₦airaland Forum

You said: “We’re looking at Apache denying requests... but the user isn’t even getting that far.”

Rebuttal:
Apache logs help confirm that.
Even if a request never makes it to Apache, proving a lack of entries for the iPhone IP in the logs is useful diagnostic data.

🔹 It's not premature — it's elimination.
🔹 If Apache logs do show requests, we’ve proven the traffic is getting through.
🔹 If logs show denied by server configuration, it means the firewall allowed it, but Apache refused it.

You said: “User hasn’t even created an extension yet, and we’re already looking at SIP registration failures.”

Rebuttal:
We don’t know that for sure.
Unless the user explicitly says, “I haven't created any extensions,” we shouldn't assume what has or hasn’t been done.

🔹 Many people create extension 1001 by default during setup or testing.
🔹 If there’s a log saying "registration from 'sip:1001@x.x.x.x' failed...", then something is trying to register — and it’s failing.
🔹 That log is real evidence, not assumption.

So we’re not "jumping ahead" — we’re following actual system activity.

You said: “User hasn’t even created an extension yet and we’re already looking at SIP registration failures.”

Rebuttal:
We don’t know that for sure.
Unless the user explicitly says, “I haven't created any extensions,” we shouldn't assume what has or hasn’t been done.

🔹 Many people create extension 1001 by default during setup or testing.
🔹 If there’s a log saying "registration from 'sip:1001@x.x.x.x' failed...", then something is trying to register and it’s failing.
🔹 That log is real evidence, not assumption.

So we’re not "jumping ahead", we’re following actual system activity.

@airsaylongcome

What is the chance of stepping into this space for someone with a CCNP , a decent linux scripting experience although little interaction with VoIP...I am really tired full onprem work...

I am also big on certifications, which ones are good for this field..on Linkedin, I see alot of Voip guys have SSCA, do you have any you recommend?

BunbleBee:
@airsaylongcome

What is the chance of stepping into this space for someone with a CCNP , a decent linux scripting experience although little interaction with VoIP...I am really tired full onprem work...

I am also big on certifications, which ones are good for this field..on Linkedin, I see alot of Voip guys have SSCA, do you have any you recommend?

Ah! CCNP!! That's over enough o. It means you are comfortable troubleshooting network issues (I've worked more with Mikrotik but the skills are transferable). Add decent Linux scripting and you have a very solid foundation. All of the stuff I've been pushing is still very rudimentary cos the real troubleshooting involves a lot of CLI work using sngrep. Personally, I'd say give it a go. And you can later slide back to Cisco's VoIP offering, CUCM.

Regarding SSCA, that's the "gold-standard" certification in the field. You'd be able to confidently read sip logs if you actually studied the material for that certification. There's also a "cheaper" alternative, from VOIP school by Flavio Gonçalves. He's got a bit of an accent but he's rock solid. The gold standard book (somewhat academic but we still try to read it) is "SIP: Understanding the Session Initiation Protocol" by Alan B Johnston. Very academic but you can use AI to distill it. I pulled up study notes from trained AI model and I still reference those notes when I hook from time to time.

Also as CCNP, there are opportunities o. US WISPs would be interested if you have a decent work experience. Again, many of them use Mikrotik because of cost, but you should be able to easily transition.

Edit:
A lot of the field is now looking at Voice bots and Voice Assistants using tools like Vapi and Livekit. So that's something to look towards. But you'd still need to be grounded in the basics of SIP and RTP

airsaylongcome:
Ah! CCNP!! That's over enough o. It means you are comfortable troubleshooting network issues (I've worked more with Mikrotik but the skills are transferable). Add decent Linux scripting and you have a very solid foundation. All of the stuff I've been pushing is still very rudimentary cos the real troubleshooting involves a lot of CLI work using sngrep. Personally, I'd say give it a go. And you can later slide back to Cisco's VoIP offering, CUCM.

