Categories
Knowledge Base

Setting up Postfix to use Office 365 mail

FreePBX uses centos 7 and postfix fom its mail delivery, normally this is fine unless the customer is using Office 365 mail then there can be delivery issues.

Firstly you will need to set up a user in Office 365 for the system.

Postfix’s main configuration file is main.cf and that is where we make the required change as follow:

[root@localhost ~]# vi /etc/postfix/main.cf

Append the following lines

masquerade_domains = domainname
myhostname = USERNAME.domainname
mydomain = USERNAME.domainname
myorigin = USERNAME@domainname
relayhost = [smtp.office365.com]:587

mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8
inet_interfaces = loopback-only
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtp_always_send_ehlo = yes
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtp_sasl_tls_security_options = noanonymous
smtp_tls_security_level = encrypt
smtp_generic_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/generic 
# smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

Save and exit from the file.
Next we need to edit the configuration for the postfix SASL credentials:

[root@localhost ~]# vi /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

Add a line below

[smtp.office365.com]:587 user@domainname:password

Replacing user@domainname:password with your sender account details

Save and exit from file

A Postfix lookup table must now be generated from the sasl_passwd text file by running the following command.

[root@localhost ~]# postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

Now change permission for this file

[root@localhost ~]# chown root:postfix /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

[root@localhost ~]# chmod 640 /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

Next, we need to configure generic file in order to be able to send emails as a valid user (this is required for Office365).

[root@localhost ~]# vi /etc/postfix/generic

Go the end of file and append following lines.

root@localhost.localdomain UserName@Domain.com

Again replacing localhost.localdomain and UserName@Domain.com with your service hostname and the email user are using

Save and exit from file.

Next let’s correct the file permission.

[root@localhost ~]# chown root:root /etc/postfix/generic

[root@localhost ~]# chmod 0600 /etc/postfix/generic

[root@localhost ~]# postmap /etc/postfix/generic

Now restart Postfix service.

[root@localhost ~]# systemctl restart postfix

Now try to send a test email using the command below:
FOR Centos:

echo "This is the body of the email"| mail -r"Sender-Display-Name<sender@domain.com>" -s "This is the subject(E-Mail from SMTP Relay) line" recipeat@gmail.com

In FreePBX under Voicemail admin you must change the senders address to match your account as well as the sender for notifications such as backups etc. otherwise you can get errors and mail wont be delivered.

Categories
Knowledge Base Technical

Asternic Stats and recording outgoing calls.

Asternic stats has the ability to record your outgoing calls in the stats database so they can be accessed from stats package.

But a customer noted two problems with this, firstly they wanted to set a different Music on Hold for outgoing calls and secondly “no answer” calls where the agent hungup before the callee answered.

Firstly we will deal with the Music on hold, Changing the MoH class caused calls not to be recorded in the database correctly. Code below is the reason for this as it causes the dial string to have 2 macros called, This is not possible.

extension_additional.conf:-
exten => s,n,ExecIf($["${MOHCLASS}"!="default" & "${MOHCLASS}"!="" & "${FORCE_CONFIRM}"="" ]?Set(DIAL_TRUNK_OPTIONS=M(setmusic^${MOHCLASS})${DIAL_TRUNK_OPTIONS}))

extensions_custom_asternic_outbound_freepbx.conf:-
exten => _X.,n,Dial(${QDIALER_CHANNEL},300,gM(queuedial-answer^${UNIQUEID}^${GM}^${QDIALER_QUEUE}^${QDIALER_AGENT}^${ST}^${AMPUSER})${DIAL_TRUNK_OPTIONS})

The fix is very simple for this one and required just 2 changes. one line added to set MoH in the dialplan and another to use Trunk_options and not the the one created in extensions_additional.conf

exten => _X.,n,Set(CHANNEL(musicclass)=${MOHCLASS}) ; Added to set the Music on hold class for the outgoing call Fixes bug in normal code
exten => _X.,n,Dial(${QDIALER_CHANNEL},300,gM(queuedial-answer^${UNIQUEID}^${GM}^${QDIALER_QUEUE}^${QDIALER_AGENT}^${ST}^${AMPUSER})${TRUNK_OPTIONS}) ;Was ${DIAL_TRUNK_OPTIONS} changed to set the Music on hold class for the outgoing call Fixes bug in normal code

The second problem is also fairly straight forward but took a bit of creative thinking, The problem was when an agent hung up on an outbound call the dialstatus returned to the dialplan was “CANCEL” and this is not reported upon by the asternic stats package. SO as the call is for all intents abandoned we added a line that if the dialstatus was “CANCEL” we would change it to “ABANDON”.

exten => h,n,Set(DIALSTATUS=${IF($["${DIALSTATUS}"="CANCEL"]?ABANDON:${DIALSTATUS})}) ;Added By Ian Plain to fix cancelled calls not showing in Asternic stats

This is a simple fix and now means calls are recorded as ABANDONED and with the time the Agent waited before hanging up.

