Using a Sonicwall Firewall and Vonage VOIP Service
 

Hello all...

I have not seen many posts about using a Sonicwall with Vonage VOIP. I
have a Sonicwall Pro 200 and I just installed Vonage. I ran in to some
problems... All of which were solved when Vonage "moved" my account to
a Server that supports SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) firewalls.

But here are the details...

1. When I tried to make a call out, there was a long delay and then
fast busy.

2. When I received a call, my phone would ring, but I could not
"connect" to the caller. They would keep hearing the ring tone, and
then the call would go to Voicemail.

I called Vonage support and they read me off a list of UDP ports to
open on the Sonicwall. I didn't want to do it... but I did anyway. The
problem still did not go away so I had to call Vonage support again
(LONG LONG LONG Delay to speak to someone).

The guy I spoke the second time around say, "oh wait... does your
Sonicall do SPI" to which I replied "Yes". He told me he wanted to try
moving me to another server. He did this, we rebooted (power-cycled)
the Cisco ATA-186, and I was able to make and receive calls.

The technician said they are aware that Firewalls with SPI will not
work on their "original" server, so they are moving people with SPI
Firewalls (Like the Sonicwall) to the second server.

I then decided to see what happened if I removed all the ports I
opened on the Sonicwall. So one-by-one I removed them. And when I got
done, the Vonage service was still working great.

To be sure I rebooted the ATA-186 AND the Sonicwall. Sure enough, 24
hours later (and a bunch of "can you hear me now" calls) everything
works great.

So... if you have a Sonicwall (and probably other SPI firewalls like
Watchguard) with Vonage, and your service does not work, chances are
you need to call Vonage and have them "move" your account to another
SPI capable server.

PS: If anyone is interested in Vonage service click on this link:
http://www.vonage.com/?refer_id=ct and you will get a free month of
service (that's what I did).

Re: Using a Sonicwall Firewall and Vonage VOIP Service
 

Did the tech elaborate on what exactly the problem was?

- John


canaan01@hotmail.com wrote:

> Hello all...
>
> I have not seen many posts about using a Sonicwall with Vonage VOIP. I
> have a Sonicwall Pro 200 and I just installed Vonage. I ran in to some
> problems... All of which were solved when Vonage "moved" my account to
> a Server that supports SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) firewalls.
>
> But here are the details...
>
> 1. When I tried to make a call out, there was a long delay and then
> fast busy.
>
> 2. When I received a call, my phone would ring, but I could not
> "connect" to the caller. They would keep hearing the ring tone, and
> then the call would go to Voicemail.
>
> I called Vonage support and they read me off a list of UDP ports to
> open on the Sonicwall. I didn't want to do it... but I did anyway. The
> problem still did not go away so I had to call Vonage support again
> (LONG LONG LONG Delay to speak to someone).
>
> The guy I spoke the second time around say, "oh wait... does your
> Sonicall do SPI" to which I replied "Yes". He told me he wanted to try
> moving me to another server. He did this, we rebooted (power-cycled)
> the Cisco ATA-186, and I was able to make and receive calls.
>
> The technician said they are aware that Firewalls with SPI will not
> work on their "original" server, so they are moving people with SPI
> Firewalls (Like the Sonicwall) to the second server.
>
> I then decided to see what happened if I removed all the ports I
> opened on the Sonicwall. So one-by-one I removed them. And when I got
> done, the Vonage service was still working great.
>
> To be sure I rebooted the ATA-186 AND the Sonicwall. Sure enough, 24
> hours later (and a bunch of "can you hear me now" calls) everything
> works great.
>
> So... if you have a Sonicwall (and probably other SPI firewalls like
> Watchguard) with Vonage, and your service does not work, chances are
> you need to call Vonage and have them "move" your account to another
> SPI capable server.
>
> PS: If anyone is interested in Vonage service click on this link:
> http://www.vonage.com/?refer_id=ct and you will get a free month of
> service (that's what I did).

Re: Using a Sonicwall Firewall and Vonage VOIP Service
 

I asked, but he did not give me a coherent answer. All he said is "we
moved you to a server compatible with Stateful Packet Inspection
Firewalls.

John Sutter <jds@sutters.com> wrote in message news:<6JaYa.614$3J7.48333009@newssvr13.news.prodig y.com>...
> Did the tech elaborate on what exactly the problem was?
>
> - John

Re: Using a Sonicwall Firewall and Vonage VOIP Service
 

It's possible that the first Media Gateway Controller server responds on
arbitrary ports within a range expected by the voip device, but not expected
by the stateful firewall. The second may be an actual MGC or a proxy that
is Stateful Inspection "friendly".
Here's a good, lay friendly article on Stateful Packet Inspection:
http://www.firewalls.com/document-st...inspection.asp

<canaan01@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:20e60a56.0308081656.1170e07b@posting.google.c om...
> I asked, but he did not give me a coherent answer. All he said is "we
> moved you to a server compatible with Stateful Packet Inspection
> Firewalls.
>
> John Sutter <jds@sutters.com> wrote in message
news:<6JaYa.614$3J7.48333009@newssvr13.news.prodig y.com>...
> > Did the tech elaborate on what exactly the problem was?
> >
> > - John
>