Asus RT-N66U SIP NAT Passthrough - disable / enable

[mmb]

Hi all, I have used an Asus RT-N66U router for several years now and it has worked flawlessly with my VOIP provider. Last week while checking up on the router and I noticed I was a few firmware updates behind so I decided to do an update.

Unfortunately after the firmware update my VOIP connection died. After an hour or so of trouble shooting and testing I discovered the SIP NAT Passthrough, which had to be DISABLED in the past to make a VOIP connection, now has to be ENABLED.

The Release Notes don't mention anything about the change and perhaps it's just my setup. Has anyone else experienced or noticed this change?

Thanks for the help!

 

[L&LD]

There are threads/posts about that issue (use search).

The settings are there so you can use what works.

 

[mmb]

There are threads/posts about that issue (use search).

The settings are there so you can use what works.

Thanks for the reply, I'm intimately familiar with the passtrough settings and I know what works for SIP. I did do a search but maybe I missed a reference.

Generally I'm careful about my router updates but a change in functionality of an enable/disable passthrough switch should be identified in the release notes. The point of the post is to see if anyone else noticed the change in behaviour in this particular setting. Also to hopefully help out anyone else that finds their VOIP connection broken with the latest update.

EDIT: I did miss this post:

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/issue-with-sip-nat-passthrough-disabled.30761/

 

[RMerlin]

Asus recently changed the passthrough settings, when you disable them they actually block port 5060 traffic, in addition to disabling the SIP NAT helper.

 

[mmb]

Asus recently changed the passthrough settings, when you disable them they actually block port 5060 traffic, in addition to disabling the SIP NAT helper.

Thanks did Asus post the change in a Release Note that I missed? Or was it just a random unannounced change?

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks did Asus post the change in a Release Note that I missed? Or was it just a random unannounced change?

It wasn't posted, I just noticed the change while merging their source code on top of mine.

What I did in my firmware is provide three different settings instead of just Enabled/Disabled:

Disabled: Closes the port, like Asus's new disabled mode
Enabled: Opens the port, like Asus's old disabled mode
Enabled + NAT Helper: Opens the port and load the NAT helper, like Asus's enabled mode.

 

[mmb]

It wasn't posted, I just noticed the change while merging their source code on top of mine.

What I did in my firmware is provide three different settings instead of just Enabled/Disabled:

Disabled: Closes the port, like Asus's new disabled mode
Enabled: Opens the port, like Asus's old disabled mode
Enabled + NAT Helper: Opens the port and load the NAT helper, like Asus's enabled mode.

Shame on Asus as I believe this change affects many rt routers. Thanks, exactly what I was looking for...

 

[sfx2000]

Asus recently changed the passthrough settings, when you disable them they actually block port 5060 traffic, in addition to disabling the SIP NAT helper.

Good catch... wonder why the heck they did that.

Going to complicate things for people doing off-site support (and help/support staff at various places).

 

[yorgi]

Good catch... wonder why the heck they did that.

Going to complicate things for people doing off-site support (and help/support staff at various places).

ASUS fixes a lot of bugs but they create more new ones then fix the old ones.
There are bugs from ASUS that they consider old but do nothing about them.
They put major effort in new icons in the client view list then fix QOS bugs that are making every router they make suffer.
Like Merlin says "they have many engineers" working to fix bug and make new ones, I just think they need a good chief,
the one they have now is not addressing and prioritizing the immediate problems, they just put the real bugs aside and hope that Merlin will fix them
while they work hard putting a new lipstick on their routers. This is crazy, Merlin is just one guy
I think for the money they charge and the features they claim work. They should be working hard to fix major problems like QOS
and 5ghz problems and so on and so on and son on...............the list gets bigger everyday.
This is my opinion. Nothing personal I love ASUS routers

 

[RMerlin]

In this particular case, it's not really a bug, it's a deliberate design decision. One which I disagree with as I feel they failed to foresee the impact for some users.

The whole passthrough concept makes little sense IMHO, as it's nothing more than a few special firewall knobs to block/allow certain types of traffic (and it's not something unique to Asus, Linksys started it - for crying out loud, they still have a checkbox entry to filter out identd!). The concept should be scrapped, and replaced instead with a series of setting to specifically manage NAT/conntrack helpers, without touching the firewall.

 

[yorgi]

In this particular case, it's not really a bug, it's a deliberate design decision. One which I disagree with as I feel they failed to foresee the impact for some users.

The whole passthrough concept makes little sense IMHO, as it's nothing more than a few special firewall knobs to block/allow certain types of traffic (and it's not something unique to Asus, Linksys started it - for crying out loud, they still have a checkbox entry to filter out identd!). The concept should be scrapped, and replaced instead with a series of setting to specifically manage NAT/conntrack helpers, without touching the firewall.

I wonder if the engineers actually take a look at this forum or they just look at their little section on this forum.
I think ASUS knows they took over the router market and they are taking their time in fixing all their problems and bugs
Like you said once, The firmware is full of holes because it was taken from a Tomato firmware, they should start the firmware from scratch and make it their own
instead of patching modules and fixing others mistakes which sometimes cannot be fixed because the code is all wrong.
If it where up to me, I would fire the head chief and hire Eric
They should have done that a long time ago, instead of creating more and more bugs.
Once again this is my opinion

 

[Steely74]

What I did in my firmware is provide three different settings instead of just Enabled/Disabled:

Disabled: Closes the port, like Asus's new disabled mode
Enabled: Opens the port, like Asus's old disabled mode
Enabled + NAT Helper: Opens the port and load the NAT helper, like Asus's enabled mode.

Forgive me for bumping an old post but I found this on a google search. Anyway I love your firmware and run it on every Asus I set up. I have a client running a rt-n66u with your latest firmware. Having voip issues and wondered if I should set the above settings to "enabled" or "enabled+nat helper"?

I think the voip issues are due to a faulty router as the upload speed is crippled when the asus is in the mix (as a router or a/p with another router). Straight out of the modem it's what it should be. QoS settings have not helped either. Taking over a spare router tomorrow to trouble shoot but wanted to confirm the above settings.

Thanks

 

[RMerlin]

Forgive me for bumping an old post but I found this on a google search. Anyway I love your firmware and run it on every Asus I set up. I have a client running a rt-n66u with your latest firmware. Having voip issues and wondered if I should set the above settings to "enabled" or "enabled+nat helper"?

I think the voip issues are due to a faulty router as the upload speed is crippled when the asus is in the mix (as a router or a/p with another router). Straight out of the modem it's what it should be. QoS settings have not helped either. Taking over a spare router tomorrow to trouble shoot but wanted to confirm the above settings.

Thanks

Use Enabled+nat helper if you have phones registering with a remote provider, or Enabled if you have your own PBX.

 

[Steely74]

Thanks. They are on Charter Internet with Polycom phones. I did not set everything up originally and honestly don't have much experience with voip as all my other clients that have voip it "just works". I found this article and followed it except I did not turn on DoS protection.

https://kb.intermedia.net/article/3369