FOOD FOR THOUGHT Incredible 11-12 VoiceMail Configuration

[wa4zlw]

This is the system I built when it was still pioneers. I made the update for hylafax. thats not the issue.

Incredible PBX 11-12.1 for CentOS 6

Asterisk: UP Apache: UP MySQL: UP
SendMail: UP IPtables: UP SSH: UP
LAN port: UP Fail2Ban: UP Webmin: UP
RAM: CentOS release 6.6 Disk:45G
Asterisk 11.18.0 Incredible GUI 12.0.30
Private IP: 10.196.4.10 10.196.100.10
Public IP: a.b.c.d
System Time: Mon Aug 17 19:25:54 EDT 2015
< OK >
1. I originally had it setup to user Superfecta. But I found that inbound calls kept getting stuck there after about an hour of debugging yesterday. Even after disabling lots of the data sources. Anyone see or have any similar issues?

2. Voicemails are not being emailed and no SMS is going out either. I tried both Sendmail and Postfix. Email works as I can use the local linux mail client to send mail. Any ideas?

3. Have SIGNAL ON RINGING set but I get no ringing dialing in.

4. System seems to run slow yet the system is idle. This is a Foxconn box which previously had older PIAF on it. This is running bare metal install on Centos 6.

5. Some remote IP phones don't seem to be coming into the box. They are allowed in my hardware firewall and I added it's IP to the field on the appropriate extension page. I have other IP phones coming in through the firewall dont know why this one isn't.

Getting VM --> emails (and SMS) is important.

As always thanks for a great product and looking for any assistance.

Thanks leon

 

[wa4zlw]

hi folks anyone been able to think about this?

Thanks leon

 

[wa4zlw]

Looks like #2 might be resolved as my user emailed me and he did some test VMs. I also tried the other day to email a VM saved and it didn't go out. I will retest these.

still stumped on the others if anyone can lend a hand.

thansk leon

 

[chris_c_]

Looks like #2 might be resolved as my user emailed me and he did some test VMs. I also tried the other day to email a VM saved and it didn't go out. I will retest these.

still stumped on the others if anyone can lend a hand.

thansk leon

Leon,
My ipbx has the same problem #2 it fails to send email with the mp3 attached - or rather, the emails fail to get delivered to my inbox as expected.
A quick look at the log and it's obvious why the failure to reach the inbox.
The email is being sent, but the FROM address is so fake/invalid, that the email gets flagged and filed under JUNK at the receiving destination.
You have to fix the FROM address.
The documentation SAYS way you do this is....
1. Log in to ipbx admin web interface
2. Click Settings, Voicemail Admin,
3. Fill in "fromstring" with "(your organization) Voicemail",
4. Fill in "serveremail" with "[email protected]" (make sure this is a valid email address or alias),
5. Save. Apply (red button). sudo amportal restart (then wait 1 min).
5. Try it out. Verify voicemail to email is enabled on your extension, call your extension, leave yourself a voicemail.
6. Check your email in a minute.
7. Fail! The voicemail emails are still getting sent to JUNK (spam).
8. tail /var/log/mail.log
9. Look. The ctladdr= and serveremail= are STILL the wrong address.
10. http://forums.asterisk.org/viewtopic.php?p=160251
11. Looks like this is a bug since at least 2011 if not older !
12. Look carefully at how asterisk "constructs" the "from" address. It does asterisk@hostname.(your dhcp assigned "domain name") that "dhcp assigned domain name" in my case is assigned by my gateway router and under my control.
13. For the email to reach your inbox, you MUST have a valid "fully qualified domain name" in other words, the part of the email address AFTER THE "@" sign.

So make sure your choice of "host name" + "domain name assigned by your gateway" is a valid resolving domain name.

For example, if your free dynamic dns service host is "leon.afraig.org" set your hostname of your vm to "leon" and the dhcp domain name on the gateway to "afraid.org".

