Blueface sub from abroad?

jester77

I'm living in Germany and it costs me 4.5c/min to call home and it costs my parents quite a bit to call me. They are set in their ways and would not think of changing from €ircom or using calling cards or any other cheap method, have tried convincing them!!

So, would it be possible for me to subscribe to Blueface, or another Irish VOIP provider, and get a local irish number so that my parents could call me for the price of a local call? It would also save me about 3c/min when talking to them.

Thanks.

sirlinux

Just get your parents to order for you and send it over, it will work fine.

jester77

Excellent... and a quick question on ATA.
We have a phone in our apt and will still want to use it for receving/making calls here. Does the ATA provide dual functionality, ie VOIP and regular calls?

bhickey

jester77 wrote:

Excellent... and a quick question on ATA.
We have a phone in our apt and will still want to use it for receving/making calls here. Does the ATA provide dual functionality, ie VOIP and regular calls?

The Grandstream 486 will do exactly that. Plug the phone line, handset and Internet into it and it will ring for both incoming VoIP and regular calls. You can also choose for any call whether you want to dial using VoIP or the regular phone line.

jester77

Almost sounds too good to be true
Thanks guys!

jester77

I see that Blueface only offer the Linkysys PAP2 ATA which has no telephone in connection. Sounds like a good device from the reviews I've read and it's quite portable and stores your phone number!

Do splitters send signals both ways?
Is it just a simple matter of adding a splitter to the telephone's line-in connection and attaching our normal landline connection to one part of the splitter and the PAP2 connection to the the other part of the splitter so that we can receive calls from both lines?

WillieFlynn

jester77 wrote:

Excellent... and a quick question on ATA.
We have a phone in our apt and will still want to use it for receving/making calls here. Does the ATA provide dual functionality, ie VOIP and regular calls?

To do this you will need to get the sipura 3000, you can get it to chose which calls go over your land line and which by VoIP. Incomming calls form either will use the same phone handset (you can have different ring for each).

Otherwise if you are using any of the other adaptors like the linksys PAP2 / sipura 2000 (which are the same internaly), you will need another telephone handset to your existing landline one.

jester77

Thanks Willie.
Thought I could get the PAP2 from Blueface and use it!
Grandstream 486 and Sipura 3000 will do what I need.
Sipura 3000 sounds good, seen some good reviews and it's not a bad a price, approx 85-95 excl. del.

aaronc

jester77 wrote:

Thanks Willie.
Thought I could get the PAP2 from Blueface and use it!
Grandstream 486 and Sipura 3000 will do what I need.
Sipura 3000 sounds good, seen some good reviews and it's not a bad a price, approx 85-95 excl. del.

I don't think the 486 will do what you need. The PSTN port in the 486 is only for failover, i.e. if you lose power to the 486 it just connects the FXS port directly to the phone. The newer HandyTone 488 has the combination FXS and FXO port which will let you use a VoIP and PSTN connection at the same time. The Sipura 3000 also has an FXS and FXO port combination so would be suitable as well.

The PAP2 has two FXS ports and cannot be used with an analogue line so it wouldn't be suitable either.

Aaron

bhickey

aaronc wrote:

I don't think the 486 will do what you need. The PSTN port in the 486 is only for failover, i.e. if you lose power to the 486 it just connects the FXS port directly to the phone. The newer HandyTone 488 has the combination FXS and FXO port which will let you use a VoIP and PSTN connection at the same time.

The 486 PSTN port is definitely not just for failover and you can specify a PSTN Access Code (e.g. '*9') which connects you directly to the phone line instead of over VoIP. This would typically be used if you were experiencing quality problems of if have you something like UTV Internet's free off-peak calls package. The main point is that you have the choice to either use VoIP or PSTN for any call.

The 488 (like the Sipura 3000) also allows you to terminate calls from PSTN-VoIP VoIP or vice versa.

aaronc

bhickey wrote:

The 486 PSTN port is definitely not just for failover and you can specify a PSTN Access Code (e.g. '*9') which connects you directly to the phone line instead of over VoIP. This would typically be used if you were experiencing quality problems of if have you something like UTV Internet's free off-peak calls package. The main point is that you have the choice to either use VoIP or PSTN for any call.

The 488 (like the Sipura 3000) also allows you to terminate calls from PSTN-VoIP VoIP or vice versa.

Well we're both right:
http://www.grandstream.com/y-faq.htm#gen16

You just need to watch which version of the HandyTone486 you get. Although I imagine if it's a new one it will probably be version 2 so would be suitable for PSTN calling.

