Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[moojuice]

Hi

I'm trying to find a solution to replace a phone extension. At the moment I have a house with a BT line coming in and then an extension from the master socket to a workshop at the bottom of the garden. There is also a CAT5 network lead running to the workshop.

I want to disconnect the phone extension and plug the workshop phone (and bellbox BT 50E) into an ATA type device to send voice over the ethernet cable back to the house, then convert back to POTS and into the master socket. The reason for doing so - getting rid of the phone extension to the shed will reduce RF noise on the line and give a slight speed increase.

Just disconnecting the workshop connection results in a 1 to 2meg increase (ADSL2+). As I'm heading over to a FTTC connection on Tuesday as well and would rather the extension wasn't there to get the best out of my connection. The distance is too far for DECT, and I need to keep the bellbox as the workshop is noisy.

I've seen an OBI100 & OBI110 from Obihai which might do the job, as well as ATA's from Grandstream etc. Most seem geared up towards connecting to a SIP server and not being used as an Analogue phone-> ATA-> VoIP-> POTS bridge. Any thoughts welcome!

[HPsauce]

The reason for doing so - getting rid of the phone extension to the shed will reduce RF noise on the line and give a slight speed increase.

Just disconnecting the workshop connection results in a 1 to 2meg increase (ADSL2+).

That just suggests your phone wiring needs sorting out a bit, no need for all the VOIP trickery whatsoever.

Properly wired and filtered (which it almost certainly will be after BT convert you to FTTC)  you'll be fine.

So - just leave it all alone and let the FTTC conversion go ahead. 

[moojuice]

My wiring is spot on. BT NTE5 baseplate, ADSL Nation faceplate. Modem direct into filtered socket. Only one extension, running over a CAT5 cable to the workshop with no ring wire and that is coming off the filtered side of the ADSL Nation faceplate. Workshop phone & bellbox gain ring signal from a spare ADSL filter's ring cap.
 
Before I changed the cable, it was CW1308 and the performance was pants. The BT 50E bellbox has also shown up on an Openreach engineers line tests as causing a minor fault (I think it was slight HR), but the bells ring happily.

This is why I want to dump the phone extension and go for a VoIP link. It'll also give me the option to give the workshop it's own phone number via a SIP provider one day in the distant future.

[moojuice]

Just looking at the OBI100 & OBI110, it seems that they want to connect to an external SIP type server out on the net, where all I need to do is run a local SIP to POTS gateway at the house end of things. Just wondering if anyone had done the same as me before to rid themselves of a long phone extension.

[asbokid]

A more comprehensive answer will probably be found on the asterisk forums. [1]  Although they will likely claim that your VoIP<->PSTN bridge is making heavy weather of it :-)   Personally, I would stick with VoIP for the workshop, using a standalone ATA unit like that one, or maybe to 'do it posh', a dedicated asterisk server with a telephony interface card.  [2]

It's probably possible to port your existing landline number to a VoIP provider, so that it can be used as a DID.  Not sure if that would be any use?

cheers, a

[1] http://forums.asterisk.org/
[2] http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+hardware