Recommendations for a replacement ATA

I seem to have managed to "brick" my Grandstream Handytone 486. It was
blinking so I foolishly cycled the power to reboot it. Only afterwards did
I read that blinking every 6 seconds meant it was updating firmware - I'd
got it in my head that an intermittent blink meant it hadn't registered. It
now blinks every 4 seconds, and I think that's terminal!

So - I'm looking to replace it, unless anyone has any brilliant ideas on how
to resurrect it.

At present I've got one Sipgate account, but eventually I might want a
second account that would ring on a second FXS port. I would like the ATA
to present BT CLID and BT ring cadence (to work with the PABX - guarded
clear would be a nice bonus). I plan to connect the ATA behind my router
(on Virgin cable broadband). I'm also planning to upgrade the router before
long to wireless, so a combined router/ATA might also be a possibility,
although I'm a bit put off by negative comments on combined router/ATAs.

I've done a bit of googling, but would welcome some recommendations based on
experience.

Thanks in advance

 

Personal recommendation is one of the AVM Fritz!Box series. I use the
7170 which has 3 FXS ports, 4 LAN ports, a USB host port and wireless.
It has a built in ADSL modem but you can use it behind a cable modem at
the expense of one of the LAN ports.

www.avm.de/en is the manufacturer's site. No connection except as a
satisfied customer.

Read my review of the 7170 here:

http://www.voipon.co.uk/avm-fritzbox-fon-wlan-7170-pri-560.html?reviews_id=10

(or http://preview.tinyurl.com/lfbvk9 in case the above wraps)


Ivor

 

On 29/08/09 23:28, Ivor Jones wrote:
[snip]

PS if you do buy one, do a firmware update straight away as the tones
have only recently been updated to the UK standard ones. Earlier
firmware will have German tones.

Ivor

 

I've a couple of customers using Linksys PAP2T's to front small analogue
PBXs they have. Seems to work for them, but I've no first-hand experience
of what they were like to program, etc.

Regarding router/ATA's - I use a Draytek myself, but it's just to feed an
old DECT phone I have at home - I'm a bit of the opinion that it's best
to go down the individual device route these days (So separate router,
ATA, Wi-Fi AP), but it's sometimes hard to justify the costs and extra
wiring for a home setup, I guess...

Gordon

 

I have helped unbrick a grandstream phone, maybe (just maybe) the same
trick can be done on your ATA. It just needs a lot of Unix (Linux) network
knowledge.

For that phone the 'when all else has failed' option was to fetch firmware
via tftp from a hardcoded IP somewhere on grandstreams servers. Since tftp
isn't very reliable on the Internet at large *and* the fallback tftp client
wasn't very bright this failed miserably. The workaround was to program
said fixed IP locally and configure a tftp server behind it with the right
firmware.

"Experienced unix/network administrator" stuff so you'll need to find
one locally to bribe with the right drink(s) to try this. But I wanted
to share this bit of info.

Koos van den Hout

 

I use PAP2's at work for providing temporary "hire" lines for clients and at
home for my own use. They are cheap & cheerful, reliable and reletively easy
to set up

Paul

 

I've a couple of customers using Linksys PAP2T's to front small analogue

Not to mention BOGOF

 

Don:

I would second Ivor's recommendation for a FritzBox.
They're some impressive piece of kit, I have one of the first
incarnations (FritzBox WLAN) with two FXS ports (to connect analog
phones), one FXO port (to connect a plain inbound landline) that doubles
as an ISDN port (if you have a PABX, that might be a nice bonus), one
ADSL (useless for us on cable), one LAN (just the one, but enough to
have it on the network as a client) and is a WLAN Access point with WPA2.
The latest incarnations have more features you can shake a stick at.
Touch wood, worked flawlessly for 5 years now! I have considered many
times to replace it, but its reliability is unbeatable, and the
concentration of features is impressive.
To get the same services, I should set up an asterisk-based server (£
200+) with a 4-port PSTN card (2 FXS, 2 FXO, £250+) and a Wireless
Access Point (£ 50+), not getting in the mix all the time to sort out
and configure all the kit. I can find the best FritzBox (7270) @ £189.75
inc. VAT. No contest.
I have been playing with all different brands and makes of VoIP kit, and
the German stuff (AVM and SNOM) has always been The Most Reliable Kit Ever.
BTW, mine is an endorsement, not selling anything nor making money out
of this!

 

Don:

I would second Ivor's recommendation for a FritzBox.
They're some impressive piece of kit, I have one of the first
incarnations (FritzBox WLAN) with two FXS ports (to connect analog
phones), one FXO port (to connect a plain inbound landline) that doubles
as an ISDN port (if you have a PABX, that might be a nice bonus), one
ADSL (useless for us on cable), one LAN (just the one, but enough to
have it on the network as a client) and is a WLAN Access point with WPA2.
The latest incarnations have more features you can shake a stick at.
Touch wood, worked flawlessly for 5 years now! I have considered many
times to replace it, but its reliability is unbeatable, and the
concentration of features is impressive.
To get the same services, I should set up an asterisk-based server (£
200+) with a 4-port PSTN card (2 FXS, 2 FXO, £250+) and a Wireless
Access Point (£ 50+), not getting in the mix all the time to sort out
and configure all the kit. I can find the best FritzBox (7270) @ £189.75
inc. VAT. No contest.
I have been playing with all different brands and makes of VoIP kit, and
the German stuff (AVM and SNOM) has always been The Most Reliable Kit Ever.
BTW, mine is an endorsement, not selling anything nor making money out
of this!


Der Scheck ist in der Post.

 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

I've spent most of today ****ering around with the Grandstream 486 and have
found that it is working after all. I don't know what happened the other
day, but since it was disabling all my internet access I removed it and left
the router directly connected to the Virgin Media broadband so that my PC
could connect to the internet. When I subsequently reconnected the 486
downstream of the router, it just flashed and I couldn't access the
configuration menu, hence my thinking I had done it some mischief. Anyway,
I've now got it back up and wokring.

All is not quite sorted yet though, as for some reason, after making a call,
the call does not disconnect when the handset is replaced, so if the number
I've dialled is unanswered, it just carries on ringing until the called
number times out. I've not worked that out yet, but I think it may be
something to do with port forwarding on the router.

So - despite the strong recommendations for a Fritzbox, I'm afraid I think
I'll save a bit of money and just replace the router for a wireless one.

 

My recommendation is for an SPA-3102 working just as an ATA. The dialling
experience is far better than the Fritzbox. However, as a router/ATA the
Fritzbox 'quality of service' seems to work well. I have a Fritzbox but I
mainly use it as a router and have an SPA-3000 attached to it (replaced
now by SPA-3102). I just use the Fritzbox ATA capability for experiments.
By the way, I should just mention that using the SPA-3102 as a router,
and expecting the QoS in that to perform is a waste of time. The QoS is
totally rubbish - in my experience it just does nothing!
However, as a straight ATA I think that it is difficult to beat for its
versatility in regard to settings.