anyone know anything about voip and sipgate?

Trying to rationalise my systems here which will involve much messing around with ISPs, BT and the like and would like to use a second phone using VOIP..connected to my nice PABX.

Now it seems that various boxes need to be put between the LAN and the PABX to turn VOIP into analogue phone, but I am terribly confused.

I understand the need for registering with someone who has a VOIP -> PSTN gateway. In order to talk to normal phones.

I understand the need to translate from VOIP to 'audio' and the like.

But I cant for the life of me understand how the gateway boxes work..

Let's say I have one behind a NAT router.

Some manuals say 'configure incoming UDP pass through on ports XXXX' and it will work

But the SAME manual says 'don't bother, use DHCP and it will sort itself out'

And in the SAME manual it seems to imply that the box itself is a NAT router and DSL modem? yet another part says it needs to be connected TO one?

The VoIP gateway of choice is SIPGATE, as they seem to have the right tariff structure and be open.

Can someone tell me the bleeding obvious, of what box to get and how it works?

Set-up is bog standard mainly wired LAN on static public IP address and NATTED to the hilt with a web server publicly visible via NAT pass-through.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher
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Yup, unless you want to talk to another VOIP user directly. (handy for office to office style comms - miss out the POTS bit altogether).

Yup, either done by a VOIP phone or a gateway device usually.

Ok, first thing to get clear is the type of analogue ports your gateway has. They come in two flavours FXS, and FXO. One (FXO) is designed to look like a phone, and the other (FXS) to look like a phone line. The former is handy for hooking one office to another, since you can connect it to an extension line on a PABX, and then treat it like an internal phone - however when you call it in reality its redirected over the internet to a remote location.

If you have an analogue PABX already, and it has a spare trunk like, then you can connect this to a FXS port, and it will then behave just like another line.

DHCP is unlikely to sort it out, but UPnP might.

Usually they need to connect to a router (NAT optional)

Fairysnuff

What have you got so far? Analogue PBX with spare trunk line? Do you want to use POTS phones (or whatever your PABX currently uses), or do you want VoIP phones?

Web server ought not make any difference. Static IP may help.

Reply to
John Rumm

If your PABX takes analogue lines - ie. designed to be plugged into a standard BT wall socket, then what you need is an ATA - Analogue Terminal Adapter. Ethernet one side and a phone socket the other.

Yes, and the need to pay for it!

What the ATA does, although you can get dedicated VoIP phones.

The ATA itself uses SIP to talk to the ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider) on one side, and presents a normal analogue phone interface on the other.

OK - Stop there!

Some ATAs (or gateway devices) do have router functions built in. Some because that's the way it is in a minority country where Internet was traditionally supplied via "cable" and not ADSL, and some by design.

If buying an ATA, then if it has 2 Ethernet ports, then make sure you just use one of them (usually the one marked "wan") and turn off all routing functions it may have itself. then it just becomes one more device on your LAN.

What kind of router do you have? And What ISP?

Some routers block or otherwise corrupt VoIP - ironically in an attempt to "help" VoIP. Most are broken by design though. This is the first obstacle, so check the router model.

Do not use any port forwarding for a simple ATA or VoIP phone.

It may be easy to use Sipgate and just buy an ATA off them pre-programmed, or follow their advice... Or if looking for a "bare" ATA, then this:

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the rest of that site is a good place to start. (And Sipgate sell them too - not sure if they come programmed though)

formatting link
is good in that you'll get a free new phone number for incoming calls and you PAYG for outgoung calls.

What will give you a "bad" VoIP experience is your Internet connection. Uploading data at the same time as making a call is probably the worst case. Some routers can help here, but may not be worth the expense for a home user.

Some routers have ATAs built-in. (Or as I mentioned above, some ATAs have routers built in!) If you want to buy a new router/ata, then look for one with an ADSL adapter built in - Draytek and AMV have suitable models.

At the end of the day, it shouldn't be hard - treat the ATA as another LAN device, let it use DHCP to get it's own IP address, connect an analogue phone to it, and dial a magic code (RTFM :) and it will speak it's IP address to you, connect up a PC with a web browser, point it at the device and enter the details from the ITSP - usually a username, password and server IP address.

One additional thing you may need is a STUN server - the ITSP you use will advise - I don't think sipgate needs one anymore, but they run their own, so just put the name of their STUN server in the appropriate place in the ATA. (STUN lets the ATA work it's way round NAT firewalls without you doing anything special in the firewall)

Finally, you may need an adapter cable for the ATA - check the box contents! They usually come with an RJ11 connector - check the cable you need for your PABX and make sure they match up, but I'd suggest using a bog-standard analogue phone to make sure it's working before connecting to the PABX.

Good luck!

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

I re-installed the firmware on my N95 (mobile phone) to re-enable the (network-operator removed) SIP related functionality. Then I setup an account with sipgate and access their server via WiFi (which the handset supports). In theory I can use SIP over HSDPA though my network-operator blocks this (presumably to protect their revenue) so I have to employ some tricks to get around this. So, if you have any problems using sipgate itself, post back here - though it seems Gordon has answered your questions for now :)

Reply to
Longshanks

Your router should "remember" the path back to the ATA, once the ATA makes an outbound connection - so your ATA has to regsiter to the external ITSP first before it can take incoming calls. Once registered, it (the ATA) will send little "keepalive" packets, and/or periodically re-register to keep the command-channel open.

