Best hardware choice?

frost

Newbie to VOIP, have several trial accounts including BlueFace, which looks good and I may keep that. Initial use is keeping in touch with family in USA, but depending on quality would like to use domestically as much as possible too.

Currently using X-Lite softphone and built-in laptop speakers and microphone, so sound quality isn't the best.

Hardware...could use a bit of help figuring this one out.

Only DSL broadband available in my area (Wicklow Town), so I have to keep BT line, and lots of people still ring us on that BT number anyway.

My BT-supplied ZyTel Prestige 600 modem only has a single LAN port.


What I want is:

1. One, preferably two, PC's (and/or other network devices) connected to internet and LAN'd. My laptop has wireless receiver as well as LAN port built in, but wireless network is a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have.

2. Receive and send both PSTN and VOIP calls with same standard telephone (Blueface suggested I get Sipura 3000). Ability to have 2 VOIP lines and use them simultaneously would be good.

Quality of service - we use Web & email during calls quite frequently, but usually downloads aren't very big, so not sure if I need QoS in my hardware.

Where to buy:
I'm going over to the States, so was thinking of getting the necessary hardware over there (Amazon, EBay, any of a hundred electronics suppliers etc). I'm aware that some stuff is locked to a provider and that I'll have to deal with different power supply.

Any suggestions very much appreciated!

MrPudding

I use the Linksys WRT54GP2. It is a wireless access point / broadband router with 3 x 10/100 switch ports, 2 x RJ11 Phone ports and a SPI firewall. Very nifty.

I use it with Blueface and IBB. Quality is excellent. It also has the option to setup QoS.

Looks like a good fit for you. As far as I know you would not be able to have PSTN & VoIP on the same phone but it does support 2 VoIP lines. You could just plug a phone ino your ADSL microfilter for PSTN calls and then have the other one or two into the router.

MrP

causal

To satisfy all of your requirements you can get the WRT54GP2 and the Sipura 3000.

Personally, I wouldn't do that unless there is a cogent reason specifically requiring it all - is there? If not, I'd drop the requirement for the VoIP & PSTN calls coming in on the same phone - thus you have no need for the SPA3000.

As MrP said, the WRT54GP2 will give you 3 LAN ports, wireless connectivity for you laptop++, and 2 VoIP ports.
If you need more than 3 wired network devices then you can simply add a switch inside your LAN and plug your devices into it.

Do you need multiple independent VoIP lines or would a couple of extensions hanging off the one line do e.g. a DECT basestation with several handsets located in convenient locations. You can do both
If you do want two independent VoIP lines then why the requirement for one of them to be used with the BT line too? 2 phones instead of 3 - make sure one phone is red - direct line to the President, oh and it must have a red flashing light

QoS on ADSL is typically an upstream problem - which can be controlled (within limits) by a router.
The WRT54GP2 facilitates decent enough QoS within your own network. It can control what's travelling internally (in your LAN) and what it sends up to the WAN. Obviously it can't control what is coming down from the WAN, nor can it control the rest of the internet or what quality your ISP gives you. But it's as good as you can expect without 1:1 etc.

Where to buy? Weigh up dollar saving against convenience and aftersales care.
afair the US version of the WRT54GP2 isn't just locked to a particular provider - the whole voice part is locked. There are places that will unlock them for a fee. Linksys-US don't support VoIP on their routers - that's provided by the US VoIP provider the router is locked to.
Curveball: What are US customs like about exporting electronic equipment - or has all that calmed down now?

You can check out Linksys-EU support here: http://www1.linksys.com/international/support.asp?coid=18
..and it's worth noting they say:

Warning: If you use the U.S. versions of your wireless product's drivers or firmware on European wireless products, you may lose the ability to use high channels (channels 12 and 13).

*little voice on shoulder* dollar saving Vs convenience Vs aftersales care !?!

hth,
causal

frost

Excellent, that's very helpful. It's a fair point about the BT line. The simplest and cheapest option is the second "hotline to the president" phone, or maybe a 2-line phone.

