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hardly
Premium Member
join:2004-02-10
USA

hardly to rblizz

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to rblizz

Re: DNS Screenshots for SPA2102 & CallCentric

It seems curious to me that on the SPA-2102 that you have NAT Mapping Enable and NAT Keep Alive Enable both set to no.
rblizz
join:2001-12-16
North Richland Hills, TX

rblizz

Member

said by hardly:

It seems curious to me that on the SPA-2102 that you have NAT Mapping Enable and NAT Keep Alive Enable both set to no.

That's the way it came. Didn't know better. Should I change something here?
hardly
Premium Member
join:2004-02-10
USA

hardly

Premium Member

The curious part is that it is set to yes on your other Linksys/Cisco devices.
rblizz
join:2001-12-16
North Richland Hills, TX

rblizz

Member

said by hardly:

The curious part is that it is set to yes on your other Linksys/Cisco devices.

Wait a minute, this might be because I'm not using the SPA2102 for a router. Would this be something that would be required to shut that off?

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

4 edits

Davesnothere to rblizz

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to rblizz
said by rblizz:

said by hardly:

It seems curious to me that on the SPA-2102 that you have NAT Mapping Enable and NAT Keep Alive Enable both set to 'NO'.

That's the way it came. Didn't know better. Should I change something here?

 
I just got back and see all of your screenshots - Will examine and then comment further.

But for now, I would have expected the 2 NAT parameters to be Enabled, as CC specifically asked for that in the PAP2T tutorial »www.callcentric.com/supp ··· sys/pap2 , at Step 14.

BTW, does the SPA1001 have a router in it, like the SPA2102 does ?

UPDATE 1 : A quick exam of the pictures now suggests that there is NOT a router in the SPA1001.

UPDATE 2 : I note that you have updated your screenshot of the SPA2102 to turn ON the NAT functions (as you posted below) and that you said that it seems to work fine either way.
rblizz
join:2001-12-16
North Richland Hills, TX

rblizz

Member

said by Davesnothere:

I just got back and see all of your screenshots - Will examine and then comment further.

But for now, I would have expected the 2 NAT parameters to be Enabled, as CC specifically asked for that in the PAP2T tutorial »www.callcentric.com/supp ··· sys/pap2 , at Step 14.

BTW, does the SPA1001 have a router in it, like the SPA2102 does ?

No, the SPA1001 is like the PAP2(T) -- except it has two lines on one port.

I've enabled the NAT settings in the SPA2102 and replaced the screenshot with a new one reflecting the change. I have no idea how those got turned off -- maybe I thought I was supposed to do it when I set the SPA2102 into Bridge Mode.

If you see any other changes I should make, let me know. The thing has been working pretty well, however.

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

1 edit

Davesnothere

Premium Member

said by rblizz:

No, the SPA1001 is like the PAP2(T) -- except it has two lines on one port.

I've enabled the NAT settings in the SPA2102 and replaced the screenshot with a new one reflecting the change. I have no idea how those got turned off -- maybe I thought I was supposed to do it when I set the SPA2102 into Bridge Mode.

If you see any other changes I should make, let me know. The thing has been working pretty well, however.

 
Good that it's behaving.

So is the SPA1001 more like any of the OBI models in features & functions ?

And I'm not sure how much difference that the NAT settings SHOULD make, especially with folks using DNS-SRV, where some things (like the SIP Port number) seem to become automatic from CC's end.

The NAT settings may matter only when the PAP2T/SPA1001 is a client of certain routers but not others. - Not sure.

= = = = = = = = =

I also noticed that CallCentric has pages for a couple of the OBI ATAs, and one for the newer Cisco/Linksys SPA112/SPA122.

There is also a 'Generic' page for other Cisco/Linksys models.
»www.callcentric.com/supp ··· d_sipura

AND, CallCentric has noted that Linksys bought Sipura, but no mention that Cisco later bought Linksys.

Hmmmm....
rblizz
join:2001-12-16
North Richland Hills, TX

rblizz

Member

said by Davesnothere:

So is the SPA1001 more like any of the OBI models in features & functions ?

