too many NAT traversal solutions?

[dhochman]

setup: SPA-2000 line 1 registered to BV behind WRT54G behind Surfboard cable modem that's served a dynamic (but pretty stable) public IP address by roadrunner..
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on the SPA I currently i have enabled
* NAT traversal with keep-alives
* STUN server and STUN test
* BV outbound proxy (use always)

on the WRT54G I have enabled
* uPNP

Question is this too many NAT traversal solutions at once? Should I subtract any? which?

thank you.

[md_27514]

Are you experiencing any trouble ? If not I don't see any reason to touch your configuration.

[dhochman]

Originally Posted by md_27514

Are you experiencing any trouble ? If not I don't see any reason to touch your configuration.

yes - intermittent one-way audio problems, not consistent or reproducible, but almost always cured in the short-term by rebooting the SPA. wondering if i have too much working at cross-purposes.

but your reaction suggests that at least there's nothing outlandish about my setttings. thanks.

[md_27514]

I have used BV with or without stun and did not have problems with either configuration. In general you don't need uPNP for voip, but it shoudn't do any harm. What exactly do you mean by "intermittent one-way audio problems" - no voice at the beginning of the call or dropped conversation during the call ? The first one might have something to do with NAT traversal, the second one probably has more to do with the quality of the internet connection or your provider.

[dhochman]

Originally Posted by md_27514

I have used BV with or without stun and did not have problems with either configuration. In general you don't need uPNP for voip, but it shoudn't do any harm. What exactly do you mean by "intermittent one-way audio problems" - no voice at the beginning of the call or dropped conversation during the call ? The first one might have something to do with NAT traversal, the second one probably has more to do with the quality of the internet connection or your provider.

Thanks for the uPNP advice.

The problems I am concerned with are definitely of the first type -- audio problems at the beginning of the call. But again, not consistent. I have occasionally lost audio during a call, and I agree that's almost certainly a QOS issue at Roadrunner or its contracted networks. First issue is of more concern.

Thanks also for the comment that it works with our without STUN. However, I have read conflicting advice on these forums about outbound proxy, which BV always states as a requirement... if STUN and NAT traversal are used, is OB proxy necessary for BV? Is there any sense in STUN without NAT traversa? those are the kind of questions I'm tussling with, the Sipura manual being so poor.

[mberlant]

Outbound Proxy is a requirement for many service providers for billing purposes. A service provider can only truly guarantee that you are paying for the service you are getting (and getting the service you are paying for) by forcing your calls to flow through their switch. Outbound Proxy does just that. Without Outbound Proxy you could, for example, place a call to a US destination through BroadVoice and then issue a SIP REINVITE command to force the call to redirect itself to a cruise ship on the high seas. The billing system would be content to charge you nothing for the call, taking these minutes out of your unlimited USA calling bucket, but their switching system would be paying for the Inmarsat call. At about $20 per minute retail for an Inmarsat call you can imagine what the wholesale price might be.

Independent of that, your description of your LAN indicates that you have only one NAT boundary in your setup. That single boundary is managed by your Linksys router. The SPA-2000, provisioned either by BroadVoice or by using the Voxilla Wizard, should have no difficulty maintaining solid connections in this setup. In fact, I have several identical setups at customer locations (SPA-2000 via WRT54G), and none have ever had any troubles.