daknetworks.com

Recently, I had the priviledge to be involved in a new fiber line install from LEVEL3. The fiber line service was also ordered with a SIP service. This is new to me so I'll explain slowly in terms I can understand.

A SIP service is basically telephone service via internet only (no copper lines). Sometimes, this is called a SIP TRUNK or a VOIP TRUNK. Basically, it's the main connection with a USERNAME & a PASSWORD that they provide along with an OUTSIDE IP ADDRESS. To to be clear, the only connection we have to the outside world is one internet connection, the fiber line. In this particular case, the connection's capacitiy is 10 Mbps.

Sitting in a physical brown box was a Fonality phone server. I have no idea who Fonality is or the extent of their service. I pulled it out of the box and rack it in the four post rack.

From here, I have no idea what to do. I have no idea how the Fonality server connects to anything. I have no idea where the phone numbers are coming from.

Here is the process I went through.

1-collect the phone numbers or the phone number block or the list of phone numbers that are assigned to the company. This block is coming from the company that is providing the SIP service. Call the company and get them.

2-collect the MAC ADDRESSES of the phone devices. The MAC ADDRESSES are needed to be collected and given to the crew at FONALITY. They will somehow associate the MAC ADDRESSES with the account. If the MAC ADDRESS is not associated with the account, the device cannot be used. I'm finding out more about this as I should be able to add devices myself. Currently, to my knowledge there is no way to add the sets by yourself. The Fonality support crew must do this for you.

3-connect the FONALITY server to the internet. It doesn't matter how. It just needs an internet connection. On mine, there were 2 nics on the back. NIC1 was the one that worked. To configure, I had to plug in a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Logging in with:

USER: ip
PASS: ip

This gave me limited options and one was to change the IP address. If you can't set it manually, it should be set to get an IP ADDRESS via DHCP.

The magic of the FONALITY is that upon connecting to the internet, it will automatically make a VPN call back to the FONALITY HQ SERVERS. The FONALITY HQ has a WEB ADMIN CONTROL PANEL (https://cp.fonality.com/) that configures (with pulls and pushes) to the local PHYSICAL FONALITY SERVER via the VPN. Pretty cool.

4-connect to the WEB ADMIN CONTROL PANEL at https://cp.fonality.com/. FONALITY should give you a USERNAME & PASSWORD. I received one with a WELCOME LETTER in the box but it didn't work. I had to contact support to get the USER/PASS reset.

5-setup USERS/EXTENSIONS. Upon logging into the CP, you have to setup the USERS. This comes down to FIRST NAME, LAST NAME & EXTENSION NUMBER. The EXTENSION NUMBER can be any 4 digit extension but it cannot be changed later on. If you want to change the extension, the extension has to be deleted and recreated. At the bottom of the page, add the DEVICE to the EXTENSION.

6-setup the SIP account. Again, the SIP account is just a USER/PASS along with an OUTSIDE IP ADDRESS. Click OPTIONS > VOIP. Type in those 3 pieces of information and click ADD VOIP ACCOUNT.

7-setup DIAL PLAN. A DIAL PLAN is how the phones will be used to dial out for items such as local phone calls, long distance phone calls and international phone calls. Such as dial 9 to get an outside line. Click OPTIONS > DIAL PLAN. Here are the dial plans I setup:

8-setup SONICWALL or other firewall. The Fonality server is going to require certain ports open on the firewall to work correctly. On a simple firewall, direct the following ports to the internal ip address:

• icmp:0
• icmp:3
• icmp:4
• icmp:5
• icmp:8
• icmp:9
• icmp:10
• icmp:11
• tcp:21
• tcp:22
• tcp:53
• udp:53
• tcp:80
• udp:4569
• udp:5060
• udp:5061
• udp:5070
• udp:5222
• tcp:5222
• tcp:6600
• tcp:8000
• udp:9710

On a SONICWALL, the concept is the same but you have to create an ADDRESS OBJECT. Create the services, if they are not already there. Finally create the NAT POLICY. Typically, I use the WIZARD to set these up. At least with one service but then add the other services later on.

9-setup phone sets via IP ADDRESS. Amazingly to me, some of the settings need to setup individually; phone set by phone set. This kind of ruined the whole point of central management but so be it. If the phone has an IP ADDRESS, type it in along with the USER/PASS. The important setup items here are LINE1 with the EXTENSION NUMBER. Also setup the NTP for the NETWORK TIME. Click GENERAL > TIME. The important part here is to setup the server name which is something like s123456.fonality.com.

10-last of all Fonality recommends setting an A RECORD in the DNS settings. A RECORD is s123456.fonality.com the IP ADDRESS is the INTERNAL IP ADDRESS of the server. This way when the phone sets request info they will be redirected internally rather than externally. It saves a few milliseconds.