Using Mitel Border Gateway w/ Mobile Clients

[RNJack]

My organization is trying to become more flexible with our telephony due to a greater remote presence but we're running into a few snags. We have a MiVoice 250 and I've installed a Mitel Phone Manager to connect softphones over a VPN. That's working fine but we'd also like to setup some mobile workers on their cell phones that don't have a VPN. I installed a Mitel Border Gateway to act as a reverse web proxy instead of port forwarding directly to our MiVoice 250 but it doesn't seem to support this configuration even though my Mitel vendor stated that it does. Any suggestions for getting this to work correctly? I'm using the Mitel Border Gateway in Server-Only mode so that it can sit behind my firewall in a DMZ. I'd refer not to connect it as an edge device.

[Tech Electronics]

RNJack,

What exactly are you trying to connect through the MBG?

Are you wanting to setup Teleworker Softphones using the Phone Manager Client?

What type of licensing did you purchase with your MBG?

Thanks,

TE

[RNJack]

Hi TE.

That's a great question. I have Mitel Phone Manager Outlook licenses and Mitel Phone Manager Mobility licenses. I had asked my Mitel Partner for a method to connect mobile users and that's what they provided but as I'm learning more I'm concerned that those aren't a mobile softphone like I was led to believe. After I purchased the aforementioned licenses and I was setting everything up it became clear that they were expecting me to port-forward everything to my Phone Manager/MiVoice 250. I pushed back and they suggested getting a Mitel Border Gateway which I did, but I didn't buy any additional licensees because they told me that I could run it as a reverse web proxy without licenses where my mobile phones could establish a connection without being directly connected to the internal systems. According to the MBG Installation guide this seems correct but I notice that it only mentions MiCollab and I don't see any mention of the Phone Manager/MiVoice 250.

Now the Mitel Partner is suggesting port forwarding the traffic through the MBG to the MiVoice 250 which seems no different then just port forwarding straight to the MiVoice 250.. I'm losing my mind with this project.

[lowradiation]

If you want to use the Phone Manager softphone app on your iOS or Android smartphones, then you don't need an MBG.
On your firewall, you just need to port forward ports 8185 (config info) and 8190 (softphone audio) to the Phone Manager server internal IP (not the MiVO 250).

**If you also plan on using the Phone Manager PC softphones remotely then you should use a VPN connection (which you already are doing) - the Phone Manager PC softphones connect using 5060 to the MiVO 250 and port forwarding 5060 to the MiVO 250 directly is not a good idea.

Attached the Phone Manager Mobile installation guide

[RNJack]

On your firewall, you just need to port forward ports 8185 (config info) and 8190 (softphone audio) to the Phone Manager server internal IP (not the MiVO 250).

Thanks for responding lowradiation; That's very helpful.

This may be a stupid question but what's the difference between forwarding to the MiVO 250 vs the Phone Manager? Does the Phone Manager have an additional layer of authentication? Also, since the Phone Manager is accepting external connections, should the server be in my DMZ?

[Tech Electronics]

RNJack,

Alright, I think this is making a little more sense now.

So, your Mitel Vendor has lead you in the wrong direction as you most likely have figured out.

As for the putting a Softphone on a Smart Phone you would need two separate licenses for that.

1. Mobile License: This puts the Phone Manager client on your Smartphone.
2. Softphone License: This enables the Softphone option on a Phone Manager client [Mobile or Desktop].

Now, you would also need other licensing for each person, as you probably already know, but they do come in bundles as well as a-la-carte so don't worry.

I am kind of confused as to why your Mitel Vendor isn't doing this work for you since they are the ones trained for this and have support from Mitel, but I guess they are doing so well they don't need your money.

Anyway, lowradiation has already provided you with the guide, but if you need more help don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks,

TE

[Tech Electronics]

RNJack,

This may be a stupid question but what's the difference between forwarding to the MiVO 250 vs the Phone Manager? Does the Phone Manager have an additional layer of authentication? Also, since the Phone Manager is accepting external connections, should the server be in my DMZ?

Just read through the manual it will all make more sense once you do that. You can run through the MBG if you don't want to open ports up directly to the MCS or MiVO-250.

Thanks,

TE

[RNJack]

Thanks for clarifying that TE.

Just read through the manual it will all make more sense once you do that. You can run through the MBG if you don't want to open ports up directly to the MCS or MiVO-250.

I did see this in the manual, however, the Security > Port Forwarding menu is disabled when using it in server-only mode. I'd prefer to have the MBG behind my firewall but by doing so I seem to remove the option that is supported.

Configuring Port Forwarding for Phone Manager Mobile

Complete the following configuration on the MBG:
On the 'MBG Security -> Port Forwarding' page, create the port forwarding rules for TCP 8185 with the
Destination Host IP Address pointing to the IP address of the MCS host.

If using a Softphone then configure the following port forwarding:
On the 'MBG Security -> Port Forwarding' page, create the port forwarding rules for TCP 8190 with the
Destination Host IP Address pointing to the IP address of the MCS host

I am kind of confused as to why your Mitel Vendor isn't doing this work for you since they are the ones trained for this and have support from Mitel, but I guess they are doing so well they don't need your money.

They don't know how to do it. I've had several calls with them where they've gotten stuck and between that and their misleading licensing I've decided to take the problem into my own hands... with the support of mitelforums 

[Tech Electronics]

RNJack,

You can setup the MBG with a single IP Address, Server-Only, but you can put it is Custom Mode and then change the Set-Side IP Address to be the Public IP Address that you have pointed to the MBG.

I find it rather funny that they don't know how to do something that they themselves have sold; LOL. Regardless you need to get the solution you want and you should have the support you need from your vendor. Anyway, you could have them use Mitel Services for this as well and they will set it up for you; Mitel Direct that is.

Thanks,

TE