Below is our version of the file extensions_custom_asternic_outbound_freepbx.conf with all the changes.

[macro-dialout-trunk-predial-hook]
exten => s,1,Noop(Test Track Outbound)
exten => s,n,Noop(Trunk is ${OUT_${DIAL_TRUNK}})
exten => s,n,Noop(Dialout number is ${OUTNUM})
exten => s,n,Noop(Dial options are ${DIAL_TRUNK_OPTIONS})
exten => s,n,Set(QDIALER_TRUNK_OPTIONS=${DIAL_TRUNK_OPTIONS})
exten => s,n,Set(QDIALER_AGENT=${DB(AMPUSER/${AMPUSER}/cidname)})
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${QDIALER_AGENT}" != ""]?nextcheck)
exten => s,n,Noop(NO AMPUSER, exit normally with no tracking outbound)
exten => s,n,MacroExit()
exten => s,n(nextcheck),GotoIf($["${CDR(accountcode)}" != ""]?bypass)
exten => s,n,Noop(NO ACCOUNTCODE, exit normally with no tracking outbound)
exten => s,n,MacroExit()
exten => s,n(bypass),Set(PREDIAL_HOOK_RET=BYPASS)
exten => s,n,Goto(queuedial,${OUTNUM},1)
exten => s,n,MacroExit()
;; Dialplan for storing OUTBOUND campaing in queue_log
;; Goto(queuedial,YYYXXXXXXXX,1) where YYY is the queue-campaign code
;; and XXXXXXXX is the number to dial.
;; The queuedial context has the outobound trunk hardcoded
[queuedial]
; this piece of dialplan is just a calling hook into the [qlog-queuedial] context that actually does the
; outbound dialing - replace as needed - just fill in the same variables.
exten => X.,1,Set(QDIALER_QUEUE=${CDR(accountcode)}) ;exten => _X.,n,Set(QDIALER_AGENT=Agent/${AMPUSER}) exten => _X.,n,Set(QDIALER_AGENT=${DB(AMPUSER/${AMPUSER}/cidname)}) ; custom trunk check exten => _X.,n,Set(custom=${CUT(OUT${DIAL_TRUNK},:,1)})
exten => X.,n,GotoIf($["${custom}" = "AMP"]?customtrunk) ; it is normal trunk, not custom exten => _X.,n,Set(QDIALER_CHANNEL=${OUT${DIAL_TRUNK}}/${EXTEN})
exten => X.,n,GotoIf($["${OUT${DIAL_TRUNK}SUFFIX}" == ""]?continuequeuedial) exten => _X.,n,Set(QDIALER_CHANNEL=${OUT${DIAL_TRUNK}}/${EXTEN}${OUT_${DIAL_TRUNK}SUFFIX}) exten => _X.,n,Goto(continuequeuedial) ; it is a custom trunk exten => _X.,n(customtrunk),Set(pre_num=${CUT(OUT${DIAL_TRUNK},$,1)})
exten => X.,n,Set(the_num=${CUT(OUT${DIAL_TRUNK},$,2)})
exten => X.,n,Set(post_num=${CUT(OUT${DIAL_TRUNK},$,3)})
exten => _X.,n,GotoIf($["${the_num}" = "OUTNUM"]?outnum:skipoutnum)
exten => _X.,n(outnum),Set(the_num=${OUTNUM})
exten => _X.,n(skipoutnum),Set(QDIALER_CHANNEL=${pre_num:4}${the_num}${post_num})
exten => _X.,n(continuequeuedial),Noop(Qdialer channel = ${QDIALER_CHANNEL})
exten => _X.,n,Set(QueueName=${QDIALER_QUEUE})
exten => _X.,n,Goto(qlog-queuedial,${EXTEN},1)
[qlog-queuedial]
; We use a global variable to pass values back from the answer-detect macro.
; STATUS = U unanswered
; = A answered (plus CAUSECOMPLETE=C when callee hung up)
; The 'g' dial parameter must be used in order to track callee disconnecting.
; Note that we'll be using the 'h' hook in any case to do the logging when channels go down.
;
exten => X.,1,NoOp(Outbound call -> A:${QDIALER_AGENT} N:${EXTEN} Q:${QDIALER_QUEUE} Ch:${QDIALER_CHANNEL} Dialoptions:${TRUNK_OPTIONS}) exten => _X.,n,Set(ST=${EPOCH}) ;exten => _X.,n,Set(GM=${QDIALER_AGENT}) exten => _X.,n,Set(GM=${REPLACE(QDIALER_AGENT, ,)})
exten => _X.,n,Set(GLOBAL(${GM})=U)
exten => _X.,n,Set(GLOBAL(${GM}ans)=0)
exten => _X.,n,Macro(queuelog,${ST},${UNIQUEID},${QDIALER_QUEUE},${QDIALER_AGENT},ENTERQUEUE,-,${EXTEN})
exten => _X.,n,Set(CHANNEL(musicclass)=${MOHCLASS}) ; Added to set the Music on hold class for the outgoing call Fixes bug in normal code
