[Mac-telephony-list] Hardware Options to connect legacy to voip

[Benjamin Kowarsch via List]

On Dec 21, 2006, at 2:19 AM, Thoth via List wrote:

> In the case of mutiple lines (4+) you might want to look into the  
> Digium
> cards:

If we are getting into handing out free advertising here, then I'd  
like to insert some balance and mention some of the other vendors,  
too ...

Sangoma have high density (up to 48 port) analog cards:

http://www.sangoma.com

Voicetronix have 4, 6 and 12 port analog cards:

http://www.voicetronix.com.au

Rhino Equipment have also launched an analog card now

http://www.rhinoequipment.com

In fact, you will find that these vendors have higher quality  
hardware (at least as far as analog interfaces are concerned) and  
better driver software. So if you must use analog interface cards,  
shop around and compare before you buy.


> Linksys bought Sipura out, and now they make the SPA-2000 (2 FXS
> ports) and the SPA-3xxx (1FXS + 1FXO ), which are nice as they take
> care of all analog-digital conversions,

The Sipura adapters can be a little confusing to set up as they have  
an incredibly large number of settings, but they tend to work very  
well. Even if you do have trouble with them, it won't affect your  
PBX. If you have to replace one, you don't have to shut down and open  
your PBX. The firmware is being improved all the time and more and  
more countries (and their caller ID schemes) are being supported (via  
firmware upgrade). There is a lot to be said in favour of such adapters.


> As regards to the issue of $49 for a usb dongle, I went ahead and  
> spent a
> little bit more for a SPA-3102 so I could have a FXS port as well.   
> It just
> seems a shame that all these old modems are now labeled not-voice  
> capable.
> When I know darn well they used to be used on the classic mac os as
> voice/fax/answering machines.

You can use chan_modem (with a few adjustments) right now to use  
pretty much any kind of voice modem on the market with Asterisk for  
that mode of operation, even on OSX. However, it's answering machine  
mode only, half duplex.

You cannot use this for real telephony, that is two people having a  
live conversation.

As for the Geoport adapters, Apple doesn't count as modems and the  
machines they were built into don't run MacOS X. Whether you like it  
or not, you will have to buy the dongle modem, or you won't be able  
to hook up your POTS line to asterisk/opbx on OSX.

rgds
benjk