Thursday, September 17, 2026

Asterisk FreeBPX fail2ban whitelist and status

Here's some asterisk fail2ban info 

List Banned IPs in Fail2Ban

Fail2Ban stores a list of all the IPs currently banned from connecting to your server. Run the following command to see all active jails on your server:

sudo fail2ban-client status

The one you are probably interested in is "asterisk-iptables"

sudo fail2ban-client status asterisk-iptables



Here you'll see that 192.168.0.101 is banned.  This was a phone that I couldn't make register.

Unban Specific IP in Fail2Ban

This command will let you unban an IP.  In my example i'm going to unban 192.168.0.101 from the asterisk-iptables ban.

sudo fail2ban-client set asterisk-iptables unbanip 192.168.0.101


Now you see that the "banned IP list" is blank.

Whitelist Specific IP in Fail2Ban

sudo nano -l /etc/fail2ban/jail.local
  1. look for ignoreIP.  There should be one in there already of 127.0.0.1/8
  2. Add a space and then add the additional IP(s) that you want
ignoreip = 127.0.0.1/8 192.168.0.101 192.168.0.102
  1. Save the file and then reload Fail2Ban.
sudo systemctl reload fail2ban
You can check the fail2ban status
sudo systemctl status fail2ban


Polycom Phones with FreePBX Asterisk

 I'm using PJSIP asterisk FreePBX deployment.  Heres the configs

In a VVX 500 series phone, heres what I have:  (my pbx is 192.168.0.113)


For a Polycom SoundStation IP 6000 here's what I have


In my FreePBX gui, its pretty standard.  Extension number and password.  Nothing else changed in the GUI



What I DID have to do, was modify my fail2Ban.  I had the system sometimes banning the IP of the phones.  So I put them in a white list

Editing the Fail2Ban Configuration File

Open jail.local using a text editor like nano or vim:

sudo nano /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

Whitelisting an IP Address

In the jail.local file, look for the [DEFAULT] section. To whitelist an IP address, add it to the ignoreip line. If the line doesn’t exist, you can create it.

For example, to whitelist the IP 123.45.67.89, you would add:


[DEFAULT]

ignoreip = 123.45.67.89 192.168.0.101 192.168.0.102

You can also add multiple IPs, separated by space, or use CIDR notation for a range of addresses.

After adding the IP addresses to the whitelist, save the file and exit the editor. In nano, this is done by pressing CTRL + X, then Y to confirm, and Enter to save.

Restarting Fail2Ban

For the changes to take effect, you need to restart the Fail2Ban service. This can be done with the following command:

sudo systemctl restart fail2ban 



Wednesday, September 16, 2026

FreePBX GUI with Callcentric (PJSIP)

This let me make calls to/from Callcentric with FreePBX.

In CallCentric, add an 'extension'.  In my example I created extension 108, so my callcentric ID looks like 1777xxxxxxx108.  Your callcentric ID will be a bit different, but similar.

Replace 1777xxxxxxx108 with your Callcentric 1777 number.

1> Add PJSIP trunk in FreePBX GUI

2> Under "GENERAL" tab

Trunk Name: CallCentric
Outbound CallerID: 1777xxxxxxx108 (OR a DID you have with Callcentric)


3> Under "PJSIP SETTINGS" tab

Username: 1777xxxxxxx108 
AUTH username (IGNORE)

Secret: (Your Callcentric password for your 1777xxxxxxx108 extension)

SIP Server: sip.callcentric.net

SIP SERVER PORT 5060


4> Under "ADVANCED" tab

Contact User: 1777xxxxxxx108
From Domain: sip.callcentric.net
From User: 1777xxxxxxx108
Match (Permit): 199.87.144.0/21,204.11.192.0/22        (This limits the IPS that can work for some additional security)
Send RPID/PAI: Both


5> Create an inbound route

Description = Callcentric and your number
DID Number = Callcentric extension
SET DESTINATION = whatever location you want the call to go to when it rings.  I'm testing with "Speaking Clock"


Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Updating Polycom phone firmware via internet

 In the GUI, go to "Software Upgrade"




Select Check for Upgrades.

System will reach out to the Polycom servers and get a list of available upates.


upgrade in from the oldest to the newest.  I find that in my experience, I couldn't skip releases, I had to do them in order.

Click on Install. 


accept the agreement




Your phone device will reboot.  It will download the firmware, apply it and restart itself.  Can take 5+ minutes

Polycom VVX 500 with Callcentric

This is a super helpful video Setup Polycom for CallCentric


Here's the basic config in the phone.  This is all I used to get the phone to work, just like the above video.

Make sure that your network address/dns is configured properly.

Make sure your time / date is setup with NTP properly.  





This is on an IP 6000 station




SIP SETTINGS:
Sip Protocol ENABLED

IDENTIFICATION

Display Name: Poly            (this is an internal field when you call another local extension phone)
Address:    CallCentricAddress            (example 1777X2XXXXXX105)
Label:    Line 1                    (this is what the number will appear as on the phone screen itself)
Third Party Name:    1777X2XXXXXX105   Label(Your Callcentric ID for the extension)
Number of line keys:        Set this to the value to the number of instances you want to appear.

AUTHENTICATION
Domain    sip.callcentric.com
User ID    Your Callcentric ID
Password:   Assigned in call centric when you created the account

SIP SERVER 1

Address    sip.callcentric.net
port 5060
UDP ONLY
expires 3600
subscription expires 3600

Save changes and reboot phone

After a restart, will look like this in callcentric if successful





This was my callcentric config (extension 105) in my example.  


Linksys LGS308P switch

RESTET to Factory

Use the reset button, while its powered on, hold it down for 10 seconds

the default IP is 192.168.1.251  default user/password is admin / admin

HOWEVER after a reset, dont have the switch plugged into a DHCP network, because DHCP is hardcoded as "ON" and that Ip will get over written.  This isn't a problem, its just that you will have a frustrating time to make the IP work!  So keep it stand alone until you either hardcode an IP or set the



Factory reset Polycom VVx500 phone among others

  1. Locate the phone’s MAC address on the back label and note it down.

  2. Power off the phone by unplugging it.

  3. Power it back on and wait until you see Cancel, select Cancel.

  4. ModelHold Keys During Boot
    VVX 101, 201, 300, 301, 311, 400, 401, 410, 411, 500, 501, 600, 6011, 3, 5
    SoundPoint IP 320, 321, 331, 335, 430, SoundStation IP 5000, Duo1, 3, 5, 7
    SoundPoint IP 301, 501, 550, 600, 601, 650, VVX 15004, 6, 8, *
    SoundStation IP 60006, 8, *
  5. You will then see on the screen "Enter Password: to Reset Settings."

  6. When prompted for the admin password, enter the MAC address using the keypad (switch between numeric/alphanumeric as needed).

    Here's what isn't mentioned a lot. 

    When you are entering in the alpha characters, you need to press the button on the phone to match the count of the characters. 

    So if your mac is 64167FE4, you would type in

    64167  then on your phone press the "1->Aa" button and then press the 3 button three times to get an "F", because "F" is the 3rd alpha character on the 3 button
    Before you enter in a numeric value, make sure you press the A-a1 button until you see it look like "1->Aa" which means you can type in number values.  

    Repeat this process until you get all the values typed in.

  7. Confirm the reset when prompted.

  8. The phone will reboot and restore factory settings, including resetting the admin password to 456.


You can access the GUI by using https
https://IPofPhone
http://IPofPhone