exten => _X.,n,Dial(${QDIALER_CHANNEL},300,gM(queuedial-answer^${UNIQUEID}^${GM}^${QDIALER_QUEUE}^${QDIALER_AGENT}^${ST}^${AMPUSER})${TRUNK_OPTIONS}) ;Was ${DIAL_TRUNK_OPTIONS} changed to set the Music on hold class for the outgoing call Fixes bug in normal code
exten => _X.,n,Set(CAUSECOMPLETE=${IF($["${DIALSTATUS}" = "ANSWER"]?C)})
; Trapping call termination here
exten => h,1,NoOp( "Call exiting: status ${GLOBAL(${GM})} answered at: ${GLOBAL(${GM}ans)} DS: ${DIALSTATUS}" )
exten => h,n,Set(DB(LASTDIAL/${QDIALER_AGENT})=${EPOCH})
exten => h,n,Goto(case-${GLOBAL(${GM})})
exten => h,n,Hangup()
; Call unanswered
exten => h,n(case-U),Set(WT=$[${EPOCH} - ${ST}])
exten => h,n,Noop(unanswered ${DIALSTATUS})) ;Added By Ian Plain to fix cancelled calls not showing in Asternic stats
exten => h,n,Set(DIALSTATUS=${IF($["${DIALSTATUS}"="CANCEL"]?ABANDON:${DIALSTATUS})}) ;Added By Ian Plain to fix cancelled calls not showing in Asternic stats
exten => h,n,Macro(queuelog,${EPOCH},${UNIQUEID},${QDIALER_QUEUE},${QDIALER_AGENT},${DIALSTATUS},1,1,${WT})
exten => h,n,UserEvent(AgentComplete,Queue: ${QDIALER_QUEUE},TalkTime: 0,Channel: ${CHANNEL})
exten => h,n,Hangup()
; call answered: agent/callee hung
exten => h,n(case-A),Set(COMPLETE=${IF($["${CAUSECOMPLETE}" = "C"]?COMPLETECALLER:COMPLETEAGENT)})
exten => h,n,Noop(answered ${DIALSTATUS})) ;Added By Ian Plain to fix cancelled calls not showing in Asternic stats
exten => h,n,Set(WT=$[${GLOBAL(${GM}ans)} - ${ST}])
exten => h,n,Set(CT=$[${EPOCH} - ${GLOBAL(${GM}ans)}])
exten => h,n,Macro(queuelog,${EPOCH},${UNIQUEID},${QDIALER_QUEUE},${QDIALER_AGENT},${COMPLETE},${WT},${CT})
exten => h,n,UserEvent(AgentComplete,Queue: ${QDIALER_QUEUE},TalkTime: ${CT},Channel: ${CHANNEL})
exten => h,n,Hangup()
[macro-queuedial-answer]
; Expecting $ARG1: uniqueid of the caller channel
; $ARG2: global variable to store the answer results
; $ARG3: queue name
; $ARG4: agent name
; $ARG5: enterqueue
;
exten => s,1,NoOp("Macro: queuedial-answer UID:${ARG1} GR:${ARG2} Q:${ARG3} A:${ARG4} E:${ARG5}")
exten => s,n,Set(QDIALER_QUEUE=${ARG3})
exten => s,n,Set(QDIALER_QUEUE=${REPLACE(QDIALER_QUEUE, ,_)})
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${CUT(DB(AMPUSER/${ARG6}/recording),=,3)}" = "Always"]?mixmonitor)
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${DB(AMPUSER/${ARG6}/recording/out/external)}" = "always"]?mixmonitor)
exten => s,n,Goto(continue)
exten => s,n(mixmonitor),MixMonitor(${MIXMON_DIR}${YEAR}/${MONTH}/${DAY}/out-${QDIALER_QUEUE}-${ARG1}.wav,b,/usr/local/parselog/update_mix_mixmonitor.pl ${ARG1} ${MIXMON_DIR}${YEAR}/${MONTH}/${DAY}/out-${QDIALER_QUEUE}-${ARG1}.wav)
exten => s,n,Set(AUDIOHOOK_INHERIT(MixMonitor)=yes)
exten => s,n(continue),Set(NOW=${EPOCH})
exten => s,n,Set(WD=$[${NOW} - ${ARG5}])
exten => s,n,Macro(queuelog,${NOW},${ARG1},${ARG3},${ARG4},CONNECT,${WD})
exten => s,n,Set(GLOBAL(${ARG2})=A)
exten => s,n,Set(GLOBAL(${ARG2}ans)=${NOW})
exten => s,n,NoOp("Macro queuedial-answer terminating" )
[macro-queuelog]
; The advantage of using this macro is that you can choose whether to use the Shell version
; (where you have complete control of what gets written) or the Application version (where you
; do not need a shellout, so it's way faster).
;
; Expecting $ARG1: Timestamp
; $ARG2: Call-id
; $ARG3: Queue
; $ARG4: Agent
; $ARG5: Verb
; $ARG6: Param1
; $ARG7: Param2
; $ARG8: Param3
;
;exten => s,1,System( echo "${ARG1},${ARG2},${ARG3,${ARG4},${ARG5},${ARG6},${ARG7},${ARG8}" >> /var/log/asterisk/queue_log )
exten => s,1,QueueLog(${ARG3},${ARG2},${ARG4},${ARG5},${ARG6}|${ARG7}|${ARG8})

