dial next number not ringing on every 4th record

[milan]

Vicidial version:2.6-400a
Server OS: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64bit
Proccessor:Xeon Quad Core
Asterisk version: 1.8.21
Manually installed

Hi,
My campaign is set on MANUAL DIAL and agents phoning from the system have the following issue:
On every fourth call, when they press "Next Call" button the phone is not ringing in their ears. It looks like it is dialing, it even looks like the person on the other side of the line picks the call but they don't hear anything.
The calls end up as any other would, gets the label and than on the next call everything works fine again.
This happens, by what they say 30% of the time on appr. 30% of the calls.
When they call the same number directly, not using the "next call" button but going for the "manual dial", it works just fine.
Does anyone have an idea why is this happening, is it something i done wrong in setting the campaign or the carries, or is it something to be changed inside the server OS.
Thank you, Milan

[DomeDan]

I suggest you fire up the asterisk CLI and post the output here when the 4th call is being executed.
only have one agent logged in when you wanna grab the output from CLI, it tends to be a bit messy with a log of calls going on.

also put the CLI output from a working call, might come in handy to have that data too

[milan]

Thank you, will do that.
I also changed the refresh call option inside the phone options from 0 to 1, kept it on 1000 ms (default) and that seams to have helped, since than they had only a few calls delayed and not every 4th like before.
I will try to make a test with one agent calling on Monday some time and view the output if this doesnt solve the problem.

[williamconley]

always post your Vicidial Version WITH BUILD.

always post a link to your installation instructions if you did not install from an .iso (list the full name and version of the .iso if you did install from .iso)

vicidial is only recently compatible with asterisk 1.8. it may well be that you are using a version that is not. however, i do not believe the refresh call value is measured in milliseconds but in seconds. you may want to set that lower. unless of course, there is a plain-vanilla "keep alive" in your soft phone that will allow it it keep the connection with the server through the firewall active. you may also try to set the qualify= in each phone to 500 or yes which has a pretty effective keepalive result.

[milan]

Hi, sorry for that, here are the more detailed figures
Vicidial version:2.6-400a
Built:130503-1509
Server OS: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64bit
Proccessor:Xeon Quad Core
Asterisk version: 1.8.21
Manually installed by the third party, do not know the link will ask

Everything is installed brand new 2 weeks ago with most recent versions. It works fine most of the time but the agents on the phones are complaining about few things and i have to take it in account. Usually i work with systems that i do know very well and could define the problem more precisely, but i am new to vicidial, so it is difficult to tell.

What i should have told here is that system is behind the NAT and uses the local IP address to operate.

Also, agents are dialing manually, by pressing the button NEXT ... each time they want to call, they dont use predictive dialer.

Also, the carrier provider is insisting on using the g729 codec which is installed on their servers, and i did install it on this server as well, successfully, asterisk is recognizing it.

The agents are using Bria phones on their computers, SIP protocol, the Bria version they use does not allow IAX.

I monitored via CLI and carrier stats and what happens is that the call goes live, the button turns green, but they don't here the ring tone. Then the client might answer the phone, they SEE something is happening, but they don't here the clients voice. Finally the calls go back to the queue. When they after that dial this same number directly using button MANUAL DIAL and entering the number, it works fine, they here the ring tone and could speak with the client.
I configured the asterisk now to go to this local IP and after restart, it looks like it is working better, only a few calls ended like this, as they reported about 10 out of 1882 that where called today. So that is not bad but they still complain.
It looks like the problem here is this configuration behind the NAT, but it is hard to understand why would it work most of the time and than stop somehow with no obvious cause. Than on the next, lets say 100 calls it works well and again stops for one call.

Quite strange to me, might be anything really from firewall to codec, but i am not able to tell for sure as everything is configured properly and looks perfect in log files, the calls flow, but no sound from time to time.
Hope this will make more sense to somebody. I will definitely try what you suggested, it looks like it will help.

[williamconley]

1) You should reinstall with Vicibox 4.0.3 and dump the unsupported "manual" install. This will give you a Stock system easily worked on by ANY Vicidial Professional.

2) You should be using Asterisk 1.4 unless you have installed a version that specifically states it is fully compatible with Asterisk 1.8 (Vicidial 2.7RC1 makes this claim).

3) You may need to forward UDP port range 10000-25000 to your server through your firewall. If some are missing ... some calls may fail.

4) Get your server a public IP address which will resolve the port forwarding issue completely. Set up IPtables in your Vicidial server with IP whitelisting to limit connections to "known good servers".

[milan]

Thank you,
i will not go for 1 and 2 i am 100% sure that the install is ok and i really prefer Ubuntu server over openSuse which comes with Vicibox, maybe it is just me, but somehow i like it much better for various reasons.
Point 3 however looks like the solution, and i might go for point 4 as well as soon as i have some time to carefully whitelist the IPs. We started like that, with public IP and i had none of these problems. It started when the system is placed behind NAT. I will try to forward these ports tomorrow, it looks like that would work, if not i will go for point 4. We had a very bad sniff attack this is why we placed the system behind the security wall quickly without carefully considering all the angles. Thank you williamconley, i will post the progress in case other people have the same problem.

[williamconley]

have a look at the Dynamic Good Guys whitelist system for Vicidial. It was designed for Vicibox primarily, but the iptables-save file can be applied to any linux server with iptables in it. It allows for existing connection to skip security, outbound connections to auto-work and even a Starbucks Link for the owner (or in-home agents, if you prefer).

[milan]

Ok, finally we managed to sort this out after some time of trying various possible solutions. This is how it was brought to work as expected:
1) The Asterisk version 1.8.21 seams to have some issues and doesnt work well with vicidial version 2.6-400a. It was replaced with Asterisk 1.4.39.1
2) The public IP has been appointed to the server and the provider just whitelisted a few possible IP addresses from where the outside traffic might come.
3) The carrier has been changed and replaced with another one also, but this doesnt seam to have been the issue as we are now back to the old carrier and it still works fine.

So, big thanks to williamconley, he suggested this solution in point 2 of his previous message, most probably it was the Asterisk version that was incompatible with vicidial version and/or softphones (Bria) causing the dead calls and all sort of delay problems. Now with the older version it works just fine, none of these happens at all.

Thanks williamconley, hope this helps someone to get to the cause quickly.

[milan]

1) You should reinstall with Vicibox 4.0.3 and dump the unsupported "manual" install. This will give you a Stock system easily worked on by ANY Vicidial Professional.

2) You should be using Asterisk 1.4 unless you have installed a version that specifically states it is fully compatible with Asterisk 1.8 (Vicidial 2.7RC1 makes this claim).

3) You may need to forward UDP port range 10000-25000 to your server through your firewall. If some are missing ... some calls may fail.

4) Get your server a public IP address which will resolve the port forwarding issue completely. Set up IPtables in your Vicidial server with IP whitelisting to limit connections to "known good servers".

"Excellent Answer, it helped me solve this problem, Milan"

[williamconley]

Thanks for the Kudos ... now pay me back by sticking around and helping a few newbies. For one thing, they will help you to look in your own system to figure out the solutions and you'll learn about your own box!

And buy the Vicidial Manager's Manual if you have not already. Not just because the software was free and The Vicidial Group gets that money, but mostly because if you spend the next six months reading that manual you will have a significantly more powerful system at the other end. And you'll get one year of manual upgrades for free ... so if the 2.7manual comes out soon, you'll get that one, too!

[milan]

Cheers, will do definitelly, thanks again.
I bought the manual, really great read if you are into vicidial, it is very helpfull and i would recommend it as a must read to anyone dealing with these matters.