Frequently Asked Technical Questions about Allworx
Allworx Phone System FAQ's
- What is the most common data install?
- How do I set up a remote phone?
- How do I install and perform a backup of the Allworx system?
- What does “Init/load failed” on the phone display mean?
- Why is an error message initiated when Office Safe starts?
- How to port forward to remote phones
- How to port forward to a server
- Why should I use a Universal Power Supply with my Allworx 6x with USB drive?
- What is the power consumption for Allworx products?
- Why can't I increment port spoofing entries in my system event logs?
- Why am I getting one-way audio after a call is transfered, when using a Netopia router?
- How do I upgrade the system software?
| The most common data only install |
The most common data only install is 64K data using PPP (internet style). At this point the T1 becomes the WAN interface, and only 1 public ip is available on the unit. The providers end of the circuit is the "gateway" and the Allworx has the routed public ip of the circuit as its WAN address. The normal range of multiple public ip's (behind the circuit ip ) is not available as would be when terminating with an IAD.
You can place a PRI /T1 on T1 port A and then a Data T1 on T1 port B. If a Data T1 is used on Port A, then the second port is not available for use. Below is what we are supporting as Beta on existing circuits that can not be moved to 56K or 64K PPP circuits.
- T1 Robbed Bit Signaling (RBS) - BETA
Note: RBS is new to the Allworx service software release 6.5 and is considered to be a Beta test.
Contact customer support before deployment to confirm the latest version of software or any new pending issues.
Support is provided for legacy T1 lines that do not have support for Primary Rate ISDN (PRI) at the Central Office.
When using a fractional T1, a service that combines voice and data on a single T1 line, many service providers only support RBS signaling for the circuit switched portion of the circuit. The following RBS modes are supported on the Allworx server : - FXO Loop-Start
- FXO Ground-Start
- E&M Wink Start Feature Group B (single wink)
- E&M Immediate Start
When a T1 line is ordered from a service provider, the work order must specify how the T1 line is to be provisioned.
It is important that each end of the T1 be configured identically so that the two end-points can interoperate.
| How Do I: Setup a Remote Phone |
Setting up a remote phone is not very difficult; we have to be careful to allow the phone to communicate back and forth with the main Allworx server through firewalls.
How To Setup the Remote Phone:
If behind a firewall, you will generally be most successful if you:
- Set up the phone with a Static IP, subnet mask and Gateway address of the local subnet.
- Set the Boot IP address to the WAN address of the Allworx server
- Set ‘Secret Key' from the VoIP server page. (From the Administrative console, click on Servers then VoIP. The ‘Plug n Play Secret Key' is listed there.
- Now, once everything else is configured, we can reboot this phone and should then have access.
If there is a firewall on the subnet with the remote phone:
- Set the following ports to open for the IP address we gave to the phone:
- 2088 (UDP) for the BLF protocol
- 5060 (UDP) for sip registration
- 8081 (TCP) to enable the phone to download its configuration files
- We also need to open a range of audio ports for the remote phone. The phone needs a range of 2 ports for every expected ‘call' or ‘line' the phone will make simultaneously. An easy way is to simply create a range of 10 ports for the remote phone, i.e.:
- 16001-16010 (UDP) these are RTP media (audio)
How To Setup the Allworx Server:
- Set up an extension and user for the remote phone system
- Set up the Handset adding the necessary additions.
- Click on View Configuration, scroll down to the Phone options, and click Modify
- In the RTP Media Port Range , enter the range of 10 ports that we added to the Firewall above. If there was no firewall mapping involved, leave this at its default.
If there is a firewall on the subnet between the Allworx and the Internet:
- Log into the firewall and map these ports to the LAN IP of the Allworx:
- 2088 (UDP)
- 5060 (UDP)
- 8081 (TCP)
- 15500-15511 (UDP)
| How Do I: Install and Perform a Backup of the Allworx system. |
If you do not have the Office Safe application installed on your pc, start here. If you do have the Office Safe application, proceed below to ‘How To Perform a Backup'
How To Download and Install the Office Safe Application:
- Open a new Internet browser
- Navigate to: http://www.allworx.com/support/downloads/default.asp#4
- Scroll down a little bit to the section titled ‘Office Safe'. Click on the link to begin downloading the Office Safe application.
- Save the file to your computer. When the file is done downloading, close your Internet browser, locate the file you just downloaded, and double click on it to begin the installation.
- When the installation is complete, there will be an icon on your desktop to launch the Office Safe application.
How To Perform a Backup:
- To perform a backup of the Allworx system, we will need to configure the backup routine. Start an Internet browser window. Navigate to the Admin console of the Allworx server.
- Click on the Maintenance link, then on Time. Note the time the server is reporting.
- Click on the Maintenance link, then on Backup. Click the Modify button.
- Change the time listed to the time that you would like the backup to start. NOTE: The time that is listed on your local computer system may not be the same time as your Allworx server- to check the server time, from the maintenance link, choose ‘Time' and note the time on the Allworx server.
- Edit the ‘IP Address' to be the same as the computer that will be running the Office Safe application. (If you do not know what that address is, minimize the browser window and launch the Office Safe application. Your systems IP address is listed in the upper right corner under ‘current settings').
- Leave the Port setting alone, it should be 5001.
