recording VoIP calls

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 29, 2004 Posts: 2

I've got a copy of ethereal, which somehow captures rtp packets. Can anyone help me set this up?

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jul 10, 2004 Posts: 28

I've been recording telephone conversations to my hard drive for years, mostly recording meetings where I'm the Secretary. For recording I use a program called total recorder, www.highcriteria.com , the $12 version. To connect the phone to the hard drive I have a device called teletool2000 which you'll find for sale online and you should be able to get it for about $40. it connects from the handset to the line in of your computer.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 29, 2004 Posts: 2

It took a minute, but I got it to work. I scrounged up a hub, put my pc and ata on the same shared segment, ran ethereal, did a generic "capture all", under the statistic's option on the tool bar, selected view all rtp sessions, selected the forward and reverse streams, then saved the output to an "au" file.

I did get a "codec" error from one capture. Couldn't figure out how to get past it though.

Smitty

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 2

I'm trying the same but have not been successful. Perhaps someone can has some insight.

I am able to see the ARP requests talked about on http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic329.html+arp, and can see the Cisco Discovery Protocol so I believe I should be able to see the packets when I make a call - but I don't get anything else when I make a call.

Here's my setup:
Computer (dell laptop, Windows 2000, ethernet connection is the Xircom CardBus 10/100 + 56k)
Cisco ATA
both plugged into Netgear EN308 hub.
hub uplink plugged into router (linksys befw1154)
router plugged into cable modem

Posts: 23 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 07, 2005 Posts: 23

Anonymous wrote:

How 'bout this:
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F008%5F008%5F012%5F001&product%5Fid=43%2D1237

That's a nice piece of hardware..
May give it a try

Posts: 35 · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 11:04 am Post subject:

tap8,

Make sure you are not running firewall software like Zone Alarm. It will allow the ARP requests to come though but no real packets.

I keep forgetting to stop ZA and pull my hair out until I remember it is running.

You didn't state what sniffing program you are running. I am using Ethereal.

If you are using Ethereal, you can set up a filter to keep the ARP's and CDP's out of the packet list. In Ethereal create a filter. I call mine noarp.
In the filer string field type

host 1.1.1.1

where the 1.1.1.1 is the public IP address of your connection. This will only allow Ethereal to capture packets that have your IP address as either the source or destination address. No more broadcasts!

Kevin

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 2

Kevin, I can't thank you enough.

You hit the nail right on the head, ZoneAlarm was the culprit.
Hindsight is 20/20 - it seems so obvious now.

I am using Ethereal.
Thanks also for the noarp tip.

Posts: 35 · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 7:46 pm Post subject:

tap8,

Glad I could help.

Thank you for the note too. After the week I had it was much appreciated.

Kevin

Posts: 16 · Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:44 pm Post subject:

hi all - I've been recording calls for a while now, and after trying all the gadgets from RadioShack and being less than happy with the results, I went pro. Here's what I use:

http://www.bswusa.com/proditem.asp?item=INLINEPATCH
that's a piece of hardware that you can patch your phone into on one end and into your pap2/router on the other end. it allows you to fine-tune all incoming and outgoing audio levels, and then some.

the software I use is Audacity - it's free, and for both Mac and PC (I've used both versions). Works like a charm.
I got Audacity to export files in mp3 format on my pc, but had trouble on my Mac, so I use YAAC (another free piece of software) that'll convert WAV (and tons of other formats) into mp3 (or whatever).

hope this helps - the inline patch isn't cheap, but it won't gouge you, either. and I've been more than happy with the results (I use my audio for business, too). Good luck!

Posts: 17 · Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 8:36 pm Post subject: Umm... me - dumb

Can one of you explain how to do this from start to finish? It seems everyone here knows what they are doing already... but I have NO clue how to do almost anything you're talking about. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

I'm a computer guy, but it seems you are all more network savy than me. Any assistance would be very helpful