I'd like to use the VoIP service from Free with Asterisk, but am having a couple of problems. Here are some details:
ADSL from Free Télécom comes bundled with VoIP and TV services. Most users access the VoIP via the supplied Freebox, which is an integrated DSL modem, router, ATA, and media player. It is of course possible to connect the Freebox to Asterisk via an X100P or other FXO interface. However, to improve quality, reliability, control, etc., I'd like to have Asterisk directly access the underlying MGCP service. Since this will take quite a bit of work (chan_mgcp presently acts only as Call Agent and cannot function as an endpoint), I first tried to configure an old Cisco ATA-186 to use the Free service. Although international and domestic long distance calls (both outgoing and incoming) work fine, there are problems with local calls. When calling some locations in Paris, the ATA user hears a severe echo (though there is no echo if Freebox is used). The 186, like most ATAs, has echo cancellation only for the analog line. That is working as expected; the remote party does not hear an echo. I would think that the far side echo would be canceled by the remote media gateway, but that does not seem to be the case. I don't believe that the caller has any control over this (the CA sends out requests and the endpoint obeys them), so it appears that the Freebox must be doing echo cancellation for both ends. Can someone confirm this? If it's true, is it possible for Asterisk to cancel echo from the remote end? On calls to nearby locations, such as my own POTS line or Free's voicemail service, there is no outgoing audio from the ATA. It appears to be a routing problem, because I can't ping these media gateways, typically 172.16.254.x, but can ping those where the audio is ok, typically 172.25.x.x. Packets do arrive *from* 172.16.254.x, and incoming audio is ok. However, the ATM protocol is RFC 1483 routed, VC mux, so there is no way to specify a gateway other than using the proper PVC, which I assume is 8/35 for all the private addresses used for VoIP, and 8/36 for Internet IPs. I'd like to see what the Freebox is doing differently, but don't know how, because this traffic does not appear on its Ethernet port. Is there a reasonably inexpensive tool that can monitor the packets on a DSL line? Or some other way to find out what is happening? Thanks in advance, Stewart _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
