My DIY VOIP setup

[peteben]

This might interrest some of the 'techies' among you.

Like most people, I have been looking for an inexpensive way to call NOB, Canada, specifically. I used Skype for a while and still do; but I could not get a number in Canada for friends and family to call. Same thing with Magic Jack. Vonage would have done the trick, but I did not feel like paying $20-$30 a month, when I already have an internet and a phone line in both Ajijic and Canada.

After doing some research, I decided to buy a pair of Linksys SPA-3102 VOIP gateways. These nifty little boxes are about $80 each, and have connections for Internet, phone line and phone. With a little programming, I have it setup so that calls coming to my home in Canada are automatically routed to my home at lakeside. Also, from lakeside, we can connect to our phone line in Canada and call anybody up there. All of this at no charge, working with the lowest (512k) Telmex connection.

If there is any interest, I can post more details.

Pete

[Jeannie]

This might interrest some of the 'techies' among you.

Like most people, I have been looking for an inexpensive way to call NOB, Canada, specifically. I used Skype for a while and still do; but I could not get a number in Canada for friends and family to call. Same thing with Magic Jack. Vonage would have done the trick, but I did not feel like paying $20-$30 a month, when I already have an internet and a phone line in both Ajijic and Canada.

After doing some research, I decided to buy a pair of Linksys SPA-3102 VOIP gateways. These nifty little boxes are about $80 each, and have connections for Internet, phone line and phone. With a little programming, I have it setup so that calls coming to my home in Canada are automatically routed to my home at lakeside. Also, from lakeside, we can connect to our phone line in Canada and call anybody up there. All of this at no charge, working with the lowest (512k) Telmex connection.

If there is any interest, I can post more details.

Pete

Magic Jack now has Canadian phone numbers.

[Intercasa]

I use a softphone program (X Ten lite) to answer calls at the office in Ajijic or make them using my VOIP service. I then have a device that rings the regular phone so I don't miss calls.

Is your home Canada service VOIP? Interesting how you did it, do tell more please!

[peteben]

I use a softphone program (X Ten lite) to answer calls at the office in Ajijic or make them using my VOIP service. I then have a device that rings the regular phone so I don't miss calls.

Is your home Canada service VOIP? Interesting how you did it, do tell more please!

No, I have regular Bell Canada phone service and a cable Internet connection NOB. In Ajijic, it is the lowest Telmex package with 512k Internet (they have not upgraded me yet).

I have it setup so that dialing '93' in Ajijic will connect me to my phone line in Canada. Then I can dial whatever I want; the people I call will see my NOB number on their call display. Similarly, calling '92' will ring the phone at the house in Canada, so if someone were in the house I could talk to them. Any calls to my NOB number I redirect through the Internet so that they ring the phone in Ajijic. Calling any other number from the phone in Ajijic will simply connect as a local call, allowing me to call friends lakeside.

VOIP is really pretty simple in theory. The only thing that makes it complicated is the fact that most VOIP devices, like my Linksys boxes or your softphone, are usually sitting behind Internet firewalls. Firewalls are designed to let you initiate a connection from behind the firewall to the internet, but block any connections from the Internet, which is a problem when trying to receive calls. The solution to this, is to use what is called a registrar, which acts as a sort of middleman to enable VOIP connections between two devices. This is actually what services like Vonage, Magic Jack et al. provide, along with means to dial out to the regular phone network.

I was able to find a free registrar service, sip2sip.info that will allow you to register your VOIP devices for free. With these accounts, you can then call any device connected to the same service.

I can see where this might be useful for you; I assume you have numbers in California and Chapala, so with a similar setup, you could get calls from both numbers no matter where you are.

Sound quality is quite good, but I have noticed some echo when both parties talk simultaneously. There are many, many options in the Linksys boxes, some that probably help this, but I have not experimented yet.

PM me if you want more details.

Pete

[Intercasa]

It would be interesting to have my Chapala number ring in the US. I have 2 linksys boxes and I just leave one plugged in wherever I'll be. I use the softphone so when I start my computer at the office in Ajijic I can get calls from my US number.

[howardF]

So, if I understand correctly, you need a landline NOB to make this work?

[peteben]

It would be interesting to have my Chapala number ring in the US. I have 2 linksys boxes and I just leave one plugged in wherever I'll be. I use the softphone so when I start my computer at the office in Ajijic I can get calls from my US number.

I am sure you could do that, or have both numbers ring the softphone, or transfer calls only after a certain number of rings... The Linksys boxes are pretty flexible.

Pete

[peteben]

So, if I understand correctly, you need a landline NOB to make this work?

That is correct. If you don't have one, then something like Vonage would make more sense IMO.

Pete