Sipura SPA-2000 and Merlin Legend

We have two Sipura SPA-2000's. Our pbx's are Merlin Legends. Merlin1 and Merlin2 are in different locations. these locations are connected by a WAN of relatively high bandwidth and low latency.

We would like to connect SPA1 to an analog port on the Merlin1 and SPA2 to an analog port on the Merlin2.

What we would like to happen is that when the extension for the analog line the SPA1 is connected to is dialed from another extension that the SPA1 dials to the SPA2 and the Merlin2 now answers to a dialtone or an intercom tone allowing us to then dial an extension local to the Merlin2.

Has anyone done this?

When I configure them just to auto dial the other with two analog phones on the SPAs they work flawlessly, but we need them to work with the Merlins. when we connect the SPAs to the Merlins the SPAs interpret the analog port as being an "off hook" telephone set and the the dial plan calles the other SPA. This results in a busy if we try to test with one SPA on the Merlin and one on a phone set.

The documentation is complete but cryptic. And the scenarios included do not include what I am trying to do even though that's one of the scenarios the Sipura rep said would come with the SPA. Frustrating? Oh yeah!

One time I got to talk to a Sipura person and she said that this was precisely what the SPA-2000 is designed for and even recommended that particular hardware. Shae said that if I had any trouble setting it up they would be glad to help. So now I have bought the SPAs but can not not find any help or support. I send emails and leave voice mails to Sipura and Atacomm (where I bought them). Atacomm say "we don't help you, Sipura is responsible for tech support and config questions." Sipura doesn't seem to have any live bodies there now that I have bought their product (no one is answering their phones) and their web site says, in effect, "don't call us; call the guy you bought it from"

I'm hoping someone out there has done what I am trying to do. and can offer guidance/advice.

TIA Fred

Reply to
Fred
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I don't have any Merlin experience, but I have used SPA devices with Partner ACS systems.

The SPA-2000 has two FXS ports. These ports are designed to interface with analog telephone sets, or the CO lines on a PBX. It sounds like what you are trying to do is the connect the SPA-2000 as an analog extension connected to the Merlin PBX. To do this, you need a device with an FXO port.

If this is the case, the device you need is a SPA-3000. This unit has one FXS port and one FXO port.

If the Merlin supports automatic CO routing based on a dial plan, you may be able to use your existing SPA-2000 connected to a CO port on the Merlin, and use that CO port only for calls being dialed to your remote office. The Partner ACS system does not have this capability. That forces you to use an SPA-3000 configured as an extension.

Your best option for support is to look at the user forums at

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Good luck, Mike Schumann

Reply to
Mike Schumann

Thanks Mike,

Before I got your reply I did som more hunting and found the voxilla site and spent a few hours reading. What you said seems to be the case.

Thing is when we called Sipura they specifically reccomended using two SPA-2000 for this. I apparently am not the only one to get poor advice on what product to buy for specific applications. I have found numerous postings complaining about asking Sipura for advice and them steering you into an unworkable situation and having to buy even more equipment to make it work. But now after re-reading the Sipura site in the light of what I learned on voxilla it all makes sense that I needed the SPA-3000's not the

2000's and it was obvious. But that was only after learning more. Being new at VOIP I was trusting they would know what they were talinkg about. Seems like Sipura needs to train their people better.

One thing I won't do is buy from Atacomm again though. They were all happy to take my money but wouldn't even give me any option for even paying for some setup support. All they wanted to do was have me hire them to come down and install. I'm not paying $1000.00's to setup 2 VOIP line plus hotels and meals etc.

The CO port thing would have worked I'm sure but we didn't have any free CO ports but we have a boatload of free analog ports so this config made sense to us along with the fact that we have other sites we want to do this to that use Iwatsu systems. I know the Merlin somewhat and the Iwatsus not at all so configuring dial plans for their CO ports might have been problematic. This seemed to be the easiest, quickest solution to site-to-site VOIP.

Fred

Reply to
Fred

Don't be too hard on Sipura. Their business model is to sell to large VOIP providers, not end users.

I would much rather have them putting their limited resources into the product than supporting people who haven't done their homework. The good news is that they have great products that are very reliable. There is also a good user support network on Voxilla to help out.

I hope you can return your SPA-2000s and exchange them for 3000s. If not, sell them on e-bay and buy a pair of 3000s. Your approach, using analog extension ports on your Merlin is definitely the way to go.

Good luck, Mike Schumann

Reply to
Mike Schumann

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