Wireless ATA, such a thing?

cormie

Hi,
I'm sharing a wireless connection at the moment. I don't have a phone line, modem or anything in my place, all I have is a wireless receiver built in to my laptop and this is how I'm online. I recently set up an account with freespeech.ie and would like to be able to receive calls without having my laptop on. As far as I know, an ATA will take care of this, however, all the ATA's I've seen require them to be plugged into some kind of line or connected to a modem etc.

Is there a wireless ata available that is able to pick up a wireless signal and receive/make calls with? What would I need so? An ATA and then any normal phone?

Would appreciate any feedback:)

Cabaal

I doubt there is such a device as it would cost alot and ultimately your better off having such things wired up so that packet loss can be reduced.

Of course somebody could prove me wrong on this

Why not get a ATA and use a cordless DECT phone, that way laptop doesn't need to be on and you can have your phone anywhere

fatherdougalmag

http://www.888voipstore.com/wireless-voip-c-252.html

I did post a while back about a Linksys wireless SIP phone but Toms Networking is no more so the article isn't available. As Cabaal reckoned, they are pricey. As Cabaal also suggests, you can get a wired ATA with a DECT phone but that probably only works if you have physical access to the router

If you don't have physical access to the router another option might be to get a wireless bridge which acts as a receiver for your wireless connection and gives you a wired ethernet port on the other side. You could plug an ATA into that etc.

cormie

Thanks for the replies.

I'm still pretty confused.

Ok, so all I have is a laptop that is picking up a wireless signal from another house (they know;)). There's no working phone line or any physical form of telephone hardware here and I'd like to be able to get calls to my VOIP account even if the laptop is off/out of the house.

I've posed this question to freespeech and have been told the following:

Hello,
If you connect an ATA or VOIP phone to your LAN port it will ring as many times as you wish. If you only have one LAN port available then you can purchase an ATA or phone which has a built in switch, you then connect your PC to the ATA.

Hello,
I think you may misunderstand the VOIP hardware, an analogue adaptor provides a telephone socket that you can use with and regular phone except the call goes over VOIP. You do not need to have a regular telephone line.

Are they misunderstanding my questions as much as I'm misunderstanding there answers

I'm guessing my only options are:

get some kind of wireless ATA that picks up the signal from the other house and connects to my freespeech account somehow?

Leave my laptop on all the time (not really an option)

or get a wireless bridge thingy to provide me with an ethernet port?



The reason behind all this might make the solution a bit easier:
I have an 1890 number that I have set up to ring my VOIP number first and if after 4 rings, there is no answer, it then tries my mobile (this is a process set up by the 1890 provider, not freespeech.ie). If my VOIP account is disconnected, i.e. my laptop is powered off, instead of it ringing 4 times on my VOIP, the VOIP brings it straight to voicemail so it can't even ring the 4 times.

So I'm wondering if this would be possible: Get an ATA and leave it in the house (or any house with a router that's always on?) and that will then allow it to be connected and ring 4 times so it will then be able to divert to my mobile. Would this be my best option to take?

Any further help would be appreciated:)

fatherdougalmag

You've got two strands of requirements so. On one hand you need to get a setup where you don't have to leave your laptop on. By the sounds of things, the most economic means is to get a wireless bridge and an ATA.

As for the VOIP service requirements I can only speak with a Blueface background but they have a provision (through a PBX GUI on your account) where you can provide secondary numbers that ring (a) along with your primary number, (b) if your primary number is busy or (c) if your VOIP service is unavailable. So, with Blueface, you could set up your mobile as a secondary number. If a call comes in, let it ring and if it isn't answered after 10 seconds or so you can pick up your mobile. You will, however, pay for the call from Blueface to your mobile (i.e. the forwarded portion).

I don't know if Blueface take 1890xxxxxx number ports though.

cormie

Thanks again.

€92 is a bit pricey for the bridge, then I'd have to spend more on the ATA too:(

How about my idea of just plugging an ATA into the router in the other house? The router is always plugged in, so then the ATA should always be able to ring for 4 rings and then let the 1890 redirect to my mobile instead. All I'd need to do is disable the volume of the ATA so the folks in the house with the router don't have to hear it ringing every time I get a call. As long as I can get it to ring for 4 rings, by which time, I'd have either got it on my laptop if it was on, or if it wasn't, it would then direct to my mobile. Would this be possible?

nilhg

cormie wrote:

How about my idea of just plugging an ATA into the router in the other house? The router is always plugged in, so then the ATA should always be able to ring for 4 rings and then let the 1890 redirect to my mobile instead. All I'd need to do is disable the volume of the ATA so the folks in the house with the router don't have to hear it ringing every time I get a call. As long as I can get it to ring for 4 rings, by which time, I'd have either got it on my laptop if it was on, or if it wasn't, it would then direct to my mobile. Would this be possible?

