Internet ports used by Ekiga
The default ports are defined by the standards SIP, H.323 and STUN. You should not change those ports exept for complexe configurations or rare cases. To have Ekiga working properly with the default ports, you just have to run the Configuration assistant in Edit → Configuration Assistant. It will shows up automatically the first time you run Ekiga, just make sure to follow all its steps to the end.
If you are behind a router, Ekiga has extensive and improved NAT support thanks to STUN. In 99% of the cases, you do not have any configuration to do, and you can even be reachable from the outside without any port forwarding. You just have to make sure the STUN ports are open for outgoing connections to the STUN server. Additionally, you may want to read this article: Ekiga behind a NAT router.
Contents |
The default ports
| Protocols | Ports | Types | Descriptions |
|---|---|---|---|
| SIP | 5000 to 5100 | UDP | SIP signalling, listen port: 5060 |
| STUN | 3478 to 3479 | UDP | Outgoing traffic to the STUN server |
| RTP | Random/Various | UDP | Incoming traffic from the other end. Often 5004, 7070, 16382 |
| H323 | 1720 | TCP | Listen port |
| H323 | 5000 to 5100 | UDP | H.323 gatekeepers |
| H323 | 30000 to 30010 | TCP | H.245 channel for old H.323 implementations (Netmeeting) |
Changing Ports
The listen ports
The main port listening for incoming connections in Ekiga for SIP is port 5060 (UDP), while 1720 (TCP) is used by H.323. To change those ports you need to load gconf-editor. Open gconf-editor, select apps from the left hand side menu and then select Ekiga. Then select "sip" or "h323", it should give you a list in the corresponding window to your right. Select listen_port and change it to your desired value. You can also change the UDP/RTP port ranges.
Explanation of the port ranges
- The "listen_port" value is the port Ekiga will listen for incoming connections on. It is different for SIP and H.323.
- The "rtp_port_range" value is the range of UDP ports that Ekiga will use for RTP (audio and video communication channels). Ekiga needs to be restarted for the new values to take effect.
- The "udp_port_range" value is the range of UDP ports that Ekiga will use for SIP signalling or when registering to H.323 gatekeepers.
- The "tcp_port_range" value is the range of TCP ports beside the listen_port that Ekiga will use for the H.245 channel with the H.323 protocol. That port range is not used by SIP. It is not used either when H.245 Tunneling is enabled, which is in general always the case, except when calling old H.323 implementations like Netmeeting.
Avahi support
Thanks to the Avahi implementation, Ekiga can use ZeroConf (the Bonjour / Rendez-Vous technology from Apple) for automatic Ekiga client discovery on the LAN.
| Protocol | Port | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZeroConf | 5353 | UDP | Zeroconf / Rendezvous / Bonjour port |
Note: Ahavi/MDNS/STUN and friends might give you several drawbacks, like SSH Clients taking a while to open, or requests to your apache from clients without reverse lookup getting 5 seconds penalty. Thus, if you're in a cooperate environment, and just want to talk to your local SIP-Gateway instead of doing this through your internet link, you should probably use gconv-edit and disable STUN under applications/ekiga. Removing mdns from your /etc/nsswitch.conf will resolve your ssh troubles.
