CJ Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 I have already sent a PM to carl0s but wondered if anyone else had any thoughts. As you know, I currently live out here on Kos. I use Skype at the moment and whilst it is OK in the main, it does suffer from a lack of quality and consistency. I have just managed to attract some work to do a lot of DB cleaning which means me ringing the UK from here. It can be anything up to 120 calls a day (sometimes more) and I wondered if there was any other system you could recommend? I currently have an ADSL line with a Greek firm called Cosmote but the line speed is pathetically slow at just 760kbs and they tell me I am too far away from the exchange to get quicker. We also still have the old phone socket system that BT got rid of years ago. So, what do you reckon? Am I stuck with what I have got or should I be looking to switch to something different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Instead of using skype... What about using a proper SIP voip adapter with a normal handset? Set up a voip contract with someone in the UK and let them relay your calls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 Instead of using skype... What about using a proper SIP voip adapter with a normal handset? Set up a voip contract with someone in the UK and let them relay your calls. If I had known you were going to start talking Swahili, I would have brought along an interpretor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 If I had known you were going to start talking Swahili, I would have brought along an interpretor Hehehehe, sorry... You can get a little black box which will plug into an ethernet network (so you may need a ADSL router rather than just a modem), which will connect via the internet back to the VOIP provider. Into this black box you can indeed plug in a normal phone. The other option is get a wireless SIP phone, but they aren't that cheap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 Hehehehe, sorry... You can get a little black box which will plug into an ethernet network (so you may need a ADSL router rather than just a modem), which will connect via the internet back to the VOIP provider. Into this black box you can indeed plug in a normal phone. The other option is get a wireless SIP phone, but they aren't that cheap I have a Netgear router already so I assume the "little black box" connects via a cat 5 cable or the ilk? The downside with the phone is that out here they come with the old style socket and plug so I would need a UK phone to go with it too? If the above sounds like what you are talking about, who are the providers of the little black boxes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 I have a Netgear router already so I assume the "little black box" connects via a cat 5 cable or the ilk? The downside with the phone is that out here they come with the old style socket and plug so I would need a UK phone to go with it too? If the above sounds like what you are talking about, who are the providers of the little black boxes? The one I used to use was a cisco ata 186 unit, I'm sure there is a more modern unit out there. If nobody comes right with a better unit, I'll have a root around the loft and see if I still have it.... can put it in the same box as the disc. I'm not 100% sure if I have the config manual for it, but I'm sure I can find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyT Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 You're just lovely people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Some providers will pre-configure a handset (Grandstream or similar cheapo usually) for you which saves a bit of hassle. An ATA might be a nicer idea though simply because you can use any old cheapo cordless phone with it. Linksys/Sipura are the popular ones. If you want a proper SIP handset rather than ATA adapter/regular phone, then again the Linksys (ex-Sipura) ones are good and can be had for OK money. http://www.voipon.co.uk if you were to order from a UK supplier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Some providers will pre-configure a handset (Grandstream or similar cheapo usually) for you which saves a bit of hassle. An ATA might be a nicer idea though simply because you can use any old cheapo cordless phone with it. Linksys/Sipura are the popular ones. If you want a proper SIP handset rather than ATA adapter/regular phone, then again the Linksys (ex-Sipura) ones are good and can be had for OK money. http://www.voipon.co.uk if you were to order from a UK supplier. Blimey.... can't really argue with this http://www.voipon.co.uk/grandstream-budgetone-101-ip-telephone-p-151.html or this http://www.voipon.co.uk/siemens-c460ip-dect-sip-phone-p-349.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Blimey.... can't really argue with this http://www.voipon.co.uk/grandstream-budgetone-101-ip-telephone-p-151.html Yeah. They are cheap, but the Linksys ones aren't much more. I was talking VOIP with some Asterisk nut on IRC a long time ago and he said he hated the Grandstreams though. Quite a lot of the Asterisk people didn't think too much of them, but I think they were all a bit snobby (polycom/snom) anyway. The Linksys ATA is cheap enough..http://www.voipon.co.uk/linksys-pap2t-analog-telephone-adapter-p-145.