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Wampler
Anon
2013-Jan-9 12:07 pm
[Equipment] recommended ATA to use existing telephone equipmentgoing to try CallCentric and one other voip carrier will just be for home use and will interconnect into our existing home phone equipment any opinions about either of the following ATA devices? 1. $30 GrandStream HT701 Analog Telephone Adaptor 1 FXS Portor 2. $39 OBi100 VoIP Telephone Adapter and Voice Service Bridgethey are both about the same price and both have no shipping charges, but is one better than the other? more reliable or easier to set up? thanks for your thoughts, looking to get off the old copper line train! |
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Re: [Equipment] recommended ATA to use existing telephone equipmI am fairly new here but have been experimenting with a few units. I have a Obi 202 and like the Obi Portal for config from anywhere, as well as as fast setup process for providers like CallCentric and VoIP.ms. Takes less than 5 minutes with your account creds to have a working line. Obi has their own forum as well so lots of crowd sourcing for tshooting etc.. Hope it helps. |
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1 recommendation |
to Wampler
GrandStreams are very good, you'd call them reliable workhorses like a Chevy. But the 701 is a newer model, I think some folks have said it was a little buggy. You'd certainly want to make sure to update it to the latest firmware. » www.grandstream.com/firm ··· .4.3.pdf» www.grandstream.com/supp ··· firmwareMany people here like the Obi especially because it can also be used with GoogleVoice. The 100 has been around for a while now so should be quite stable when using latest firmware. » www.obitalk.com/forum/in ··· opic=9.0CallCentric has good instructions either way. » www.callcentric.com/supp ··· tone_702» www.callcentric.com/supp ··· i/obi100 |
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Wampler
Anon
2013-Jan-10 10:09 am
thanks Dirt Diver and PX Eliezer for your suggestions
hoping this voip project will not involve a lot of tech support!
bye bye expensive dial tone! nice to know you!
can't believe how much less expensive voip will be for us |
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to Wampler
I would not recommend the Grandstream, which can work with only one provider at a time. With The OBi, you can set up both providers. Incoming calls on either will ring your phones. For outgoing calls, you can select the secondary provider by dialing a prefix code, or set up a dial plan for automatic selection, e.g. to use the alternate one for international calls. Of course, one of the providers could be Google Voice, if desired.
Next step up, consider the OBi202 (or OBi302 if you won't be using Google Voice). If you have two phones, hook one to each port. Then, when your wife is on one phone, you can make or receive a call on the other. You can make intercom calls between the phones, and do lots of other tricks. (If you have more than two phones, divide them into two strings; when one phone is in use you'll be able to make or receive a call on a phone in the other string.) |
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lilarry
Premium Member
join:2010-04-06 |
to Wampler
We love Grandstream products here and have hundreds of their devices in service. The products are great and reliable. They have good support with a responsive trouble ticket system and an active forum. Setup is easy with intuitive Web accessed GUIs.
If you need to provide for multiple providers and/or multi-line hunt groups go with their GXW40XX models. We have many of these in service - very few problems. And ... very affordable. |
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Wampler
Anon
2013-Jan-10 11:56 am
hmm interesting, you mean this one? GrandStream GXW4004 4/8-port FXS Gateway $98seems pretty feature-filled, maybe more than we need for home use, but great for a business or office I'm sure also saw this other Grandstream ATA (with more lines) Grandstream HT704 4-fxs-port Analog Telephone Adapter $89 |
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 XCOMdigitalnUll
Premium Member
join:2002-06-10
Spring, TX |
to lilarry
I agree with Stuart I wouldn't recommend it.... Grandstream is junk. |
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Wampler
Anon
2013-Jan-10 1:40 pm
I just asked my IT person at work and she said Grandstream is one of the big ones for equipment. They look pretty good and seem to have a lot of different gear for different needs, why don't you like them? and what do you use? Do you use the Obi ones? |
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XCOMdigitalnUll
Premium Member
join:2002-06-10
Spring, TX (Software) pfSense
MikroTik CRS125-24G-1S-RM
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XCOM
Premium Member
2013-Jan-10 1:46 pm
Grandstream on of the big ones for equipment?
They are smoking crack!
I have many reasons.... I use Polycom.
And I don't use Obi for voice ether.... I only use an Obi110 on my alarm system that goes directly to my PBX and to my GSM gateway. |
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to Wampler
said by Wampler :I just asked my IT person at work and she said Grandstream is one of the big ones for equipment. They look pretty good and seem to have a lot of different gear for different needs, why don't you like them? and what do you use? Do you use the Obi ones?