- Change the frequency to your preference.
- Leave the mode at ‘incremental'. If you have not performed a backup from your local computer, then the Allworx box will automatically perform a ‘full' backup. If you have performed a backup previously, the Allworx box will perform an ‘incremental' backup, which means it will only back up files that are different from what is stored on the local computer, or that have changed recently.
- Click the Update button to save your changes.
To perform a backup now, first make sure the Office Safe application is running on your local system, then click the ‘Backup Now' button on this page.
The backup will run automatically. You can check the progress of the Backup from the Office Safe application. When it is done, you can close the Office Space application.
| Phone displays “Init/load failed” |
You need to reset the phone to factory default by following these steps:
- Press the CONFIG softkey on the phone (white button nearest to the handset)
- Scroll down pressing the white down arrow button until you get to “Set Factory Defaults”. Select this setting by pressing the white button between the up and down arrows
- Press the YES softkey (middle white button) to restore factory defaults
- The phone will automatically reboot and likely connect to the network
| Starting Office Safe initiates error message |
If you see:
OfficeSafe.exe – Illegal System DLL Relocation
The system DLL user32.dll was relocated in memory. The application will not run properly. The relocation occurred because the DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\HHCTRL.OCX occupied an address range reserved for Windows system DLLs. The vendor supplying the DLL should be contracted for a new DLL.
This is a Microsoft bug and it affecting many different programs for people all over.
The Microsoft patch is found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935448/
The page will be headed with:
Certain programs may not start, and you receive an error message on a computer that is running Windows XP Service Pack 2: "Illegal System DLL Relocation" Use Method 3: Install update 935448 from the Microsoft Download Center. This will take care of your issue.
| Port forward to remote phones |
If one way audio or the message "init load failed" appears when booting the remote phone:
The following ports must be opened on your remote firewall to allow traffic from the WAN to the LAN IP address of your Allworx Phone:
- UDP port 2088 (BLF Traffic)
- UDP port 5060 (sip registration)
- UDP ports 16384 to 16393 (RTP media streams-Audio)
If more than one remote phone is behind the same firewall, more instructions may be found here:
http://www.allworx.com/support/technical_faq.asp#4
| Port forward to a server |
When the server is in LAN host mode or behind a third party firewall:
The following ports must be opened on your firewall to allow traffic from the WAN to the LAN IP address of your Allworx server:
- UDP port 2088 (BLF Traffic )
- UDP port 5060 (sip registration)
- TCP port 8081 (remote phone config files)
- UDP ports 15000 to 15511 (RTP media streams-Audio)
| Why should I use a Universal Power Supply with my Allworx 6x with USB drive? |
Make sure that 6X's with USB drives are powered by a backup Universal Power Supply ( UPS ).
If power is lost to both the 6X and the USB drive, when power is re applied, the 6X will complete its boot process before the USB drive is ready for use.
In this case there is no operating system available for the 6X to use (it's on the USB drive).
The 6X will be in “safe mode” and the USB drive (now powered and ready for use) will need to be mounted and then rebooted into normal mode.
| Power consumption on Allworx products |
Servers:
Worst case power consumption is as follows:
- Allworx 6x - 12 Watts
- Allworx 10x - 61 Watts
- Allworx 24x - 21 Watts
Typical loading is between 50 and 70% of this depending on the product (analog station ports in use are a heavy load).
Phones:
Any vendor switch or mid-span power injector that conforms to the POE standard (802.3af) should work with Allworx 9102/9112 phones.
The PoE spec (IEEE 802.3af) stipulates an maximum supply power of about 19 watts at the source switch end, of which about 12 watts is usable at the load end of a full length cable. Our phones are specified to draw a maximum of approximately 9.6 watts (400mA at 24V for the wall transformer or about 200mA at 48V for PoE ) with the typical number being quite a bit lower.
| Can't increment port spoofing entries in your system events logs |
The port spoofing entries in your logs would account for the issues you describe. There is likely someone who is running file sharing programs on their PC's ( ie. Bittorent, Limewire, etc.).
To determine which device is causing the problem, monitor the system events log until you find port spoofing entries occurring at that time. Navigate to Maintenance->Tools and run the NAT show tool. Under port spoofs you will find a PC or PC's IP address with a large amount of spoof entries. Go to that PC and disable the file share program causing the problem.
If the entries in the system events log are not happening at the exact time you run the NAT show, the information in the NAT log will not be useful.
| One Way Audio after call is transferred when using Netopia Router |
You will need to contact Netopia and have them give you the instructions to disable the SIP ALG. It can only be done from the command line interface through a telnet session.
| How Do I: Upgrade the system software |
To install an upgrade to the Allworx system software, you will need to perform the following steps:
You will need to download the system software from the Allworx web site, and make sure those files are loaded onto the Allworx system in the Update folder.
If you cannot download the files from the Administrative console, you will have to use an FTP program to load the files into the Allworx.
You will need to perform a system backup before you run the system upgrade. In case something goes wrong with the installation, you will want to have a copy of the configuration available to rebuild the system.
Once those steps are done, the system upgrade can take place.
First notes:
If you have not backed up your system software, or if you are at all uncertain if you have ever backed up your system software, please follow the guide on ‘How Do I: Backup the Allworx' to do so BEFORE you run a system software upgrade.
