Setting up IAX2 for UK PSTN

Hello everyone,

As there seem to be many questions on how to setup the service on the Asterisk Open Source PBX system, so here i'll show an example setup.

First of all you'll need the hostname of your Asterisk server, in my example i'll use pbx.voipuser.org.

If you haven't requested a number yet, please do so now, if not edit the number that you want to forward in the My Numbers control panel.

I got assigned: 08715046137 which i'll use thru out this example.

First we set the destination in the control panel to IAX2/voipuser:test@pbx.voipuser.org

Where:
voipuser is the username
test is the password/secret
and pbx.voipuser.org is the hostname of the Asterisk PBX


we give it a minute or so to process the changes after we have hit update, which gives us the time to setup the voipuser entry in the iax.conf of asterisk.

[voipuser]
username=voipuser
secret=test
type=user
context=inbound-voipuser

After that there is one thing left to do which is adding the inbound-voipuser extensions to your extensions.conf.

The number will come in, via the international number format so the first 0 is replaced by 44.

[inbound-voipuser]
exten => 448715046137,1,Dial(${TjPHONE}&${DeanPHONE},20)
exten => 448715046137,2,Voicemail2(u12)
exten => 448715046137,3,HangUp

As you can see the call comes in and rings both our phones for 20 seconds and in case of busy/unavailble it will go to voicemail.

I'll leave it to your own creativity to come up with something else.

Regards,

Tjardick

Hi,

Got this working great - Thanks!

What codec does it use though?


Thanks!

--ian

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply but been out of service for a bit because of personal matters.

The IAX2 links support the usual A & Ulaw, GSM and Ilbc.

Regards,

Tj

tjardick :

IAX2/voipuser:test@pbx.voipuser.org [voipuser] username=voipuser secret=test type=user context=inbound-voipuser

I have found something strange but I have not looked into it properly yet.

If you have IAX2/test1:password@mypbx.domain.com and this:

[test2]
username=test1
secret=password
type=user
context=inbound-voipuser

..it doesn't work - but if you have this:

[test1]
username=test2
secret=password
type=user
context=inbound-voipuser

..it does work.

So, the username doesn't seem to be used. I confirmed this by removing the username line and it still works.

But, I then tried changing the password and it still works - remove it and it still works.

So, it seems there is no authentication been used and you can just use this:

[voipuser]
type=user
context=inbound-voipuser


However, if you look at the IAX2 string syntax on voip-info.org, Tj was right...

IAX/[<user>[:<secret>]@]<peer>[:<portno>][/<exten>[@<context>][/<options>]]


Tj -> Does the IAX termination just dial exactly what you put in the box in "My Numbers"?

--ian

Both entries of test2 look the same to me.

But i assume that you are suggestion that there is no password information send is this correct ?

Just saying that the dailstring is just dailed is basically not how it works, but if you have found anything not working properlt please let me know.

Tj

Hi Tj,

Quote:

Both entries of test2 look the same to me.

Oops - sorry, I typo'd.

I've edited my post above so if you re-read it, it should now make sense.

Basically, i'm saying that the username & password stuff doesn't seem to be working but I dont know whether it's your end or ours....

This testing is a result of the help I gave the guys here: http://www.voipuser.org/forum_topic_394.html

Thanks

--ian

Hi Tj,

Did you get a chance to look into this?

Thanks

--ian

Ian, TJ,

I've been looking at this too, and it would appear that it does work, but perhaps not as expected.

If the 'secret' line is not present or null, then * accepts the call with a '-- Accepting unauthenticated call from 213.166.5.129, requested format = 8, actual format = 8' message.

If the 'secret' line is set to a password, then it accepts it only if it matches. I've been using 'iax2 show users' before testing just to make sure I have reloaded the config files and am in fact testing against the correct password. This command also answers another point - the username is the name in square brackets, what would be the context name in extensions.conf. I believe 'username' in the iax.conf contexts is for outgoing connections only.

This is just what I've found, I'm using * v1.0.4 on Fedora Core 3, hopefully this will help you a bit.

Regards

Andy

Hi,

andyp :

If the 'secret' line is not present or null, then * accepts the call with a '-- Accepting unauthenticated call from 213.166.5.129, requested format = 8, actual format = 8' message.

