Placement of Asterisk VOIP PBX

metallica1973 · 11-19-2006, 10:38 PM

I am in the process of implementing a Asterisk PBX in my office. Looking at it from the security perspective what would be the best location for it in my network. I have thought about placing it in front of my firewall and just enable routing on the box, harden it and then have my LAN network behind my firewall. I have had some people tell me that it is preferable to place it behind my firewall and place it in the a DMZ and use port forwarding. Security Gurus lets here it!

angopal · 11-20-2006, 02:48 AM

Yea you can place your asterisk box behind your firewall, but in that case you have to specify NAT proxy for the user dialing from outside... first your firewall should be viewable for users to protect ur server...

acid_kewpie · 11-20-2006, 03:11 AM

well this all wholly depends on what kind of architecture you have. i take it it's not a huge LAN, with only a few subnets, so your choices will presumably be limited somewhat. I can't see any good reason to put it infront of a firewall though... make your network level security deal with most of the attacks your'll get and just port forward i'd say.

metallica1973 · 11-20-2006, 05:01 AM

So put it behind my firewall(NET Filter)and use port forwarding. Should I put it in a DMZ or just port forward into my LAN?

acid_kewpie · 11-20-2006, 05:05 AM

well you should have a secure server network (or multiple) already, so yeah, but the logic of a "DMZ" often breaks down in a real environment. i woudl put it with any other internet facing servers, in a secure subnet protected from both the internet and other clients.

metallica1973 · 11-20-2006, 09:51 AM

So the DMZ it goes. Gentlemen thanks Rock on!

operator10001 · 11-20-2006, 12:02 PM

your voip calling should be encoded also. I recommend looking into rsa.

metallica1973 · 11-20-2006, 01:55 PM

can you please explain about encoding like rsa. thanks. Also can anybody recommend decent VOIP phones for the best call quality.thanks