Vonage, Softphone and Asterisk working as desired!

Posts: 33 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Sep 05, 2005 Posts: 33

After a weekend of calling myself, I have a perfect solution in place with Asterisk:

1. Incoming calls to HOME Simulring my ATA and my Softphone #

2. If the line is in use, call waiting indicator shows up on the analog phones, and the Softphone # rings normally

3. If the softphone client is not available (i.e. my PC is not on), the analog phones off the ATA continue to ring normally '

4. Softphone client traffic does not disrupt the ATA's ability to call out and vice versa.

Now this itself isn't that much of an achievement, but this opens up a realm of IP phones to me.

So, the next step is to add several IP phones in the apartment. Since it's a softphone account, I essentially am only bandwidth limited in the number of outbound calls I can make, so if anyone picks up an IP phone they are guaranteed a dialtone.

Better yet, I can take an IP phone with me, and not disrupt the phones in the apartment. Any extension I take with me will re-register with the Asterisk PBX server when I put it back on a network, and ring with my primary number.

In short, now the ATA can stay put and I can just take what I need with me.

Posts: 82 · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:55 am Post subject:

This is probably why Vonage limits SoftPhone to 500 minutes. Someone with this idea could run a call center. You can pretty much open up a lot of outgoing lines.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 01, 2006 Posts: 10

That seems like a lot of work just to get remote Vonage access and with the additional monthly charges on the softphone account it can add up since it is not unlimited. And at the end of the day it is not that much better than carring the Vonage box with you. Which I use to do. I got it to work most of the time in the hotels but often it cost me 10/day more for the BB in the hotel. Now I found a much better solution so no need to take my Vonage box with me anymore. Plus I now have true mobile access. The device I now use (FX-300 GSM) both forwards my Vonage calls to my GSM (Cingualr, AT&T, T-Mobile) cell Phone for free and I can now place (route) my outbound cell call through my Vonage service anytime anywhere I have cell coverage. My additional monthly fee is $10/mo for the extra number on my Cingular family plan. I installed this extra Chip in the FX-300 and connect the FX-300 to the Linksys Phone port. I plug my cordless phone into the FX-300 so I can still use the Vonage service at home in the normal manner. I programmed the device so it will automatically forward my Vonage calls to my cell phone if no one at home answers within 5 rings. So all missed Vonaqe calls reach me on my cell phone or go to my cell voice mail. To make my Vonage calls from my cell I first call the phone number of the new Cingular chip in the device and then after I hear my Vonage dial tone and dial the number of the person I want to call. This was a bit of a hassel but I figured out how to insert a pause in my phonebook entries on my Samsung phone so now this dialing is automatic as well. So most of my Cell phonebook entries now look like this x-xxx-xxx-xxxxPx-xxx-xxx-xxxx. So now I just have to remenber to take my cell phone with me and keep it charged.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 14, 2006 Posts: 3

Looks like a nice product. How long have you been using it? And have you had and issues with the device.

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 30, 2006 Posts: 15

MarleyX wrote:

This is probably why Vonage limits SoftPhone to 500 minutes. Someone with this idea could run a call center. You can pretty much open up a lot of outgoing lines.

How so? On an Voip server like asterisk configured to use Vonage softphone as a SIP trunk, can you make as many outgoing calls as you want or is it just limited to one? If you get a call on your softphone account while currently engaged in a call it'll go to voicemail. But can you make more than one call at the same time using asterisk or two SIP clientsusing the same provisioning info?

Broadvoice and others offer cheap BYOD plans. What makes Broadvoice and other providers better equipt to restrict multiple calls at the same time using the same SIP credentials on all SIP clients?

Are you telling me that the provisioning info used to provision the original ATA on your Vonage account can also be used to make multiple calls at the same time?