[TriLUG] DirecPC and VoIP (Kinda OT)

[Aaron Caudle]

Hello Everyone,
I thought some of you might be able to assist me with a problem I have 
been having.  I'll try to explain in detail.

Background:
I installed a VoIP phone down in Haiti last October and was successfull 
in getting it running.  It connects back to a gateway in Asheville at 
the company I work for.  Its connected by a Huges Satellite connection 
(DirecPC).  The satellite has a built in gateway that does simple NAT, 
but is unable to do any port forwarding etc.  Soon after I left, they 
begin experiencing problems, starting with only one way communications - 
they could hear, but we could not hear them, to then being unable to 
connect at all.

I tried all the obvious things - checking the config of the phone, the 
topology of the network in Haiti etc to no avail.

My conclusion was that for some reason, the satellite gateway just 
decided to stop working with the phone (very technical isn't it!)

I decided to build a smoothwall box to send down there.  I configured 
all the port forwarding, IPs etc before I sent it down there.  
Smoothwall even has h323 pass through.  I figured that if the smoothwall 
box was the only thing directly plugged into the satellite gateway, then 
it should be sucessfull.  Obviously everything else would be connected 
to the other side of the smoothwall box, including the phone.

Just my luck, but the smoothwall box wouldn't even connect to the 
gateway (thats a whole other issue).  I think its something simple, like 
the way the people in Haiti are connecting it.

So here are my questions:
Is there something really obvious that I am missing?
Could DirecPC somehow decide to block VoIP traffic? (i noticed they sale 
this service now)
Are 1000ms latency times just too much for VoIP? (when the phone was 
working you had to get used to several second delay before responding).
Could the direcpc satellite gateway prevent the phone from connecting?
Does anyone have any experience using VoIP and DirecPC?

Thanks in advance
Aaron Caudle
speedsin.net

ps if this email seems scattered and unorganized - its cause i am 
frustrated with this VoIP mess.