Just need a referral on ooh323

mwilson75 · May 14, 2010, 2:10am

I know h323 is not an appropriate topic for this forum but I need to research it for an opportunity I have to get some Uniden, Executive, H323 phones at about 20% of list price.

If I need to ask questions about setting up h323 based hard phones in Asterisk with ooh323, where should I go? Does anyone know an ooh323 guru who could guide me through setting up one of these phones?

I have been playing around with my ooh323.conf all evening and think I am getting close but I am truly clueless on h323. Asterisk sees the phone and makes a bunch of chatter in CLI when I lift the handset but I can’t make or receive calls.

Again,…I just need a referral to a better place to post the details and find answers. I don’t want to start an on-line riot like I did with Asterisk 1.6x on Callcentric trunks.

mwilson75 · May 15, 2010, 7:34pm

Thanks but NO thanks. I will take this problem somewhere where I don’t get insulted or get an opinion every time I ask for help.

My 1st client, who I worked with on a contact management project for 2 years prior, scrapped an Avaya IP Office for one of these “bricks”. Yes I’ve seen the IPO client and ECAS and all the other crap they sold him. Their VAR and 2 outside consultants couldn’t get a 5610sw to work as a remote phone no matter how much he paid them. The whole system froze up about once a week so they upgraded the software for him and charged him for it about 3 times without solving the problem.

I’d love to post a complete log of all the problems and EXPENSES he had with Avaya, his VAR and their “high end” product but there just isn’t enough room here.

I built him a Freepbx/Asterisk “brick” with 25 remote phones around the country on every ISP and brand of router you can imagine. He has another 25 phones in house and a total of 100 extensions. He also thanks me about once a month for making the new system do another thing he couldn’t do with his IPO.

For the record,… Avaya is the REASON I got into Asterisk. I’ve only been at it (IP telephony) for a year and a 1/2 so I’m still at the bottom of the learning curve but I am able to answer a lot of beginner questions here without insulting anyone.

Next time I have a question like this one I guess I’ll just put it on my teenage daughters FaceBook page.

SkykingOH · May 15, 2010, 11:09pm

Don’t let me run you out. I did give you an answer to your question.

I also didn’t say anything about you personally, just offered another opinion.

So a customer “thanks you” weekly for taking a full featured phone and removing all the features, but heck he can make phone calls so it’s all good?

Your customer had a lousy Avaya integrator that’s for sure.

I know you don’t care what my opinion is however I will tell you how I would have handled that situation. We would have taken the Avaya in on trade and used those funds to purchase Aastra or Polycom phones. The Avaya’s bring enough money that you could have gotten him into reconditioned Polycom 601’s for about the same price. The secondary market does not yet exist for Aastra.

My 2 cents. My intention was not to piss you off.

mwilson75 · May 16, 2010, 5:19am

Grandstream 2010s believe it or not. We did NOT recycle his Avaya phones. I’m sure that will start another hell storm of opinions and flames but the system works and has NO weaknesses.

He can’t get a dime for his scrapped IPO or the phones. I tried to help him sell them to 3 different brokers and nobody would bite for more than 20% of what they cost him.

The 2nd of his 3 lousy Avaya Integrators was Cincinnati Bell, who I believe is the largest Avaya reseller in the US. Correct me if I am wrong.

I DO care about your opinion and appreciate your help because I spent 25 years in networking and PCs, NOT telephony. I even did a 3 year stint with Cincinnati Bell where I built a WAN for their long distance division that spanned 4 states.

I am trying to reinvigorate my career with a new skill and pay the bills. That’s why I ask a lot of dumb questions to learn things that guys like you know and take for granted. But like most people I don’t like being talked down to.

I know I seem like an idiot but in my experience it takes about 5 years to become an expert in anything technical and I am only in the middle of my 2nd year.

Asterisk, “the brick”, has saved my ass and I want to take what I’ve learned and help small businesses like my own get a great phone system for a reasonable price,…instead of an overpriced mess like IP Office.

I didn’t ask for answers or opinions in my original post,…just a referral because I new I was “off topic” at Freepbx. But like my last post I got insults and opinions and felt like I was on Facebook.

I know you’re a good guy SKO but I have a lot of pride and a short fuse. I would come up there and buy you a drink if I hadn’t quit drinking 3 years ago just to work this out and thank you for your help in the past.

But,… I just wanted a referral to a site or person with some expertise in using H323 on Asterisk.

I know, I should have kept my mouth shut but you touched a nerve,…especially with the Avaya “missive.”

Again,…this case is CLOSED. Through much unguided trial and error I have got the Uniden phone to ring and answer. I can’t make outbound calls with it yet but I will figure it out just like the Astersrisk 1.6/Callcentric issue.

Again,…I think you are a good guy and appreciate the tips/help you’ve given me in the past but I am done here. I’ve got 2 ex wives to insult my intelligence and give me opinions. I can’t get out of that but I can get out of this mess and find answers elswhere.

Your drama queen,

Michael

SkykingOH · May 15, 2010, 4:30pm

Most of the Avaya phones have SIP loads, they are very crippled also. I can’t imagine someone going from a fully functioning IP office to what basically amounts to a large brick.

