[Asterisk-Users] Best FXO hardware for home use

[Joseph Tanner]

Personally, I've had great success with an X101P (it's a clone, but
it's the exact same chipset and layout of the original).  Now, with
Asterisk 1.2 beta2 (I believe it was beta2, I could be wrong though)
and a P3 933MHz PC I did get annoying echo that I couldn't get rid of,
and only on outgoing calls.  If someone called me, even though all the
same equipment is being used, there was no echo.  Anyways, I upgraded
to Asterisk at Home 2.2 with Asterisk 1.2.1 and at the same time upgraded
to a Celeron 2.93GHz PC, and there's virtually no echo.  Only if
there's complete silence on the other end and you yell very loud, can
you barely make any hint of an echo out.  No idea if it was the
Asterisk upgrade, the new PC, or both that fixed my problem.

Also, somewhere around the pre-1.0 days, I had two of these clones
(one was the exact same layout as the actual X101P, the other had a
different layout but the same chipset) and the one I used with my
Packet8 line had no echo, but my landline did.  Didn't matter if I
switched the lines, the one connected to the Packet8 device had zero
echo, the one connected to my landline had a noticeable echo (again,
only on outgoing calls, incoming was fine).  Played with
rxgain/txgain, all the echo settings, etc.  But now all is fine.

Guess what I'm trying to say, is a lot depends on the line itself, and
your exact setup.  If you can pick up an X101P clone for cheap, I'd
try that first.  Most you're out is a few bucks (I say a few bucks,
cause even if you pay $20 and decide it won't work for you, you can
sell it for about what you paid).  If you build or repair PCs a lot
for others, then you'll need a good cheap modem someday anyways, the
clone cards work fine for that.

Works fine for me, only issue I have now is callerid isn't 100%
reliable, but works the majority of the time.  Until I troubleshoot it
further (i.e., connect a regular phone directly to my landline to at
least verify it's getting callerid when asterisk isn't), I can't blame
the card for that.  As long as the card will work with your setup
(odds are it will), I think it's the best solution for home or small
business use.

Joseph Tanner

On 1/25/06, Rich Adamson <radamson at routers.com> wrote:
>
> > > echo cancellation is pretty limited on these cheap devices.
> > > the spa3000 manual for example states the AEC is limited to
> > > 8ms. good AECs will handle 64ms or more. in my experience the
> > > spa3000 echo canceller is cranky. it works most but not all
> > > of the time.
> >
> > I have been using one for 6 months without any problems. Make sure you have
> > the most current firmware on it and it should work just fine.
>
> Kerry,
>
> There "is" an issue with the spa3k (as well as the TDM04b) in terms
> of handling echo properly on long pstn loops. You are obviously on
> a relatively short loop if you've not been exposed to the variable
> echo cancellation issues.
>
> In other words, long pstn loops basically fall outside the limits of
> the echo cancellation software as someone else already noted.
>
>
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