I don't dislike Grandstream; their equipment is reliable, reasonably well supported and inexpensive. If I wanted to connect 20 legacy phones to a new IP PBX, I'd probably choose Grandstream. However, their low-end boxes basically connect one phone to one provider, or two phones, each to its own account at the same or different providers. Given that you stated a requirement of two providers and use of existing phone "equipment", which implied that you have more than one phone, I recommended Obihai to provide features that I thought would be useful. I personally avoid ATAs and spend a little more for decent IP phones. However, I do own an OBi110, which is used to interface IP phones to a pseudo-POTS line (triple play from ISP). Also have an SPA3102, connecting the system to a real POTS line, and have an old SPA2102 for the alarm system and occasional faxing. |
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lilarry
Premium Member
join:2010-04-06 |
to XCOM
said by XCOM:I agree with Stuart I wouldn't recommend it.... Grandstream is junk.
To each his own. All I can report is that we use them nearly exclusively and have had nothing but excellent experiences. said by XCOM: I use Polycom.
For what it's worth, our customers who have switched from Polycom to Grandstream are happier. Just sayin'... |
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to Stewart
I'm in total agreement with Stewart here. As far as ATAs go, nothing compares to the OBi units and the firmware is updated on a regular basis to add features and eliminate any known bugs. I really neat feature of the OBi ATAs, is the ability to call out through the OBi ATA using OBiON on an Android or iPhone over Wi-Fi from anywhere in the world you have Wi-Fi access. I just made an international call through my friends OBi110 on Wi-Fi using my Android phone, since my VOIP provider was having problems with international calls to Mobile phone to this destination. She has CallWithUS setup on one of the gateway accounts (there is 8 to choose from) and I had setup Single-Stage dialing so all I had to do was dial the number on my Android phone and the call was routed to this International destination. There are numerous other things the OBi ATAs can do that other ATAs do not offer (free GV calling, Free OBi-to-Obi calling, etc.). If you can afford it (and do not need a POTS interface), I too would highly recommend the OBi202 which can be used with the OBiPlus Lite (free) or OBiPLUS premium. said by Stewart:I would not recommend the Grandstream, which can work with only one provider at a time. With The OBi, you can set up both providers. Incoming calls on either will ring your phones. For outgoing calls, you can select the secondary provider by dialing a prefix code, or set up a dial plan for automatic selection, e.g. to use the alternate one for international calls. Of course, one of the providers could be Google Voice, if desired.
Next step up, consider the OBi202 (or OBi302 if you won't be using Google Voice). If you have two phones, hook one to each port. Then, when your wife is on one phone, you can make or receive a call on the other. You can make intercom calls between the phones, and do lots of other tricks. (If you have more than two phones, divide them into two strings; when one phone is in use you'll be able to make or receive a call on a phone in the other string.)
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 VexorgTR
join:2012-08-27
Sheffield Lake, OH |
to Wampler
I don't think Grandstream is junk either.... but I would suggest something a bit more robust for feeding a phone system.
The HT-286 Grandstream actually has pretty much all of the kinks worked out and can be had cheap. I've yet to had to put one of those out to pasture.
If you've got 2 providers, something like a Linksys SPA2102 comes to mind. I also throw Telco AC-211 at many projects, but it runs one provider at a time (although 2 accounts simultaneously)
The big-shot SPA 8000 is cool for big installs. |
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Wampler to Wampler
Anon
2013-Jan-11 10:42 am
to Wampler
Looks like the Cisco SPA2102 below is more expensive, is it worth it? $69-$73 Cisco SPA2102 VoIP Phone Adapter with Routercompared to Grandstream HT702 here which is about half its price? $36 Grandstream HT702 2-fxs-port Analog Telephone Adapterseems like some people here think Grandstream is great and others think they are not reliable or buggy? the Obi units look good but their website seemed kind of geared towards getting people to buy some kind of subscription, though maybe just for businesses anyways, I need to just pick 1 or 2 and get started with this, even buying 2 gets me ahead of the game compared to land line dial tone which we have paid a ton for over the years in terms of Grandstream HT286, looks like it is discontinued so I would rather get something current thanks for all the replies, this is a whole new frontier |
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Wampler
1 edit |
Wampler to Wampler
Anon
2013-Jan-14 11:38 am
to Wampler
decided to try a Grandstream HT702 for anyone interested got it here: $36 free ship - Grandstream HT702 2 lineWow, this was way easier than I thought it would be! You program it with a web browser on your computer (kind of like programming a router) for those not yet knee deep in this. I set up a CallCentric account on one line and a voip.ms account on the other line. First one took me about 10-15 minutes to get set and the second one less than 5 minutes! Sound quality has been great - using our old Panasonic cordless phones. I think it actually may be clearer than a land line if that is possible? Wow, good bye land lines! This is a no-brainer and surprised more folks have not gone this route. Just cut our monthly phone bills to peanuts. No experience yet on long term reliability but this is pretty sweet so far. |
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