Open VoIP Vs Closed One

Hi there!

It happens some VoIP providers, give away to their customers locked routers.
For example in Italy we have Tiscali or Telecom Italia who sells Alice VoIP. They give away SIP routers that won't allow other VoIP than their own.
Of course by using not standard UDP ports we can find a workaroud to the problem.
It's a really BIG problem, mainly because that way BIG Telcos won't allow competitors and for their customers too because they are locked and they can't choose.
Moreover... customers can't simply turn off the locked router due of the PSTN number registered with the VoIP service (they don't have POTS Line anymore) or because the locked router uses a smart card with username and password on it.
If I don't know login and password, how can I connect to the Internet by using a non locked router?

Now I'm wondering pbxes menagement if they thought about the above mentioned problem and if they have planned a way to support not standard UDP port for registration.
For example Messagenet.it uses port 5061 and yes, Tiscali users can have their ATA registred and full working behind their locked router.
Vbuzzer uses UDP port 80 and yes, it can bypass locked routers too.

I hope I was able to explain myself in my poor English.

Have a nice day.

That is the name of the game big telcos play unfortunatelly. That is how they protect their interests and lock in the unsuspecting. Clients need to be more carefull and ask questions such as, if they can bring their own routers and ATAs into the service. If they are complacent with the units carriers give them, they will most probably be locked in.

Clients can also port their numbers via Local Number Portability, into other carriers which do not require locked in units, and such providers do exist in Italy.

Another way to bypass this, is to forward their phone numbers in the locked units to a MessageNet trunk, and registered that to PBXes.

Currently PBXes supports alternate port trunk registrations, by setting the SIP Server field as sip.proxy.com:5061 or :80.

RE: Open VoIP Vs Closed One

Thanks for your request. It's not just the DSL providers. UMTS operators have also blocked certain ports.

So in addition to the standard port (5060) we have now opened UDP ports 80 and 5061 for registration.

You are a GREAT man!

You brought to all of us as many possibility as we can think about! At a very cheap price.
I'm not in business with VoIP. I think the VoIP as a way to be free. Not only free speech. but also Freedom to achieve the goals people need.

A small business Company, let say 5 employes, can have its own IVR, DIDs, call transfers and so on WITHOUT knowledge about Linux and without expenses for Aterisk Technicians.

I talked for hours with an Italian at the phone. He rules a small Company with interests in Turism. He was able to acheve his goals by using pbxes.
Anther guy from North Italy, with another small Company. He offers technical assistance to their customers by using pbxes.

Both of those Italians had no prior knoledge of Asterisk or IVRs or Extensions and so on.

Many other "common people" know your services and I'm sure many of them, will say Thank to You, pbxes!!!!

Quite all of them... apart competitors of course ;-)
They can continue to sell Asterisk boxes to their customers but now we can share knowledge about IP pbxes among common people.

I hope you can grow more and more because knoledge is important.

Thank You!!!!

This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by pbx on 16.01.2007 at 16:16.