[Asterisk-Users] spa-3000 review?

[Tom Neville]

I've had one for a while now.  My primary goal was to be able to insert 
into into the middle of a phone.. ie, line port to the wall, phone port 
to the phone at my office.  It's seamless.  When someone calls my 
office - SIP/40 is the FXO port, the "iquestdesk" context dials 
SIP/30&SIP/provider/CELLPHONE or whatever.  I have my * box setup so 
that when I dial _1XXX or _7XXX (our office extensions) it first tries 
to dial the call out SIP/40, if that fails I dial out to the PSTN and 
back in.  (See below for the sip.conf excerpt.)

I also recently purchased a second unit for my parents house.  They are 
complete newbies to VOIP and internet calling.  They also have a Bed 
and Breakfast, so they have the 'public' in their house all the time.  
They offer free long distance to their guests as an added bonus 
(Connect.Voicepulse.com for now, so it's not really free.. but close 
enough since not many people use it.)  So, the phone is sitting right 
out where people walk past it all the time.

My biggest concern (and I'm sure a lot of other people on this list..) 
with this is the public and 911.  I don't want to be the one to take 
the call when they couldn't get help there when they needed it and 
somebody dies because of it.  (I don't feel safe with telling them.. 
"just don't use this phone for 911."  In an emergency, that's not an 
answer.)  With the SPA-3000, I was able to modify the dial plan of the 
SPA-3000 to use "gw0" (local PSTN port) in the event someone dials 
"*11".  This works even if the network is completely unplugged.  Since 
I have the FXO connected to a POTS line in their house, their address 
should up on the 911 center.

The other reason for this box at my parents if when they start trusting 
the VOIP/PBX we'll start routing their calls into it as an answering 
machine/forwarder for them.

Another plus side to the SPA-3000, if you pull the power cord it cross 
connects the phone line.  (I've had problems with my office setup where 
* unfortunately did exactly what I told it to do.  :)  If you pull the 
power, it cross connects and the local phone is on the POTS line and 
completely removes * from the path.

I did have a problem originally with caller ID not making it into the 
box.  After talking with them (VERY HELPFUL!) and a firmware upgrade 
that went away.  I had another problem with it not accepting calls.  
When I posted in the BETA forum, they requested logs.  After a short 
exchange, they found the problem and I had a work around.  The first 
unit I bought was a BETA unit, the second was a production unit.  The 
Beta unit is on 2.0.8 and the production unit is on 2.0.9.  However, 
I've not seen the 2.0.9 firmware up for download yet.

The only remaining issue that I have is it doesn't seem to want to 
receive caller id if it's not 10 digits, this is unrelated to the above 
caller id problem.  Our phone system (Interactive Intelligence CIC) 
sends caller id out of the extension which is 4 digits.  The SPA-3000 
seems to miss that?  Haven't really dug that far into fixing this one, 
it's not a major problem for me since I've got a phone client most of 
the time.  Other then that, I've not had any problems with caller id 
making it through.

So far, I'm VERY happy with it and the support folks that I interacted 
with.  IN addition.. I've got a couple of SPA-2000s right now and was 
already familiar with the interface and the box seems to be about the 
cheapest I've seen.. so, I'd give it a big thumbs up.

; FXS port - phone at my desk.
[30]
type=friend
host=dynamic
context=iquestout
secret=NOPE
reinvite=no
canreinvite=no
qualify=300
callerid="IQuest Office FXS" <30>
nat=1
accountcode=5050
; FXO port - Line from our office PBX.
[40]
type=friend
host=dynamic
port=5061
context=iquestdesk
secret=NOPE
reinvite=no
canreinvite=no
qualify=300
;callerid="IQuest Office FXO" <40>
nat=1
accountcode=5050



On Jul 14, 2004, at 11:43 AM, Rich Adamson wrote:

>
> Since the 3000 has been out for a little while, has anyone done a
> review of the product? (couldn't find anything on google for wiki).
>
> Can the fxo and fxs ports be used as two independent channels?
> Is it really read for prime time?
> Etc.
>
> Rich
>
>
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