Proper Order of Configuration Steps

[KitchM]

@markjcrane
The standard is not what you or I think. It is what is intuitive. Bad GUIs are a dime a dozen, and their existence does not make them right. When a GUI fails to be intuitive, it can only, at best, be partially helpful and at worse, be totally misleading. Failing to abide by this standard just shows poor programming skills when it comes to the interface. That is where experts like myself can be hired to explain what the common user needs and/or expects to see. I never expect a techie to understand this, but I do expect them to get the help they need when communicating with the real world.

By the way, you do not understand the issue of resolution. Feel free to contact me directly if you need some insight.

@DigitalDaz
Good as always. I now understand why you do what you do. Makes sense to me.

I am not saying that it will work for me, but rather that it makes a lot of sense in many situations. However, such insight is like gold to me in being able to adapt to my needs. Thank you very much.

Don't worry about the use of outbound when you meant inbound. I figured it out after a few minutes.

Skipping all the rest, you said something important about needing extensions and having a provider. I do have it configured with my provider and the provider see FreeSWITCH and Fusion states REGED. Therefore, that end must be correctly configured. (Unless the software is telling a lie.)

But my telephones seem to have a problem reaching the PBX. I am waiting to hear why I get the message I do. I just don't know what is sending the message; phone or PBX. That knowledge will direct my next diagnostic steps and without it I am lost.

Thanks again.

 

[DigitalDaz]

Use the sngrep you saw me use, you may not make sense of it but if you post a log, we may.

 

[KitchM]

Yes, thank you. I did notice all that and a little more. I am in the process of documenting all this and will adapt your good insight into my situation. I'll let you know how it works.

In a little bit I will see if the log helps me.

 

[KitchM]

Okay, Daz, I am trying another option. Please let me know what you think.

I went to my fiber route/gateway device, as supplied by our ISP. In the settings was an area the allows port forwarding. My SIP service provider gave a list of IP addresses to services they provide and said they needed access thru ports 5060 and 5080 on UDP. This I did. One each on 5060 and 5080. There were something like five addesses, so that made ten. Done. (Obviously working since I have registration with the provider.)

Next I went to the section entitled "DNS Host Mapping" and created a setting of my internal server IP address of 192.168.1.21 and the hostname mypbx.localhost. (Remember that I prefer not to use an FQDN just for this, and in your
good video you explained your reasoning for not using IP addresses by itself.)

How do you feel about this compromise?

 

[KitchM]

@DigitalDaz
Another update for you.

I found that the good video you supplied slightly mislead me in that it appeared to associate a gateway (trunk provider) with outbound calls but not inbound. What I have read so far appears to indicate that gateways are first configured because both inbound and outbound need them equally. Is this what you meant?

Another thing I noticed is that FusionPBX automatically populates the Domain information by supplying the IP address of the server. Therefore, there already is a domain set up in the system. In my case, 192.168.1.21. I assume it should just start working if the rest of the configuration is completed.

I do understand your second video and why you prefer to block IP address connections. Makes sense. However, I believe it is clear that it is not necessary at the outset. Is that also correct?

Thanks.

 

[DigitalDaz]

You do not need to use the blocking thing but for the couple of quid it costs to buy a domain, its not worth not doing it from the outset in my mind.

Yes, I do associate the gateway with an outbound route because it is essential to make outbound calls.

A gateway isn't even necessary for inbound calls so long as your provider can send them to port 5080 or even 5060 with ACL.

 

[KitchM]

I guess my point is that I personally believe that the gateway is the trunk. Without the trunk, nothing come in or out.

 

[mat1010]

I guess my point is that I personally believe that the gateway is the trunk. Without the trunk, nothing come in or out.

Yes, the gateway points to the trunk, but for the IN part the PBX does not necesserily have to know anything about your trunk except from allowing it to send calls to you. Many of the wholesale carriers do not even support registration from your end. You give them your endpoint ip address and they will route all DIDs that are associated with you to this endpoint. Even without a gateway configuration you would receive all the calls.

 

[DigitalDaz]

Yes, if we are going to be pedantic and you really want to understand FusionPBX you need to grasp the concept that a gateway is NOT needed in order to process inbound calls.

The call hits the server and then is put into the public context then routed accordingly via the external dialplan. As long as the carrier can deliver the call to the PBX and the carrier is authorized to do so via ACL, the call will complete.

Many people use registered gateways but their purpose from an inbound point of view is to just give the carrier the information on where to deliver that call, ie port/ip address.

 

[KitchM]

Yes, quite so. Precision is what computing is all about.

I would then say that a PBX is fairly worthless if outgoing calls are not available. Therefore, from that line of reasoning, the PBX must be completely configured or one might not even bother.

From a training standpoint, it makes sense to follow the logic of the process. I connect to my provider first, and then I configure that rest of the server to handle both incoming and outgoing calls as I desire. Obviously, we're going to do it anyway, so it just simplifies the process for the newbie.

Thank you all. Much appreciated.