Categories
Covid-19 System Status

Covid 19 update June 2020

Coronavirus: service updates and supplier information

03 APRIL 2020

Last updated: 17:00 5 June 2020

This page contains important updates from us and our suppliers that may affect our partners or customers during this unprecedented time. We’ve also included useful links and support information and a full breakdown of any service updates as we have them. This will continue to be updated at least once a day, so please check back here regularly.

Key points:

BT Openreach (who help us supply internet connectivity services) have advised that provision and repair of their services are now on a “best endeavours” basis only across the UK and will impact almost all connectivity products: DSL, Ethernet, FTTC, FTTP, FIBRE, PSTN, ISDN2, ISDN30, LLU and SMPF

Openreach will be assisting providers to bring forward certain WLR and MPF new line installs to an earlier date. They will be contacting customers directly to try to agree an earlier install date to complete the work on behalf of the Provider.

Priority restoration of services will only take place for organisations deemed “critical”, including NHS, pharmacies, utilities etc (full list below)

Ongoing repairs will continue for all, but with priority given to critical organisations and customers deemed “at risk” and you will now be asked if you are an “At Risk Customer” or “suffering COVID-19 Symptoms” before they assess priority of restoration

All newly-appointed provisioning will be pushed back to Monday 1st June 2020 at the earliest

All other Gradwell products (Wave, 3CX, SIP Trunks etc) remain unaffected with the exception of number porting, which may be delayed

Openreach/BT have declared that the current situation they and we are all facing is a matter beyond their control in light of COVID-19.

As such, appointments for provision and repair are on a best endeavours basis only, this covers everyone nationwide and will impact the following products that we provide: DSL, Ethernet, FTTC, FTTP, FIBRE, PSTN, ISDN2, ISDN30, LLU MPF and SMPF, including adjustment of orders.

Fault Repair

During this time, priority and restoration of services will take place for critical functions only, such as NHS, pharmacies, utilities, emergency services, retail and wholesale food distribution outlets and financial services. This also applies to customers deemed “at risk”.

Ongoing repairs to the BT/Openreach infrastructure will continue, but with high priority focus being on the above-mentioned critical core services ahead of all others. You will be asked by Gradwell if anyone is deemed within the building or location is considered at “at risk” of exposure to Covid-19:
Customer meets criteria for repair and IS symptomatic
Customer meets criteria for repair and IS NOT symptomatic

Ongoing repairs to the BT/Openreach infrastructure will continue, but with high priority focus being on the above-mentioned critical core services ahead of all others. We appreciate your patience during these times, and we’re sure you understand that the protection and restoration of core services is paramount to sustaining core infrastructure services.

