VoIP and wireless

dara.obriain

Hi all,
i must confess to being clueless in the general techno area but am thinking of making a few changes to my phone and internet setup at home. i am currently with upc for broadband, phone and cable. i am dropping upc and switching to free-to-air tv, VoIp phone and wireless internet ( i want to hook up a labtop to a big screen tv downstairs but also need to be able to get a signal in other rooms in the house on both labtop and pc).
my real question is what wireless internet provider should i switch to and will it be compatible with VoIP? Wimax?? also what VoIP provider do i go to and what hardware do i need? i appreciate this is alot of questions but like i said, clueless. in terms of phone needs, most of our calls are to irish mobiles and my wife calls landlines in venezuela regularly enough as she is from there. any advice greatly appreciated.

Johnboy1951

my real question is what wireless internet provider should i switch to and will it be compatible with VoIP?

I would suggest sticking with UPC for broadband and use that for your VOIP setup.

FSL

I think you are mixing up a wireless LAN with broadband supplied by fixed wireless. UPC is significantly better than WIMAX.

All you need to is either a wireless enabled router or a wireless access point to provide a wireless LAN in your house.

You would need that regardless of who your ISP is.

An ISP supplies a connection to the internet either by cable, fibre optic,DSL or wireless, the latter can be from a fixed wireless provider such as the one I use, a WIMAX supplier or a 3G supplier such as Vodophone, Three etc. It terminates at a fixed point.

They will normally supply some sort of router/modem which may or may not have wireless capability.

It is up to you how you distribute it throughout your property. It could be totally cable or totally wireless or a combination of the two.

dara.obriain

thanks for the replies lads but am still a bit confused. i typed a big reply yesterday and then was told i'm not logged in and lost my post eventhough the message was in top corner saying i was logged in- very frustrating, i wonder has anyone else had this problem? Anyway, back to the business at hand.

there are 2 upc wall-boxes in my house (rented), one downstairs and one upstairs. a cable (coaxial?) runs from the one downstairs to the cablebox and on to the tv so i assume this is the tv signal. from the box upstairs, a acble runs to the modem and an ethernet connection goes from the modem to the computer. as far as i know, the box upstairs is seperate frm the one downstairs, in other words one carries the tv signal and the other (upstairs) carries the internet signal. from what i have read, once i have internet in my house, all i need is to replace the modem with a wireless router and this will give internet access to any computer in the house. IS THIS CORRECT? cos its really important, i want to hook up a laptop to a bigscreen tv downstairs moreorless permenantly so i want to be able to get internet on it.

by the way, there are 3 other wallplates around the house that we've never used but they look like they take an ethernet connection- don't know if they are for phone or internet.

the other thing is the VoIP. can i just buy a skype phone and i'm good to go with skype on my laptop- too easy?

Mr. G

I would always recommend you to use a SIP provider such as Blueface so you can port your number and still get cheap rates. I would use an ATA for your case and connect it via your internet router. AFAIK, you can not port your number to skype.

If you have a broadband connection and a BB subscription connect your WireLess router to your internet RJ45 socket and away you go. It may not be that simple and some programming may be required, but it is easy enough to install and UPC should help you with the router and Blueface with the ATA.

Hope this helps!

dara.obriain

thanks mr. grumpy, things are slowly becoming clearer. my brother in law is in town and he hooked up a wireless router (netgear N150 Wireless Router WNR1000) so we have wireless internet throughout the house now. which brings me to Voip again- i have a wireless router and the phone is a Siemens gigaset A160, the standard phone supplied by UPC when you have cable, broadband and phone with them. am i good to go with this or do i need another phone or an adaptar of some sort. any help appreciated.

Mr. G

dara.obriain wrote: »

thanks mr. grumpy, things are slowly becoming clearer. my brother in law is in town and he hooked up a wireless router (netgear N150 Wireless Router WNR1000) so we have wireless internet throughout the house now. which brings me to Voip again- i have a wireless router and the phone is a Siemens gigaset A160, the standard phone supplied by UPC when you have cable, broadband and phone with them. am i good to go with this or do i need another phone or an adaptar of some sort. any help appreciated.

