Provider independent Hard VoIP phones?

Of course, actually, most hard voip phones and gateways (a more proper word for "voip conversion box" :) are provider independent, but most providers ship them preconfigured.

Gateways I would recomend Cisco ATA 186, they work with major VoIP protocols, if you want a SIP > Hi,

Most of them are, although many VoIP providers will pre-configure them to your account if you buy from them. Saves a lot of hassle..!

As above.

Ivor

Hi Martin, Ivor,

Thanks for the detailed explanations. I already have a spare phone, so I will be opting to buy a "VoIP gateway".

Cheers Suranga

You can also get a box which combines the ATA with a router. This is useful for somebody who has a single public IP address from their cable/DSL provider. You plug one Ethernet to the outside and the other Ethernet to your domestic LAN.

The box is a DHCP client to the ISP and a DHCP server to your domestic PCs.

That would be the Sipura 2100.

-Ramon

Let's say you have an ATA which provides an FXS and an FXO port, such as the Sipura 3000. Take a voltmeter and measure the voltage on both ports. The FXS has some low voltage (dial tone) and the FXO port has 0 volts.

If you happen to measure during a ring the voltage goes to some 60 volts.

-Ramon

Well, it provides an FXS interface but I wouldn't say that's a great term for what it IS. An air conditioner provides cool air but it is not called a "cool air". Or an air-temperature gateway, for that matter.

miguel

Well that's so relative, ATA is not very generalized, each company calls it in a different way. For example Cisco calls them "ATA" (Analog Telephone Adaptor) however Oki calls them BMG (Broadband Media Gateway) and Vegasteam calls them VoIP Gateway (they're smart :). I still stick with the "VoIP gateway" since by definition, a gateway translates from one "coding" to another, in this case from analog audio to packets over the wire... Yeah I know you will say "maybe you would have to say analog audio-voip gateway" or something like that but I still like the word Gateway :).

Martin

Correct term is ATA (Analogue Telephone Adaptor) :-)

Ivor

Isn't "FXO" the universal term?

--kyler

Nope, FXO and FXS are types of VoIP gateways. FXO Gateways are the ones who receive the phone line (so you can place calls from VoIP to POTS), so they "receive the line current" (electrically, behaving as a phone, kinda) and then you have FXS where you plug a normal phone to make calls, they "provide the line current" (electrically, they behave as a PBX/phone central). However not all VoIP gateways are either FXS or FXO, since you have trunk VoIP gateways also (they have E1s/T1s and interconnect with VoIP, though both systems are digital, their protocols are different, well also the multiplexing and so on, Im not gonna go into details :). Also you have things like GSM/VoIP gateways and so on.

Martin