TROUBLESHOOTING TECH TOOLS

Below you can find troubleshooting tools and downloads that can be used to resolve common issues.

Bandwidth Tester – Measures the available bandwidth on your internet connection

SoftPerfect Netscan – Network Scanner for Windows

Advanced IP Scanner – Advanced IP Scanner for Windows

Angry IP Scanner – Network Scanner for Mac OS

SIP ALG Detector (Windows) – Used to check networks for SIP ALG

SIP ALG Detector (Mac OS) – Used to check networks for SIP ALG

WinSCP 4.3.5 – Windows-based SCP client

WinMTR – Continuous, on-going traceroute tool for Windows.  Used to troubleshoot call quality and connectivity issues.

RECOMMENDED ROUTERS

MikroTik hAP ac2 (1-25 phones)

Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X with Ubiquiti Access Point (20+ phones)

ZyXEL ZyWall USG Series (20+ phones)

New SonicWalls – Known As SonicOS Enhanced (20+ phones)

Cisco Meraki Cloud Routers (20+ phones)

Below are the reasons why these routers are recommended:

– A long track record of success with many customers that own these devices that we have worked with extensively.

– Can be set up out of the box with no need for a custom firmware.

– Bandwidth Management/Rate Control, VLAN and QoS, which are important features for a VoIP system. They are effective at ensuring excellent call quality and at resolving call connectivity problems.

– Device Level VPN (virtual private network) that allows you to run your web traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a private server (site-to-site access, general traffic encryption etc.).

– Telnet and SSH CLI with remote management functionalities (all of which can be turned off for enhanced security).

– SPI (stateful packet inspection) firewall – an advanced security mechanism that checks packets and keeps track of the state of network connections.

RECOMMENDED SWITCHES

A network switch is an essential device for your local network if there’s a lack of available ports on your router/firewall.

Network switches fall into two main categories:

Unmanaged Switches and Managed Switches

Unmanaged Switches

Unmanaged switches are great for small businesses with a small number of devices (<10). They are plug-and-play devices with no configuration settings and they are easy to use. However, unmanaged switches do not have a concept of virtual LANs (VLANs). This means that all devices are in the same broadcast domain. Also, they do not support QoS (Quality of Service) making them less suitable for VoIP systems.

Examples of unmanaged switches:

– D-Link DGS-105 5-Port Switch
– Netgear GS308V3 8-Port Switch

Managed Switches

A fully managed switch provides more options for enhancing the security of your network; it can analyze traffic, and it may have a command-line interface that lets you do complicated tasks. It can support many features like QoS, VLANs, access lists, and more, but it is more expensive than unmanaged switches. Managed switches are more practical for VoIP devices than unmanaged ones; however, a misconfigured managed switch can cause various issues with VoIP devices including registration and call quality problems.

Examples of managed switches:

– Juniper Networks EX Series EX2300-48T
– Cisco C9300-48P-E

Also, many VoIP phones nowadays need a PoE switch to connect power and data networks together. PoE is a technology that sends data and power at the same time over Ethernet cables. The PoE switch is a type of network switch that supports this technology and you should opt for this type of switch if your VoIP phones feature a PoE connection, because in this case, you won’t need to use a separate power adapter. All VoIP phones purchased from Intermedia support PoE.