SIP to analogue gateway?

[Ric_]

I don't know if a product exists but what I'm after is a device that will allow me to use a SIP handset on an analogue phone line.

 

Basically, I want to be able to be able to receive calls to my landline via my smartphone and (to a lesser extent) make calls via the landline. Ideally, the device will also act as a DECT base station.

 

I don't want a lot do I?

 

Of course, I suppose I could build an Asterisk box but it's going to be overkill!

[SYNACK]

No idea whether this would work as intended, it has all the right hardware and is cheap but does not include its own sip server and it depends on the internal software of the device as to whether you can set it up in the way that you want.

One Port SIP/IAX VOIP Gateway (ATA) with PSTN lifeline x100p.eu

 

This should totally work with the right module in it though:

Compact Asterisk Appliance x100p.eu

it is a whole astrix server though.

 

This one is cheaper and looks much easier/better:

Voice Over IP

 

and this has all the features including DECT but again requires a SIP server to talk to:

Doro IP880 Dect IP Telephone

 

+

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP+Gateways

Edited July 24, 2009 by SYNACK

[kylewilliamson]

Linksys do one of these....

 

Kyle

[Ric_]

@kylewilliamson: Linksys make a device that goes the 'other' way (i.e. analogue phone onto a VoIP network) but I don't think they make one to fulfill my needs.

 

BTW: The Linksys website sucks! I can't even find the ATA which I know that they produce!

[localzuk]

Ric, it sounds like you want a mini voip PBX. Take a look at voipon.co.uk, they have a huge selection of such wizardry.

 

However, the other thing you could do is use an old PC and stick a FXO card in it and run Asterisk on it. However, this would still be quite expensive, as you'd be wanting one with hardware echo cancellation and you'd be looking at about £360 for that. (or £180 without echo cancellation).

 

What are you trying to achieve?

[Ric_]

@localzuk: It is looking increasingly like a samll PBX would be just as easy to achieve.

 

What I was thinking about was OpenVox A400P11 - 1 FXO 1 FXS - I don't know how important echo cancellation is for such a simple solution.

 

I was then thinking of using Switchvox or Trixbox to save faffing (at least initially).

 

For the server, I was thinking of maybe going down the mini-ITX route (Atom-powered - possibly dual-core) - a single concurrent call shouldn't really need too much grunt.

 

This would then give me a bit of expansion potential, should I need it in the future.

[localzuk]

@localzuk: It is looking increasingly like a samll PBX would be just as easy to achieve.

 

What I was thinking about was OpenVox A400P11 - 1 FXO 1 FXS - I don't know how important echo cancellation is for such a simple solution.

 

I was then thinking of using Switchvox or Trixbox to save faffing (at least initially).

 

For the server, I was thinking of maybe going down the mini-ITX route (Atom-powered - possibly dual-core) - a single concurrent call shouldn't really need too much grunt.

 

This would then give me a bit of expansion potential, should I need it in the future.

 

The problem with analogue to digital conversion is echo. BT set the lines at a certain gain level for your analogue line, and you then set the gain at your end to match (this is discovered by monitoring calls and viewing the volume of the calls via software on the PBX). If you do manage to match these so they work well, your system will still suffer from echo due to the nature of analogue lines. Software echo cancellation is ok, to a certain extent, but the number of complaints I get here because of echo far is quite high.

 

Hardware echo cancellation handles the situation a lot better, but comes at a price.

 

Also, another thing to mention is systems such as Trixbox (or any other 'ready made' Asterisk solution) still require faffing if you wish to get them exactly how you want them. Sure, you can fiddle with the basic settings but to get it hooked up to your analogue lines you still need to play on the terminal with zapata.conf and similar.

[Ric_]

So what your saying is to go for something like Digium TDM411E - 1 FXO 1 FXS PCI Card with Echo Cancellation VPMADT032 which then makes the solution prohibitvely expensive (it's almost £300 more!!!).

[localzuk]

So what your saying is to go for something like Digium TDM411E - 1 FXO 1 FXS PCI Card with Echo Cancellation VPMADT032 which then makes the solution prohibitvely expensive (it's almost £300 more!!!).

 

Indeed I'm saying the best solution is one with hardware cancellation, it's all about gauging your needs.

 

It's more a case of 'what can you get away with?'.

 

(Although, that one has an FXS port too, which wouldn't be needed so you'd be wanting this instead: Digium TDM401E - 1 FXO PCI Card with Echo Cancellation VPMADT032)

 

However! There is another alternative. And that is to buy the TDM401B without echo cancellation, see how it is after fiddling with echo cancellation and if it is good enough, you're sorted, but if not, you can then buy the echo cancellation module separately. http://www.voipon.co.uk/digium-tdm401b-1-fxo-pci-card-p-759.html and http://www.voipon.co.uk/digium-vpmadt032-128ms-hardware-echo-cancellation-module-p-793.html

Edited July 28, 2009 by localzuk

[Ric_]

@localzuk: I would need the FXS port as well because I would want to plug an analogue handset in too.

[Ric_]

Perhaps Positron Telecom G-122 Asterisk Gateway would do what I want?

[localzuk]

Perhaps Positron Telecom G-122 Asterisk Gateway would do what I want?

 

Looks ideal! 2 channel 128ms hardware echo cancellation too, which is pretty snazzy. (Digium does 64ms on their cards, which drops to 16ms when with larger numbers of channels).

[SYNACK]

@Ric_ Did you miss my post above or was it just not helpful, this £90 device looks like it would forfill your needs and is much cheaper than the £300 device above.

 

Voice Over IP

[localzuk]

@Ric_ Did you miss my post above or was it just not helpful, this £90 device looks like it would forfill your needs and is much cheaper than the £300 device above.

 

Voice Over IP

 

Looks like a basic system, with no echo cancellation (which, as I said, is key with analogue -> digital conversion).

 

The Positron one is only £50 more so I'd still recommend that (looks like it is a full fledged Asterisk server).

[kylewilliamson]

My understanding was that the Linksys Device had a FXO and a FXS port.... so you can do both

 

Linksys by Cisco SPA3102 VoIP Broadband Router with 1 FXS and 1 x FXO Port

[Ric_]

@SYNACK: I looked at that and couldn't seem to get enough info about whether it would do exactly what I wanted.

 

I've ordered the Positron device - It appears to be fully-fledged Asterisk and has more ports and the echo cancellation. It was only an extra £50 too.

 

@kylewilliamson: From everything I could find about the Linksys device, it didn't contain a SIP server. The FXO port connects you to the PSTN, the FXS port connects to your analogue handset and the ethernet port routes out to the Internet to connect to a VoIP provider. Basically, it means that you can use your current analogue handset and automatically route via the cheapest call route.

[kylewilliamson]

Re: SIP phone and SPA 3102 - VoIP Adapters - Linksys Community Forums

[Ric_]

Re: SIP phone and SPA 3102 - VoIP Adapters - Linksys Community Forums

 

It's late but IMHO that doesn't say a SIP phone can route out the analogue line. It doesn't matter anyway because I pluped for the Positron. I'll let you know how I get on - it might also serve a purpose on our non-IP Avaya IP Office at work