Openreach have advised on Fault repair with immediate effect: 

To support efforts to reduce human contact and promote social distancing, all installation activities that require access to a customer’s premises are now being assessed and the customer to state the following criteria to ensure if repairs are deemed essential that appropriate teams can deal with the issue at hand:

  • Customer meets criteria for repair and IS symptomatic
  • Customer meets criteria for repair and IS NOT symptomatic

Openreach will attempt to complete as much of the inflight orders from outside of the premises as possible, but if internal work is required, these will be done on a priority and risk assessed basis. Any orders that do not require on premise installation will proceed as normal, but we appreciate these cases are limited.
The exception to these rules are those businesses identified as critical national infrastructure. This includes; NHS, pharmacies, utilities, emergency services, retail and wholesale food distribution outlets, and financial services businesses. On site installation work will be permitted for these businesses but we will have to justify the criticality of the service to Openreach.

The Openreach Emergency Helpdesk will remain open. However, all business as usual contact centres have now closed.

Porting of Numbers

Following on from previous updates on BT’s porting backlog, we are pleased to announce this has now been cleared and we are able to place new orders again. There still may be a slight delay in contrast to normal timescales, as it’s likely that BT and our direct suppliers will receive a large amount of new port requests all at once, but this will likely only add on 24-48 hours to the normal processing time. In conclusion, we will not be operating at our normal timescales for another few days, but we anticipate everything to be back to normal in the short term. We appreciate your patience during this time.

New Orders

All new orders received with immediate effect that require BT or Openreach infrastructure (the majority) are being moved to commence from 1st June 2020 onwards. This will be under constant review and may have further delays should the situation worsen. Exceptions apply for customers deemed “at risk”.

All existing orders in the system with BT or Openreach will continue to progress, but with a view to completing the orders as soon as possible and may be delivered well outside of expected and industry standard timelines.

We are still accepting new orders, however, there will be a delivery backlog for any products requiring BT or Openreach provision until at least 1st June 2020 onwards. All other Gradwell products, eg Wave, Multi User VoIP, 3CX and SIP Trunk services, are currently not impacted and delivery times will remain unaffected.

Openreach have announced the below with regards to WLR and MPF new line installs.

Openreach will be assisting providers to bring forward certain new line installs to an earlier date. They will be contacting customers directly to try to agree an earlier install date to complete the work on behalf of the Provider.

Only lines that have relatively simple installation journeys will be eligible for this support. Orders that are deemed to have complex delivery that would require additional engineering work or orders where Openreach feel that it would not be possible to gain access to the premises safely in adherence to their COVID-19 safe working practices will be excluded from this process. For example, orders that require entry to blocks of flats etc will be out of scope.

Core infrastructure service providers

We will of course continue to share more information from core suppliers like BT Openreach on this page as soon as we have it. A full breakdown of Openreach’s current service status is in the table below.

Openreach Critical Functions
DamageOpen (limited service)
WelfareOpen (limited service)
DSOOpen (limited service)
ProductRepairProvision
Escalations (EPOC)No new work acceptedNo new work accepted
Premium Business HelpdeskNo new work acceptedNo new work accepted
WLRBAU if non-appointedBAU if non-appointed
LLUBAU if non-appointedBAU if non-appointed
FTTCBAU if non-appointedBAU if non-appointed
SOGEABAU if non-appointedBAU if non-appointed
GFASTBAU if non-appointedBAU if non-appointed
SOGFASTBAU if non-appointedBAU if non-appointed
Migration ServicesBAU if non-appointedBAU if non-appointed
ISDNBAU if non-appointedBAU if non-appointed
FTTPBAU if non-appointedBAU if non-appointed
EthernetBAU if non-appointedBAU up to curtilage

BAU: For Total Loss of Service Faults: Openreach will attempt to activate the service remotely. If they are unable to, then they will visit the premises and ask two risk assessment questions:

1) Is there anyone on-site who has Covid-19 symptoms?

2) Has there ever been anyone on-site with symptoms?

3) Has anyone on-site been advised by the NHS via a letter to isolate for 12 weeks?

If the answer is yes to either of these questions then they will not access the premises and the fault repair will be postponed until restrictions have been lifted. If not, they will schedule a repair.

