[asterisk-users] Same provider - IAX sounds bad, SIP sounds great

Alejandro Imass ait at p2ee.org
Tue Feb 28 18:07:08 CST 2012


On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 6:36 PM, Steve Totaro
<stotaro at asteriskhelpdesk.com> wrote:

[...]

> Without trunking, you only have the single port thing.  It is quite easy to

Nope. The main reason _we_ use IAX is because it's easier for NAT

> open the correct ports for SIP, some just have GUI with a SIP checkbox,

It may be true for you but it's certainly not "the truth".

- SIP requires redirection of ports if behind a NAT which is about 99%
of home users, whether behind a WiFi router or an ISP private network.

- SIP requires far more set-up and support effort and it's not a valid
choice for a simple to use home-phone. (a) ISP routers change IPs
frequently, (b) the router may change the ATA's private IP rendering
the port redirection broken.

- A public SIP (w/o a VPN) requires careful control (e.g.
contactpermit in Asterisk) to limit the IPs that can connect to the
public box. Else you will get serous harm from things like SIPVicious
attacks. ISP change their IPs frequently so maintaining your user/ip
list is almost impossible. IAX2 was very vulnerable as well up to 2009
but many things in this regard have changed and are much better.
Granted, these security issues are common for both SIP and IAX2 but
IMHO it's easier to manage with IAX.

- In a NAT scenario SIP requires a couple of redirected ports per
extension, which is a no-go for SMB installations requiring several
ATAs without going to the extent of installing a more powerful
equipment than a simple ATA.

- You may use OpenVPN with SIP as you said but requires a PC which is
not an option for a simple VoIP business that delivers something like
Vonage, just plug it and it works. AFAIK there is no port redirection
or any special configuration to use Vonage and it works almost on any
network set-up (I don't use Vonage but know people that do). So if
something like Vonage is using SIP it's probably using a VPN software
like you recommend.

Anyway, the point is that SIP and IAX2 have both pros and cons and I
don't consider IAX2 to be a broken bat like you state. On the
contrary, I think it works pretty well, and we use both SIP and IAX2
targeted to simple Home, SOHO and SMBs that just want to plug it and
work. We get that with IAX2 and not with SIP so from our experience is
completely the opposite of what you say.

-- 
Alejandro Imass



IAX2 is supported on cheap ATAs by several chineese companies and they
work quite well.

> IPTables is simple and there are tons of howtos.
>
> Thanks,
> Steve T
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 6:29 PM, Steve Totaro <stotaro at asteriskhelpdesk.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> They said the same thing in 2005, 2008, now....  Every release.
>>
>> You never answered the question as to why you don't want to use SIP.  Is
>> there a reason, or do you just want to torture yourself?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Steve T
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 6:23 PM, Troy Telford <ttelford.groups at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 2012-02-28 21:22:44 +0000, Kevin P. Fleming said:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> A serious bug with IAX2 trunking in recent versions of Asterisk (you did
>>>> not mention what version you are using) was just resolved last week. You
>>>> should test with 'trunk=no' to see if that is the cause of your problem;
>>>> it seems very likely.
>>>
>>>
>>> For the record: 1.8.8.2~dfsg-1 (via Debian packages).
>>>
>>> I've tried "trunk=no", and it might have made a difference (I'll have a
>>> better idea after some more testing.)
>>> --
>>> Troy Telford
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
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>>
>
>
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