Use default SIP proxy when symmetric NAT detected

Thanks for your report, it could be related to bug http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=338267

A hint to the advanced user that he might be able to resolve the issue by configuring port forwarding as suggested in this other bug report, is certainly usefull. But this it not always possible and can not be expected from a nontechnical person. Skype is normally able to communicate in this scenario without any further configuration by using other nodes of the skype p2p network as proxy.

I would recommend that Canonical sets up a default sip proxy for ubuntu users wich is configured as a default in ekiga.

Hi,

It is in some way related to #338267. But, as pointed out, it require technical abilities and even if you have them, in some case you just can't get through the NAT.

The best solution is indeed a SIP proxy. But, Martin, you should consider symmetric NAT is a minority of NAT. What you propose is setting the "outbound proxy" in Ekiga as something like "voip.ubuntu.com". This will affect every Ekiga user, thus this will use much more bandwidth than necessary. Beside, the counter part of using a proxy is getting higher latency.

Fortunately, there is a practical solution for this issue: ICE
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-mmusic-ice-19

You still need a SIP proxy, but ICE is "intelligent" enough to check if you really need it, thus this will only use the bandwidth if necessary.

ICE is planned to be implemented in Ekiga. I'm almost sure upstream (the Ekiga team) will raise up the priority for this feature if Ubuntu accept to give a SIP proxy to the community, and I bet upstream will help setting/administrate this proxy if required. I'm close to them, if Canonical needs further informations, feel free to ask.

Regards,
Yannick

Hi,

> The best solution is indeed a SIP proxy. But, Martin, you should
> consider symmetric NAT is a minority of NAT. What you propose is setting
> the "outbound proxy" in Ekiga as something like "voip.ubuntu.com". This
> will affect every Ekiga user, thus this will use much more bandwidth
> than necessary. Beside, the counter part of using a proxy is getting
> higher latency.

You are right: It should only be used as a last resort.

> Fortunately, there is a practical solution for this issue: ICE
> http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-mmusic-ice-19
>
> You still need a SIP proxy, but ICE is "intelligent" enough to check if
> you really need it, thus this will only use the bandwidth if necessary.

Ekiga is already able to detect a symmetric NAT, in this case
a default proxy should be used.

> ICE is planned to be implemented in Ekiga. I'm almost sure upstream (the
> Ekiga team) will raise up the priority for this feature if Ubuntu accept
> to give a SIP proxy to the community, and I bet upstream will help
> setting/administrate this proxy if required. I'm close to them, if
> Canonical needs further informations, feel free to ask.

I hope somebody from Canonical is listening. A free and standard
compliant VOIP solution which works out of the box for all users
is one of the things painfully missing on the Linux Desktop.

Martin

Change status to avoid expiring. There is nothing which needs to be confirmed.

More than 1 year passed since last comment on this Wishlist.
Are there any news on

 - support for Symmetric NAT
+ Use default SIP proxy when symmetric NAT detected

Typical home routers (Internet Gateways) became very common.
And such solution is urgently needed.

Another way (and it's preferable, in my opinion) is to use UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) for opening required ports by Ekiga or other VoIP clients, like Torrent clients do.
If you have DD-Wrt (1) or Tomato (2) firmware in your router, you can open NAT/QoS->UPnP tab in Web UI, and immediately check what ports are open.
What is also good that Torrent client opens port via UPnP when itstarts, and than closes iton exit from application.
So ports remain open only when they are indeed needed.

1) http://dd-wrt.com/site/index
2) http://tomatousb.org/
    http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

Scrrenshot of DD-Wrt v24-sp2, running on ASUS WL-500G Premium router.

NAT/QoS - UPnP page
Open ports/applications:
- qBittorrent
- Azureus
- Bittorrent

Ekiga/other VoIP clients should be able to open ports (Port Forwarding) on UPnP-enabled routers, using UPnP.
As other Linux (and non-Linux) apps capable to do it, this is implementable. :-)