Yep. It originally only had one line to go with one port, but they added the second line with new firmware at some point. I've read that some people flash their PAP2(T)s with SPA1001 firmware, which kills one port, but gives them two lines on the one that survives. I can see the advantage, but I think I would just buy an SPA1001 if that's what I wanted.
said by Davesnothere:

There is also a 'Generic' page for other Cisco/Linksys models.
»www.callcentric.com/supp ··· d_sipura

I think I normally use the Generic Sipura instructions. (Apparently I forget NAT step from time to time, however.)

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

1 edit

Davesnothere

Premium Member

said by rblizz:

said by Davesnothere:

So is the SPA1001 more like any of the OBI models in features & functions ?

Yep. It originally only had one line to go with one port, but they added the second line with new firmware at some point. I've read that some people flash their PAP2(T)s with SPA1001 firmware, which kills one port, but gives them two lines on the one that survives. I can see the advantage, but I think I would just buy an SPA1001 if that's what I wanted.
said by Davesnothere:

There is also a 'Generic' page for other Cisco/Linksys models.
»www.callcentric.com/supp ··· d_sipura

I think I normally use the Generic Sipura instructions. (Apparently I forget NAT step from time to time, however.)

 
Yes, I had heard of that ALT FW flash for the PAP2T, but had never investigated, as I use 2 phones on 2 ports anyway, and it has gotten that ordinary phones are almost free these days.

And did you notice that the CC generic instructions page seems only to point to some of CC's other pages.
Davesnothere

Davesnothere

Premium Member

 
Another factor which would likely matter with the SPA2102 and SPA3102 (and any other ATAs which contain a router) would be whether or not you have this internal router enabled (and whether or not you NEEDED to), and where you have the SPA connected - on the LAN side of your main router (like any other computer), or on the WAN side of your main router (which has been known to limit overall speed of your Internet Downstream channel.

And generally, if you have the internal router of one of these ATAs enabled when there also is another (your main) router in the path of some or all of your data, it can cause a variety of negative issues.

I originally chose the PAP2T over the others to reduce the chances of such problems, and of problems overall.

Sly
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Tennessee

Sly

Premium Member

I have my SPA-2102 behind my router in the LAN. Agreed, I didn't want it to act as my router because it would slow everything else down. I don't use the routing functions of the 2102 at all...

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

Davesnothere

Premium Member

said by Sly:

I have my SPA-2102 behind my router in the LAN. Agreed, I didn't want it to act as my router because it would slow everything else down. I don't use the routing functions of the 2102 at all...

 
Apparently, one of the major reasons for the design of the 2102 & 3102 was so that you could put it on the WAN side of another (your main) router and use some QoS functions which these 2 beasts are supposed to have.

In those days, few consumer routers had any QoS in them, where many have some today, and ALT firmware such as Tomato & DD-WRT allow many other older Linksys routers such as mine (WRT54GL) to do QoS, rather than buying again so soon.
Davesnothere

Davesnothere

Premium Member

Click for full size
 
Does anyone know what THIS setting (in most Linksys/Cisco ATAs) is supposed to do ? (and under what circumstances ?)

I've put a thin RED box around it.
rblizz
join:2001-12-16
North Richland Hills, TX

2 edits

rblizz

Member

I'm not knowledgeable enough to know what this means, but here's the explanation from the Linksys Administrator Manual.
quote:
SIP Proxy Redundancy

In typical commercial IP Telephony deployments, all calls are established through a SIP proxy server. An average SIP proxy server may handle tens of thousands of subscribers. It is important that a backup server be available so that an active server can be temporarily switched out for maintenance. The Linksys ATA supports the use of backup SIP proxy servers so that service disruption should be nearly eliminated.

A relatively simple way to support proxy redundancy is to configure a static list of SIP proxy servers to the Linksys ATA in its configuration profile where the list is arranged in some order of priority. The Linksys ATA attempts to contact the highest priority proxy server whenever possible. When the currently selected proxy server is not responding, the Linksys ATA automatically retries the next proxy server in the list.

The dynamic nature of SIP message routing makes the use of a static list of proxy servers inadequate in some scenarios. In deployments where user agents are served by different domains it is not feasible to configure a static list of proxy servers for each domain.