 

[Kenny Riley]

LOL at this thread.. you're literally arguing with the community and the creator @markjcrane on why FusionPBX doesn't function the way that you would like it to.

“Gateway” isn’t a FusionPBX term, it’s a Freeswitch term, which is what powers FusionPBX. You’re barking up the wrong tree, go complain to the Freeswitch team if you’re confused by the term.

Here's an idea... sign up for continuing education and watch the Admin Training Videos so you can actually LEARN how to use the platform, or pay someone for consulting time to show you how to get a functional system up and running. I'll gladly take your money.

You're clearly not capable of doing this by yourself. You're too busy preaching your opinion of why things aren't intuitive enough for you.

Or better yet, go back to FreePBX where you came from. Or go try 3CX, that seems more appropriate for your skill level and expectations.

 

[s1766333]

@Kenny Riley you pointed out some things that could help him. However one thing I would add I’m sure he can do it if he persists.

@KitchM I matched terminology in FreeSWITCH because that helped keep their documentation and book relevant to FusionPBX. FreeSWITCH has added a lot of documentation and leveraging that seemed like a good idea.

I know FusionPBX is not perfect... I’m also not perfect but I will continue to work to improve both myself and the software. Your perspective and other’s can help find areas that can be improved. With effort the project will continue to evolve.

 

[KitchM]

Thanks, phonesimon. Riley is the very definition of a troll. Some people do not understand the idea of an open discussion in a search for knowledge. Asking why and how is at the very heart of that search. No one is required to comment, but all should do so assuming the best. Opinions are okay so as to show where a person is coming from, but denigrating is not helpful. We have a right to show our frustration, but only on our own threads; not others.

@s1766333 , you don't happen to use Unitel, do you?
By the way, I am attempting work on the wiki if they can fix the login snafu. Translating documentation into the mindset of the average user is what I do. Of course, that requires a lot of trial and error, as well as a huge amount of time spent on trying to pry out information on a subject from various sources such as this.

I spend quite literally hundreds of unpaid hours per year testing and translating documentation which has been written by programmers. It is a daunting task, but one I enjoy and do well. The hard part is just getting an answer that makes sense sometimes. The education system being what it is, we all struggle with understanding each other, and that's just life.

Aw, well. Onward and upward.

Thanks.

 

[markjcrane]

@KitchM Please be civil calling anyone a troll is not nice community behavior. You don't know Kenny and he doesn't know you. Lets not bully each other online. In person we would likely find it easy to be friends. Distance between us make this a bit harder.

FusionPBX official documentation open source documentation is here https://docs.fusionpbx.com. The source for this documentation is on Github here. Documentation here I think is safer that was one of the major benefits of moving to this type of documentation.

GitHub - fusionpbx/fusionpbx-docs: FusionPBX Documentation

FusionPBX Documentation. Contribute to fusionpbx/fusionpbx-docs development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

The wiki is mostly of out of date information only a few new things if people want to maintain its would have to be done mostly by the community. The wiki is on a single server that is backed up not with the same redundancy that Github has. The wiki has its own user management system separate from https://www.fusionpbx.com.

Also so that you are aware this forum is not part of the project officially. It has it own separate user management system its managed and run by volunteers that answer questions with their spare time. Please keep this in mind.

 

[KitchM]

@markjcrane ,
You said "Please be civil calling anyone a troll is not nice community behavior. You don't know Kenny and he doesn't know you. Lets not bully each other online. In person we would likely find it easy to be friends. Distance between us make this a bit harder."

I don't know where you come from, but where I do the person who comes out of nowhere to attack another person is not only a troll but a bully. I don't care who he is. It doesn't even matter. His actions were rude, offensive and accusatory. And guess what; I don't like it. Surprise, surprise.

I find very few trolls on the Internet. Most people pop up with interesting comments. His was not, and as I pointed out, he fits the definition.

BTW, you have told me about the wiki many times, but you have never told me how to connect with it. If you don't know, that's fine. I just want to know who does.

And also, I am well aware of how the forum works.

 

[DigitalDaz]

@KitchM, @markjcrane is the project leader. I think he was pointing out that these forums are 'unofficial', ie I created them, there if no official connection with the project. The fusionpbx wiki is Mark's. It was one removed but I pestered to have it reinstated as official documentation at that time was not so clever, it has progressed massively since those times and the wiki contains much out of date content that can often lead to even more confusion to the new user.

 

[KitchM]

@DigitalDaz , you are quite right. The wiki is outdated and hard to follow. Why anyone wouldn't want it updated is beyond me. Worse yet are people willing to freely do the job and the owner refuses to let them. I find that bizarre.

 

[DigitalDaz]

Who has been wanting access to the wiki?

 

[KitchM]

Why me, of course.

 

[DigitalDaz]

This is kind of a perfect example of the problem with the wiki and allowing editing of it by anybody. In another thread you are asking what a context is, something that is Freeswitch 101, yet on this thread you feel qualified to start teaching others.