how to configure VOIP with ipcop?

Answer 1

Asuming that you're using a VOIP service such as Vonage, here's how to proceed. It's a bit fussy, but it does work!

Hook your TA to your network and power it up.

Log on to IPCop and click Services...DHCP Server. Look in the list of the leases at the bottom of the page and make a note of the IP address of the TA. (The MAC address of the TA should be on a label on the bottom of it, just look for its MAC addie.)

In the "Current fixed leases" section of the same page, type in the MAC address of the TA. Separate the elements with colons. It should look like this: 00:11:80:2a:13:36. Then enter the IP address you noted above in the IP address field. Add a comment in the Comment field if you wish. Make sure the "Enabled" check box is checked. Leave the other 3 fields blank and click "Add". This guarantees that your TA aways gets the same IP address.

Now go to Firewall...Port Forwarding. Select protocol TCP. Enter 5060 in the source and destination port fields. Enter the IP address noted above in the IP address field. Add a comment if desired. Leave the "Source IP or network" field blank for now -- you can lock that down later if desired -- or if you know the network address that the provider uses, enter it in CIDR format. Click Add. Repeat the process for UDP. You're done!

Reboot the TA and you should get a dialtone in a minute or two.

When you run your TA through IPCop (or any other firewall for that matter) you lose the traffic prioritization features built in to the TA. IPCop allows you to control that and I highly recommend you do so. Here's how to proceed:

Go to http://www.speakeasy.net and click on the Speed Test in the lower right corner. Select a test site near you. Run several tests and make note of your REAL upload and download speeds and round them up to the next highest common rollover point. For example, if you measure 4835 down and 224 up, your true speed is probably 5120 kbps down and 256 kbps up. Remember those numbers.

In IPCop, go into Services...Traffic Shaping. Enter the upload and download speeds you determined above. Select High under Priority and enter 5060 in the port box and TCP in the protocol selection and click Add. Repeat for the UDP protocol. If you have any other traffic shaping settings, make sure that they are all set to Medium or Low. This is important! If you have no other settings just leave it as it. IPCop will automatically lump everything else as Medium if there are any entries for High. Now add UDP ports 20001 through 20011 as High. You have to do that one at a time. These are the ports for your actual phone calls, 5060 is used for call setup and teardown, so it's important that they are set for High.

If you didn't set the Source IP or network option for port 5060 you can determine the provider's IP address on the Status...Connections page. Just look for a session using port 5060. Do a Whois lookup at http://www.dnsstuff.com and note the network range for that IP address. Convert that to CIDR notation (example: 63.251.33.160/27) and add it to the port forwarding configuration. This isn't exactly necessary but it's good practice as there are a few VOIP vulnerabilities and you don't want anyone trying to hack your TA.

I've been running my VOIP through my IPCop firewall for a couple of years now and have had no problems at all. Good luck!