ATA recommendations please

Hi All
I'm a newcomer to the practicals of VoIP, but technically savvy
generally. I'm setting VoIP capability at home for the first time.
Initially it's as a second number for occasional business use. I'm
seeking suggestions as to what ATA to buy.

I have a fondness for hackable/open-ish hardware. If I was starting
from scratch I'd probably buy a Draytek VoIP wireless router, but as
of now I have a Netgear DG834G router to plug into.

I see I can buy an unlocked Linksys PAP2 from eBay for not much money.
With the research I've done so far I'm not clear what advantages the
more expensive options, like the SPA-3000 (where do you buy these
from?) offer, so I'd be interested in learning more. I don't want to
pay over the odds for facilities I won't need; I would like to have
something that doesn't lock me in and allows me to tinker a bit
(sigh...).

Thanks for your thoughts.

jon N

jkn wrote:
> Hi All
> I'm a newcomer to the practicals of VoIP, but technically savvy
> generally. I'm setting VoIP capability at home for the first time.
> Initially it's as a second number for occasional business use. I'm
> seeking suggestions as to what ATA to buy.
>
> I have a fondness for hackable/open-ish hardware. If I was starting
> from scratch I'd probably buy a Draytek VoIP wireless router, but as
> of now I have a Netgear DG834G router to plug into.
>
> I see I can buy an unlocked Linksys PAP2 from eBay for not much money.
> With the research I've done so far I'm not clear what advantages the
> more expensive options, like the SPA-3000 (where do you buy these
> from?) offer, so I'd be interested in learning more. I don't want to
> pay over the odds for facilities I won't need; I would like to have
> something that doesn't lock me in and allows me to tinker a bit
> (sigh...).
>
> Thanks for your thoughts.
>
> jon N
>

Hi Jon,

A Linksys PAP2T would be a good start. It depends what you want really,
that will allow you to plug in two analogue phones and use them as IP
phones. An SPA-3000 would allow you to connect one analogue phone and
also one telephone line so you can gateway calls to and from the "BT"
line through VoIP. As well as using the same handset to make and
receive calls for both analogue and VoIP.

The SPA-3000 has been replaced with the SPA-3102, the price should be
pretty much the same but the 3102 also includes basic router & NAT
functionality, you can turn this off if you want and just use the thing
like an SPA-3000.

Of course, you don't have to get an ATA. Dedicated IP phones are
available. The Siemens C460IP or S450IP are good ones because they are
DECT, support the SIP protocol and you can also connect an analogue
phone line to it. The S450IP allows you to register with up to 6
different VoIP service providers at once (but the limiting factor is two
simultaneous VoIP calls at any one time).

You can find the products here:

http://www.provoip.co.uk/siemens.php

But plenty of other places sell them too ;)

cheers,
Paul.

I did exactly what you are intending and found that call quality was OK when there was no other IP
traffic on the connection. As soon as anything else started generating traffic the call quality was
abysmal, making the phone unusable. Email send/receive, downloading etc all clobbered the VOIP
completely.

In order to make it work on a shared connection you need a router that has VOIP Quality of Service
so that the VOIP packets get priority. I have a fritzbox 7140 and it works a treat. Call quality is
excellent even when the bandwidth is flooded with other traffic.


HTH - Adam


Paul Hayes wrote:
> jkn wrote:
>> Hi All
>> I'm a newcomer to the practicals of VoIP, but technically savvy
>> generally. I'm setting VoIP capability at home for the first time.
>> Initially it's as a second number for occasional business use. I'm
>> seeking suggestions as to what ATA to buy.
>>
>> I have a fondness for hackable/open-ish hardware. If I was starting
>> from scratch I'd probably buy a Draytek VoIP wireless router, but as
>> of now I have a Netgear DG834G router to plug into.
>>
>> I see I can buy an unlocked Linksys PAP2 from eBay for not much money.
>> With the research I've done so far I'm not clear what advantages the
>> more expensive options, like the SPA-3000 (where do you buy these
>> from?) offer, so I'd be interested in learning more. I don't want to
>> pay over the odds for facilities I won't need; I would like to have
>> something that doesn't lock me in and allows me to tinker a bit
>> (sigh...).
>>
>> Thanks for your thoughts.
>>
>> jon N
>>
>
> Hi Jon,
>
> A Linksys PAP2T would be a good start. It depends what you want really,
> that will allow you to plug in two analogue phones and use them as IP
> phones. An SPA-3000 would allow you to connect one analogue phone and
> also one telephone line so you can gateway calls to and from the "BT"
> line through VoIP. As well as using the same handset to make and
> receive calls for both analogue and VoIP.
>
> The SPA-3000 has been replaced with the SPA-3102, the price should be
> pretty much the same but the 3102 also includes basic router & NAT
> functionality, you can turn this off if you want and just use the thing
> like an SPA-3000.
>
> Of course, you don't have to get an ATA. Dedicated IP phones are
> available. The Siemens C460IP or S450IP are good ones because they are
> DECT, support the SIP protocol and you can also connect an analogue
> phone line to it. The S450IP allows you to register with up to 6
> different VoIP service providers at once (but the limiting factor is two
> simultaneous VoIP calls at any one time).
>
> You can find the products here:
>
> http://www.provoip.co.uk/siemens.php
>
> But plenty of other places sell them too ;)
>
> cheers,
> Paul.

Hi Chaps
Thanks for your comments. I've decided to go for an SPA-3102; I
take the point about QoS but I think I should be able to limit
bandwidth at the time of using the 'phone. Experimentation will tell
me if I'm right or not.

Tho' the ability to hack the Fritzbox is tempting...

Cheers
Jon N