Unable to place calls with Vonage since switching to Almond+ HELP!!

[bLUFF]

Now that i am using Almond+ instead of my old netgear, I am just not able to place any International calls using vonage.

My setup is as follows: Internet > Modem > Almond+ > vonage adapter > phone.

I called up the vonage support and they said they said that either i turn off the firewall on the router or connect the vonage adapter directly to the modem.  I dont want to do that. Can someone please help me in avoiding this scenario. Help!!


EDIT: I figured out later that this was not just limited to international calls but also domestic.

[LGNilsson]

I'm not sure if we've tested Vonage support yet, but I've asked the software team to get back with an answer for you.
Looking at Vonage support, it suggests you might have to open some ports.

To open ports on the Almond+ you need to log in to the web UI of your Almond+ by going to it's IP address in a web browser.
Once you've logged in (the default password is root) click on Advanced and then Forwarding.
Now you need to add a new port forward, well, two in fact.

Call the first one Vonage SIP for example (Name - Vonage SIP) and the protocol selected should be UDP. External port should be 5061 and Internal port should be the same. The tricky part here is to select the IP address of your Vonage device, but there's a drop down list that will show you the IP address of all the connected devices. As long as it's only your PC and the Vonage adapter, it should be quite straight forward to do this.

You can find out the IP address of your PC (if you're using Windows) by clicking on start (assuming you're not on Windows 8.x), then type cmd in the search box and hit enter. You should now have a command prompt window into which you should type ipconfig and hit enter. You should be able to see the IPv4 Address of your PC here, as well as the IP address of the Almond+ which should be your Default Gateway. By means of elimination you should now be able to pick the right IP address for the Vonage adapter.

Finally click add to add the first port forward.

You can call the second port forward Vonage RTP, the protocol is still UDP, but this time you need to enter a port range of 10000-20000 which is done by simply typing it as I just did. Do this for both the Internal and External port. Select the same IP address as above for the Vonage adapter and click on Add.

Finally click on Save and hopefully it'll work for you.

What this does is that it enables the ports that the Vonage adapter needs to communicate to the internet to bypass the firewall.

[summat]

You say you specifically can't place international calls? Should we assume that means that you *can* place domestic? Or does it simply not work at all?

I don't see how international vs domestic could affect things..

[bLUFF]

No, that's my bad. I assumed that if I could ring my cell phone then domestic calls were working. But yes, both domestic and international calls are affected. In short - I am not able to place any calls using vonage with Almond+. I called my mobile and asked my wife to talk to me from the bedroom and she said the phone rang and she could hear my voice, but i couldn't hear anything.

So that does match with what vonage support said. They said that the router was preventing/interfering voice data transfer and if i could turn off the firewall it would work.

Also as Vonage support didn't have Almond+ or for that matter Almond listed as a router in their list of troubleshooting guide, he was unable to help me or guide me with any settings. I can try to fiddle with port forwarding or something but then that would require vonage adapter to have a static ip and i am not sure if that will work either.

[bLUFF]

Thanks for the port-forwarding guide. I will try it out and let you know if that helps!

[summat]

The one-way audio you describe is a perfect example of SIP not having ports open that it's expecting to.

Port forwarding should get you sorted

[bLUFF]

The port forwarding worked! Thanks Lars!

Finding the IP Address for the vonage adapter was tricky at first but then i remember that the Mac address of the device is written at the back of the device and armed with that I summoned the console and then "arp -a" gave me a list of all the devices with their MAC addresses and then its easy to figure the IP address of the vonage adapter. 

The one question I now have is - How do i now change the dynamic nature of the vonage ip address to a static one? I don't want to change the the port-forwarding whenever I reset the modem/router.

 Thanks for all the help! Cheers!

[LGNilsson]

You don't 

What you do is that you set up a static lease.
This is a tad tricky, but it goes like this:
You have to log in to the web UI, then go to Advanced, followed by OpenWRT.
You'll be asked to log in again, then click on Network followed by DHCP and DNS.
At the bottom of that screen you can set up static leases.
For Hostname you can type in Vonage, the MAC address and IP address you already have, so you just select them from the drop down boxes, then click save.
What this does is that it locks the MAC address of your Vonage box to that specific IP address so the Almond+ always assigns that IP address to the Vonage box.

[bLUFF]

That's awesome! Thanks again Lars!

[dbuttke]

I'm also having issues with VOIP.  I don't use vonage, but same basic thing.  Looks connected, but fails to connect any calls.
As far as port forwarding I'm not even going to try until the VPN issue is sorted.
I never had to forward any ports on any other routers I've used either.  Not sure why almond requires this.

[summat]

I doubt it's Almond+ requiring it so much as the protocol that VoIP uses, which is SIP with most providers such as Vonage.

I don't think there is a way to avoid forwarding if you want to use raw SIP. You'd be able to register your SIP client with your provider and call out, but you'd get one-way audio with your client able to send audio but not receive it, just as in the original post in this thread, which is why his issue was solved by forwarding the ports..

If your client can't even register.. I'd guess something else is going on.

[obocher]

I am pretty annoyed right now.  I have to make a choice between wanting to have a home phone or an Almond+?  I have a Yealink DECT Phone and it worked fine on two different routers before this one (one being a Time Capsule).  Why do I have to port forward?  Anyways, if port forwarding is what I have to do, please tell me how.  Here is my current phone setup:

SIP Server: sip.babytel.ca:5060
Outbound Proxy Server: nat5.babytel.ca:5065
Transport: UDP

Please HELP!