Re: Simple voip

["Mark Harrison (Groups)" <mph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Martin Greenwood wrote:

>Has anyone used a voip "service without a pc involved, i.e. a real
>handset.
>I can get adaptor to allow use of normal phones that goes into
>broadband router ethernet socket
>
>
That's what I'm currently doing in the office. I use a Sippura box (from
eBay) which allows me to plug two analogue handsets in, each of which is
configured to a different SIP accounts with an external provider, thus
giving two indpendant lines.

The Sippura boxes are irritating to configure - when changing the IP
configuration (which you do with DTMF signals on a handset plugged into
port one) - you need to reboot whenver you change anything, or you get
odd "half the config updated" problems.

Likewise, the router settings for port forwarding are an are where you
must not make typos - trust me on this :-)

>Then subscribe to a service tha gives me a new number and make free
>calls to other voip phones and cheap calls to ordinary phones in UK, US
>and Ireland.
>
>
We use sipgate.co.uk for this. So far, we've found that outgoing calls
work fine. We're currently looking for a SIP provider who is located in
the US, which we believe should get further cost savings for
international calls. Realistically, though, setting up the LCR on this
will require either a lot of staff training, or more likely, an Asterisk
box. TBH, we also want to put in an Asterisk box for voicemail anyway.

>Is it reliable yet?
>
Seems to be, for making calls. We've found that the latency when calling
a UK landline with Sipgate is similar to that of a mobile phone, but
still there (ie - not at the same latency as a landline-landline local
call).

>What about receiving calls?
>
>
>
We only moved into the office a couple of weeks ago, and haven't felt
brave enough to give out the new SIP-based incoming number on the
website yet :-)

Mark