VoIP Service Suddenly Not Working on 384.13

[Parallax Abstraction]

Hey all. I've been a happy user of Merlin on mt RT-AC3200 for a while now. However, a random problem has popped up and I'm not sure why.

I have VoIP service through my ISP (Start.ca) that I don't use often but when I do, I use the Zoiper5 softphone. It's worked well for a long time but recently, it would always time out when I tried to use it. I called Start.ca and they had me try an alternative server and finally, trying with the GrandStream Wave app on my Android phone. They also didn't work but, as soon as I put my Android on mobile data, it connected immediately. We then bypassed the router and plugged my desktop PC straight into the modem and once again, it worked right away.

I don't have much in the way of custom settings on my router. I have a port forward open that doesn't conflict with the VoIP port (5060) and also run an OpenVPN server on the router, which I've been using since well before this issue came up. That's kind of it honestly. I do live streaming and a bunch of other heavy lifting on my connection and nothing else is acting up at all.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has seen this or knows what settings could be causing the issue? My ISP and I have clearly identified the router as the issue here. Before I screenshot all my settings and factory reset the unit, I wanted to ask here first.

Thanks so much!

 

[Parallax Abstraction]

Sorry to bump (I'll only do it once) but this issue is still perplexing me. Anyone have potential thoughts? Thanks.

 

[dev_null]

Sorry to bump (I'll only do it once) but this issue is still perplexing me. Anyone have potential thoughts? Thanks.

Did you also forward RTP ports? Your current port forwarding is for UDP (just to confirm) or "both" (UDP and TCP). Are you sure of the IP address of the VOIP provider (sometimes there are differing IP that the provider could be using? Does the provider offer a different port (e.g., voip.ms offers UDP/TCP 5080 and 42872 on all servers (I use 42872 when I'm using mobile data, the providers often block 5060). And your port forward it to the IP of the PC that you're using the softphone on?

Also have you just rebooted? And disabled any add-ons (Diversion, Skynet, etc)?

What you may try is to install Diversion if you're not using it, and then use the live follow DNS masq to see what might being blocked. You could also check the firewall logs, or if you're running a PBX check the logs there. Finally, you could ask the provider if they have sip traces to see if they can help you diagnose.

What you're looking for is something like this (this example is for voip.ms, one of my VOIP providers). If anything is blocked it should show here (this is Diversions "follow dns-masque" output):

Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: query[SRV] _sips._tcp.newyork3.voip.ms from 10.1.1.103
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: forwarded _sips._tcp.newyork3.voip.ms to 208.67.222.220
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: query[SRV] _sips._tcp.newyork3.voip.ms.MWLAN from 10.1.1.103
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: config _sips._tcp.newyork3.voip.ms.MWLAN is NXDOMAIN
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: query[A] newyork3.voip.ms from 10.1.1.103
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: cached newyork3.voip.ms is 72.251.239.206
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: query[AAAA] newyork3.voip.ms from 10.1.1.103
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: forwarded newyork3.voip.ms to 208.67.222.220
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: query[SRV] _sips._tcp.newyork3.voip.ms from 10.1.1.103
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: forwarded _sips._tcp.newyork3.voip.ms to 208.67.222.220
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: query[SRV] _sips._tcp.newyork3.voip.ms.MWLAN from 10.1.1.103
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: config _sips._tcp.newyork3.voip.ms.MWLAN is NXDOMAIN
Dec  9 18:55:14 dnsmasq[29355]: query[A] newyork3.voip.ms from 10.1.1.103

If nothing else works, a full NVRAM-clearing reset might be your only option (bummer for sure).