Aaron

causal

The 486 was release around Feb2004, I don't know when version 2.0 was released but mine is nearly 6 months old and it has support, so it's quite likely that anyone who got one from blueface has version 2 also.
From the User Guide:

5.2.5 Send and Receive PSTN Calls Through PSTN Line Port
Starting with HandyTone 486 Rev 2.0, user will be able to send and receive calls from PSTN.
To receive PSTN calls, simply make phone off hook when the analog phone rings. To make
a PSTN call, simply press *00 to get the PSTN line dial tone and dial the PSTN number.

I checked the config page and it has the user-configurable PSTN escape code, default '*00'

causal

zap

remember comreg say you must "normally" be a resident in ireland to have an irish number.

jester77

zap wrote:

remember comreg say you must "normally" be a resident in ireland to have an irish number.

Yes but I could get the 076 number. This is from Blueface's Terms of Services:

Customers purchasing products that include Ireland 076 VoIP numbers acknowledge that they are normally resident in Ireland or have a strong and genuine link with Ireland. It is in contravention of the Irish Communications Regulatory body directives to subscribe to an Irish 076 VoIP number if you do not meet one of the above conditions.

As I was born and raised in Ireland and lived there for over 25 years I think it's reasonable to assume that I have a "strong and genuine link with Ireland".

zap

depends what comreg's meaning of this is.

BigMoose

How much stronger link can you have without actually still living here? And if that was their criteria then why put the 2nd part in at all? Ok, so this is ComReg we're talking about so who knows :rolleyes:

bigpaddy2004

Im interested in getting a Blueface voip phone too, but my current router does not agree with voip through msn messenger 7.0. Even the manufacturer, smc, cannot resolve the problem for me. So would blueface work for me? What ports do they use?

medO

jester77 wrote:

I'm living in Germany and it costs me 4.5c/min to call home and it costs my parents quite a bit to call me.

eircom charge 4,93c / min for a local call - even more than Deutsche Telekom charge for a call to Ireland!

eircom charge 24,2c / min for a call to Germany.

To add insult to injury, eircom get away with dumping some of their international traffic to backstreet operators based in england who provide 1960s style Dept of P&T third world call quality to customers who pay these extortionate prices in 2005.

Ireland, the past-its-sellby-date, rip-off-infrastructure-republic...

medO

podgeandrodge

jester77 wrote:

so that my parents could call me for the price of a local call?

Without any of this they could just call you via Telestunt. Off Peak calls to germany 1.2 cent a minute straight from their Eircom line by dialing 1890-943123 - simple as that.

WillieFlynn

bigpaddy2004 wrote:

Im interested in getting a Blueface voip phone too, but my current router does not agree with voip through msn messenger 7.0. Even the manufacturer, smc, cannot resolve the problem for me. So would blueface work for me? What ports do they use?

If you bypass the router and connect your PC directly to the modem does it work for you? If you were to get an ATA like the sipura 2100 or similar which has a second ethernet port for plugging in the rest of your network (and it provides QoS), you should not have any problems as it will be on the internet side of your current router.

I have found that hardware VoIP solutions tend to work much better than softphones.

StickyMcGinty

sorry to ressurect this thread lads, but i'm in a similar situation to the original poster.

my girlfriend is moving to spain for a year for college so i'm gonna try set up VOIP for both of us using each others laptops. only difference to the original fella gere is that i wont be using a landline at all, but i want to use a VoIP phone just to call her VoIP phone connected to her laptop - all for free!! whats the cheapest equipment i can get to make this happen.

cheers for the help lads, i've read through all the FAQ's and threads, i was originally gonna get an ATA but i'd rather just keep it ot the laptop! thanks!

Vinny

sirlinux

In all honesty buy two headsets and use MSN messneger, yahoo messenger or gmail messenger, all work fine for what you want to do as long as landlines arent involved, and all are pretty good for firewalls, skype in fatc might be your best bet if firewalls are a problem, it's almost viral the way it can route voice through firewalls.

StickyMcGinty

cheers, but i'm just after talkin to her and she's pretty adamant that she'll be wantin to call her parents and the like on the landline, so i'll prob go with blueface!

sirlinux, can you recommend any good VoIP phones? blueface will work ok in spain wont it??

cheers for the help

UberNewb

Once she is set up to use blueface on her laptop she can use it anywhere in the world and you just dial her number, very handy!

WillieFlynn

VinnyL wrote:

blueface will work ok in spain wont it??

Depends on the broadband connection and the route it take across the internet to Dublin. However I have used it in the past from Houston, Texas with out any problems. So you should be fine.