For all other repair faults, Openreach will only resolve if it’s possible to fix remotely and without access to the premises.

Provisions: Will only attempt to access the premises if the provider is classed as CNI/welfare/at risk/specific key worker (see below).

CNI: refers to “Critical Network Infrastructure.”

All Welfare/At Risk/Specific Key Worker cases will be reviewed by Openreach after a case submission by a customer.

Categories
Covid-19

New 119 Covid line number

Ofcom announced this afternoon the new 3-digit telephone number ‘119’ to be used as part of the NHS’s Covid-19 response, the number will be used as part of the NHS’s effort to handle the response to the Coronavirus situation.

The 119 number is supported by networks and so calls will connect as soon as the Government announce the service has been launched.

The number will be free to dial, in line with the NHS 111 service, as directed by Ofcom.

Categories
Applications Remote Working Services Special Offers

Sangoma Meet, Free multi-party, video conferencing and desktop sharing

Sangoma Technologies announced the general availability of its new video conferencing and collaboration service Sangoma Meet. Sangoma Meet is a multi-party, video conferencing and desktop sharing, cloud-based service, specially designed to enable a great work from home or collaboration experience. HD video support is standard with Sangoma Meet, ensuring the highest quality video calls possible. 

Sangoma Meet is also highly secure, fully encrypting password-protected video conferences to avoid problems with unauthorised users hacking into a video meeting, and Sangoma will not rent or sell Sangoma Meet user information to any third parties, including any social networks. It can also be used as a stand-alone service or in conjunction with its Unified Communication Business Phone Systems. 

Connect

Its simple to use with all the features you need

Moderator Privileges: If you are holding a team call, you have full moderator privileges. You can mute/unmute attendees, send them private messages, or kick anyone off the call. You also have the option to invite audio-only participants to limit video sharing.

Chat: If you prefer not to talk on your video call, use the chat feature in Sangoma Meet to share your thoughts with the group. A full suite of emojis will keep the conversation engaging and light!
Screen Sharing: Give your coworkers real-time examples and streamline meetings with screen sharing in Sangoma Meet. Instantly share your screen and choose what you want to show to others.
Inviting users: Its as simple as, copy your meeting link and send it to the desired parties. As soon as  users click on the link, they immediately join the conference.

Sangoma Meet is available for use today in the company’s General Availability release. It has already been in beta usage, both internally and with partners, with excellent reviews to date.

The Sangoma Meet cloud service has been updated to include additional functionality such as mobile apps (for iOS and Android), calendar integration (for Google G-suite and Microsoft Outlook), desktops apps (for both Windows and Mac) to further enhance user experience, and dial-in functionality to the video conference using a phone (with enhanced security via a PIN).

To help its end-users communicate more effectively during this global pandemic, Sangoma decided to launch this new service completely free of charge to everyone, during these troubled times. 

The full datasheet explaining all the features can be viewed here and the help site is located here

Categories
Blog Calls and Lines Covid-19

Calls to 101 Non-Emergency number to be free from April 1st

Given the pressure on the emergency services presently, the Home Office have requested that the 101 Non-Emergency number be made free to all callers from 1st April 2020. Therefore these calls placed through our network will be free from midnight this evening.

We understand that this change is intended to be permanent, and not just for the duration of the Covid-19 emergency.

Please note that although this change will be in place from midnight tonight it may not be reflected in the ratesheet immediately .

Categories
Blog Knowledge Base

Presenting Local or national CLI from outside a country

Over the last six months an increasing number of countries will not allow internationally originated calls that are presenting a local or national CLI for the country called. 

It is believed that the reason behind this is part of a global wide crack down on fraud and nuisance calls, as some of the regulations and requirements introduced may have a more widespread impact on the CLI passed on calls.

Currently, the countries we are aware that are implementing these controls are:-

Australia – ACMA  ( Australian Communications & Media Authority ) are actively cracking down on common phone fraud, including malicious “spoofing”.

Australian networks are also trying to stamp out  “Wangiri” fraud,  where victims are called once from an international number with high premium charges for those who call back.

https://www.acma.gov.au/articles/2019-11/acma-recommends-immediate-action-combat-scams

Canada – CRTC (Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission ) have issued a requirement for telecoms providers to implement a system to block calls within their network or offer call-filtering service.

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/telemarketing/identit.htm

China – China have always been very strict on caller ID, as well as not permitting internationally originated calls with a local or national CLI, they do not allow calls presented with a withheld flag. 

