[Asterisk-Users] SIP registration timeout

[Larry Hendrickson]

Hi all,

I am using * as a PBX for a Broadvoice VoIP account. It had been working
well since about last November, although not perfectly (similar
disconnection problems, although I am pretty sure it had to do with my
PPPoE setup, but I think these issues were resolved). As of a few weeks
ago, though, I started having serious problems.

Basically, I can start up * and connect to Broadvoice and everything
works well for a few hours. At some point, I always get disconnected
from Broadvoice, and the following errors appear on the * command line
every few seconds:

<----- start errors

Feb 21 11:31:36 NOTICE[485]: chan_sip.c:4027 sip_reg_timeout:    --
Registration for '323XXXXXXX at sip.broadvoice.com@sip.broadvoice.com'
timed out, trying again

 Feb 21 11:31:42 WARNING[485]: chan_sip.c:694 retrans_pkt: Maximum
retries exceeded on call 42ad24c75432460f18d0892c111e055d at 127.0.0.1 for
seqno 334 (Critical Request)

 Feb 21 11:31:56 NOTICE[485]: chan_sip.c:4027 sip_reg_timeout:    --
Registration for '323XXXXXXX at sip.broadvoice.com@sip.broadvoice.com'
timed out, trying again

 Feb 21 11:32:02 WARNING[485]: chan_sip.c:694 retrans_pkt: Maximum
retries exceeded on call 42ad24c75432460f18d0892c111e055d at 127.0.0.1 for
seqno 335 (Critical Request)

<----- end errors

NOTE: "sip.broadvoice.com" is specified as an IP address in /etc/hosts
as per one of the Broadvoice set-up instructions for * I saw somewhere.
For this example, it is currently set to "147.135.4.128".

If I then change sip.broadvoice.com to another proxy IP (say
147.135.8.128), and issue a "sip reload" command to *, then * reconnects
to Broadvoice and everything is fine for another few hours.

If I immediately change back to the original proxy, then it fails to
register with errors as above. If I wait a few hours for the new proxy
to have this same problem, then I can switch back to the old proxy
(which will work for another few hours). 

I sent an email to Broadvoice about this, but didn't get any response
from the support staff.

I held off reporting this problem to make sure that it wasn't caused by
anything I could think of on my end (NTP is keeping my machine at the
correct time, Dynamic DNS is correctly updating my IP, etc.). SIP
reloads seem to work before this problem starts, but do not help after.
Anecdotally, it seems that this problem coincides with the SIP
registration timeout, but since the first registration works, why would
it have problems on the second or third?

Has anyone else been having this problem?

I am running Asterisk (1.0.5-r1) on Gentoo from a DSL connection in
Thailand. My ping times to the proxy is between about 230ms and 350ms
(I know this is quite long for VoIP, but when it works, it works fine
for my purposes). To handle the changing of IP addresses with my DSL, I
set up a local DNS server which dynamically updates the IP of an
internal hostname to the IP of the external firewall, and added a script
that executes a 'sip reload' whenever my IP changes (sip.conf has the
this DNS host name in the 'externip' field and 'nat' set to no). Forcing
a DSL router reboot and thus an IP address change to test this
solution seems to work well, and does not cause this problem.
Firewall is forwarding port 5060 to this machine (as well as my locall
specified RTP ports which are 5000-5007), and firewall seems to be
working (I have done tests in the past to make sure that the port
forwarding is working, and I don't see how the firewall would allow it
to connect for 2-3 hours and then cause problems).

Is it possible that the SIP server is having problems with
re-registration when the IP address changes (even when the client
reports this change as per my solution above)? (I find that my DSL
connection changes IP address unusually frequently... possibly as much
as every few hours.) 

Any suggestions would be _greatly_ appreciated! 

--Larry

<------------ begin sip.conf
[general]
externip=<DYNAMIC_HOSTNAME_MAPPING_TO_IP_OF_ROUTER>
bindaddr = 0.0.0.0
port=5060
localnet=192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0
disallow=all
allow=gsm
allow=slinear
allow=ulaw
allow=alaw
context=incomingvoip
dtmfmode=inband
register => \
3235551212 at sip.broadvoice.com:mypassword:3235551212 at sip.broadvoice.com/s

tos=lowdelay
srvlookup=yes
nat=no

[broadvoice]
type=friend
;type=peer
username=3235551212
fromuser=3235551212
secret=mypassword
host=sip.broadvoice.com
port=5060
context=broadvoice
fromdomain=sip.broadvoice.com
canreinvite=no
dtmfmode=inband
insecure=very
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
deny=0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
permit=147.135.0.128/32
permit=147.135.4.128/32
permit=147.135.8.128/32
permit=147.135.12.128/32
nat=no
qualify=yes