Vega Gateway 60G

(David Johnson) #1

I just purchased a Vega gataeway 60Gv2. I have a tone of grandstream GXW4248’s in the field and since I am a Sangoma partner figured, this should be easy, maybe I can start switching to Sangoma products. The GXW4248’s work very well (even with fax albeit at a slower speed) but the smaller grandstreams (i.e. the HT 2-8 port) units just dont work well. Way too many support calls for not being able to fax in or out reliably. I know, 1st thought is why are you trying to do fax over VoIP. Well there are many cases where I can install Internet via a fiber but cant add a physical analog phone line (without paying ridiculous retail phone rates). I watched a bunch of videos on how to setup the Vega but they were all connecting it as a trunk at a static IP inside the firewall. All my ATA’s are out in the field. I have PBX<->firewall<->Internet<->firewall<->ATA and I configure the grandstreams as follows:

  1. Enter the IP of my pbx in the provisioning server box
  2. add an extension in FreePBX with the mac address of grandstream, account number with the gxw4248 template
  3. reboot grandstream
  4. IMPORTANT: I did not add any rules or holes in either firewall (I do have responsive firewall enabled on PBX), the grandstream is behind a firewall, in a DHCP WAN and a DHCP LAN IP.

The grandstream boots up and all configured extensions register and life is beautiful. Each extension registers separately under the 1st profile. Thats the way it should be. First unit took maybe an hour or two to find the correct box to enter config, set the right firmware, etc… and get working, each additional one takes me maybe 10-15 minutes to setup (doesnt matter the model)

Now the vega. I spent about 3 days trying to get this thing to register and nada, nothing, buzz…thanks for playing…try again.

Anyone out there setup a VEGA60G as an endpoint, ATA without having to create holes in a firewall with static IP’s, I want remote side to be setup DHCP WAN and DHCP LAN connection through 2 firewalls to my public facing PBX (hundreds of phones and (grandstream) gateway working fine today). The goal here (doesn’t matter how I get there) is to be able to configure the Vega to operate out in the field with each ATA port configured as an independent extension (there are cases where I can have multiple clients on different PBX’s on the same ATA, different ports). The grandstream has 4 accounts/profiles. At a minimum I just need to get 1 account/pbx connected so I can test the Vega’s fax capability. Sangoma’s response was buy a platinum/gold plan and call support. I am a partner trying to sell Sangoma products I should be able to get 15 minutes of support to setup a vega without a gold plan or tell me that I cant use the vega that way.

Can someone please post a link to a video or tell me where and what to configure?

(David Johnson) #2

Wow, guess there arent that many people out there using Vega?

(Jeremy Gault) #3

Do yourself a favor and stick with the Grandstream gateways.

We tried to deploy the Vega gateways but ran into a lot of weird issues. First, they weren’t reliable with chan_sip at all - you’ll definitely want to use pjsip. Second, things like call-waiting/three-way calling and pulse dialing never worked correctly. Pulse dialing may not be as big an issue, but I feel like call-waiting and three-way calling are.

We messed with it for several months with no success - started running upon deadlines so we ordered some more of the Grandstream gateways and rolled those out instead. Hocked the Vegas on eBay.

(Michael Bradeen) #4

The basic walk through on how to create and map an FXS port to an extension on the PBX is outlined here:
https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/VG/Analog+extensions+with+FreePBX

The screen shots are for an older firmware (I will work on updating those) but the ‘Quick Config’ steps are the same. The keys are:
On step 1 make sure the country is correct to make sure the right tones are used
On step 2 make sure the Registration Mode is FXS Port and that the Remote Server Configuration matches the IP and Port of the PBX
On step 3 make sure the Caller ID, number(s) and Registration and Authentication ID columns all match and are set to the Extension and that the Authentication Password is the SIP Secret for that extension.

With the 60Gv2 it is imperative that it be on the latest firmware:
https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/VG/Firmware+Downloads
Please make sure that you are using the v2 firmware as this is revision specific.