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 The one I used to use was a cisco ata 186 unit, I'm sure there is a more modern unit out there. If nobody comes right with a better unit, I'll have a root around the loft and see if I still have it.... can put it in the same box as the disc. I'm not 100% sure if I have the config manual for it, but I'm sure I can find it. Oh that would be ace my friend. Many thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 I will be back with questions shortly. Need to investigate what you have posted then have some scran - then reply Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 I will be back with questions shortly. Need to investigate what you have posted then have some scran - then reply I think you will be good with the ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) which lets you plug the regular phone in and it converts it for use over a proper-standard-official-VOIP service (that being, SIP - the session initiation protocol, open standard used by lots of companies/services) instead of that proprietary closed-doors Skype thing. So once you've got an ATA thanks to Gav, you'll need to pick a SIP provider such as sipgate.com or http://www.voipcheap.co.uk/en/sipp.html whoever has prices you like and enter their settings into the ATA after you've registered with the service. Just hope the Cisco ATA is somewhat easier to configure than the Cisco 7960 phones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 Yeah. They are cheap, but the Linksys ones aren't much more. I was talking VOIP with some Asterisk nut on IRC a long time ago and he said he hated the Grandstreams though. Quite a lot of the Asterisk people didn't think too much of them, but I think they were all a bit snobby (polycom/snom) anyway. The Linksys ATA is cheap enough..http://www.voipon.co.uk/linksys-pap2t-analog-telephone-adapter-p-145.html Ignore that post...didn't see above. I think my problem is going to be finding that equipment out here if Gav cannot find his box of tricks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Ignore that post...didn't see above. I think my problem is going to be finding that equipment out here if Gav cannot find his box of tricks. Try these results: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=linksys+pap2t+site%3A*.es Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 Try these results: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=linksys+pap2t+site%3A*.es Once again, many thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 You're welcome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Geneb Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 just gimme a call baldie and i'll log in and remove all the virus's you have rom surfin porn, they probably screwing your bandwidth, had to remove porn from another members pc on here before lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 So thx to you guys you have ironed out the end-point issue. Do you reckon that using a UK Sip-provider in Greece will improve on he quality of the experience? What if the bottleneck is the poor adsl connection? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 So thx to you guys you have ironed out the end-point issue. Do you reckon that using a UK Sip-provider in Greece will improve on he quality of the experience? What if the bottleneck is the poor adsl connection? Well, I said this to Colin a little while ago.. the audio quality on Skype is I think better than most regular SIP providers, so I don't think it will improve the sound quality, but the overall quality of use should be better as it's more telephone like and doesn't require a computer to be on/signed in/etc. I don't know how bandwidth hungry Skype is, but I know g.729 only requires about 8 - 10 kbit/sec. You would think anyone would have that to spare but it's still entirely possible that the broadband connection is just useless and ultra high latency or something or as gene suggested totally saturated. I suppose it would be worth trying a SIP service out using a software SIP client like X-Lite before going and buyer a hardware SIP device (i.e. the ATA or SIP phone). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 but I know g.729 only requires about 8 - 10 kbit/sec. You would think anyone would have that to spare but it's still entirely possible that the broadband connection is just useless and ultra high latency or something or as gene suggested totally saturated. Bandwidth in this case is not entirely relevant as you have clearly identified Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Bandwidth in this case is not entirely relevant as you have clearly identified Yeah, but a working (i.e. not faulty) DSL connection *should* be good enough, you'd think.. wouldn't ya? Colin: Any chance of doing a couple of ping tests to get some kind of idea if your connection is very laggy/latent from a command prompt type "ping -t 66.102.9.104" let it run for five minutes then press CTRL-C to stopp it and let us know the minimum, maximum and average round trip times that it gives you when you stop it. Then do the same for 158.152.1.43 I am seeing 35ms for the first and 20ms for the second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorin Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 http://www.testyourvoip.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 BTW, I don't think the Greece -> UK SIP provider part will affect latency considerably. It's not that far away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 http://www.testyourvoip.com/ That's clever... good find Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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