On 10/27/06, John Van Ostrand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Fri, 2006-10-27 at 12:57 -0400, Rob Russell wrote:
> Get enhanced phone service & long distance to Michigan, Toronto,
> Chicago & California for next to nothing. Integrate some simple X10
> stuff. Eventually set up call routing from my cel phone to get the
> same stuff I can get from home.
>
> How I think I'm going to do this:
>
> As far as I can tell the cheapest way to get started is with an ATA
> and a DID (adding a second DID for the cel phone to call later).
So you'll be using a VoIP provider.
> For the ATA I'm looking at ordering the Linksys PAP2-NA or PAP2T-NA
> online (they're the same price and I can't tell the difference). I see
> some Grandstream units that are cheaper but I get a better feeling
> about the Linksys one from bits I've read on this list. Any technical
> reasons to choose one or the other? Echo? Ease of use?
I have played with the SPA3000 and it works really well. If the rest of
the Sipura line (now owned by LinkSys) are as good then you'll be fine.
You may want to get more than one FXS port and give your house extra
extensions.
If I were planning to keep my analog line then the SPA3000 looks like
it'd suit me well, but I'm hoping that I can get rid of my dedicated
home phone line (yes, I know I'd have to go to Dry DSL then). The
Grandstream HT-488 has an FXO port and an FXS, it'd be a cheaper
option if I kept the analog line. I only need one FXS port since all
my phones run to one point in the house. Now I have to think some more
about hardware I suppose...
> For a DID I want a Windsor phone number, so I've found LES.net that
> looks okay. Unlimitel gets a lot of praise here but doesn't have
> Windsor DIDs as far as I see (519 but not Windsor).
I really like LES.net's web interface, (ie. that they have one) however
the sound quality hasn't been that great. Unlimitel, however, has been
almost flawless. Give both a try and see which works best for you.
I just signed up with LES.net and faxed them my payment form. I would
try Unlimitel but they don't seem to have any 519 DIDs that are local
to Windsor.
Would it be sensible to sign up for Unlimitel's A-La-Carte plan to
experiment - even if I may cancel in a couple months?
> In order to route
> calls to and from my cel, I think I'll need a second DID and I'll be
> paying twice for my minutes (once for each DID while a call is
> active).
A second did is not needed unless you want automatic handling of calls
for two numbers. One option is that you can have incoming calls ring
both your cell and home extensions, or you could have callers get an IVR
where they can choose home or cell.
I was hoping to be able to call one DID from my cel phone then have
Asterisk route the call to the end phone number that I actually want
to call. For that far end to terminate, don't I need another DID
(assuming I get rid of my Bell home phone service)? I read a thread on
the list a while ago and I thought that was the conclusion.
> I want to order one DID to start with then get another if
> things work okay. I don't understand exactly how the billing rates
> work for a DID, I see a price per minute and I see long distance
> rates. Is the long distance rate just based on where the call
> terminates without regard to where the DID is assigned? If so what's
> the price per minute? Is that in addition to the long distance rate?
> It must be obvious once you've worked in this stuff, but I'm still too
> new to this stuff.
The two providers that you've chosen, assuming your going with the a la
carte option from unlimitel, charge for every minute in use. If the call
is within the vendor's network it is 1.1c. If the call falls outside the
vendor's network it's 2.2c. This has nothing to do with where your DID
is or which city you're accessing the DID in. So you could have a
Vancouver DID that you are accessing from Windsor and when you placed
calls through it you would be charged 1.1c for calls to both Toronto and
Vancouver. The real difference would be for inbound calls and would
affect the callers rates. Callers from Vancouver would see it as local.
I think I understand it now. Part of the confusion comes from having
the idea that a phone number is tied to my house engrained in me for
so my whole life. I'm comfortable enough with it at least that I don't
think I'm going to get surprised by a monster phone bill. As long as
my minute use for the first while is in the range of a few hundred
minutes / month I can make sure I know what I'm getting without
blowing a lot of money.
Other things you may want to consider is getting a UPS. Also you may
find that when you are busy with DSL your audio quality may suffer. You
will want to test your system when running a peer-to-peer sharing
program like Limewire or Bearshare and see what your results are.
I have an APC Back UPS 1000XS but it died on me a few months ago :-(
No explanation, just goes to overload every time I turn it on, loaded
or not, plugged in or not. I'm in the market for a Tripp Lite.
Also consider picking up an ATA that has an FXO and an FXS this way you
can keep your analog line during testing or permanently to use it for
local calls and faxes.
Yeah, the Grandstream HT-488 would suit this, but I'm not convinced
there's a good reason to keep paying for the analog line if VoIP works
out for me (especially with a cell phone for emergency backup).
Thanks for all the input, I'm feeling a lot more confident about this
now, even if I do have to reconsider the hardware I want. At least as
soon as they process my payment I should be able to work on dialing in
to my Asterisk server. In itself that'll be a big step for me.