In terms of having different ports register to different PBX’s, this is possible but requires that you create a SIP profile for each PBX and then make sure that the Registration User is mapped to the correct SIP Profile.

(David Johnson) #5

This concerns me. I am hoping the newer Vega60Gv2 might operate better? What model were you using? Again, the GXW4248’s are great, I am having an issue with the HT models like the 812. Fax doesn’t work so great on the smaller units.

(David Johnson) #6

Thanks. I watched a video on it and I did steps 1 and 2 above but I didn’t want to have to do step 3. I suspect that would work but I don’t want to have to manually setup each extension on the gateway, that’s why I use EPM. Every other device I setup, you configure the extensions in the PBX adding the MAC, point the device to the PBX and it should download the config and manage all extensions and passwords… Let me verify the firmware is up to date and work from there.

#7

Well, if EPM doesn’t work for your use case, configure one extension manually and test. Pull the config file, replicate the entries with your editor or another tool, then upload the result.

I assume that your fax extensions don’t need voicemail, follow-me, forwarding, DND, etc. So maybe the best solution is to set up the Vega as a trunk and route a block of DIDs to that trunk. A call received on that trunk would be sent out an external trunk with an appropriate caller ID.

Or, unless your customer is a real Luddite, sell him a proper electronic fax solution. More revenue for you, more productivity for him. There is almost no reason to use a fax machine in 2021:

Receiving to a fax machine is unreliable (can be out of paper or toner), insecure (passers-by can view sensitive documents), poor quality (forwarding or scanning the document results in a generation loss), causes haphazard record keeping, and wastes trees.

More than 90% of faxes I see sent came out of a printer moments before, typically a form that is manually filled in and/or signed. Stupid. The handwritten entries are often misread or result in a phone call for verification. And, it wastes trees. Learn how to edit the document on your workstation and place your signature, then upload to to your on-site or cloud-based fax server.

Occasionally, one must fax a paper document that came by post or was delivered personally. This is usually something important for which you want a permanent record anyhow, so scan it to your computer, then upload to your fax server.

(David Johnson) #8

I have several customers that due to legal reasons can not use any “fax solution” that send the document as a readable file such as in fax to email solutions. The confidential information contained in these documents (medical, financial) cant be sent via unencrypted email There are many reasons they send these as faxes, point to point.

I did get the vega to work by manually configuring the extension but as stated previously I may not have access to the gateway once its installed and I need the gateway to be managed by me remotely via EPM. Now that I know the vega is configured corretly I will try again getting it setup via the EPM but the first attempt did not go well. I don’t why the vega doesnt just pull the config down from the EPM on boot like literally every other voip device I have tried in the last several years.

I am amazed at how many times people answer the question by not answering the question and telling you that you dont need to do what you want. I am all for suggestions but I specifically stated that I needed a reliable fax solution not an alternative to faxing. I also state that I need the fax solution to work via EPM since I may not have access to the device after its installed so I can not rely on a solution that I have to edit the config on the remote device to make changes. The grandstream GXW4248 works great for large installs but every unit 8 ports and below has not been very reliable.

additionally, I would just install a pots line but the locations I have an issue I can install fiber internet services (highspeed) but not a POTS line. If I could install a POTS line I would.

#9

I read your post carefully and believe that I was ‘selling’ better ways to fax, rather than any alternative. My post did not contain the word ‘email’, nor did I suggest any services or methods that would involve emailing a document. My point was that fax machines are IMO inefficient, insecure and obsolete and can easily be replaced with electronic solutions that are equally or more secure, and waste much less staff time.

For users that fax very little, an external HIPAA-compliant service such as


is easiest. In the simplest mode, you upload a document to a secure website to fax it, or visit the website to download a received fax (after receiving an email that notifies you of one or more new faxes – the documents themselves are never emailed). With more complex setup, you can simply print to a virtual printer and it gets faxed.

If you fax a lot, a local fax server is less expensive. For FreePBX, the obvious solution is


Although it defaults to fax-to-email, it can be easily configured to email notifications only, with the actual documents securely stored on the server.