Regarding SSCA, that's the "gold-standard" certification in the field. You'd be able to confidently read sip logs if you actually studied the material for that certification. There's also a "cheaper" alternative, from VOIP school by Flavio Gonçalves. He's got a bit of an accent but he's rock solid. The gold standard book (somewhat academic but we still try to read it) is "SIP: Understanding the Session Initiation Protocol" by Alan B Johnston. Very academic but you can use AI to distill it. I pulled up study notes from trained AI model and I still reference those notes when I hook from time to time.

Also as CCNP, there are opportunities o. US WISPs would be interested if you have a decent work experience. Again, many of them use Mikrotik because of cost, but you should be able to easily transition.

Edit:
A lot of the field is now looking at Voice bots and Voice Assistants using tools like Vapi and Livekit. So that's something to look towards. But you'd still need to be grounded in the basics of SIP and RTP

Thanks alot..I have had one or two encounters with SIP/WEBRTC when we had to setup some cloud based telephony solution for the organization..so I had to study little on them so I know what to permit/route in my ACL and firewalls within our coporate network..

Cool stuff, I will look into these..Many thanks boss.

BunbleBee:
Thanks alot..I have had one or two encounters with SIP/WEBRTC when we had to setup some cloud based telephony solution for the organization..so I had to study little on them so I know what to permit/route in my ACL and firewalls within our coporate network..

Cool stuff, I will look into these..Many thanks boss.

You are welcome. Ports 5060 UDP/TCP (for SIP), 5061/TCP (for SIP over TLS) and ports 10k-20k/UDP for media would be your friend. All the best. Don't forget to get on the communities. Even if you are not saying anything, you'd at least be seeing the kinds of questions and conversations people are having. r/VoIP would be a good start.

Good luck and God speed.

This is good: reboot your VM twice within 5 minutes to temporarily disable the firewall

But it is often the simplest if you're locked out. Other options include:

🔄 Alternative Solutions:
1. Access via VM Console or SSH (if available):
If you have console or SSH access (e.g., through a hypervisor like VirtualBox, VMware, or Proxmox), you can:

Log in as root.

Use the FreePBX firewall commands directly:
bash
fwconsole firewall disable
Or whitelist your subnet:

bash
fwconsole firewall trust <your-subnet>

2. Disable the Firewall Permanently (if needed):
bash
fwconsole firewall stop
fwconsole firewall disable

3. Add Your IP/Subnet to the Trusted Zone Manually:
You can add IPs to the FreePBX firewall “trusted” zone via CLI:
bash
fwconsole firewall trusted --add=192.168.1.0/24
fwconsole firewall reload

4. Reset Network Settings:
If the firewall is causing persistent issues:
bash
fwconsole firewall reset
🛠 Best Practice:
Use the "twice in 5 minutes reboot trick" if you’re locked out and can’t use the terminal.

Prefer command-line methods if you can access the VM’s console or SSH.

Always whitelist your local network after first login to prevent being locked out.

⚠️ Notes:
If the FreePBX VM is behind NAT (e.g., on a home router or cloud provider), make sure port access is managed correctly.

The Sangoma activation is optional for most core features but may be required for commercial modules.

From ChatGPT

This is very educative and helpful. God will bless everyone that has contributed to the teachings here.

Just to update the "house", I recently deployed a tricky VoIP solution for use with AI Voice Assistants. It is in use in a country that has very strict regulations around VoIP calls from outside the country. I ended up using a VPN to dance around the restrictions. Very interesting project and I'm beginning to consider running a service for this. For the group of countries that have this restrictions. System has been up for a few weeks now and while it hasn't been smooth sailing all the way, I have enjoyed troubleshooting and fixing the issues that have come up.

Thanks for sharing this update, @airsaylongcome. It's fascinating to see the kind of complex challenges you're tackling head-on. Exactly the kind of complex, real-world problem-solving I'm striving to learn.
Just curious to know how the AI Voice Assistant function within a PBX. Is it like replacing the IVR Main part with AI?

airsaylongcome:
Just to update the "house", I recently deployed a tricky VoIP solution for use with AI Voice Assistants. It is in use in a country that has very strict regulations around VoIP calls from outside the country. I ended up using a VPN to dance around the restrictions. Very interesting project and I'm beginning to consider running a service for this. For the group of countries that have this restrictions. System has been up for a few weeks now and while it hasn't been smooth sailing all the way, I have enjoyed troubleshooting and fixing the issues that have come up.

lexdino:
Thanks for sharing this update, @airsaylongcome. It's fascinating to see the kind of complex challenges you're tackling head-on. Exactly the kind of complex, real-world problem-solving I'm striving to learn.
Just curious to know how the AI Voice Assistant function within a PBX. Is it like replacing the IVR Main part with AI?

