Please, how do I connect to a videophone using SIP?

[jac66]

My 86-year-old dad is deaf and uses a videophone provided to him by Sorenson Comm (http://www.sorenson.com/). For a few years now, I have been able to use Polycom Telepresence m100 to connect to his videophone by simply "dialing" his IP address. I assume this is done under the hood using H.323. Sorenson recently "upgraded" his videophone to a model that no longer supports H.323. Now it is SIP, and the IP address method I've been using no longer works ("The site you called cannot be located."). I called Sorenson support and they told me "just use the phone number". When I use that instead, I get "Call could not be completed because the far site or the network is busy". I've confirmed he's not using his videophone when I get this error. Internal to the Sorenson network, users do indeed simply call each other with a phone number, but I believe that works because Sorenson provides its users with a directory service which I'm guessing translates phone numbers to IP addresses (or whatever SIP needs to work). I'm desperate to contact my dad, but don't know how SIP typically works so I'm just stuck. Even though m100 seems to support SIP, I'm willing to upgrade to a newer version of Telepresence if that's what's required. Please help.

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hello jac66,

welcome to the Polycom Community.

H322 uses port 1719 for the call setup / signalling where SIP uses Port 5060.

You simply need to open the relevant ports on the far side and maybe locally on your End. 

Please ensure to provide some feedback if this reply has helped you so other users can profit from your experience.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier

Polycom Global Services

[jac66]

Thanks for the quick reply Steffen. Are you saying I should be able to use my dad's videophone's IP address as long as port 5060 is opened on his router (and possibly my PC as well)?

[jac66]

Please, can anyone else help? I haven't been able to call my dad in weeks and I really need to. Found this site: http://voip.about.com/od/sipandh323/g/What-Is-A-Sip-Address.htm which seems to imply that I would not be using the IP Address field of RealPresence m100 to initiate a call with SIP. Does anyone on this board have experience with SIP? I just need to know what info I need to provide m100 to initiate the call.

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hello jac66,

You simply use the far end IP address to make the call.

Ports 5060 (UDO / TCP) need to be forwarded to the PC running the m100 application and also the Port's for the Video.

Port 3230 - 3237 (UDP) are being used for the Audio and Video so you will require these as well.

Please ensure to provide some feedback if this reply has helped you so other users can profit from your experience.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier

Polycom Global Services

[jac66]

Thanks Steffen.

My PC's firewall says all UDP and TCP ports are enabled for the m100's mediaprocessor.exe. Must have been done by the m100 installer.

When I attempt to call my dad's videophone with the m100 in SIP mode and his IP address, I get a blank Polycom call window for about 10 seconds and then this error message:

“The far site has disconnected. Please wait. Call cleared.”

Does this mean that the m100 found his videophone and that negotiation started but failed? When I call Sorenson support again, I want to give them as much info as possible since the last time I called they said they were not familiar with Polycom products.

Thanks again.

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hello jac66,

These ports also need to be forwarded on the end of your Dad's internet connection.

Usually the router can assign Port forwarding from the routers external IP to the PC IP and then open the ports on the Firewall on the far end.

Please ensure to provide some feedback if this reply has helped you so other users can profit from your experience.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier

Polycom Global Services

[aslmatt]

I know this is 6 years old but was curious if you found an answer for this? I would like to contact my grandfather without going through interpreter but can’t find a solution. Right now with Coronavirus things are crazy and we need to be able to be in touch regularly. Anyways let me know thank you.