Roger Mills wrote:
On 04/12/2012 23:09, Andy Burns wrote:
Roger Mills wrote:

can anyone suggest the best way of making calls from the flat without
actually being there?

A VoIP adapter (e.g SPA3102) with an ethernet connection to the ADSL
router, and PSTN connection to the phone line, you could then make a
VoIP call "in" to the ATA which it is configured to dial "out" via the PSTN


Sounds interesting, but I don't quite understand. Is there any chance
that you could spell it out in a bit more detail?

The ATA (analogue telephone adapter) connects to

1) your phone line
2) your phone
3) your ethernet

e.g. second hand Sipura SPA3000 or Linksys SPA3102 from eBay

Normally you would use your phone to make free VoIP calls via the ATA
(and a VoIP account e.g. sipgate) over the internet, or cheap VoIP-PSTN
calls.

But you can also use them in other ways, e.g. make a voip call direct to
the IP address** of the ATA, and get it to "bounce" the call out onto
your PSTN line

e.g you know your 2nd home's router has IP address 12.34.56.78
you wish to use 03301234151 for the monthly calls, UDP port 5060 is the
usual SIP port

you'd make a VoIP call (e.g. from X-Lite software on your PC, or from an
Asterisk server) to :5060"

There's a few more ins and outs to consider, it's been a while since I
dabbled with my ATA in that way, but here's some more hints

http://forum.voxilla.com/threads/how-can-i-call-spa3102-without-using-a-vsp.19304




** you might need to use dyndns if you don't have a static IP address,
and you'd probably need to use port forwarding in the router's firewall,
you also want to only allow VoIP traffic from IP addresses you trust,
such as your own static IP address at home, or a VoIP provider, and be
careful with password protecting the ATA, you don't want random people
discovering your ATA and making calls via your line ... there are plenty
of rogues out there trying to make their international calls at someone
else's expense!