I am wondering about dialing alphanumeric SIP addresses on a normal telephone, in cases where the VOIP address I am dialling is not peered with my provider.

amby666

I would agree with the convienience & support issue.
I got the WRT54GP2 from Blueface so it came preconfigured. After about 6 weeks it developed a fault and i collected a replacement after a couple of hours - just long enough for them to configure it.

I am wondering about dialing alphanumeric SIP addresses on a normal telephone,
in cases where the VOIP address I am dialling is not peered with my provider.

I think the issue here is the peering, not keying the alphanumeric.
Blueface might be able to explain this for you (post here if you get an answer!).
They have recently added a link to Sipbroker under "Useful Numbers".
Not sure, but the gist of it seems to be that the voip providers peer with sipbroker, yr call does a look up with them and then makes the connection to the sip number you want.
http://www.sipbroker.com/sipbroker/action/login

--Just thinking, a Blueface newsletter would be a good idea Aaron!

.

aaronc

amby666 wrote:

II think the issue here is the peering, not keying the alphanumeric.Blueface might be able to explain this for you (post here if you get an answer!).
.

There are as you say two separate problems here: firstly alpahumeric (and additional symbols such as @) dialling and secondly peering/routing to other VoIP providers.

For the alphanumeric dialling problem you can use a softphone where you will be able to enter addresses from a keyboard. If using a normal phone the only practical way is with the provider supplied network prefixes *1 etc. Even with a €500 IP Phone there's no really simple way to enter <name>@&lt;network> type addresses without lots of menu switching. So keying is a big issue when calling between VoIP networks. That's where something like SIPBroker comes in handy, by setting up prefixes to over 150 networks you'll probably find the one you want there and you will only need to dial *s and digits, albeit possibly some lengthy combinations.

Peering/routing is the second issue in question. Routing a VoIP call to another network is theoretically easy enough once you've managed to get the fully qualified address in somehow. The problem is not all providers have full public access. What this means is that if you were to try and dial 1234@sip.network.com and you weren't registered to sip.network.com your call may not be accepted. Normally when a provider sets up a network prefix, such as the *1 discussed above, they will also make sure the calls will get through either by verifying public access to the network, setting up an explicit perring agreement or by creating a generic account on the destination network and using that.

The trend at the moment for VoIP networks, Vonage and Skype aside, is moving towards full public access which will mean peering will become unnecessary and it just becomes a routing problem which is a lot easier.

Aaron

frost

Aaron
THanks, that was very clearly explained. So if I want to call people on other providers I just need to be sure both of our providers use SIPBroker.

Related question, then: Since I am setting up *new* accounts for family in the States, is there a reason (pings?) why they would want to have local (USA based) accounts as opposed to one in Ireland or anywhere else for that matter?

amby666

Second question for Aaron if he passes by again!
I've tried ringing the sipbroker test no *8*011188888 using different phones plugged into a WRT54GP2 but it doesn't connect. Works fine on a softphone.
Do I have to do something else?

Ta
Ambrose

aaronc

amby666 wrote:

Second question for Aaron if he passes by again!
I've tried ringing the sipbroker test no *8*011188888 using different phones plugged into a WRT54GP2 but it doesn't connect. Works fine on a softphone.
Do I have to do something else?

I know I'll get in trouble if I turn this into a provider specific help forum but this question is relevant to anyone who has a Sipura or Linksys device. If you need to dial a number that has multiple *s (asterisk's) you'll need to modify you dial plan to something like:

(999|911|112|S1 30[1-5]|3xxx.|171|11[013-9]x.|1[02689]x.|[24-8]xxxxxx|0x.|*x.|*x*x.)

Note the last bit, *x*x., is the section that allows mutliple *s so you could also just append that to whatever you currently have.

