SIP ALG

[richard_s1]

Are VM able to turn SIP ALG off from their end on hub 3. I paid for a VOIP line and cant use it?

Thanks

Richard

[SIPALGSCRAMBLE]

That is the intention. Just checking with the new supplier whether this will resolve the problem for their purposes.

No point signing up with them if they don't think it will fix it.

[Roger_Gooner]

If VoIP is important for your business I think it may be prudent to buy a router which has the facility to disable SIP ALG - just in case it happens one day. It's like paying a small insurance premium.

[SIPALGSCRAMBLE]

Thanks, appreciate the advice.

[CatfordMatt]

I've been using SIP at home for nearly 16 years now, starting with Dixons Freetalk about 6 months before they were bought out by Vonage.

I always liked the idea of Virgin Broadband, as they were the only provider doing Broadband only, without paying for a POTS line I didn't need or want.

It wasn't until 2015 I moved to a cabled street for that to become possible and I found out fast the Super Hub 2 was blocking SIP.

To all those claiming folk are expecting business grade features, that is rubbish and I'd counter that never has an ISP supplied router blocked SIP before or since.

Rather than a feature, Virgin have actively blocked SIP deliberately unless their Hubs are in router mode and customers are not told, until they find out the hard way.

This is unforgivable and an issue they were aware of as far back as the first Hub, for which they did provide a Beta firmware for those with a Hub 1 to try and resolve it.

The issue would cost Virgin NOTHING to resolve and soon all lines will be VoIP, meaning the need to unblock SIP will affect far more people.

The OP did not have unreasonable expectations and the responses given were harsh and grossly uninformed.

[gary_dexter]

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@CatfordMatt wrote:

I've been using SIP at home for nearly 16 years now, starting with Dixons Freetalk about 6 months before they were bought out by Vonage.

I always liked the idea of Virgin Broadband, as they were the only provider doing Broadband only, without paying for a POTS line I didn't need or want.

It wasn't until 2015 I moved to a cabled street for that to become possible and I found out fast the Super Hub 2 was blocking SIP.

To all those claiming folk are expecting business grade features, that is rubbish and I'd counter that never has an ISP supplied router blocked SIP before or since.

Rather than a feature, Virgin have actively blocked SIP deliberately unless their Hubs are in router mode and customers are not told, until they find out the hard way.

This is unforgivable and an issue they were aware of as far back as the first Hub, for which they did provide a Beta firmware for those with a Hub 1 to try and resolve it.

The issue would cost Virgin NOTHING to resolve and soon all lines will be VoIP, meaning the need to unblock SIP will affect far more people.

The OP did not have unreasonable expectations and the responses given were harsh and grossly uninformed.

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I’ve never seen a residential ISP advertising that their router does support SIP, as a rebuttal. 

[CatfordMatt]

Why would they need to?
That would be like saying you can use Chrome web browser with our service, i.e. a given.
Providers I've had over the years being BT, Plusnet, Eclipse, Bulldog, BE, 3, etc no problems with SIP on ISP supplied devices.
And lets be honest, nobody locks their devices down more than BT in terms of others features or to prevent use with other providers.
SIP is just a telephony protocol requiring unhindered web access which I've even done using a 3g router in emergencies.

[jem101]

Firstly VM absolutely do not block SIP traffic on their network, as evidenced by putting the Hub into modem mode, then it all works just fine. The issue is with the second term in the thread heading; ALG; application layer gateway. In router mode it appears that the Hub is running an ALG specifically for SIP traffic (hence SIP ALG) - now SIP ALG was designed with good intentions to help SIP traffic work when a device was behind a NAT device. Unfortunately now it tends to do more harm than good and the first thing to try when problems arise is to disable it on your router. 

Alas the ability to do that is missing on the current VM hubs - don't know why but it hasn't been there for some time, and indeed the feature can be missing on other ISP supplied routers as well.

Just like any other feature that you may want to use but is simply missing on the hub, the solution is to put it into modem mode and use something mire sophisticated that gives you better control.

[CatfordMatt]

No that block it at router level, proven by the fact all is well in modem mode.
But when an ISP sells a service boasting about a great wonderful high speed wifi singing and dancing hub, it seems greatly unfair SIP users have to disable all that functionality.
I've worked with so many ISP supplied routers and it has never been a problem except for Virgin hubs.
Jeez SIP clients on smart phones even work via public wifi.
Imagine not being able to do in your own home, what you can at a public wifi spot.

[gary_dexter]

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@CatfordMatt wrote:
Why would they need to?
That would be like saying you can use Chrome web browser with our service, i.e. a given.
Providers I've had over the years being BT, Plusnet, Eclipse, Bulldog, BE, 3, etc no problems with SIP on ISP supplied devices.
And lets be honest, nobody locks their devices down more than BT in terms of others features or to prevent use with other providers.
SIP is just a telephony protocol requiring unhindered web access which I've even done using a 3g router in emergencies.

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So why would VM need to state that they do lock it down if others don't need to state they do support it?

[gary_dexter]

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@CatfordMatt wrote:
No that block it at router level, proven by the fact all is well in modem mode.
But when an ISP sells a service boasting about a great wonderful high speed wifi singing and dancing hub, it seems greatly unfair SIP users have to disable all that functionality.
I've worked with so many ISP supplied routers and it has never been a problem except for Virgin hubs.
Jeez SIP clients on smart phones even work via public wifi.
Imagine not being able to do in your own home, what you can at a public wifi spot.

---

The wifi hubs from VM are cr@ppy, hence why modem mode is supplied and used by most of the customer base on this forum.

At the end of the day, you rent a service from VM - if you don't agree with what they are offering then you either use your feet, or use an alternate solution.