VoIP and SSH

[Jon Krause]

Andrew Falanga wrote:
> On Friday 04 January 2008 14:55:00 Jon Krause wrote:
>   
>> Andrew Falanga wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I don't understand this one and I'm hoping someone here might know.  My
>>> father's router wasn't forwarding connection requests for any port that
>>> we'd configured for sshd to listen on.  After changing out his linksys
>>> router and his Cable MODEM (the company said it was a very old modem),
>>> the problem was still present.  Oddly enough, if he unplugs his VoIP box
>>> from his network, all this problem goes away and connection requests over
>>> ssh and port 22 are forwarded fine.  With the VoIP box present, it
>>> doesn't work.
>>>
>>> Neither the FreeBSD machine or the VoIP box share IPs, but it doesn't
>>> work with the VoIP in the network.  Any ideas?
>>>       
>> The "VoIP box" is usually an MTA, many include a router/firewall also.
>> It should have an admin interface usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1
>> The cable company technical support should be able to walk you through
>> getting access (or check any documentation that came with the MTA)
>>
>> They may or may not have port options (open or forward) that may allow
>> ssh to work for you.
>>
>> Good Luck,
>>
>> Jon
>>
>>     
>>> Andy
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>>>       
>
> Thanks to all for the suggestions.  I'll see what I can find.  Something one 
> of you mentioned has me curious.  That being whether or not there is a DHCP 
> server running.  My father's linksys router doles out IPs from 
> 192.168.1.100 - <something> (I forget now).  Once, while trying to get this 
> working, he logged into his system (from his system) using ssh.  What was odd 
> was that he was able to log into his system by using the IP address of 
> 192.168.100.101, but using ifconfig he'd always tell me that the IP was 
> 192.168.1.100.  I'm betting that his VoIP box must be doling out IPs as well 
> as his Linksys router, or something like that.
>
> Jon, what do you mean when you say, "The 'VoIP box' is usually an MTA?"  I'm 
> used to MTA meaning Message Transfer Agent.  Is it the same in this case too?
>   
Sorry for the late response.
 
MTA = "multimedia terminal adapter"
It's a Cable industry term most recently replaced by eMTA (embedded) 
where the MTA is embedded in the cablemodem.  Most commonly used by 
Comcast, Time Warner and others for Packet Cable telephone service.

Some service providers use the standard VoIP solutions (MTAs) or there 
are 3rd party solutions such as Vonage (also considered MTA). 
Most MTAs connect as follows:  Cablemodem > MTA > (phone line plugs into 
MTA) (ethernet port for the Internet)

The MTA acts as a router similar to a regular D-Link or Linksys (Cisco) 
home router.  They usually have a web interface for configuration, they 
have DHCP serving the 192.168.x.x IPs.  So it sounds like the MTA has 
DHCP'ed a 192.168.x.x address to the Linksys and the Linksys is doing 
it's own thing for his network.

You need to get into the Linksys status page to see what IP the MTA has 
issued to it.  Then try to access the MTA and see if you can "open" the 
ports of choice to the Linksys, then open the ports on the Linksys to 
his network or work-station.

Best,

Jon
> Thanks,
> Andy
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