<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
We have a site which has a 10Mb (up and down) circuit using a Watchguard x330 running 11.6.1 software.<br />
<br />
We are using Virtual Office solution from 8x8 which is a hosted SIP PBX solution.<br />
<br />
Problem is that users complain of call quality issues.<br />
<br />
At the moment I have setup 'Traffic Management' which uses a firewall rule and allows you to allocate/dedicate bandwidth, so I've set aside 512Kbps (10 users at site, maybe 6 calls active at once top) so this should be totally overkill.<br />
<br />
8x8 says that if I can't disable SPI on the firewall, then they recommend a second firewall/gateway that doesn't use SPI, and point all phones to it. &nbsp;I can do that, but I'd like to investigate further before we go that route.<br />
<br />
I've noticed also that on Watchguard there is a SIP ALG which is equivalent to a Cisco Fixup Protocol, but I think that just facilitates opening of ports, not prioritizing traffic.<br />
<br />
Anyone have a Watchguard device working well with SIP protocol (8x8 is one, Skype also uses SIP)<br />
<br />
Your help is appreciated.
</div>
</div>


We have a site which has a 10Mb (up and down) circuit using a Watchguard x330 running 11.6.1 software.

We are using Virtual Office solution from 8x8 which is a hosted SIP PBX solution.

Problem is that users complain of call quality issues.

At the moment I have setup 'Traffic Management' which uses a firewall rule and allows you to allocate/dedicate bandwidth, so I've set aside 512Kbps (10 users at site, maybe 6 calls active at once top) so this should be totally overkill.

8x8 says that if I can't disable SPI on the firewall, then they recommend a second firewall/gateway that doesn't use SPI, and point all phones to it.  I can do that, but I'd like to investigate further before we go that route.

I've noticed also that on Watchguard there is a SIP ALG which is equivalent to a Cisco Fixup Protocol, but I think that just facilitates opening of ports, not prioritizing traffic.

Anyone have a Watchguard device working well with SIP protocol (8x8 is one, Skype also uses SIP)

Your help is appreciated.

Watchguard Firewall/Router and hosted VoIP (8x8)

Voice over IP (VoIP) is a methodology and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. Other terms commonly associated with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, broadband telephony, and broadband phone service. The term specifically refers to the provisioning of communications services (voice, fax, SMS, voice-messaging) over the public Internet, rather than via the public switched telephone network (PSTN).  Examples of the VoIP protocols are H.323, Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), H.248 (also known as Media Gateway Control (Megaco)), Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP), Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP), Session Description Protocol (SDP), and Inter-Asterisk eXchange (IAX).

Voice Over IP

Hardware-based firewalls provide more sophisticated protection for inbound and outbound traffic than the simple Windows software firewall or the basic NAT firewalls found in routers. These devices implement techniques such as stateful packet inspection, deep packet inspection, and content filtering; and may include built-in antivirus and anti-malware protection.

Hardware Firewalls

A router is a networking device that forwards data packets between computer networks. Routers perform the "traffic directing" functions on the Internet. The most familiar type of routers are home and small office cable or DSL routers that simply pass data, such as web pages, email, IM, and videos between computers and the Internet. More sophisticated routers, such as enterprise routers, connect large business or ISP networks up to the powerful core routers that forward data at high speed along the optical fiber lines of the Internet backbone. Though routers are typically dedicated hardware devices, use of software-based routers has grown increasingly common.