I am about to attempt setup with: computer freepbx software, Cisco VoIP,7960 phones
AudioCodes MP104a FXS gateway for analog phones, Cisco SGE 2000p switch with POE
Comcast router for internet. CAN I GET BY WITHOUT A STATIC IP ADDRESS?
Unless you are connecting phones from outside (WAN side) into your FreePBX, you don’t need a static WAN IP.
You would want to set a static IP on FreePBX though, otherwise your phones won’t know how/where to register, or if the IP changes on FreePBX, your phones could disconnect.
If you are connecting from outside to FreePBX, you would want a static WAN address (or you might get by with something like DynDNS, and map to the name instead of the IP)
it depends.
My rules of thumb are:
- The PBX needs to be static on the Internet LAN. This can be allocated in DHCP or set in the interface, but everything needs to know where the server is, so it needs a static address.
- If the PBX is exposed to the Internet and there’s no intervening firewall, the PBX can get by with a DynDNS address if you are willing to put up your phones not connecting to the PSTN on a regular bases. This is not a “best practice” solution, but the system supports it.
- Infrastructure equipment (on the LAN) should always have static address, either set in the hardware or set as allocated address in DHCP. Both is also a good idea (use DHCP but set the :“backup” address to the static address you are using).
- Phones do not NEED static addresses, but I always allocate my phones as allocated addresses in DHCP. I use Chan-SCCP-B for my Cisco phones, so I have to set them up in DHCP anyway - it’s just one extra step to allocate them in the same group.
= Any item in your system that needs to be used for a service (a printer, for example) should always have a static address. DHCP pre-allocated address is fine here. With modern networking setups, you can get by with “more dynamic” addresses, but setting up a known address for a service bearing machine just makes sense. - Everything else can have dynamic addresses.
You can get by with a dynamic address for your WAN interface - the system can adjust to using dynamic addresses in the Integrated Firewall. If you can get a static WAN address, I highly recommend it - it makes setting up the system less “troublesome”.
Thank you, very informative
How do you set a static IP in the freePBX. When I set up the program it gave me an IP address. Is that a static LAN?
I’m afraid you are confused between a public and a private (static) IP.
In System Admin > Network, you can change (your private IP) to a static.
To get a public static IP you need to contact your ISP.
You are correct… I was did not realize there was a difference. So than the pbx server ( computer with FreePBX ) that should be the one maintaining a static IP address for the rest of the system, including the switch and the phones?
The switch (because it’s an infrastructure device) should be in the “infrastructure IP address” range and should be static. The phones can be static or dynamic, and can be managed through DHCP.
When you say the DHCP are you referring to freePBX computer (Server) or someplace else that you set as static and everything else follows, or do you set each device manually to the same static IP address? Sorry but I am leaning and this is “101” for me.
Understanding the configuration of your network is critical to you being able to even start with this. You need to read up in IP network management - it’s not hard, but asking us to teach it to you is outside the scope of FreePBX.
The short answer is to look up “Set up an IP Network tutorial” in Google and get a basic understanding of how an IP network works. After that, check out “DHCP Theory” in Google and read about that until you have a basic understanding of how the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol works.
If you get through those (it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours) you will be ready to grasp the really arcane crap we’re about to throw at you. I’m not saying “Go Away” or that we don’t want to help you, but you need to get a basic understanding of networking before we can help you with the hard stuff that comes with setting up a PBX.
As an example, we are probably going to be helping you set up your PBX to talk to an ITSP, which is a whole 'nother set of weird IP addressing things. Get your basic network set up and come back - we’ll be able to help you with the advanced topics.
Thank you, that is important advice and I will give it my best.
My two cents: I’ve had a config where the FreePBX server was running on a VPS (static IP) and where the phones were connected through a WAN router that had a dynamic IP. I used dynamic DNS to be able to use the firewall but it gave me a lot of headache. A lot of times your phones will get a no-service message. You’d have to tweak the intervals with which your phones register and play with the qualify parameter a lot.
In my case, I ended up using a DSL connection for the phones that had a static IP, never had problems since.