I wonder if there is a way of disabling unauthenticated call's then..

Quote:

If the 'secret' line is set to a password, then it accepts it only if it matches.

Strange - I didn't find that - the reason I found that removing the secret line still worked was because I changed the password in asterisk and not in the control panel and the call still worked - it was then that I removed it and found it still worked..

What did you get on the console if you change the password and try to call in? - i.e how did it fail?

--ian

Ian,

I should have said in my last post that I had the 'authdebug=yes' line in the [general] section of iax.conf.

With this set, when a call comes in which has the wrong password I get

Code:

Jan 28 15:09:02 NOTICE[6531]: chan_iax2.c:5742 socket_read: Host 213.166.5.129 failed to authenticate as 'username'

where 'username' is the username sent by the VoipUser server.

I assume you double checked your passwords using 'iax2 show users' ?

Andy

Hi,

I just tested it all again and I now seem to see the same results as you so I dont know what was going on before.

Without secret:

Code:

-- Accepting unauthenticated call from 213.166.5.129, requested format = 8, actual format = 2

With secret:

Code:

-- Accepting AUTHENTICATED call from 213.166.5.129, requested format = 8, actual format = 2

With secret but wrong password:

Code:

Jan 29 16:25:22 NOTICE[1091972016]: chan_iax2.c:5701 socket_read: Host 213.166.5.129 failed to authenticate as voipuser_inbound

It's still worth noting though that username= is not required (and the tests above are without username).

In the voipuser.org control panel, the IAX2 string actually seems to work as: IAX2/context:password@pbx.domain.com rather than: IAX/user:password@pbx.domain.com

Does your testing agree with mine there??

Thanks

--ian

Ian,

Yes, my results match yours. I've been looking into the documentation and it seems that what we refer to as a context in extensions.conf is in fact the username in iax.conf. It seems that iax.conf contains user sections whereas extensions.conf contains context sections. Have a look at http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+ ... ntication. And it definately doesn't use the 'username=' variable *at all* in the incoming connection from VoipUser to your server.

The only time that the 'username=' variable is used is if the 'type=peer' or 'type=friend' is used, as username is then the username used in authenticating with the remote server for outbound connections - at least that's how understand it !

I think we should be suggesting users setup their machines with something like...

Code:

[voipuser] type=user secret=yourpassword context=voipuser-incoming

and then using an IAX2 string in the control panel of

Code:

IAX2/voipuser:password@pbx.domain.com

this string being pretty much what you said in your last post.

What do you think ?

Andy

Hi,

Strange, I didn't get a notification of your post!

What you said sounds good - i'll have a read of the docs and update my guide.

--ian

tjardick :

Hello everyone, As there seem to be many questions on how to setup the service on the Asterisk Open Source PBX system, so here i'll show an example setup. First of all you'll need the hostname of your Asterisk server, in my example i'll use pbx.voipuser.org. If you haven't requested a number yet, please do so now, if not edit the number that you want to forward in the My Numbers control panel. I got assigned: 08715046137 which i'll use thru out this example. First we set the destination in the control panel to IAX2/voipuser:test@pbx.voipuser.org Where: voipuser is the username test is the password/secret and pbx.voipuser.org is the hostname of the Asterisk PBX we give it a minute or so to process the changes after we have hit update, which gives us the time to setup the voipuser entry in the iax.conf of asterisk. [voipuser] username=voipuser secret=test type=user context=inbound-voipuser After that there is one thing left to do which is adding the inbound-voipuser extensions to your extensions.conf. The number will come in, via the international number format so the first 0 is replaced by 44. [inbound-voipuser] exten => 448715046137,1,Dial(${TjPHONE}&${DeanPHONE},20) exten => 448715046137,2,Voicemail2(u12) exten => 448715046137,3,HangUp As you can see the call comes in and rings both our phones for 20 seconds and in case of busy/unavailble it will go to voicemail. I'll leave it to your own creativity to come up with something else. Regards, Tjardick

CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW TO SETUP THIS USING THE TRIXBOX INTERFACE? RATHER THAM EDITING CONFIG FILES? Thanks.

Hi
You should find this thread http://www.voipuser.org/forum_topic_4052.html will cover most, if not all your questions