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    IP Phone on LAN - how to DMZ it out?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved NAT
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    • M
      megawatt
      last edited by

      I have Panasonic IP phone at static 192.168.0.20. Pfsense is my gateway at 192.168.0.1. With Walmart level routers I was usually assigning the IP to DMZ and had it working. With PFSense I do not have DMZ option, tried all night to play with Firewall or NAT rule and the phone still not working. I see that VOIP ports like 2427 or 68 are blocked by firewall and logged but cannot unblock them. Please point me at the right direction (but please not to the useless https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Port_Forward_Troubleshooting or https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Why_can%27t_I_access_forwarded_ports_on_my_WAN_IP_from_my_LAN/OPTx_networks). I am in lost with pfsense way of doing things and need some kind of walk through if possible for IP phones.

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      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
        last edited by

        you can not understand how to forward a port?  You sure and the hell do not need 68 forwarded.. That is dhcp.

        You click nat under firewall, is the port tcp/udp/? put in the port, and the dest IP which would be 192.168.0.20 in your case and the port for dest port almost always going to be the same.

        It really is like 3 clicks.. Pretty much everything can be left as default.  You just need the port and where you want to send it.

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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        • M
          megawatt
          last edited by

          Nice people here… Yeah, I might not understand something, not a big deal.
          So, I found this article http://www.3cx.com/blog/voip-howto/pfsense-firewall/ right after I created the forum post. So the issue is resolved.

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by

            Not understanding and expecting to use a firewall, kind of big deal ;)

            That listed the ports used, I guess but other than some pictures of what to change ie port and IP..  So you just blindly clicked on the stuff they showed without any clue to what any of it means??

            They don't show you forwarding 2427 so why are you showing that blocked?  Are you using mgcp?  Media Gateway Controllers, guess you don't know and not a big deal ;)

            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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            • M
              megawatt
              last edited by

              Panasonic phone system PDF is saying that it uses port 2427 and the explanation is "Media Gateway Control Protocol.Used for call control command data and LCD/LED data transmission."
              Port 67, 68 are for "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.  Used for receiving an IP address from a DHCP server."
              Do you see this as not needed for normal phone operation? When phone was assigned to DMZ I did not need to think about this details, it was just working. Looks like with pfsense I need to dig into every detail trying to decide if it needed or not.

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              • KOMK
                KOM
                last edited by

                You don't need to forward 68 since DHCP is coming from your LAN, not from outside, and even then your phones are static IP.  Do you even really need to forward any ports?  I'm running a bunch of Polycom VoIP phones and they all work without any firewall magic.  I don't know why you want to DMZ them when they're literally no different than any other client on your network.  DMZ is usually reserved for services that receive unsolicited requests and require security isolation.

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                • M
                  megawatt
                  last edited by

                  Disabled port 68 rule, thanks. Yes, I have to forward ports, otherwise there is no sound and phone will be rebooting constantly after every 3 minutes.

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                  • KOMK
                    KOM
                    last edited by

                    With my Polycoms, when the boot up, they reach out to their head end (my VoIP provider) and then maintain an active state throughout.  Incoming calls just use that open state to talk to the phones so there is no need for a forward through the firewall.  IMO this is a much more elegant solution than having to forward ports, but at least you got it working.

                    For the record, those two pfSense links are far from useless.  The 'WAN from LAN' question comes up weekly, and the port-forward troubleshooting page lists all the common mistakes people make.

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                    • johnpozJ
                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                      last edited by

                      Dhcp is used pretty much for any device.  But your pfsense should be providing dhcp, or some other device on your network.  Eitherway there would be no reason to have to create a rule for this in pfsense.  Since if you enable dhcp the rules are created for you automagically.  If your running it elsewhere on that network pfsense has nothing to do with dhcp.  It might be noise in your logs would be all.

                      No you don't need to dig into every little detail, but you do need to understand the operation of the device you want to put behind a natting firewall.  Or yeah your going to have issues..

                      "Panasonic phone system PDF is saying that it uses port 2427"

                      So did you forward that port, it was not in the list of the link you provided?  So either you forwarded and your working fine, or you didn't and its not actually needed since again you said your working fine.

                      Placing a box in dmz as per your walmart routers setup is BAD idea no matter how you look at..  And its not really a dmz with those devices, it just forwards all unsolicited traffic to that IP.  A dmz'd box would be firewalled off from the rest of your network, etc.

                      That little feature is great for those types of routers, since they are designed for your typical user that has not a clue.  So they give them a easy way to just forward everything to a box if they are not bright enough to figure out which ports they need.  Pfsense is not designed with these sorts of users in mind.  But you could do the same thing if you so desired.  Just forward all the ports to your box both tcp/udp and there you go same mode of operation as your walmart routers dmz host function.

                      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                      SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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