Then your "from" address in the voicemail emails will be "[email protected]" and this will be a valid email addrses therefore your email messages will arrive in your Inbox, not Junk.

The bug is the fact that asterisk ignores the "serveremail" field, when it should use it as your "From" address in the voicemail emails.

 

[wardmundy]

Just white list the "from" address at the receiving end. Problem solved without touching your server.

 

[chris_c_]

Just white list the "from" address at the receiving end. Problem solved without touching your server.

Yes but asking every single user (if you have users plural) to whitelist "[email protected]-80-32-189-28.orl.florida.comcast.net" on (on average) all four of their email apps, phones, tablets, pc's, until without warning your ISP periodically changes your dynamic IP and suddenly asterisk is sending from a new hostname, "[email protected]-80-32-189-71.orl.florida.comcast.net" and guess what, that host is unknown, it's not whitelisted, and all your ipbx voicemail emails are going into JUNK for all user mail clients! Remote users with email on their phones think nobody is leaving them voicemail, communication falls through the cracks, but in fact due to junk email rules, since the hostname is non existent, consequently those voicemail emails are removed from normal inbox delivery without warning!
This is why I recommend fixing the voicemail originating hostname on the ipbx server one time, once, so that all voicemail emails pass junk/spam checks, for the foreseeable future.

 

[wardmundy]

Many email clients including Gmail will let you whitelist a matching string, e.g. "asterisk@"

 

[wa4zlw]

Good morning folks...

Here's my take on it (email).

my users should NOT have to change anything to receive email. In the older PIAF we were running if I remember correctly we were able to set the email address of the PBX. I know mail flows because I can do a mail <destination> and I get it as root<destination>
which is fine.

I haven't had time to delve into the earlier post (thanks) and will look it over tonight. The PBX should send mail with a valid address (at least valid formatted).

I'll report back more on that later.

Problem #1 is a show stopper with Superfecta not working. Maybe I should post a separate item in BUGS?

Leon

 

[chris_c_]

Many email clients including Gmail will let you whitelist a matching string, e.g. "asterisk@"

Yes ward but users want voicemail in email to "just work" aka "just get delivered to their inbox without them having to lift a finger", and Inbox delivery is indeed possible, all we need is for asterisk to really use the email address that we set in the "serveremail" whose domain name resolves to the same IP in DNS so that it passes the most basic no-relaying anti-spam check.

 

[wa4zlw]

i agree -- I am going to craft a new post in the wish list section detailing things I think could be done rather easily.

but in the meantime, I will look at the email solution, but there are still other issues no one has responded to yet :-(

thanks all Leon

 

[chris_c_]

Leon I think I found the solution.
I reviewed the asterisk source code where it sends out the voicemail email.
I edited 2 conf files.

/etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf
serveremail=voicemail@(replace with your organization domain .com)
/etc/asterisk/minivm.conf
serveremail=voicemail@(replace with your org domain.com)

A wise idea to create an email box, or alias, for that email address "voicemail@ your organization . com" to receive any bounces when your users have a typo in their email address assigned to receive voicemail email from their extension.
The important part is - the domain must be a real valid domain - for the email to pass google spam check and arrive in the inbox.
I call my extension, leave myself a voice message, and right away receive the voicemail email in my inbox.
Haven't yet tested on emails that would go to email provider other than gmail, but you're welcome to, and if necessary we can update this advisory bulletin with revised information.

 

[wa4zlw]

Hey chris...thanks still haven't had time to look more into this since I've been documenting the Synagogue network for the Rabbi with what is and what is planned. This looks like a simple email fix.

I know the older version of PIAF you could set the pbx email address from the GUI or somewhere not having to search for config files.

Many thanks leon

 

[chris_c_]

Hey chris...thanks still haven't had time to look more into this since I've been documenting the Synagogue network for the Rabbi with what is and what is planned. This looks like a simple email fix.

I know the older version of PIAF you could set the pbx email address from the GUI or somewhere not having to search for config files.

