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Are there any routers which will work with an old Pentara plus (analogue)
exchange. I first tried it with bt voip when they were giving away a free
cisco router (ISTR). It didn't connect very reliably to the exchange.

jasee wrote:

> Are there any routers which will work with an old Pentara plus (analogue)
> exchange. I first tried it with bt voip when they were giving away a free
> cisco router (ISTR). It didn't connect very reliably to the exchange.

What was unreliable about it? Does the Pentara support MF dialling? Is your
particular example known to work reliably with a bog standard analogue
circuit? How many trunks does the Pentara support? That may have a bearing
on what ATA could be recommended.

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alexd wrote:
> jasee wrote:
>
>> Are there any routers which will work with an old Pentara plus
>> (analogue) exchange. I first tried it with bt voip when they were
>> giving away a free cisco router (ISTR). It didn't connect very
>> reliably to the exchange.
>
> What was unreliable about it? Does the Pentara support MF dialling?
> Is your particular example known to work reliably with a bog standard
> analogue circuit? How many trunks does the Pentara support? That may
> have a bearing on what ATA could be recommended.

It either simply (sometimes) didn't dial out through the router or didn't
pass calls to the exchange. Can't remember which.

It supports mf dialling and at the moment it's got a four trunk card (can't
remember how many it can support 16 or more?depending on the boards
inserted), three of the trunk lines are in use and have been in reliable use
for more years than I care to remember <g>

jasee wrote:
> Are there any routers which will work with an old Pentara plus (analogue)
> exchange. I first tried it with bt voip when they were giving away a free
> cisco router (ISTR). It didn't connect very reliably to the exchange.


If it was the old cisco with BT broadband voice, then the service was
really unreliable.

I only had mine for a few months before I cancelled it because the
reliability was awful.

Tim

Tim wrote:
> jasee wrote:
>> Are there any routers which will work with an old Pentara plus
>> (analogue) exchange. I first tried it with bt voip when they were
>> giving away a free cisco router (ISTR). It didn't connect very
>> reliably to the exchange.
>
>
> If it was the old cisco with BT broadband voice, then the service was
> really unreliable.
>
> I only had mine for a few months before I cancelled it because the
> reliability was awful.

It was, I got it within a few months of the service starting, IRTR the cisco
adapter was free, maybe it was the service as well as the router?

jasee wrote:
> It was, I got it within a few months of the service starting, IRTR the cisco
> adapter was free, maybe it was the service as well as the router?

I think the service. It was a cisco ATA-186 ?? There aren't any
problems with them in general.

It is possible that the BT ones came with non standard firmware.

Tim

Tim wrote:
> jasee wrote:
>> It was, I got it within a few months of the service starting, IRTR
>> the cisco adapter was free, maybe it was the service as well as the
>> router?
>
> I think the service. It was a cisco ATA-186 ?? There aren't any
> problems with them in general.

Sounds vaguely familiar

>
> It is possible that the BT ones came with non standard firmware.
>

I think I had to upgrade before it would work properly anyway.

jasee wrote:
> Are there any routers which will work with an old Pentara plus (analogue)
> exchange. I first tried it with bt voip when they were giving away a free
> cisco router (ISTR). It didn't connect very reliably to the exchange.
>
>

The Pentara trunk port should look just like a standard
telephone terminal, so if the adaptor works with one of
those, it should be OK - except...

Adaptors may not generate enough ring current to trip a PABX
port. The effect is the same as if the port was connected
to a very long exchange line.

On larger PABX systems, the trunk dialling characteristics
(e.g. dial-tone delay, inter-digit pause), can be programmed
to suit the line. If the adaptor doesn't match exactly
the characteristics of a BT analogue exchange line, this
could cause problems.

Multi-line routers are generally intended for PABX
connection, so these are likely to be OK.

JW wrote:
> jasee wrote:
>> Are there any routers which will work with an old Pentara plus
>> (analogue) exchange. I first tried it with bt voip when they were
>> giving away a free cisco router (ISTR). It didn't connect very
>> reliably to the exchange.
>
> The Pentara trunk port should look just like a standard
> telephone terminal, so if the adaptor works with one of
> those, it should be OK - except...
>
> Adaptors may not generate enough ring current to trip a PABX
> port. The effect is the same as if the port was connected
> to a very long exchange line.

I got the feeling this was probably what was happening