VOIP over Telkom VPN Lite

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StNick

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I apologise if this is in the wrong forum, but I wasn't sure where to post it.

Searching through the forums reveals that there is little information about Telkom's VPN Lite offering.

More information here:
http://www.telkom.co.za/products_services/vpnlite/index.html

I would like to know whether anyone has any experience with this service, and whether it would be sufficient to support a small VOIP (Trixbox-based) network linking our JHB, CPT and DBN offices.

I am sure that there are many technical aspects and opinions that could be thrown around here, but I'm really just looking for those show-stopping reasons that I could have overlooked before I give it a shot. It seems as though the system would be easy to "try out" for a couple of months at worst.
 
VoIP over a VPN?

This is not a technical response, more of a question to your question!
The quality of a VoIP call is dependant on how freely the IP packet can flow between origination and termination destinations. Would the authentication nature of any kind of VPN not interfere with the flow if these packets?
 
I don't think so. We currently have a VPN in place between the branches (using Mikrotiks and normal TelkomSA accounts) and the VOIP phones actually work extremely well. Call quality is crisp and clear, that is until someone pushes any sort of other traffic over the line (eg. checking Email). Hence the reason why I'd like to put a dedicated service in place for telephony.
 
Oh oh... :( Apparently the VPN lite service requires a firmware upgrade on the Telkom routers at each site. That's a problem because we don't USE Telkom routers! We have Mikrotik routers at each site. Anyone know if I'd have any problems setting this up via the Mikrotiks?
 
Stnick, this is indeed an interesting product offering you've spotted. Let us know if you manage to get it going - I too would be interested to try this out.
I hope the router isn't a sticky problem!
 
I see no reason why it shouldn't work extremely well. It's basically the equivalent of a local-only account but with the added benefit of secured encapsulation within its own MPLS VRF and, more importantly, availability of fixed IP addresses.

Re firmware upgrade, I think this only applies if you're using Telkom routers; there is no reason not to use private routers.

I've used local-only accounts with dynamic DNS to circumvent lack of fixed IPs and allow the trixboxes to find one another. This also works a treat. The VPN Lite is, however, likely to be more secure, simpler and cheaper in larger-scale deployments.
 
gmza said:
I've used local-only accounts with dynamic DNS to circumvent lack of fixed IPs and allow the trixboxes to find one another. .
Click to expand...

Are you using a local dynamic DNS service? If so, which one? Most of the Dynamic DNS services are international, and so local-only bandwidth is no good?
 
Testing it now

I am busy testing this so far it is pretty impressive I will post more details as I get them.
 
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