I have 2 extensions as part of a ring group. There are intermittent problems with 1 or more of the extensions not ringing on incoming calls. At least one of the extensions also has a softphone registered to it. The softphone seems to ring reliably (at least that is what the user told me). These extensions are being used by new employees and there is a chance that the previous employees may still have the softphones installed on their cell phones.
Checking the logs I am seeing 2 of the problematic extensions repeatedly being deleted from AOR. The log is filled with these repeated entries.
2762457 [2022-04-02 18:14:28] VERBOSE[9261] res_pjsip_registrar.c: Added contact ‘sip:[email protected]:11260’ to AOR ‘201’ with expiration of 120 seconds
2762458 [2022-04-02 18:14:28] VERBOSE[7471] res_pjsip/pjsip_options.c: Contact 201/sip:[email protected]:11260 is now Reachable. RTT: 45.237 msec
2762459 [2022-04-02 18:16:49] VERBOSE[2412] res_pjsip_registrar.c: Removed contact ‘sip:[email protected]:11260’ from AOR ‘201’ due to expiration
2762460 [2022-04-02 18:16:49] VERBOSE[700] res_pjsip/pjsip_options.c: Contact 201/sip:[email protected]:11260 has been deleted
2762461 [2022-04-02 18:16:58] VERBOSE[9261] res_pjsip_registrar.c: Added contact ‘sip:[email protected]:11260’ to AOR ‘201’ with expiration of 120 seconds
2762462 [2022-04-02 18:16:58] VERBOSE[388] res_pjsip/pjsip_options.c: Contact 201/sip:[email protected]:11260 is now Reachable. RTT: 40.937 msec
2762463 [2022-04-02 18:18:19] VERBOSE[2412] res_pjsip_registrar.c: Removed contact ‘sip:[email protected]:11510’ from AOR ‘200’ due to expiration
2762464 [2022-04-02 18:18:19] VERBOSE[12364] res_pjsip/pjsip_options.c: Contact 200/sip:[email protected]:11510 has been deleted
2762465 [2022-04-02 18:21:03] VERBOSE[27071] res_pjsip_registrar.c: Added contact ‘sip:[email protected]:11510’ to AOR ‘200’ with expiration of 120 seconds
2762466 [2022-04-02 18:21:03] VERBOSE[7471] res_pjsip/pjsip_options.c: Contact 200/sip:[email protected]:11510 is now Reachable. RTT: 55.986 msec
2762467 [2022-04-02 18:21:19] VERBOSE[2412] res_pjsip_registrar.c: Removed contact ‘sip:[email protected]:11260’ from AOR ‘201’ due to expiration
2762468 [2022-04-02 18:21:19] VERBOSE[12364] res_pjsip/pjsip_options.c: Contact 201/sip:[email protected]:11260 has been deleted
2762469 [2022-04-02 18:23:19] VERBOSE[2412] res_pjsip_registrar.c: Removed contact ‘sip:[email protected]:11510’ from AOR ‘200’ due to expiration
2762470 [2022-04-02 18:23:19] VERBOSE[15922] res_pjsip/pjsip_options.c: Contact 200/sip:[email protected]:11510 has been deleted
2762471 [2022-04-02 18:23:32] VERBOSE[12364] res_pjsip_registrar.c: Added contact ‘sip:[email protected]:11510’ to AOR ‘200’ with expiration of 120 seconds
2762472 [2022-04-02 18:23:32] VERBOSE[32629] res_pjsip/pjsip_options.c: Contact 200/sip:[email protected]:11510 is now Reachable. RTT: 47.061 msec
This situation is only happening for these 2 extensions. Other extensions and their associated ring groups are working fine. Other employees are also using softphones without any apparent issues.
I have upped the max_contacts for these 2 extensions to 8 without any apparent effect.
Any thoughts on what is going on?
Normally, a device will re-register some time before the existing registration expires. Ext. 201 registered at 18:14:28 with a 120 second expiration. Typically, it would re-register after 90 seconds (18:15:58), but it didn’t until 18:16:58. Possibly, the device is misconfigured or its firmware is corrupted.
