Media Server Not Responding
When an MRCP platform sends requests to the Media Server and gets no response at all, the problem is almost always below the application layer — the service is down, the traffic never arrives, or it arrives on a port nothing is listening on. Work through the checks below in order; each one rules out a layer and narrows the cause.
Is the Media Server running?
Confirm the Media Server service is actually up before looking anywhere else. A stopped or crashed service produces exactly this symptom — silence — and it is the fastest thing to rule out.
Is traffic reaching it?
A firewall or network policy sitting between the MRCP client and the Media Server will drop the request before it is ever seen. To rule this out, confirm nothing is blocking the SIP and RTSP ports on the path between client and server:
- On a host-based installation, temporarily disabling the host firewall (for example iptables on Linux or the Windows Firewall) is the quickest way to isolate it. Re-enable it immediately afterward and add a targeted rule rather than leaving it off.
- In a containerized deployment, confirm the Service exposes the SIP/RTSP ports and that no NetworkPolicy is blocking them.
If you need to see whether packets are actually arriving, capture the traffic on the path — see Capturing Network Traffic.
Are the ports correct — and did the server bind to them?
Make sure the RTSP or SIP ports your platform sends SETUP / INVITE messages to match the ports configured in the Media Server — the defaults are 554 (RTSP) and 5060 (SIP). For the full port reference, see Network Ports and Ranges.
Then confirm the Media Server actually bound to those ports. Set logging verbosity to 3, restart the Media Server, and review its log file. Restart points are marked by lines beginning with a run of equals signs (=====), so they are easy to locate; the binding results are reported just after the restart. A port already in use by another process is a common reason a bind silently fails.
Isolate the client
Test the Media Server with an independent MRCP client, such as SimpleMRCPClient. If an independent client also fails, the problem is in the Media Server or the network path rather than your application. As always, check for any critical entries in the log files while you do this.
Getting traffic but no session?
If requests are reaching the Media Server but a session still will not establish, the failure is at the SIP signaling layer rather than connectivity. See 486 Busy Here Messages for that case.
If you have worked through all of the above and the Media Server still does not respond, contact Technical Support — see Logging a Support Ticket. Include the Media Server log captured at verbosity 3, along with the ports and platform details, so the issue can be diagnosed quickly.