Pardon my ignorance, I have little experience with Linux, asterisk, and internet protocols in general outside of using ASL3. I have a kits4hams shari node that has been extremely trying over the past month or two and has thrown me into yet another brick wall. I am using a tmobile internet connection so http registration does not work in any capacity I’ve tried. Until recently iax2 registration was doing fine. Occasionally it would disconnect overnight but would reconnect without issue when I tried the next morning so I didn’t think much of it. As of yesterday, a configuration I was using that had 0 problems for two weeks straight just stopped working overnight and won’t connect to anything now (even parrot nodes). The IP that is registered with asterisk/allstar matches my public IP address but after 4 seconds no matter what node I try to connect to, the connection fails. I have tried searching numerous topics numerous times but none of them are relevant to my issue. I keep finding myself trying the same old settings, failing, and ending up going back to old configurations (that previously worked without any issues) to no avail. I’ve tried using fresh ASL3 images and updating from scratch and reconfiguring everything (also to no avail). In the past I have simply reset my modem, router, and it started working again but that has had no effect this time around. What would cause a node that was operating fine for weeks on the same wired ethernet connection to just stop working?
Edit: just realized it is able to briefly connect via DTMF codes but won’t stay connected over 30 seconds. Allmon does not succeed in any capacity
jopshua, I think before you do anything to your system,
I would do a full reboot of your network, starting with your modem, then router and any managed switches, and then your server.
Then take one more test to see how it stands.
You might just be having dns issues with your isp? They may be doing service to their network are some possibilities.
I’ve already done that probably no less than 10 times over the past day and a half to no avail and gotten a handful of different IP addresses, every one of which correctly updated on their own with asterisk/asl3 iax2 registration. I’m a bit confused to how I could have a DNS issue when it’s registering the correct IP address that the rest of the internet sees and I have no other internet problems to speak of outside of my node. I’m not very well versed in internet protocols though. It takes a fairly ridiculous amount of time for my router to come back after a reset so I’d rather not try that for the 11th time without any other changes just to say I did.
You also have not said if the connection dropping has been with many different nodes or nodes on one server in particular.
Do not always assume that the issue is on your end.
When you make a connection, it is direct to the node in connect.
There is no middle man. Not even asl/www
Your registration tells every other node what the connection info is.
If it changes, it must be updated timely.
When you connect it must match (security)
The fact you get the connection says likely all is good minus some kind of networking issue to maintain it.
If you are going to dig deeper, that is where I would look.
Reset modem router and server again just to say I tried, but no change. I have been using iax2 to get around tmobile’s “proxy routing” causing a mismatched IP with http registrations. It is registering the same IP I get when I use various “what is my ip” type websites, they have matched 100% of the times I’ve checked. I have tried connecting to three different nodes, one of which is the Plano parrot node (that doesn’t even look to verify registrations at all from what I understand). All ultimately fail to connect through allmon and give up after 4 seconds unless I connect permanently (then they just repeatedly fail and try again every 4 seconds), and the connection gets made but rejects after 30 seconds when I connect via DTMF tones on my radio. I try not to use DTMF to connect as not to unnecessarily kerchunk a repeater (network in one case) and/or have to ID every time I connect just to fall out shortly after. It is updating my registration regularly best I can tell. I have caught the iax2 registration updating itself in real time in asterisk so I believe that process is occurring as it should, but don’t know enough to say with certainty. When I look on stats for my node, it says “Node is ONLINE but is not reporting statistical data.” and I don’t recall if it normally reports or not as I usually only go to that when my node is down and I’ve exhausted all options. I suppose I don’t quite understand enough about the transactions behind the scenes enough to know where to look for a different mismatch of IP other than the places I’ve been looking. I’ve buried myself in pages and pages of information the past couple months ironing out tmobile-induced connection issues, but still find myself below average on understanding what all is occurring when I try to connect. I’m completely at a loss where to look next because about half the time I search something that seems relevant I get very old results about ASL2 and the other half it’s a semi recent post about ASL3 but the other party resolved their issue in a completely irrelevant way that does not resolve anything in my particular case. It’s a highly frustrating process, my brain pretty much hyper-fixates into trying to fix allstar nonstop until it gets resolved so I can’t say my lack of a solution is from lack of time or effort.