Yeah that should work, with blueface you would need to have a separate user name for each device, both connecting to the same account, its probably the same with freespeech.

If you can receive wireless from the other house a dect phone should reach you as well, should be well worth giving it a go.

cormie

Cool I might do that then.

I'm not too sure what I need though. I basically want the cheapest option;) I never thought of a cordless phone being able to reach me (is that what a dect phone is or is a dect phone something else?) which would be very handy too.

So if I want to hook something up to the router, what exactly do I need? If anyone could link to some cheap products I'd really appreciate it:)

BostonB

Borrow someones cordless phones and see if they will reach you.

fatherdougalmag

Before you pony up any dough, you need to check if you can port your 1890 number to a VOIP provider. As far as I know, Blueface are the only company which have the option of porting an existing number so your freespeech account won't be any use. Mind you, you will get an 076 number and, as far as I know, that's a fixed national charge. I'm not sure if you can port an 1890 number to Blueface so you might want to explore all of that a bit more before you start shelling out.

cormie

What exactly do you mean by port? When I have my laptop on and ring the 1890 number it rings my freespeech 01 number for 4 rings and then if no answer, starts ringing my mobile. Which is what I want it to do:)

fatherdougalmag

Understood. I didn't realise that the 1890 number mapped to a geographical number.

When I talk about porting I mean being able to take an 01 number from Eircom, UTV or whoever and bringing it over to another company's network. For example, when I switched to VOIP I had my Eircom number ported to Blueface so when people call it, their call gets routed to Blueface's gateway so they can route it to my ATA.

cormie

Yeah, that's all cool, as far as I know, the 1890 number has to be ported. Like I can't get a seperate 1890 line and if I call people from it, 1890 shows up as the caller. As far as I know, you have to port it and it works fine when I'm connected to freespeech:)

So what hardware would be cheapest to get to allow me to connect to the router in the other house and use a cordless phone does anyone know? Can I use any old cordless phone or does it have to be a VOIP one? Where do I input the VOIP user info into? the phone or the ATA?

fatherdougalmag

You can use any old phone (cordless or corded). That's the idea of an ATA. It takes a regular POTS (plain old telephone service) phone and bridges it onto the IP network. If you are that (socially) close with the broadband customer, you could replace their router with a all-in-one router/ata combination. Failing that you're going to need an ATA. I'm using a Sipura 2100 that I bought from Blueface for €99 a couple of years ago. They don't do them any more but you should root around on Komplett etc. Just make sure that the ATA is NOT bound to a particular provider. So be careful, for example, if you go on eBay. A lot of them are locked to a particular VOIP provider.

cormie

thanks again for all the help.

Yup, I'm socially close with the router man;) It's even my wireless router:)

So that thing on komplett for €68 should do the trick then? Do I need to program that to connect to freespeech.ie somehow?

How can you tell if an ATA is tied to a provider? If I was to buy one from adverts.ie for example, how can I be sure it will work?

ST

One of these might be suitable....

http://www.voipsupply.com/product_info.php?products_id=802&osCsid=f42e53d333238e859651d635a4a0e1c8

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=485

They are also portable and will work wirelessly elsewhere if you are travelling. You won't have to be within range of your neighbours house.

ST

cormie wrote:

thanks again for all the help.

Yup, I'm socially close with the router man;) It's even my wireless router:)

So that thing on komplett for €68 should do the trick then? Do I need to program that to connect to freespeech.ie somehow?

How can you tell if an ATA is tied to a provider? If I was to buy one from adverts.ie for example, how can I be sure it will work?

When you set-up the ATA you will enter your Freespeech user name, password and the freespeech server details. You will find all the info on the free-speech website.

http://support.freespeech.ie/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=36&nav=0,3

You will also need to set the IP address of the ATA.

You will probably also need to forward certain ports to the IP address of the router, or create a DMZ with the ATA in the DMZ.

When you are buying the ATA ask if it is unlocked. If it is tied to a particular provider you won't be able to access the setup menus.