Hi Dara,


The Siemens Gigaset A160 is an ordinary phone that will work with any landline or ATA. I suppose UPC (which is voip) supply's you with a modem which connects to the Netgear N150 Wireless Router WNR1000 and the phone.

What is this model of your UPC modem? It may be displayed on the bottom or side of the device or on the manual they supplied.

You can use a new IP phone or an ATA that supports SIP.

An ATA is a device that converts Digital VoiP to an analog telephone and will work with any analog phone, these can be purchased on eBay or pre-configured from Blueface.ie:



http://www.blueface.ie/helpandadvice/newtoblueface.aspx#callsBB


I hope this clears things up? If you have any questions on this feelfree to ask as that is what this forum is all about:D.

dara.obriain

thanks mr. grumpy, very informative again. one or two queries: 1) UPC is VoIP like you said so how does the Gigaset A160 phone work without an ata adaptor as it is only a regular analogue phone? and 2) should I just replace the phone with a basic IP phone or is there alot of money to be saved by getting an ata adaptor? i've also heard that the adaptor interferes with sound quality but this might not be through. thanks again.

dara.obriain

sorry, i forgot to mention the only thing written on the modem i can see is "Scientific Atlanta________________________ 2203".

donaghs

dara.obriain wrote: »

sorry, i forgot to mention the only thing written on the modem i can see is "Scientific Atlanta________________________ 2203".

Dara, have looked at any VoiP packages from people like blueface? I'm interested in going this direction. Mainly as UPC phone isnt available where I am. I'm looking at the €15 free landline calls from Blueface, but there isnt really any saving here compared to the phone package from UPC (as far as I can see?)

dara.obriain

most of our calls go to irish mobiles and upc charges about 25c/min (i think) as opposed to between 2 and 7c from voip providers eg. rynga or megavoip.

Mr. G

Hi Dara,

thanks mr. grumpy, very informative again. one or two queries: 1) UPC is VoIP like you said so how does the Gigaset A160 phone work without an ata adaptor as it is only a regular analogue phone? and 2) should I just replace the phone with a basic IP phone or is there alot of money to be saved by getting an ata adaptor? i've also heard that the adaptor interferes with sound quality but this might not be through. thanks again.

Yes UPC uses voip technology. The Gigaset phone is an ordinary phone that works with any ATA (Analogue Telephone Adapter) or landline. Your Scientific Atlanta 2203 cable modem which was supplied from UPC includes two RJ-11 telephony ports for connecting conventional telephones or fax machines via the analogue plug. I'm not that sure that this modem supports Blueface/SIP as I would say it is something to do with the UPC network and not easily accessed to the administration as the password may have been changed if applicable. You can connect your Gigaset phone to your ata and your ATA will connect via Broadband rj45 ethernet cable to your wireless router.

most of our calls go to irish mobiles and upc charges about 25c/min (i think) as opposed to between 2 and 7c from voip providers eg. rynga or megavoip.

I would suggest using PBXes.com which will connect your many trunk SIP providers for different prefixes. It allows you to dial locally and call cheaply. Rynga is 7/8 cent to call an irish mobile and you can still show your normal caller ID. I would however, use blueface or goldfish.ie to keep your number and to support the 1800/1850/1890 etc. numbers that Rynga doesn't support.

Dara, have looked at any VoiP packages from people like blueface? I'm interested in going this direction. Mainly as UPC phone isnt available where I am. I'm looking at the €15 free landline calls from Blueface, but there isnt really any saving here compared to the phone package from UPC (as far as I can see?)

I would suggest

1. subscribing to Blueface so you can keep your number and have 300 free minutes with.
2. Topup Rynga for your 120 freedays.

malachy47

The RJ11 ports on the 2203 can only be used for UPC's phone offering.

If you buy a Linksys 3102 analog telephone adapter (ATA) you can use your existing A160 phone. The Siemens A160 plugs into the 3102, which in turn connects to the N150, which in turn connects to the 2203 (you already have that last step I see).

Alternatively, you could get an IP phone such as the Siemens A580 IP which would connect directly to the N150.

