Question

Polycom VSX 8000 compatibility, internet connections, streaming, etc...

Asked by: marcjjrd

Hi there,
I have a Polycom VSX 8000 system that I am trying to make useful for a small college. At present I have only been able to it with the PVX software on the local network, or on a remote network if set to basic mode (where I get no camera control). I have tried to connect to another Polycom system, and could not see or hear, or be heard, though I could be seen. A different Polycom system in the same location was able to connect just fine, and a Tandberg in yet another location that claimed to be able to connect to various Polycoms could not connect with mine at all.

I would like to know why it works so intermittently, and also if anyone has some advice about use over the web. The unit sends a Quicktime stream that can only be seen on the local network. I'm currently in the process of trying to relay the stream so it can be viewed from elsewhere, since it's kind of pointless to only be able to see the room from the room itself. Also, I'd like to know if it's possible to use the system with some non-Polycom software, such as Yahoo! Messenger, or Windows Messenger, or some such thing. It appears to be possible, but I'm not sure what it requires.

Finally, what other systems is the VSX 8000 compatible with? Are there certain Polycom or Tandberg units that it will or will not communicate with, and if so what are they?

Thanks in advance!

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2006-11-09 at 11:59:21ID22055249
Tags

polycom

,

vsx

,

8000

,

streaming

Topic

Conferencing Software

Participating Experts
1
Points
250
Comments
8

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Quicktime Streaming Help
    I know this is the graphics general section, but I didn't see a better place to post this. I have a quicktime movie that I would like to stream, and an account with a provider to stream quicktime content. The files are on there server, but how do I access them? They don't ...
  2. Quicktime streaming URL
    How can I find out the URL from which Quicktime is streaming a video from? I'm talking about Quicktime player, and not an embedded movie in a webpage.
  3. Quicktime MOV not streaming -- Very SLOW to load
    I want to post a video on a website so it is compatible for both Windows and Mac users. I am planning to have two file formats, WMV and MOV. The windows media player works fine. I'm having issues with QuickTime. I have tried a million ways, but the best I can do using H26...
  4. 360 photo camera
    is there any camera take 360 photo with quicktime virtual format?

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: foobar_666ukPosted on 2006-11-13 at 01:20:40ID: 17928639

The problem that you are experiencing there sounds like a Firewall related issue.
If you are connecting 'outside' of your network to the 'internet' you are probably protected by a device called a Firewall. This blocks any traffic coming from the internet to your network unless it is trusted.
A common indication is that the call connects, the far end can see/hear you, but you cant see/hear the far end - this is a classic tale tale sign of a Firewall problem.

You would need to liase with your Firewall people and arrange for ports to be opened up (by fixing ports in the Polycom system) or alternateively look at a Video Conferencing firewall traversal solution.

The system has NO intermittant problems - you are experiencing network/firewall related problems.

Again the streaming problem you are seeing might also be due to the Firewall as above. Also are you streaming in Unicast of Multicast (makes a difference)

The VSX 8000 is compatible with ANY H323 or H320 Videoconferencing device, this include ALL Polycom products, Tandberg products, Aethra products, Motion Media, Scotty, VCON, RADVISION - ANYTHING that says 'H323' or 'H320'

H323 = Video over IP
H320 = Video over ISDN

If you want to communicate with software such as Windows Messenger - this doesnt use H323, it uses SIP - The Polycom VSX 8000 does support SIP, but you would need a Microsoft Live Communications Server and then register your VSX 8000 & Messenger clients to this server. It does work.

If you have any further questions please ask.

Good Luck!
Dave.

 

by: marcjjrdPosted on 2006-11-13 at 12:43:51ID: 17933318

I have already been requesting ports to be opened on the firewall successively as I find more and more that the polycom uses. I have kind of a strange network situation though. My school, Shimer College, is on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, and we get our internet access through them. They have a few polycom units that they routinely use for distance classes, and I've been talking to one of the people who runs them. He was able to use a viewstation from his building to connect to my VSX unit, but as described, all that happened was that he could see me. He unplugged it, and then connected an FX unit he also had. He tried connecting to my system, but it did not get through. I was, however, able to connect to his, and other than a lack of camera control, everything worked as it should. This is why I asked if there was a compatibility issue; it works with one unit but not the other, when all the settings and places are the same.

Also, it's been unclear what basic mode actually does, since when it's enabled I can connect without camera control, but when it's disabled, I can't connect at all unless I use PVX from the local network, in which case I do have camera control, or sometimes I can reach Polycom's test site, but I can never control their camera (or any remote cameras actually) from the VSX, whereas I can from the PVX.

As for multicast or unicast, I don't know which I'm using. There is a setting for a multicast address, but I haven't seen anything that lets me turn it on or off.

Hope this helps a bit, and thanks for the response.

 

by: foobar_666ukPosted on 2006-11-14 at 02:22:23ID: 17936992

In the VSX8000 are you using Fixed Ports? (In Admin Settings > Networks > )
If you are NOT using Fixed Ports the VC system will randomly choose any ports from 1024 to 65535 everytime it makes a call - so you might be opening a hell of a lot of ports :)
I would strongly reccomend that you use Fixed ports (and typically the defaults are 3230 to 3237) - but please note these are only the ports that the audio/video are sent on, you will also need to open 1719 and 1720 for Gatekeeper registrations (if required)
Also if you are using a Firewall you are probably using NAT (Network Address Translation) also - in the VSX Admin settings there is also an area where you can specify your NAT address, you will need to specify this also.

