
>>> and I cannot see a MESSAGE SIP method being sent to the phone. With
>>> sip debug
>>> enabled, I cannot see any chan_sip activity around the SendText()
>>> call. In 1.6,
>>> it works normally.
>>> Should I make some additional setup somewhere ? The phones are for
>>> example
>>> Linksys/Cisco SPA962 or SPA942.
>>> With regards, Pavel.
>> It sounds like a bug to me.  If that's the case, it sounds like it would be easy to reproduce.  Please open a report on issues.asterisk.org.
>>
>> --
>> Russell Bryant
> Hi Russel,
>    I've made some more debugging and comparison with 1.6 chan_sip code. Now
> I suppose I've found the cause.
>    The phones I'm using do support the MESSAGE method, but they don't state
> it in the Allow: header. And it seems that current 1.8 chan_sip now checks a
> method to be used against the supplied list and refuses to use a method, which
> is not stated as allowed.
>    In 1.6 chan_sip, the message is simply sent regardless of the Allow: header
> and so it's normally received by the phone and displayed.
>    I understand that honoring the Allow: header is a Good Thing, but in this
> case it is blocking an otherwise working functionality. The SPA 9xx Linksys
> phones are EOL now, so IMHO there will be no new firmware for them, we cannot
> hope this will get fixed. And they are still very popular, so it would be good
> to support them to the maximum extent.
>    What about creating a config option similar to the disallowed_methods one,
> but with an opposite meaning, i.e. forcing the method even in the case it's not
> in the phone's list ? Something like a "forcibly_allowed_methods" or so...
>
> With regards, Pavel
Something like that sounds reasonable to me. It's sad that so many SIP 
user agents don't provide accurate Allow headers.

On a separate note, the text in sip.conf.sample needs to be changed 
because it mentions that the Allow header parsing and disallowed_methods 
option only applies to connected line UPDATE requests. Since it's being 
used for MESSAGE requests, too, the text in the config file needs to 
reflect that. I'll go ahead and make that change while I'm thinking 
about it.

Mark Michelson