SIP Registration error

[gamma8]

Hi all,

I'm having an interesting problem with SIP and I'm hoping someone out there has seen this before and knows how to fix it..! I'm using an E61 with the S60 3rd edition SDK (I believe it's the maintenance release).

I can register with Asterisk and make SIP calls over the WLAN without any problems. Furthermore I can even unregister from Asterisk and shut down the WLAN connection and then re-establish it, re-register and make another call.

Right - so everything seems fine so far... Except that I've noticed some interesting behaviour if you're not in a call but are still registered with Asterisk when the phone loses the connection to the wireless access point (say, if you move out of range or it's switched off). What happens is the phone seems to have no issues shutting down the WLAN and the connected SIP profile. However, when the access point comes back up again and you attempt to make another SIP call - the phone can't register the SIP profile. The WLAN connection is re-established with no problems (I can browse the internet) but absolutely NOTHING happens when the phone tries to register with Asterisk again. Tethereal tells me not a single packet is being sent despite the standard "Requesting..." progress dialog you get on the phone.

The only way to rectify this problem is to reboot the phone. Then everything works fine - until the phone loses contact with the access point again.

As this happens from both my code AND the built-in telephone app, I'm suspecting that this is a rather nasty bug in the implementation of Symbian's SIP stack or similar. Perhaps the SIP monitor thingy (excuse my lack of technical terminology) doesn't unbind itself from the appropriate port when it's forcibly disconnected... But then, I've noticed that if I force a WLAN disconnection from the connection monitor (Connectivity->Conn. Mgr.->Act. data conn.), the WLAN disconnects and then the phone reconnects and re-registers with Asterisk just fine! I can even make calls as per usual.

This is very strange and frustrating. Does anyone have any clue as to how to fix/circumvent this problem? It's really not viable to have to reboot the phone every time you move out of range of your access point.


My eternal gratitude if you can solve this!
Brett.

[gamma8]

No, really... Feel free to respond..!

I'm looking into the "apparently available" firmware upgrade for my phone that may or may not fix the problem. There has been much discussion regarding the "brokenness" of nokia firmware upgrades:
http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/fo...ad.php?t=92976

There's also active discussion on the availability of firmware upgrades for E61s with different product codes:
http://discussions.nokia.co.uk/discu...wupdate&page=9

Mine is 0536312 (I think that translates to "He's an Aussie") and I looked into upgrading my phone from its current firmware version (v1.0610.04.04) to the latest (v2.0618.06.05). I have a generic, unlocked phone (it's not locked to a vendor), and it seems that while I can upgrade my phone, I can't do it using the Nokia Software Updater as you would expect. It looks like I have to take my phone to a Nokia Care Centre and they'll do the upgrade for me.

Anyway, if I don't hear back from Nokia about this issue soon I'll proceed with the upgrade. Either way, I'll be sure to let you all know how this goes.

Brett.

[KevinD]

I'd go for the firmware upgrade - the SIP behaviour (and WLAN) on the later E61 firmware versions is much more stable and predictable. (Had similar problems, but much less so with the latest firmware).

>>Symbian's SIP stack
NOKIA SIP stack. Symbian OS 9.1 has no SIP stack. :-)

Kevin
www.symsource.com

[_fran]

Hi Gamma8!
Well, only to let you know that I'm working with Series60 2nd.Ed (target device is 6680) and we are dealing with similar problems with (un)register.
In this version, SIP Unregister seems not to be working properly as we cannot switch the -in use- profile to "when needed" mode (the opposite to "always on") just after having used it. I mean, if you are in mode "always on" and use the profile, later, if you want to switch it to mode "when needed", it usually does the unregister procedure right (sometimes it fails and profile goes on registered), but when you try to use the profile again in that mode it usually won't go and an error is reported about connection ("SIP Connection error"). The funniest thing is that even that error is badly reported: you have to try to get a new register twice in order to see the error (first time you try, apparently the phone registers, but if you go to Nokia Profiles application -I don't know what it would be in S60 3rd- it won't be registered, showing a "register failed"; when you try it the second time, THEN you receive the error "SIP Connection Error").

I guess that error is very similar to the one you are reporting, as it seems related to SIP "back to life" after having been switched off.

So we are relatively sure that this is a MISTAKE in Nokia SIP Stack (as far as the included demo application -ChipFlip- shows the same behaviour), and now I've read your post, I'm afraid that it isn't even corrected in 3rd Edition!!!

Well, if you have any more news about this, I'll be glad to hear to them, SPECIALLY if you obtain any extra info from Nokia about this -and other- SIP errors!

Cheers

Fran.