I can't explain your issues between the two systems :- but I can tell you, that I have a VSX 8000, a Viewstation FX AND a Viewstation classic - and there are no problems with calling between them. Ensure that you are on the latest levels of software on each.

But I would put my bottom dollar on your problems being firewall/network related!

Can you explain more about this Basic mode, as im unclear as to what this is?

As for your streaming problem - if Multicast is not specified then you are using Unicast.
Please check that the Number of Router Hops (TTL) is set to a high figure and not the default of 1 (if set to 1, the stream wont go outside your local network) Try increasing to a value of 80 and see if this resolves your problem.

 

by: foobar_666ukPosted on 2006-11-14 at 02:38:11ID: 17937066

Some more info about your streaming problem...

Polycom uses MULTICAST by default for their streaming - this is designed only for viewing within the same IP Subnet. Multicast works by 'broadcasting' the stream so many people can pick it up at the same time and saves bandwidth. However if you want to use it on the internet you would have to configure EVERY router between the Viewer and the VSX8000 to support Multicast and this is impossible to do. So in short, it wont work.

If you use Unicast, it sends the stream direct to you instead of broadcasting the stream as in Multicast. This 'should' work over the internet, but you can only stream to one person (you do this by specifiying the IP address of the viewer in the Multicast Address field) The downside to this is that only 1 person can view the stream :(

There are ways around the problem, there are several tools which can capture and rebroadcast the stream so you can view on the public internet. One such tool is rtpdump (http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/rtp/)

Another method is to direct the video stream to a Streaming server that captures the stream and then re-broadcasts it over the internet by ways of multiple Unicast streams.

 

by: marcjjrdPosted on 2006-11-14 at 15:14:01ID: 17942649

Truthfully, I don't really know what the basic mode is either, there is an amazing lack of information about it in the polycom documentation. Essentially, there is a check box in the settings for "enable basic mode," so I can turn it on or off. The documentation simply says that it increases compatibility. My own experience has been as I described--when it's enabled, I get no camera control, when it's disabled, I get no connection (except from the local network, in which it works fine, camera control and all). I've now set the polycom to fixed ports, though I'm not seeing any difference in behavior (I think that wide range of ports was already opened up when setting to fixed ports didn't improve anything before).

I've tried changing the number in the multicast box to a specific IP, and I wasn't able to view it from there either, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I found Darwin Streaming Server which claims to relay a stream, but I haven't been successful with it. Either I'm not setting it up correctly, or it's not meant to do what I want.

I'm going to see if I can get a dedicated line for the polycom so I don't have to worry about the firewall anymore, and I hope that's all it is. Do you have any other suggestions in the meantime to make it more operable? Getting a line installed could take a couple months.

Thanks again!

 

by: foobar_666ukPosted on 2006-11-15 at 01:36:23ID: 17945551

Ok I think the Basic mode means that it will use the lowest set of standards when establishing a call - so instead of using the latest H264 video codec, it will default to the lowest it is capable of and that is H261 video codec. In short I think it will chose the very basics of establishing a call and so will not include camera control either. (I will check im right on this)
I would reccomend that you DO NOT use Basic Mode for the time being.

I still strongly beleive the problems to be firewall related, so a dedicated line will prove it once and for all. Is there no-way you could very temporarily stick the VSX system in front of the firewall just as a quick 5 minute test to prove the problem is the firewall?

What firewall is it that you are using?

 

by: marcjjrdPosted on 2006-11-15 at 11:20:45ID: 17949670

Ok, I looked at the system status during a call, and you are correct, it appears to be running on the H261 codec. However, without Basic Mode, calls don't connect (I turned it off as you suggested, but had to turn it back on because of this).

I am operating behind a Sonicwall firewall, and the particular version we have doesn't support DMZ. I've had whatever ports I could determine to open already opened by making exceptions for each set, and have just now been given access to the firewall to make any necessary changes myself. I've wanted to get out from behind the firewall since I started with this, but with no DMZ it's tricky to do, and no one seems certain how to bypass the firewall itself, although, I do have an idea to try for that.

Could the firewall be blocking traffic based on the codec? I mean, could it be allowing the H261 and blocking the H264?
Thank you again

 

by: foobar_666ukPosted on 2006-11-16 at 08:51:40ID: 17957479

Some firewalls have something called 'intelligent packet inspection' and what this means is that the Firewall will actually monitor a H323 video call and open and close ports dynamically depending on what it needs.

This worked well for certain amount of time, but as things improve newer versions of the H323 protocol have been released (we are now up to version 6 I think) but the intelligent packets inspection firewalls still stayed at only supporting older version of the H323 protocols.

For example, the CISCO PIX firewall does exactly this, and it supports H323 version 4 only - SO functions such as H.264 video CODEC's / Video Encrpytion and People+Contect or DualVideo functions of the new H323 version 6 do not work on the CISCO PIX.

We may be seeing a similar thing here with the Sonic firewall (you would really need to speak to a Sonic firewall specialist to find specific details).

There are professional products such as Tandberg Expressway (www.tandberg.net) that are designed exactly to overcome these such firewall issues, is this something you could look at?

Alternatively stick your VSX on a DMZ :)

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...