In some instances, yes it replaces the IVR. In other instances, it initiates outbound calls to the business customers. Right now they are using it for marketing calls. Right now I'm focused more on the technical telephony side. But I'm really interested in the AI side and I'm looking to go into that. Just not had the time to start learning/figuring it out.

PS: I've been swamped that's why I haven't circled back to you on "that" task. Also saw your post on the community

Thanks for the response. The AI part sounds really promising. Looking forward to seeing where you take it once you dive deeper into the AI side.

No worries at all about the delay, I totally get being swamped. Honestly, I’ve been buried in multiple university presentations myself lately and haven’t even started yet

airsaylongcome:
In some instances, yes it replaces the IVR. In other instances, it initiates outbound calls to the business customers. Right now they are using it for marketing calls. Right now I'm focused more on the technical telephony side. But I'm really interested in the AI side and I'm looking to go into that. Just not had the time to start learning/figuring it out.

PS: I've been swamped that's why I haven't circled back to you on "that" task. Also saw your post on the community

Great Thread. Following. First 4 crosstalk videos. Great so far. Please everyone should probably ignore mindbender, or mindhacker, or whatever its mindmoniker is. Thank you, thank you, thank you @airsaylongcome

tboibamz:
Great Thread. Following. First 4 crosstalk videos. Great so far. Please everyone should probably ignore mindbender, or mindhacker, or whatever its mindmoniker is. Thank you, thank you, thank you @airsaylongcome

Not using ChatGPT today is like sticking to horses instead of using a car, so you can keep bending your mind not to embrace the new transformation in tech

airsaylongcome:
In some instances, yes it replaces the IVR. In other instances, it initiates outbound calls to the business customers. Right now they are using it for marketing calls. Right now I'm focused more on the technical telephony side. But I'm really interested in the AI side and I'm looking to go into that. Just not had the time to start learning/figuring it out.

PS: I've been swamped that's why I haven't circled back to you on "that" task. Also saw your post on the community

Hi, I just came across your thread whilst perusing this platform.
This sounds like an interesting part of telecoms that is not so common.

Actually, I am new to the networking world as I am recent graduate of Computer Engineering and I have decided to pursue networking as a career. I'm currently carrying out my National Service in an ISP (ipNX) and also preparing to take the ccna.
I have been looking for people in the industry to connect with. I would appreciate any advice or mentorship you have for me. Thank you.

Did anyone take this up? Lexdino how far? Did you continue?

Anyone else continue studying this?

nwaobitex:
Hi, I just came across your thread whilst perusing this platform.
This sounds like an interesting part of telecoms that is not so common.

Actually, I am new to the networking world as I am recent graduate of Computer Engineering and I have decided to pursue networking as a career. I'm currently carrying out my National Service in an ISP (ipNX) and also preparing to take the ccna.
I have been looking for people in the industry to connect with. I would appreciate any advice or mentorship you have for me. Thank you.

Just seeing this. It's very niche so not many practitioners in Nigeria. With Voice AI being a thing, there's now a resurgence in this field. Think about those loan companies that make outbound calls to loan defaulters. All of that can be automated now. I'm presently working with (not working for, working with) a Norwegian business doing something in that field. Think about Dstv that calls "dormant" account, that too can be automated now. Inbound too such as banks can be automated with caller's speaking to an AI bot. Opportunities opening up. How long? I don't know, but it's getting busy in the field now

nwaobitex:
Hi, I just came across your thread whilst perusing this platform.
This sounds like an interesting part of telecoms that is not so common.

