Unlocked ATA boxes driving me crazy
January 19, 2012 8:57 PM Subscribe
Internet Telephony using unlocked ATA boxes ---- it's 2012 , is this even doable yet?
I bought a bunch of UNLOCKED ATA adapters because I was pretty sure that, between Google Voice, Skype, Gizmo5, Google Talk etc. all seemingly falling over themselves to give out free Internet telephony, that I would be able to get some Skype Credit, VoIP service, whatever ---- and configure an ATA box with a SIP account, to use my high-speed Internet, to make one simple phone call.
WHAT GIVES??? Gizmo5 was bought by Google Talk and then killed. No one at Skype knows a damn thing about ATA boxes or SIP accounts. Google Voice and Google Talk are startlingly Quiet on the subject.
So now I am stuck with: an unlocked Linksys PAP2NA, an unlocked Motorola VT1005n, and an unlocked Vonage VDV21-VD. They all "work", but NO ONE IN THE WORLD can tell me how to get them connected to a SIP account!!
Can you??
And more importantly, what is it exactly that happened in the Internet Telephony arena, that a thing like this should be so technically difficult to solve? Are there great Forces at work that deliberately make this technically difficult to do? Can configuring a SIP account on an ATA box be that hard --- I've been a UNIX sysadmin for twenty years!
I bought a bunch of UNLOCKED ATA adapters because I was pretty sure that, between Google Voice, Skype, Gizmo5, Google Talk etc. all seemingly falling over themselves to give out free Internet telephony, that I would be able to get some Skype Credit, VoIP service, whatever ---- and configure an ATA box with a SIP account, to use my high-speed Internet, to make one simple phone call.
WHAT GIVES??? Gizmo5 was bought by Google Talk and then killed. No one at Skype knows a damn thing about ATA boxes or SIP accounts. Google Voice and Google Talk are startlingly Quiet on the subject.
So now I am stuck with: an unlocked Linksys PAP2NA, an unlocked Motorola VT1005n, and an unlocked Vonage VDV21-VD. They all "work", but NO ONE IN THE WORLD can tell me how to get them connected to a SIP account!!
Can you??
And more importantly, what is it exactly that happened in the Internet Telephony arena, that a thing like this should be so technically difficult to solve? Are there great Forces at work that deliberately make this technically difficult to do? Can configuring a SIP account on an ATA box be that hard --- I've been a UNIX sysadmin for twenty years!
ViaTalk lets you bring your own device. (They will also give you the admin password to your device if you get one from them, so you can tweak the configuration to your heart's content.) Been very happy with them for the last few years.
posted by kindall at 11:31 PM on January 19, 2012
posted by kindall at 11:31 PM on January 19, 2012
BroadVoice has a Bring Your Own Device option as well (I've never used them).
However, I think the problem you're encountering is this: everyone I've every seen using an ATA is running their own Asterisk PBX (or one of its competitors). The local ATA devices uses SIP to connect to the local Asterisk server and the Asterisk server is configured to work with one or more service providers. So it's trivially easy to find service providers willing to tell you how to get their service to work with Asterisk, including Skype, but harder to get help directly connecting at ATA to a service.
posted by RichardP at 11:44 PM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
However, I think the problem you're encountering is this: everyone I've every seen using an ATA is running their own Asterisk PBX (or one of its competitors). The local ATA devices uses SIP to connect to the local Asterisk server and the Asterisk server is configured to work with one or more service providers. So it's trivially easy to find service providers willing to tell you how to get their service to work with Asterisk, including Skype, but harder to get help directly connecting at ATA to a service.
posted by RichardP at 11:44 PM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
I've been using an ATA for a couple years now with voip.ms.
posted by sonofdust at 7:04 AM on January 20, 2012
posted by sonofdust at 7:04 AM on January 20, 2012
Call Aptela/Vocalocity. They're a hosted PBX for small business. I used to work for Aptela, they'll give you a sip account, and they should have experience setting up ATAs.
posted by empath at 7:11 AM on January 20, 2012
posted by empath at 7:11 AM on January 20, 2012
However, I think the problem you're encountering is this: everyone I've every seen using an ATA is running their own Asterisk PBX (or one of its competitors). The local ATA devices uses SIP to connect to the local Asterisk server and the Asterisk server is configured to work with one or more service providers. So it's trivially easy to find service providers willing to tell you how to get their service to work with Asterisk, including Skype, but harder to get help directly connecting at ATA to a service.
This is correct. You're talking about the difference between a SIP trunk and a Hosted PBX. Vocalocity is a hosted PBX, where basically they're running asterisk servers and you connect your sip phones to them over the internet.
The other way to do it is to own your own PBX and get a SIP trunk. The best way to do this is via your ISP. I don't know where you're located, but I work for a large-ish DSL provider now, and I set up sip trunks for customers all the time. If you're east of the mississippi, we sell you a sip trunk, but you'll have to set up your own asterisk box.
Hosted PBX's, for what it's worth, tend to be incredibly unreliable due to lack of QOS from your ISP and problems with firewalls, etc..
posted by empath at 7:17 AM on January 20, 2012
This is correct. You're talking about the difference between a SIP trunk and a Hosted PBX. Vocalocity is a hosted PBX, where basically they're running asterisk servers and you connect your sip phones to them over the internet.
The other way to do it is to own your own PBX and get a SIP trunk. The best way to do this is via your ISP. I don't know where you're located, but I work for a large-ish DSL provider now, and I set up sip trunks for customers all the time. If you're east of the mississippi, we sell you a sip trunk, but you'll have to set up your own asterisk box.
Hosted PBX's, for what it's worth, tend to be incredibly unreliable due to lack of QOS from your ISP and problems with firewalls, etc..
posted by empath at 7:17 AM on January 20, 2012
I don't think you need to set up and run your own PBX server in order to use an ATA adapter.
I have callcentric service and even though I only use the number as a forwarding number they have instructions on how to set up an ATA adapter to use their service.
All you really need is an internet connection, and ATA adapter and service from a VOIP provider like callcentric, voip.ms etc..
PS - If you're looking to get rid of one of the ATA's I'll buy one off you.
posted by eatcake at 7:33 AM on January 20, 2012
I have callcentric service and even though I only use the number as a forwarding number they have instructions on how to set up an ATA adapter to use their service.
All you really need is an internet connection, and ATA adapter and service from a VOIP provider like callcentric, voip.ms etc..
PS - If you're looking to get rid of one of the ATA's I'll buy one off you.
posted by eatcake at 7:33 AM on January 20, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
Here's a link to their support page describing how to set up various IP Phones and ATAs.
posted by jaimev at 11:03 PM on January 19, 2012