VOIP followup

[Tim Watts]

Hi all,

Following on from my question on VOIP a couple of weeks back:

I went with sipgate.co.uk in the end, and Bria iPhone and Android apps, and
a Siemens Gigaset N300A IP DECT/VOIP basestation plus 2 Gigaset S79H DECT
handsets.

Despite being NAT'ed to buggery, it works brilliantly. When I rearrange my
home network I will be able to give the phone a proper IP anyway.

I now have 2 sipgate numbers, one for work (never at my desk) and one for
home, plus the N300A also hooks into the POTS line. I've got a dumb handset
on the POTS for emergency callouts too.

Didn't bother trying to port BT numbers (dire warnings here) so I just
recorded a voicemessage announcement on the N300A giving the new number
(which is still an 01580 local to me code).

Clarity of calls is excellent - SWMBO's dad in China said it was very clear
- and sipgate is a hell of a lot cheaper than BT: 1.5p/min China.

Featureset of N300A and S79H handsets is superb.

N300A has a webserver that allows me to dump a VCF of my contacts from gmail
and upload to the handsets (handsets can have different lists).

Calling out is intuitive - it offers the choice of which of 3 lines to use
(with HOME VOIP being the default) and can register about 6 VOIP acocunts.

sipgate voicemail->email is virtually instant.

All in all, I'm very pleased. I've dropped a POTS line to where the
computers live just in case I want to experiement with VOIP-ifying my POTS
line later...

 

[tony sayer]

Hi all,

Following on from my question on VOIP a couple of weeks back:

I went with sipgate.co.uk in the end, and Bria iPhone and Android apps, and
a Siemens Gigaset N300A IP DECT/VOIP basestation plus 2 Gigaset S79H DECT
handsets.

Despite being NAT'ed to buggery, it works brilliantly. When I rearrange my
home network I will be able to give the phone a proper IP anyway.

I now have 2 sipgate numbers, one for work (never at my desk) and one for
home, plus the N300A also hooks into the POTS line. I've got a dumb handset
on the POTS for emergency callouts too.

Didn't bother trying to port BT numbers (dire warnings here)

Really?, What are they out of curiosity we ported our old analogue fax
number to VoIPfone some time ago and all was well...

 

[tony sayer]

Presumably you had no desire for the fax line to keep working once its
number was ported? If your broadband had been on the same line it would
be a diferent story, porting the number out can cease the line and along
with the broadband, ordering a replacement number for the ported out one
isn't easy.

(this is all crowdsourced wisdom rather than from personal experience).

Well yes and that wasn't the case here the BB is via VM over coaxial.
Its just that we receive very few faxes and send few so anyone sending a
fax we now get a PDF of said fax via e-mail and if we want to send a fax
we put the olde modem to line..

Fax it seems is dying out now...

It was around 14 quid for the copper line v 2 quid odd a month for the
Fax service so a few bob saved over time..

 

[Gordon Henderson]

Really?, What are they out of curiosity we ported our old analogue fax
number to VoIPfone some time ago and all was well...

From memory if this, there was ADSL broadband on the phone line. If you
port a number out it will cancel the ADSL.

There are alledgedly ways to do a simultaneous re-provision of ADSL
(and get a new number on the line), however I do not know of anyone who
has actually made it work... I'd not risk it myself and I sell VoIP as
part of what I do...

Gordon

 

[Lobster]

Fax it seems is dying out now...

For sure: at the place where I'm currently freelancing I've been put at
a desk next to the company fax machine... I think in all the weeks I've
been there, I've only seen one person come to send a fax (apparently he
couldn't trace any other contact details for the recipient); and not a
single incoming fax has been received other than the continuous trickle
of 'spam' faxes - most of which seem to be advertising services for
sending out 'spam' faxes...

David