Switching to VoIP

11.8. Key Issues: Troubleshooting Tools

  • Basic troubleshooting tools for VoIP networks include packet sniffers like Ethereal, log analysis, a softphone like X-Lite, and a VoIP server like Asterisk that allows detailed debugging output in its logfiles

  • Ethereal has built-in parsers that allow you to easily view SIP methods and responses, as well as SDP attributes and capabilities negotiation signals

  • Ethereal's packet capture filters are configured using a string syntax. This syntax is described in Ethereal's documentation and in O'Reilly's Managing Security with Snort and IDS Tools

  • Packet capture often reveals what is going wrong, but you may have to investigate diagnostic output on both ends of the signaling conversation in order to find out why

  • X-Lite's diagnostic log records every SIP packet it sends or receives

  • Asterisk uses an internal thread identifier that doesn't necessarily correspond to the SIP call ID, but can aid you in tracing an individual call through Asterisk's logs

  • Troubleshooting quality-of-service issues is aided more by process of elimination than it is by packet analysis

  • Network General Sniffer and WildPackets EtherPeek VX are packet capture tools that offer inspection of RTP traffic if needed

  • IPerf can let you simulate traffic loads on a call path in order to determine its true VoIP performance capability

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