The router should still "remember" state once the ATA has made contact with the ITSP. Also note that the actual voice data isn't carried over the SIP ports, but other ports, but they're negotiated at call setup time.

How long have you got ... A STUN server just lets a device on the inside "know" about how it's local NAT gateway works and what sort of port mapping to expect. It can then use that knowledge when regsitering with the remote ITSP and making calls.

Make sure the ITSP can import standard BT numbers... And when porting in a number, all services on that line will cease (eg. ADSL)

I use Draytek Vigor routers, some use AVM Fritz! boxes. The Drayteks don't have monitoring as such, but do support remote SNMP monitoring (of the Internet bandwidth) and all the "usual" port forwarding to connect external things to local web, email, etc. servers.

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

I saw something called a billion ..that seems to meet the specs as well.

Are not Drayteks confined to the Draytel ITSP?

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

No - they're just bog-standard SIP devices that can connect to any ITSP.

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

In message , The Natural Philosopher writes

As a cheap and cheerful experiment you might want to consider getting a refurbished Speedtouch 716(with or without wireless) from Digidave off E-bay (see 110432306808 or 120467308178 although I note his starting bids have gone up a bit from the £2.99+P&P I paid and the £0.99p + P&P he was asking for the wireless version)

These come with ADSL, 2 ports for analogue phones, one port for the POTS phone line so that you can still make calls with the power off (or divert to POTS) one ADSL port, a router, firewall and a four port Ethernet switch.

If you replace your existing ADSL router with it should do what you want fairly easily.

I have mine configured as a simple ATA behind my existing router, (that is a bit more of a fiddle to set up) and it works just fine.

Reply to
Invalid

Invalid gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Sorry, but £2.99 for a Thomson Speedtouch is a ripoff. They're truly dreadful. There's a reason why they're given away by ISPs.

Reply to
Adrian

For what it is worth sipgate has a handy set of visual instruction pages for a range of devices (even if they don't have your exact device, it will probably in the same family as something listed) at . Once you have logged in to your sipgate account it will show the relevant boxes complete with your details to make it easy to home in on the exact settings.

Reply to
Espen Koht

So what about a Billion.?

Or is that too much for a speedtouch , too;-)

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

The Natural Philosopher gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Can't say I've ever had anything to do with them. It may be merely prejudice, and they may be half-decent. Or, more likely, they're yet more cheap shonky Chinese off-brand tat. EVERY time I've gone away from the mainstream "quality" brands - Netgear, Linksys mainly, or if you want long-term reliability and aren't worried about price, then Draytek - I've regretted it, and the bin's been fed again sooner rather than later. Even Netgear and Linksys are effectively disposable. If I get a year out of a router without it starting to need restarting regularly, I'm doing well.

I'm starting to overcome a deep-rooted prejudice against Belkin, though - I've got one of their flash N1 Vision routers at home (cable, rather than ADSL), and it's - *reliable*...

The one exception to that is a D-Link (again, cable) that's been lent to some neighbours for ages, since it's only 11mbps wireless. It must be approaching seven or eight years old. The Router That Wouldn't Die.

Ba-doom tish. Eye thang ewe.

Reply to
Adrian

In message , Adrian writes

OK, suggest a cheaper way for the OP to experiment with VOIP ATA's on the back end of a small PABx. I did call it a "cheap & cheerful experiment" and the OP is clearly technically savvy (who else has a PABX

  • Broadband and has thought about VOIP) but has limited knowledge of VOIP technologies.

The idea of a headset and microphone plugged into a PC doesn't quite cut it, and a couple of hundred pounds for quasi production grade kit is a lot of experiment.

If my £8 ATA dies after six months I can buy a production quality unit secure in the knowledge that the underlying technology does what I want.

Reply to
Invalid

Invalid gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

A softphone - XLite or Ekiga or whatever - connecting into a Gradwell or whoever SIP account. Job done. £3/mo for an inbound number from Gradwell, outbound account free.

If you want to get fancy, use FreePBX or similar, and make it an IAX inbound, rather than SIP.

For a test or proof-of-concept, it certainly does.

Less than a ton for a proper Cisco SIP handset? Half that for a Cisco Small Business (ex-Sipura) SIP handset?

Reply to
Adrian

I have used a fair number of the bog standard ADSL routers, all in all not bad and quite reliable. Never tried their VoIP kit though.

Reply to
John Rumm

None of which sit on the trunk port of an analogue PABX though...

Reply to
John Rumm

John Rumm gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Indeed - although I have to admit to missing where that requirement was introduced.

Reply to
Adrian

The OP has an analogue PABX which I presume they're happy with - just want to give it a new lease of life by hooking up an ATA of some sort to feed it via VoIP rather than BT lines.

Not that uncommon actually and I've a couple of customers doing just this. (I do "VoIP" for a living - or part of it)

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

I just dont like em - too many dead ones next door.

I feel the same about D-link.,

Its actually rather good.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

In article , Gordon Henderson scribeth thus

FWIW we have a bog standard Grandstream ATA being fed via an 17 mile microwave link off a Draytek router off 7 Km of Bt's best string on Sipgate an in the last three years its not been down the once !..

Don't think we've ever had to make any alterations to the router either!..

Reply to
tony sayer

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