Given the features of these choices I'd opt for the A580IP route, as it's one less device, auto-updates, can have six active VOIP accounts and has PSTN fallback. It can do lowest cost call routing too, thus nullifying any need to use an external PBX-type setup. There's only +/- e20 in the difference.

Mr. G

malachy47 wrote: »

The RJ11 ports on the 2203 can only be used for UPC's phone offering.

If you buy a Linksys 3102 analog telephone adapter (ATA) you can use your existing A160 phone. The Siemens A160 plugs into the 3102, which in turn connects to the N150, which in turn connects to the 2203 (you already have that last step I see).

Alternatively, you could get an IP phone such as the Siemens A580 IP which would connect directly to the N150.

Given the features of these choices I'd opt for the A580IP route, as it's one less device, auto-updates, can have six active VOIP accounts and has PSTN fallback. It can do lowest cost call routing too, thus nullifying any need to use an external PBX-type setup. There's only +/- e20 in the difference.

It is correct. Basically connect the ATA (Linksys3102) to your existing analogue phone A160. The ATA (3102) will connect via ethernet cable to your modem (2203).

You can connect any ATA that supports SIP to pbxes.com (which is what I would do for small applications) and use many providers for different prefixes, for example numbers beginning with 2-9 will go with blueface 01+[2-9] and 1. to go with blueface
and every other with rynga.

I hope this clears things out and it is not that difficult to configure. If you have any questions, everyone here can help!

malachy47

Mr_Grumpy wrote: »

... The ATA (3102) will connect via ethernet cable to your modem (2203)....

I doubt that, unless the only device that will connect to broadband is the phone :eek::D. The EPC 2203 has a single LAN Out RJ45 which is obviously (and correctly being used by the N150).

Johnboy1951

malachy47 wrote: »

I doubt that, unless the only device that will connect to broadband is the phone :eek::D. The EPC 2203 has a single LAN Out RJ45 which is obviously (and correctly being used by the N150).

If this is the 3102 being mentioned then it appears to have a 'pass-through' RJ45 which essentially replaces the one used in the modem .....

Linksys VoIP SPA 3102 SIP ATA/Router with 1 x FXS, 1 x FXO, 1 x LAN, 1 x WAN

http://www.voippabx.com/store/linksys-3102-atarouter-with-1fxs-1fxo-1lan-1wan-p-153.html

Mr. G

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

If this is the 3102 being mentioned then it appears to have a 'pass-through' RJ45 which essentially replaces the one used in the modem .....



http://www.voippabx.com/store/linksys-3102-atarouter-with-1fxs-1fxo-1lan-1wan-p-153.html

So, to clear things up...

You can plug in your traditional ordinary Gigaset phone into the RJ11 telephone port on your ATA, then connect it via ethernet port to your router/modem and configure the ATA. You can then make calls.

You could also use an IP phone where it connects to your modem/router via rj45 ethernet cable, configure it and start making calls.

Many ATA's and IP phones come with 'pass through ethernet' feature as the about poster said, you can connect your modem to the ATA and the ATA to your WiFi/Router/Other device like a PC. Alternatively (with or without pass through ports) you could connect your ATA to your router ports if you have them.

Sorry lads for the confusion and I hope this helps!

malachy47

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

If this is the 3102 being mentioned then it appears to have a 'pass-through' RJ45 which essentially replaces the one used in the modem .....



http://www.voippabx.com/store/linksys-3102-atarouter-with-1fxs-1fxo-1lan-1wan-p-153.html

Oh that's right, I was thinking of the Linksys PAP2. It looks like Dara has it summarised correctly in any case.

Given the choice of placing the ATA either before or after the router, I'd go with the "after" route for security and ease of configuration.

Mr. G

malachy47 wrote: »

Oh that's right, I was thinking of the Linksys PAP2. It looks like Dara has it summarised correctly in any case.

Given the choice of placing the ATA either before or after the router, I'd go with the "after" route for security and ease of configuration.

Yes, but remember that if the ata goes first the quality will be better as it takes priority (QoS). Doesn't make much of a difference so you are probably right to have it after.