These calls will either present the withheld CLI or the call will fail. 

France – ARCEP ( France’s regulatory body for electronic communications, portal and print media distribution ) have issued a statement to carriers that due to in country regulations, calls sent internationally with a French CLI are not permitted.

Malaysia – we are seeing that calls may fail if a local or national CLI is presented.

Turkey – ICTA ( Information & Communication Technologies Authority ) have introduced CLI regulations which require operators to block some voice calls with CLIs that may be confused with local numbers due to the format of the number presented.

United Arab Emirates – in our experience calls may fail if a local or national CLI is presented.  In addition, the UAE are blocking calls with a Tunisian or Algerian CLI.

Categories
Knowledge Base

Disabling SIP ALG on a Thomson Router

Introduction

SIP ALG is used to try and avoid configuring Static NAT on a router. Its implementation, however, varies from one router to another, often making it difficult to inter-operate a router with SIP ALG enabled with a PBX. In general, you would want to disable SIP ALG and configure one to one port mapping on the router.

In this article, we will show you how to disable SIP ALG on a Thomson router. SIP ALG on this router is known to cause problems with VoIP calls. Proceed as follows:

  1. Open Command Prompt – “Start” → “Run” → type “cmd” and press “Enter”.
  2. In Command Prompt, type “telnet 192.168.1.254” and press enter. 192.168.1.254 is the default IP address of the router. If you are running on Windows 7/8/8.1/10, you might need to install the telnet client from “Control Panel” → “Programs and Features” → “Turn Windows features on and off”.
  3. The default username is “Administrator”, and there is no default password, leave blank.
  4. Type “connection unbind application=SIP port=5060” and press “Enter”.
  5. Type “saveall” and press “Enter”.
  6. Type “exit” and press “Enter” to exit the telnet session.

SIP ALG in now disabled on your Thomson router.

Notes

  • The SIP phones behind this router should be configured not to use STUN
  • The SIP phones must NOT be configured with a local port of 5060 or 5061. The local port of the phone must be changed to something else.
  • Configuring a SIP Phone behind a Thomson router might require port forwarding to be implemented on the router. So you will need to port forward the SIP and AUDIO (RTP) ports on the thomson router and point them to the SIP Phone’s IP Address.
Categories
Covid-19

Carrier Updates 25-03

BT Openreach (who help us supply internet connectivity services) have advised that provision and repair of their services are now on a “best endeavours” basis only across the UK and will impact all our connectivity products: DSL, Ethernet, FTTC, FTTP, FIBRE, PSTN, ISDN2, ISDN30, LLU MPF and SMPF

Priority restoration of services will only take place for organisations deemed “critical”, including NHS, pharmacies, utilities etc (full list below)

Ongoing repairs will continue for all, but with priority given to critical organisations

All newly-appointed provisioning will be pushed back to Monday 1st June 2020 at the earliest

Openreach/BT have declared that the current situation they and we are all facing is a matter beyond their control in light of COVID-19.

As such, appointments for provision and repair are on a best endeavours basis only, this covers everyone nationwide and will impact the following products that we provide: DSL, Ethernet, FTTC, FTTP, FIBRE, PSTN, ISDN2, ISDN30, LLU MPF and SMPF, including adjustment of orders.

Fault Repair

During this time, priority and restoration of services will take place for critical functions only, such as NHS, pharmacies, utilities, emergency services, retail and wholesale food distribution outlets and financial services.

Ongoing repairs to the BT/Openreach infrastructure will continue, but with high priority focus being on the above-mentioned critical core services ahead of all others. We appreciate your patience during these times, and we’re sure you understand that the protection and restoration of core services is paramount to sustaining core infrastructure services.

Openreach have advised on Fault repair with immediate effect: 

To support efforts to reduce human contact and promote social distancing, all installation activities that require access to a customer’s premises are now suspended until after 1st June 2020. Openreach will attempt to complete as much of the inflight orders from outside of the premises as possible, but if internal work is required, these will be rebooked post 1st June 2020. Any orders that do not require on premise installation will proceed as normal, but we appreciate these cases are limited.
 
The exception to these rules are those businesses identified as critical national infrastructure. This includes; NHS, pharmacies, utilities, emergency services, retail and wholesale food distribution outlets, and financial services businesses. On site installation work will be permitted for these businesses but we will have to justify the criticality of the service to Openreach.