Actually, I am new to the networking world as I am recent graduate of Computer Engineering and I have decided to pursue networking as a career. I'm currently carrying out my National Service in an ISP (ipNX) and also preparing to take the ccna.
I have been looking for people in the industry to connect with. I would appreciate any advice or mentorship you have for me. Thank you.

all i can advice you is build more projects,
share knowledge, build a pc , build a homelab
show people you got skills

network with more boomers , pivot to something stable like devops or data centre work

i met lots of boomers in my field that taught me lot of good stuff

airsaylongcome:
Did anyone take this up? Lexdino how far? Did you continue?

Anyone else continue studying this?

Started but go distracted studying ccnp as I have got a deadline at work.. will resume once coast is a bit clearer

emoboy4u:
Started but go distracted studying ccnp as I have got a deadline at work.. will resume once coast is a bit clearer

Understandable. Good luck with your CCNP

I’m in the same field and open to sharing tips on setup, scaling, call routing, or debugging. If you’re working on any tricky configs, feel free to bring them up.

MaxWalter:
I’m in the same field and open to sharing tips on setup, scaling, call routing, or debugging. If you’re working on any tricky configs, feel free to bring them up.

I’m running into issues with Kamailio in a NAT setup. In the default config (for the platform I’m using) Advertised Public IP doesn’t get updated for external entities so Record-Route displays internal IP that external entities cannot route to. So I’m having 200 OKs that don’t get ACK’d and calls hangup after 32 seconds

airsaylongcome:
I’m running into issues with Kamailio in a NAT setup. In the default config (for the platform I’m using) Advertised Public IP doesn’t get updated for external entities so Record-Route displays internal IP that external entities cannot route to. So I’m having 200 OKs that don’t get ACK’d and calls hangup after 32 seconds

your setup is sending a 200 ok like a desperate person shouting their home address to a stranger except it’s shouting its private ip. the external thing tries to send the ACK to 192.168.x.x, which is essentially a black hole. No ACK, no call. kaamailio doesn't know it's behind NAT unless you tell it. It’s a tool, not a witch. you need to use the nat helper .

in your routing block, you should be using set_advertised_address(your.public.ip.here). this tells kamailio when you write the record route header. if you’re using the rr module, you need to use record_route_preset(your.public.ip:port).

Kaczynski:
your setup is sending a 200 ok like a desperate person shouting their home address to a stranger except it’s shouting its private ip. the external thing tries to send the ACK to 192.168.x.x, which is essentially a black hole. No ACK, no call. kaamailio doesn't know it's behind NAT unless you tell it. It’s a tool, not a witch. you need to use the nat helper .

in your routing block, you should be using set_advertised_address(your.public.ip.here). this tells kamailio when you write the record route header. if you’re using the rr module, you need to use record_route_preset(your.public.ip:port).

Been down this AI-assisted route. The challenge is that if I get the advertised IP in the RR, then when Kamailio talks with internal Asterisk, the Record-route in that internal exchange contains the public IP address and Asterisk (at 127.0.0:6060) cannot in turn route its ACK to Kamailio on its internal address

airsaylongcome:
Been down this AI-assisted route. The challenge is that if I get the advertised IP in the RR, then when Kamailio talks with internal Asterisk, the Record-route in that internal exchange contains the public IP address and Asterisk (at 127.0.0:6060) cannot in turn route its ACK to Kamailio on its internal address

Since Asterisk is on 127.0.0.1:6060, the cleanest approach is: Conditional record-routing:

route[RECORD_ROUTE] {
    if (src_ip == "127.0.0.1" {
        # Request from Asterisk going outbound — RR with internal addr for Asterisk's sake
        record_route_advertised_address("<internal_kamailio_ip>";
    } else {
        # Request from external UA — RR with public IP
        record_route_advertised_address("<public_ip>";
    }
}

The key insight is that the RR header you insert needs to be reachable by the party receiving that leg of the dialog, not globally routable. Asterisk only needs to reach Kamailio's internal/loopback address, so that's all you should advertise to it.

Did anyone by any chance, take this VoIP thing seriously? I’m looking for someone 100% reliable, absolutely capable of learning a lot of things on their own but able to ask the right questions when they run into problems. I am somewhat getting swamped.

Lexdino, how far? We fit collab?

nwaobitex:
Hi, I just came across your thread whilst perusing this platform.
This sounds like an interesting part of telecoms that is not so common.