This tells me you DO NOT have a public IP as you are behind T-Mobile’s CGNAT. Your ASL V3 node should still work for outgoing connections via HTTP or IAX2 but not for incoming ASL connections, Allmon3, Web Admin Portal, Dashboard, etc. The registered address will be that of the CGNAT which is what you see when you look for your public IP.
If you cannot make outgoing connections you need to fix that problem first.
It was perfectly functional for 2 weeks straight (with only minor inconvenience on the previous reset I had to do and it had uptime at least that long) as-configured so I thought I had resolved my tmobile IP woes. I can send commands on allmon from my windows pc or android phone and they follow through to the pi/server, but it fails to actually connect to nodes after it executes the commands. It is fully capable of connecting because it will stay hooked up for 30 seconds when you connect via DTMF codes and then something rejects the connection because some sort of time out. If I have an outgoing connection problem, which sounds entirely reasonable here, I have no idea where it’s hiding. I was hoping these particular symptoms I’ve encountered might help someone with more experience point me in a specific direction because I’m at my wit’s end with this thing.
Hi jopshua, reading through your problem, it looks very much like its your ISP problem… either you don’t have enough data on you internet connection and its droping your DATA . and I also agree with others that the T-Mobile’s CGNAT is a major player in your problems if you are using that carrier… Is it possible for you to change your ISP and get a fixed ip…? Just a thought. Regards Don de VK3MCK
I was afraid of that. Honestly, I just don’t care enough about this technology to go to (what I consider) such drastic measures as switching ISP’s, getting stuck in a contract, and learning entirely more about internet than I intended to just to be able to play radio around the house without being tethered to my base station. The main reason I pursued allstar in the first place was thinking I could take a data modem out on the road with me to keep my local repeater in reach, so if T-Mobile data isn’t able to be reliably compatible, this venture has been largely a waste of time and money for me. The lack of compatibility is very much downplayed in most of the documentation I’ve gone through so I thought maybe there was something I missed. Appreciate the input.
It’s an unlimited plan that maybe at worst will kick me down from 5g to 4g during times of heavier network traffic, I’m not out of data and I don’t have connection issues anywhere but allstar.
There is absolutely no reason to switch ISPs. All of Allstar is basic peer-to-peer networking. If the issue is what you are using for an ISP, then you can easily get around all of your issues with a simple VPN connection.
There are countless ways to do it. A popular one is to rent a very cheap VPS from Vultr, Linode, etc… that has a real public IP address. Run a VPN server such as Tailscale on it. Connect the Allstar node to the VPN so it tunnels all it’s traffic through that location. Easy.
I appreciate you presenting an option that retains my current ISP, but I must not be cut out for this because that doesn’t sound easy at all. I think I’d rather just leave this thing in a drawer and forget about it than double down and create so much more work. I have extremely limited experience in Linux computing and networking in general and I’m already quite tired of how fiddly and unintuitive this has all been up to this point. My interest already waned past wanting to learn more about VPNs, static IPs, or how many configuration files are hiding something I need to edit to make this all work again without any help. I already have dozens of hours wasted, am in over my head as it is, and do not have any desire to add more moving parts and subscriptions.
as far as building a vpn, jopshua, if you’re interested, I have some scripts for either using wireguard or openvpn. probably take about an hour or less to do it. I rent a machine from racknerd, for 12 bucks a year.
That would probably take the sting out of failure here, but I’m going back to full analog for a while to gain some perspective and see how bad I think I really need this capability in the future. I only use my node on one local repeater and a linked network that I can hit 4 or 5 redundant coverage repeaters from my QTH on the base antenna. It was just a convenience to have untethered HT coverage around the house and that loses its shine with so many moving parts nobody warned me about up front to make it work reliably with my particular constraints.