One solution in this situation is through the use of DNS SRV records. The Linksys ATA can be instructed to contact a SIP proxy server in a domain named in the SIP message. The Linksys ATA consults the DNS server to get a list of hosts in the given domain that provides SIP services. If an entry exists, the DNS server returns an SRV record that contains a list of SIP proxy servers for the domain, with their host names, priority, listening ports, and so on. The Linksys ATA tries to contact the list of hosts in the order of their stated priority.

If the Linksys ATA is currently using a lower priority proxy server, it periodically probes the higher priority proxy to see whether it is back on line, and switches back to the higher priority proxy when possible.
»www.groundcontrol.com/Sa ··· uide.pdf

EDIT: I think I printed the "obvious" stuff above. (Not obvious to me, but nothing is obvious to me.) Here's specifically what the Proxy Redundancy Method sets (also from the manual).
quote:
Proxy Redundancy Method

PAP2T will make an internal list of proxies returned in DNS SRV records. In normal mode, this list will contain proxies ranked by weight and priority.

if Based on SRV port is configured the PAP2T does normal first, and also inspect the port number based on 1st proxy’s port on the list.

The default is Normal.
rblizz

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rblizz to Sly

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to Sly
said by Sly:

I have my SPA-2102 behind my router in the LAN. Agreed, I didn't want it to act as my router because it would slow everything else down. I don't use the routing functions of the 2102 at all...

I don't either (nor does my brother). But my Dad uses his for a router (even though his DSL Modem/router/switch is also available). When I tested SPA2102s as routers on my home system, I found that they were steady, but topped out at 7 Mbs. Since I have a higher speed Internet connection than that, I wouldn't use it as a router (not that I had any need to anyhow), so I put my SPA2102 in "Bridge Mode" (which essentially turns it into a PAP2T). My Dad's DSL Internet speed is no more than 4 Mbs so he doesn't see any degradation in speed. I told him he could plug the computer directly into the router, but he figures he has more protection by having two routers between him and the outside world. His phone and computer both work fine, so there's no harm it leaving it set up that way.

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

Davesnothere

Premium Member

said by rblizz:

said by Sly:

I have my SPA-2102 behind my router in the LAN. Agreed, I didn't want it to act as my router because it would slow everything else down. I don't use the routing functions of the 2102 at all...

I don't either (nor does my brother). But my Dad uses his for a router (even though his DSL Modem/router/switch is also available). When I tested SPA2102s as routers on my home system, I found that they were steady, but topped out at 7 Mbs. Since I have a higher speed Internet connection than that, I wouldn't use it as a router (not that I had any need to anyhow), so I put my SPA2102 in "Bridge Mode" (which essentially turns it into a PAP2T).

[However,] my Dad's DSL Internet speed is no more than 4 Mbs so he doesn't see any degradation in speed. I told him he could plug the computer directly into the router, but he figures he has more protection by having two routers between him and the outside world. His phone and computer both work fine, so there's no harm it leaving it set up that way.

 
I agree with everything you said there, and your reasons.

As for the dual routers deal - if you were able to make it work, K00L.

But if your Dad ever wants to do anything which needs 'Port Forwarding', such as some p2p apps, then things could get very spaghetti-like in figuring out how, when multiple routers are nested like that.
rblizz
join:2001-12-16
North Richland Hills, TX

rblizz

Member

said by Davesnothere:

As for the dual routers deal - if you were able to make it work, K00L.

But if your Dad ever wants to do anything which needs 'Port Forwarding', such as some p2p apps, then things could get very spaghetti-like in figuring out how, when multiple routers are nested like that.

I don't think that's going to be an issue with him. Up until about six or seven months ago he was using EarthLink dial-up, but they dropped their local number and "generously" offered him an $8 an hour 800 number to login. He does like high-speed Internet and his CallCentric phone.

I did explain to him, if it ever becomes an issue, just unplug your computer from the SPA2102 and plug it directly into the modem, which I had him test when he first installed DSL. He's actually pretty good at this stuff, especially considering that he's nearly 80 years old.