Actually, I am new to the networking world as I am recent graduate of Computer Engineering and I have decided to pursue networking as a career. I'm currently carrying out my National Service in an ISP (ipNX) and also preparing to take the ccna.
I have been looking for people in the industry to connect with. I would appreciate any advice or mentorship you have for me. Thank you.

Sorry just seeing this. I don’t know if I’m actually the “best” person to advice in career paths within Tech. I started out back in the days of BASIC and PASCAL when Procedural programming was THE thing. Switched to Object-oriented with C++ but omo, programming became too draining so I switched to System Design and implementation, specifically Supply Chain systems. Got bored and ended up in VoIP which I’ve been at for sometime. With AI today, there has been a huge surge in demand for voice and VoIP solutions. So I’m still intrigued and hooked on it because almost every new project is a challenge. If I were to unwind time, I probably would have remained in programming. I look at today’s young guns/“new cats” programmers and I’m “shocked” at their shakara. And I don’t say that with any form of derision. A lot of them seem to be fixated on UI and sleek features. Back in the days, functionality was supreme. If e like make e ugly, does it do the job correctly 100% of the time? That was our pure focus. Human-Computer specialist (what today are called UI/UX) took over from there. I barely passed HC Interaction as a course so until this day I hate anything UI/UX related.

Forgive my ramblings. VoIP right now is good. Tie it with knowledge of Voice AI bots and you will be in demand. Make of that what you will

So I need to setup the SIP server then connect it with clients using http or RPC with AI like Codex or Claude code you can build the platform and get an interface. With voice AI it would be able to reply call while you sleep .

One thing that is vague about VoIP careers is that job requirements don't seem as standardised as they are in fields like web development. With web development, most job adverts clearly identify roles as web developers or mobile developers. In VoIP, however, roles often vary significantly between employers, making it harder to identify a clear core skill set or learning path.

Another issue is that it's difficult to find jobs actually titled "VoIP Engineer." The required skills are often spread across roles such as Network Engineer, Unified Communications Engineer, Telecommunications Engineer, Collaboration Engineer or Systems Engineer. Unlike web development, where job titles and skill requirements are relatively consistent, VoIP expertise seems to be embedded within a variety of different positions, making the career path less obvious.

MindHacker9009:
One thing that is vague about VoIP careers is that job requirements don't seem as standardised as they are in fields like web development. With web development, most job adverts clearly identify roles as web developers or mobile developers. In VoIP, however, roles often vary significantly between employers, making it harder to identify a clear core skill set or learning path.

Another issue is that it's difficult to find jobs actually titled "VoIP Engineer." The required skills are often spread across roles such as Network Engineer, Unified Communications Engineer, Telecommunications Engineer, Collaboration Engineer or Systems Engineer. Unlike web development, where job titles and skill requirements are relatively consistent, VoIP expertise seems to be embedded within a variety of different positions, making the career path less obvious.

Glassdoor and indeed has more jobs but 90% are abroad. In Nigeria the jobs are lesser.

Alphabyte3:
Glassdoor and indeed has more jobs but 90% are abroad. In Nigeria the jobs are lesser.

You will hardly find any role one Glassdoor and indeed that has the title of: "VoIP Engineer"

MindHacker9009:
One thing that is vague about VoIP careers is that job requirements don't seem as standardised as they are in fields like web development. With web development, most job adverts clearly identify roles as web developers or mobile developers. In VoIP, however, roles often vary significantly between employers, making it harder to identify a clear core skill set or learning path.

Another issue is that it's difficult to find jobs actually titled "VoIP Engineer." The required skills are often spread across roles such as Network Engineer, Unified Communications Engineer, Telecommunications Engineer, Collaboration Engineer or Systems Engineer. Unlike web development, where job titles and skill requirements are relatively consistent, VoIP expertise seems to be embedded within a variety of different positions, making the career path less obvious.

It means you need have xperience with building systems.

A kernel engineer can easily apply for voip roles. The bar is to high for normies to enter.
With my knowledge of Erlang i can apply for a voip role even though i know a little about voip.