Make and model?
Firmware version?
How configured (EPM, via its web interface, something else)?
Another possibility is that the device did try to re-register timely, but router/firewall at the device location somehow blocked the attempt. Is there another router, besides the AT&T gateway? Gateway model? Any VoIP-related settings?
It’s also conceivable that FreePBX didn’t ‘hear’ the re-registration attempt, though IMO it’s unlikely, given that your other extensions are working properly.
At the Asterisk command prompt, type pjsip set logger on
wait 6 minutes, paste the Asterisk log for the last 6 minutes at pastebin.freepbx.org and post the link here.
This cloud based FreePBX instance has 2 related businesses connected to it. At this point the two businesses do not share any WAN or LAN connections (they previously did share resources but that was completely disabled as part of the troubleshooting process). Each business has it’s own IVR, extension range, etc in FreePBX. In theory the employees can use the phone as intercoms between the businesses but I don’t think anyone is actually utilizing that functionality. Only one of the businesses is having this problem.
ClearlyIP 250 phones everywhere
Checked and firmware up to date
Phones were configured and provisioned using the ClearlyIP device module (Similar to Sangoma’s tool)
Problem phones have been re-provisioned several times.
We have a second Internet connection that was not being used (AT&T DSL using the AT&T modem/firewall only). Connecting the LAN to this alternate WAN connection bypassing the previous internet connection and existing router has not had any effect.
There are only 3 physical extensions at this location 200, 201, 202. Extensions 200,201 are problematic and share a physical switch. Extension 202 does not seem to have this problem although it is hardly used. It does not show the registration delay that 200/201 show in the logs. It also is connected to a different switch.
I have seen the delay in registration happen in real time while trying to troubleshoot. The softphone on extension 201 remained registered while the physical phone was deleted and did not successfully reregister for a period of time. This delay in registering would certainly correspond with unpredictable receiving of incoming calls
For the extensions that have multiple devices registered under one SIP extension try to increase the max contacts to 4 (under extension settings>Advanced I believe)
Currently we are using an AT&T modem/router. Previously we were a local ISP modem/router set to bridge mode and running it through a Ubiquiti edge router. Changing the WAN did not solve the problem and the original WAN connection+Edge Router is still being used by the second business with no issues.
I am a bit suspicious of the network switch shared by problem phones and will swap it out once I can get on site.
To be honest those ISP provided modem/router combos tend to have limitations placed by ISP etc. or they are simply just not fit for the job.
I’d recommend a professional-grade reliable router/FW such as Fortinet or NetGate.
If you use separate wifi access points then you could get a FortiGate-40F but if you want one that also has Wifi you could go for FortiWifi-40F, and if you want wifi+SIM modem as a backup built-in, you can get FortiWifi-40F-3G4G. They are a bit more expensive but well worth it; many of these ISP provided equipment doesn’t do a good job at being a modem AND a router. Sometimes these types of seemingly “random” or “unsolvable” issues tend to boil down to the router. SIP traffic involves constant connections/requests and some routers get an ‘overload’ and just degrade SIP traffic/registrations if they’re not fit for the job, at least in my experience. I just had experienced very similar issues on one of my networks and after a few days of troubleshooting, the router was blamed and once I replaced it with a Fortinet it was fixed.
Your point is well taken but doesn’t apply in this case. The system was originally connected to a different ISP using a modem set in bridge mode with a commercial grade router. I switched to the AT&T connection as part of the troubleshooting. The issue has persisted regardless of how the business LAN connected to the internet
I believe the problem has been solved. We had previously had some issues with phones not reconnecting to FreePBX after internet disruptions (all too frequent at the time). Users were having to reboot the phones to get them to connect. With guidance from the phone manufacturer, I had manually tweaked some settings in the advanced section of the provisioning template to try and force more frequent phone registering. Apparently one or more of those tweaked settings was causing the problem. After reverting everything to default, I am no longer seeing the registering delays in the logs. Totally forgot about doing those tweaks and it only just occurred to me that I had previously made those changes.