I am going to answer your question but first I want to make a comment (the price you pay for free advice). Folks like Jeff and I don’t dabble in the world of IP telephony. Every day I we are in front of customers in large scale deployments, displacing Cisco, Avaya etc. Iknow the business and the market. I have spent my life at it. I don’t spew garbage in the forums. A company that can afford an Avaya IP office is never going to be happy displacing the Open Office server for an Asterisk Science Fare project. Have you seen the functionality of the IP Office client? What is your disclaimer going to say “you give me permission to replace my fully functioning system with a crippled server and charge me for the privilege. I will just lie here while you f*** me” ??? I am being absurd for a purpose.

Now that I have all that off my chest I have no clue what you are doing.

What is all the crap for in the extensions_custom? That is not needed. Use FreePBX to create a custom extension with the dial string of ooh323/peername

Second this is a sample peer from the Asterisk config file:

[myfriend1]
type=friend
context=from-internal
ip=10.0.0.82   ; UPDATE with appropriate ip address
port=1820    ; UPDATE with appropriate port
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
e164=12345
rtptimeout=60
dtmfmode=rfc2833

I updated the context, you need to REMOVE THE COMMENTS after IP and port.

Your general section also looks very thin compared to the default.

Lastly turn off verbosity (core set verbose 0), turn on debug (core set verbose 16) and then turn on h.323 debugging and send some meaningful call logs so we can help you.

SkykingOH · May 14, 2010, 2:55pm

My question is even at 20% off why would you want to do this? You will have very limited functionality and minimal integration with the FreePBX GUI.

Even if the phones are free it does not seem worth it.

kenn10 · May 14, 2010, 7:27pm

Amen to what SkyKingOH has said. Free is too expensive for H323 phones. Save your money and just buy SIP phones instead.

mwilson75 · May 15, 2010, 5:29am

A lot of my prospects wanted to save money by using their existing phones. Several were fed up, Avaya shops.

I want to learn how to make an H323 phone work under Asterisk even if I never use it on a live system
Being able to use expensive, existing H323 phones equals more sales even if they have limited functionality. There would be a disclaimer on that.

I appreciate your input Ward and SK but even if I don’t buy any Uniden phones I would like to know how to get an H323 phone working on Asterisk,…just for the learning experience.

Again,…I knew this was the wrong place to post my query. I kinda’ figured it would get a beat down like I did for my Ubuntu platform and I know Freepbx doesn’t support the protocol.

To the good I am close to getting it working. When I lift the handset on the H323 phone CLI sees it but I don’t get a dial tone.

ooh323.conf:

[general]
port=1720
bindaddr=192.168.2.35
h323id=ObjSysAsterisk
e164=100
callerid=asterisk
;gatekeeper = DISABLE
context=from-internal
disallow=all ;Note order of disallow/allow is important.
allow=ulaw
faststart=yes
dtmfmode=rfc2833

[6999]
type=friend
ip=192.168.2.105
port=1720
e164=6999
;dial=OOH323/6999
;callerid=device <6999>
;mailbox=6999@default
h323id=6999
accountcode=

extensions_custom.conf

;#include custom_weatherzip.conf

exten => 555,1,Macro(user-callerid)
exten => 555,2,Authenticate(9876)
exten => 555,3,Read(SPYNUM,agent-newlocation)
exten => 555,4,ChanSpy(SIP/${SPYNUM})

[ext-local]
exten => 6999,1,Macro(exten-vm,6999,6999)
exten => 6999,n,Goto(vmret,1)
exten => 6999,hint,OOH323/6999&Custom:DND6999
exten => ${VM_PREFIX}6999,1,Macro(vm,6999,DIRECTDIAL,${IVR_RETVM})
exten => ${VM_PREFIX}6999,n,Goto(vmret,1)
exten => vmb6999,1,Macro(vm,6999,BUSY,${IVR_RETVM})
exten => vmb6999,n,Goto(vmret,1)
exten => vmu6999,1,Macro(vm,6999,NOANSWER,${IVR_RETVM})
exten => vmu6999,n,Goto(vmret,1)
exten => vms6999,1,Macro(vm,6999,NOMESSAGE,${IVR_RETVM})
exten => vms6999,n,Goto(vmret,1)

[custom-incoming]
exten => s,1,Set(Var_FROM_DOMAIN=${CUT(CUT(SIP_HEADER(TO),@,2),>,1)})
exten => s,2,GotoIF($["${Var_FROM_DOMAIN}" = “callcentric.com”]?5:3)
exten => s,3,GotoIF($["${Var_FROM_DOMAIN}" = “ss.callcentric.com”]?5:4)
exten => s,4,GotoIF($["${Var_FROM_DOMAIN}" = “66.193.176.35”]?5:7)
exten => s,5,Set(Var_TO_DID=${CUT(CUT(SIP_HEADER(TO),@,1),:,2)})
exten => s,6,GotoIF($["${Var_TO_DID}" != “”]?ext-did,${Var_TO_DID},1:7)
exten => s,7,GoTo(from-pstn,s,1)
exten => h,8,Macro(hangupcall)

Do you see any clues that might help me?