On the Sipura and PAP2 devices the dial plan is found on the Line 1 page. For the Linksys Routers it's also found on the Line 1 page which you can get to using the equivalent of:

http://192.168.15.1/Voice_adminPage.htm (note it's case sensitive)

hth

Aaron

aaronc

frost wrote:

Related question, then: Since I am setting up *new* accounts for family in the States, is there a reason (pings?) why they would want to have local (USA based) accounts as opposed to one in Ireland or anywhere else for that matter?

When using a VoIP service it would always be a good idea to choose the closest one, from the network perspective, all other things being equal. That being said what is close on the internet is not what people may think. There are people with connections in Ireland that would be further from a data center in Dublin than the US, Europe and even parts of Asia.

For the US in particular there are big pipes going across the Atlantic from Ireland/UK so while you would push the noticeable latency limits if you did a double hop if there's only a single hop involved you generally won't notice a difference between using an Irish or US provider. A double hop would occur if you were living in the US using an Irish provider and rang a US number and vice-versa.

Aaron

Cabaal

aaronc wrote:

I know I'll get in trouble if I turn this into a provider specific help forum....

At the moment I see this no difference to GarfieldConnoll answering questions on the broadband forum, its very much a positive experience for people as they get to interact with the providers they use/plan on using.

Of course in the interest of fairness if somebody from broadtalk or skytel see's a question about their setup here then its helpful if they answer too

frost

well to close off at least part of my original question, i ended finding a used wireless router/modem elsewhere on boards, so got a pap2 ata from blueface and am up and running with it. minor tweak to the dialplan and i can now dial to other providers using *2 for FWD etc. i was surprised at the quality of the calls since i had tested this out previously with a softphone and it was ok but not as good as a regular phone. i've made a few calls witih this new setup, both local and to a pstn number in the States, and so far it's as good as a pstn to pstn call. haven't actually tried any voip to voip calls because i can't get #2 pap2 to work.

which brings me to the new question. i actually got 2 pap2's from blueface, second one for a friend. his works when plugged into my router, but not when plugged into his netopia cayman 3300 series. the pap2 just blinks and blinks. ok, so it's a config thing with his router, but what is it i'm looking for?

causal

We'll assume everything is plugged in correctly and he has full internet access.
Is he using the same ISP as you?

If all the above is in order then it's most likely port forwarding:
Check here for details on setting up port forwarding (pinhole) on his cayman:
http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Netopia/Cayman3300/eMule.htm

You want to forward:
UDP, port 5060
UDP, ports 16384 to 16482 (or 10000 to 20000 to cover all bases)

hth,
causal

frost

causal wrote:

We'll assume everything is plugged in correctly and he has full internet access.

Yep.

causal wrote:

Is he using the same ISP as you?

No, he's using Eircom DSL and I'm with BT DSL.

causal wrote:

If all the above is in order then it's most likely port forwarding:
Check here for details on setting up port forwarding (pinhole) on his cayman:
http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Netopia/Cayman3300/eMule.htm

You want to forward:
UDP, port 5060
UDP, ports 16384 to 16482 (or 10000 to 20000 to cover all bases)

hth,
causal

Thanks, causal. I'll give it a try and let you know.

frost

just realised i never followed up on this. the problem was my friend's netopia - hardware fault. i found a different one for him and it worked fine.

lzbones

I had similar issue deciding on hardware - was tied to DSL and wanted to get an additional VOIP line and using EsatBT. I went for a zoom combined ADSL/router(4 port)/VOIP adaptor, it's nice beacuse it's only one port on the back for your phone line which covers your DSL connection and your phone line (ie. calls can come in over VOIP and PSTN to one phone - to dial out on VOIP you just press #). It also fixes problems with surfing and talking at the same time - two down sides I see are you can only have one SIP account and there's no wireless. They are 99 quid on digidave.ie which I think is pretty ok when you compare to a standard AT.