SIP Registration

[Ed Robbins]

VirginSnow at vfemail.net wrote:
> I just signed up with a US48 SIP provider which claims to be
> Asterisk-friendly.  However, I had a bit of trouble getting their
> service to work with Asterisk.  I am using them for outbound calling
> to the PSTN *only*, not for receiving calls from the PSTN.  The
> problem I had was this: whenever I tried to place a call, their SIP
> proxy reported an authentication error:
>
> WARNING[19327]: chan_sip.c:9865 handle_response_invite: Forbidden - wrong password on authentication for INVITE to '"asterisk" <sip:asterisk at MY_IP_ADDR_HERE>;tag=as2e537c98'
>
> As it turns out, having a "register =>" line in sip.conf is all that
> was needed to fix the problem:
>
> register => <<<MY USER>>>:<<<MY PASSWORD>>@<<<HOSTNAME>>>/<<<MY USER>>>
>
> I'm confused why a "register" line would be necessary for
> outbound-only service.  According to everything I've read, SIP
> registration is used to tell a SIP proxy the IP address of an endpoint
> with a dynamic IP address so that calls can be routed *to* it.  Yes,
> registration requests do have to be authenticated, but is SIP
> registration properly used as an authentication technique?  Or is this
> company essentially abusing the SIP registration mechanism?
>
>   
No, there not abusing it.  This is standard procedure for just about all 
carriers. 
> Interestingly, the provider seems to require *both* registration and
> per-call digest authentication.  Missing either one, the outbound call
> will fail to authenticate.  This seems a bit bizarre to me.
>
>   
When you say per call authentication, I'm assuming your talking about 
getting a 407 Proxy Authentication required, at which point the digest 
information is passed back.  Again, this is standard.
> Here's the response I got from their technical support about this:
>
>   
>> Dear Sir,
>> 	I thought I saw a registration string in your config earlier,
>> otherwise I would've suggested it at the beginning. 
>> 	Registration can be used for inbound or outbound service. We have
>> customers that use both and some that use neither. All TalkinIP customers
>> are constantly re-registering to verify the server and account information.
>>     
>
> Does anyone on this list know if this is how SIP registration is
> supposed to be used?  Is this common practice?
>
>   
Again this is standard practice.  I don't recall anything in the RFC 
that specifically denotes the registration process as only dealing with 
dynamic addresses.  In the larger scheme of things registrations are 
used for much more then that. 
> After about a week of chatting with the company's tech support, I have
> finially gotten outbound calling working with Asterisk.  Now, I'd just
> like to know WHY it works...
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