What wireless ATA router? - yet another "What ATA?" thread

Thought I'd better start a new thread rather than continuing to hijack
someone else's...

I'm looking for hardware to kit out a friend's new flat. She will have an
NTL cable connection (no BT line, so no ADSL). After some further research,
we want:

1 A VoIP ATA with multiple outgoing providers, one handset port will do,
upstream PSTN not necessary
2 A router that will cope with cable not ADSL
3 Wireless
4 Quality of service so the VoIP doesn't cut out when surfing

So far on the other thread I've been suggested the Fritz!Box 7140, which is
120 quid. That's a bit more than we'd rather spend.

Looking out there I can find some devices that meet this, but mostly they
seem designed to be preprogrammed by the likes of Vonage (ie the
manufacturer gives no support) and there's little info on how well they
behave in practice. Are there any reliable ATAs out there that can do all
4?

Otherwise, it'll be two boxes. The SPA3102 seems to do 1, 2 (and 4?) but
would require an extra box for 3. Is that a good idea? Or can anyone
recommend routers which will do 2, 3 and 4 and are ready to plug in a
separate ATA (in which case is a PAP2 a good idea?)?

Thanks
Theo

 

Theo
I'm using an SPA box with the linksys wireless adapter and it works fine.
Roger.

 

<googles> Is that the WBP54G? How are you using it - to connect to an
existing wireless network or as an access point to create a wireless
network? Which SPA?

This review:
http://voipspeak.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70&Itemid=27
suggests it works as a wireless client, but doesn't say anything about it
being an access point.

Thanks for the tip... if it doesn't work as an access point I'm now leaning
towards SPA3102 as router plus a cheap wireless router for the wireless bit.
Just need to find one on which I can switch off NAT.

Theo

 

Linksys options

SPA-2102 (no wireless, but does have upstream Qos, no multiple providers)

SPA-3102 (no wireless, does upstream Qos, outbound multiple providers
no problem)

WRTP54G-UK (with wireless and Qos. Not sure about the multiple
providers though) 45 pounds + vat from provoip.

Another consideration is how many wired ethernet ports you want on the
LAN side.

Tim

 

Get one of the Buffalo cable routers/wifi access points. You can switch
off the router part and use it as a combined wireless AP and 4-port
switch. They aren't expensive and the wireless range is good.

The WBP54G is a wireless client only.

cheers,
Paul.

 

I was looking at the WRTP54G (there seem to be several different codes
whether you want one preprogrammed with Vonage, someone else, or
empty/unlocked). It seems to get a fairly bad press as far as the VOIP side
goes - can anyone confirm? My guess is it's Linksys' attempt at doing VOIP
in-house, after which they decided it was trickier than they thought and
bought Sipura.

'Some'. One would probably be adequate but two would be better, four
probably unnecessary for the moment.

Theo

 

Theo Markettos wrote:
[snip]

Bad press where? The VoIP ports inside the WRTP54G are basically a
Sipura SPA-2000 built-in. In fact, last time I looked at one it even
reported itself as an SPA-2000 in the User Agent field in SIP packets.

cheers,
Paul.

 

Well, here for a start:
http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic6744.html
The poll is instructive: of the 140 responses about half couldn't get it to
work. I realise this is mostly about models locked to Vonage, but it
doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

In fact I can't really find any positive comments about it on the net at
all...

Theo

 

I would discount that particular forum. The most recent post was on
12th April 2006.

For instance, ProVu didn't even sell that model until 18th July 2006.
And the units were label version 1.1.

I would suspect the Vonage locked units were an early special.

Tim

 

Hmm... I did wonder whether the bugs had been fixed. Do you have experience
of the unit?

Theo

 

Thanks. The Buffalo WHRG54S is the second-cheapest router on Ebuyer (26
quid inc VAT), seems to have good software and supports OpenWRT, so that
looks like a good option.

Theo