Porting of Numbers

During this time, the ability to port and move numbers between all core telecoms suppliers has also been affected, with BT/Openreach now declaring the following porting requests that are in flight will be affected with immediate effect. Those porting services affected are:

Ports that are Multi Line (a number of sequential numbers 01234 000000 – 01234 000100 or broken number ranges) as these have to be manually triggered. These port requests will be postponed until further notice and will not be ported to your new supplier. They will remain operational until they can be processed within a normal timeframe.

Single Line ports (i.e. 01234 567890) are still available but may be delayed beyond a previously agreed date

Any new import requests for porting where BT is the range holder will not be accepted until further notice

New Orders

All new orders received with immediate effect that require BT or Openreach infrastructure (the majority) are being moved to commence from 1st June 2020 onwards. This will be under constant review and may have further delays should the situation worsen.

All existing orders in the system with BT or Openreach will continue to progress, but with a view to completing the orders as soon as possible and may be delivered well outside of expected and industry standard timelines.

We are still accepting new orders, however, there will be a delivery backlog for any products requiring BT or Openreach provision until at least 1st June 2020 onwards.

Core infrastructure service providers

We will continue to share more information from core suppliers like BT Openreach on this page as soon as we have it. A full breakdown of Openreach’s current service status is in the table below.

Categories
Asterisk Support Covid-19 FreePBX Knowledge Base Remote Working

Disabling Router SIP ALG

With many companies asking their employees to work from home, a common problem when trying to use a sip phone on a home network is the SIP ‘helper’ or ALG, Here is some advice on how to disable it on the more common routers that you may encounter.

SIP ALG (Application Layer Gateway) modifies VoIP traffic with the aim of solving NAT and firewall related problems. SIP ALG does this by inspecting SIP packets and modifying SIP Header and SDP data.

Unfortunately, SIP ALG was poorly implemented in a lot of cases, which has lead to it causing more issues than it corrects and due to this, we believe that, in general, it is best disabled.

Note – Many routers will re-enable SIP ALG after being powered off and on, or sometimes after a firmware update, therefore if it has been disabled in the past, and you know that the router was recently updated and powered off and on again, then it is always a good idea to log in to the router and double check the setting.

Virgin SuperHub: SIP ALG cannot be disabled in the settings of SuperHubs. Please click here for advice troubleshooting issues with SuperHubs. 

BT: SIP ALG cannot be disabled in the settings of BT HomeHubs, but can be disable with BT Business Hub versions 3 and higher:

Disabling a BT Business Hub 5’s SIP ALG

Fritz!Box: SIP ALG can’t be disabled.

DrayTek routers: Log in to your DrayTek via Telnet using an SSH client such as Putty: http://www.putty.org/

Check if SIP ALG is Enabled or Disabled:

To check if SIP ALG is Enabled or Disabled enter this command: sys sip_alg ?

If SIP ALG is disabled a ” 0 ” result will be returned.  If SIP ALG is enabled the result will be ” 1 “.

Disabling SIP ALG:

To Disable SIP ALG enter the following:

sys sip_alg 0
sys commit
sys reboot

The router will restart and save your changes.

Click here for additional general information about DrayTek Firewall setup. 

TP-Link routers: How to Disable SIP ALG on TP-Link ADSL modem router

Linksys: Check for a ‘SIP ALG’ option, in the ‘Administration’ tab under ‘Advanced’. 

May also need to disable SPI Firewall. 

Microtik: Disable ‘SIP Helper‘. 

Netgear: Look for a ‘SIP ALG’ checkbox in the ‘WAN’ settings.

Port Scan and DoS Protection should also be disabled.

Disable STUN in VoIP phone’s settings. 

D-Link: In your router’s ‘Advanced’ settings –> ‘Application Level Gateway (ALG) Configuration’ uncheck the ‘SIP’ option. 

Huawei: Many routers support SIP ALG (usually found in the ‘Security’ menu). 

SonicWALL Firewall: Under the VoIP tab, the option ‘Enable Consistent NAT’ should be enabled and ‘Enable SIP Transformations’ unchecked.  

Thomson: How to Disable SIP ALG on a Thomson Router HERE

Test with STUN disabled in your VoIP phone’s settings.

Adtran Netvanta: Disable SIP ALG under ‘Firewall/ACLs’ –> ‘ALG Settings’.

For Technicolor TG588V routers see this document for step by step details

Even if there isn’t a SIP ALG option in your router’s settings, it may still be implemented. TelNet commands must be used to disable SIP ALG with TechnicolorThomsonSpeedTouch, some Draytek and some ZyXEL routers.