[asterisk-users] SIP and other phones other then local network

[Matt Riddell]

On 2/09/09 9:10 PM, ABBAS SHAKEEL wrote:
> Thanks Matt !
>
> I found the configuration of SIP phones little bit more complex as
> compare to IAX ...
>
> So howz about using IAX2....
>
> Any other that will require less or zero configuration other than
> Asterisk server

IAX2 is a touchy subject with some people.

I personally use it as much as possible (mainly for the trunking 
capabilities), but I'm also the VoIP provider, so it's a bit easier when 
you can configure both ends.

I've seen situations a few times where IAX2 peers seem to disappear, and 
even restarting Asterisk doesn't bring them back - the only fix is to 
change bindport to 45691 for about 30 seconds then change it back.  This 
points to the fact that it's a screwy NAT that causes the problem.

On the whole though, I do personally prefer IAX2 - the only major 
problem being the lack of a load balancer (although there is one I 
haven't used for a while).

A lot of people say that if you have problems with IAX2 then you should 
just move to SIP, but I really do like IAX2.  I even worked on the 
PA1688/AR1688 based IAX2 phones for a while trying to get them to customers.

At the end of the day though, we've found Polycom/Linksys/Cisco phones 
to be better for the end user, and then get them to register to Asterisk 
boxes which trunk calls back to our servers via IAX2.  If you're doing 
more than one call (or moving around behind different NAT's) then it 
really does seem to be an improvement to me.

The problem is, there aren't that many people that agree with me :)

There are more developers who understand SIP (it's a text based 
signalling protocol after all, compared to the binary based IAX2).

I could probably argue most points in a battle between IAX2 and SIP, but 
at the end of the day you're best to use what ever suits your needs the 
most.

It's like programming languages - just because I can program in C, 
doesn't mean I write my scripts in it.  You need to use the right tool 
for the job - be it bash, perl, php, C, Java, C#, IAX2 or SIP.

:) So, the choice is really yours.  I just personally really like IAX2.

-- 
Cheers,

Matt Riddell
Director
_______________________________________________

http://www.venturevoip.com/news.php (Daily Asterisk News)
http://www.venturevoip.com/st.php (SmoothTorque Predictive Dialer)
http://www.venturevoip.com/c3.php (ConduIT3 PABX Systems)