Many thanks leon

Leon,
You're right the PIAF GUI lets you set that setting, but it appears asterisk actually uses the other setting, not that setting that PIAF sets.
That's why the long standing confusion since at least 2009 when I see threads talking about this exact same issue!!
-Chris

 

[wardmundy]

Yes ward but users want voicemail in email to "just work" aka "just get delivered to their inbox without them having to lift a finger", and Inbox delivery is indeed possible, all we need is for asterisk to really use the email address that we set in the "serveremail" whose domain name resolves to the same IP in DNS so that it passes the most basic no-relaying anti-spam check.

Without regurgitating all of the history, suffice it to say that the FreePBX folks have gradually taken control of almost all of the .conf files in /etc/asterisk. So things we used to embed in .conf files as part of the setup no longer work because their (non-existent) settings in the GUI eithter clobber them or only do half of what's needed to get things working properly.

The short answer is you probably need to set this in the FreePBX GUI AND in the .conf file when you install a new system if you don't want end-users to have to adjust their spam settings for incoming mail. There's no practical way to configure this as part of the base install because about 95% of new users don't have an FQDN for their server and most have no idea what an FQDN is in the first place.

You're more than welcome to use noreply.incrediblepbx.com for the FQDN and see if that solves it for you.

 

[chris_c_]

Ward you're right about the FQDN for most users.
But to get knock to work from their notebook/tablet/smartphone while on their 3g/4g data IP or pubilc wifi IP, their ipbx server is running on a dynamic IP cable/DSL connection, behind their hardware firewall, at small office/home office, they need a dynamic dns service free hostname in order to hit their home/office IP and do that knock so they can register on ipbx and make/receive calls.
EDIT: ergo, since 99% of ipbx users want/need "roaming registration" aka the ability to register their extension while away from the safe and trusted LAN, they will need a free dynamic hostname (or maybe have a valid public domain name), therefore they can plug that into the email "from" address "serveremail".

 

[wardmundy]

Ward you're right about the FQDN for most users.
But to get knock to work from their notebook/tablet/smartphone while on their 3g/4g data IP or pubilc wifi IP, their ipbx server is running on a dynamic IP cable/DSL connection, behind their hardware firewall, at small office/home office, they need a dynamic dns service free hostname in order to hit their home/office IP and do that knock so they can register on ipbx and make/receive calls.

I was just talking about using this FQDN as the outbound email address from the server. That shouldn't affect using a different FQDN to access the server from outside with PortKnocker. These servers aren't set up to receive inbound email so the outbound FQDN really shouldn't matter. so long as the recipient understands they cannot reply.

 

[chris_c_]

I was just talking about using this FQDN as the outbound email address from the server. That shouldn't affect using a different FQDN to access the server from outside with PortKnocker. These servers aren't set up to receive inbound email so the outbound FQDN really shouldn't matter. so long as the recipient understands they cannot reply.

Yes but email inbox deliverability vs. spam filtering is a hot button issue. Some email servers are strict such that the "from" address must resolve in dns to the public IP of the actual connecting sender (the ipbx), if not, that email loses quality points, and may very well end up in Junk/Spam. Best for getting into the inbox is, just send From to voicemail at the actual fqdn dynamic hostname, and set Reply-to to the actual email address of the person associated with the extension.

 

[Jeremy Whittaker]

Yes but email inbox deliverability vs. spam filtering is a hot button issue. Some email servers are strict such that the "from" address must resolve in dns to the public IP of the actual connecting sender (the ipbx), if not, that email loses quality points, and may very well end up in Junk/Spam. Best for getting into the inbox is, just send From to voicemail at the actual fqdn dynamic hostname, and set Reply-to to the actual email address of the person associated with the extension.

Chris, I edited both of these .conf files making sure the [email protected]. Rebooted server and voicemails still come through as [email protected]. This is not making it past my spam filters which is ultimately my problem. Can you tell me how you finally got the FROM field adjusted correctly? It's driving me absolutely insane. Thanks in advance.