[Asterisk-Users] Re: Interface analogue exchange line to VOIP phone?

[Rich Adamson]

> > > I have a potential customer who has an existing PBX with analogue FXS
> > > ports connected to phones. He wants to allow a single remote worker
> > > to be connected to one of the analogue extension ports using VOIP.
> > > 
> > > I know I could do it using Asterisk with an X100P card, but that seems
> > > a bit overkill. Does anyone know of an analogue->VOIP adapter that has
> > > an FXO port in it instead of just an FXS port? i.e. designed to connect
> > > to an exchange line instead of a phone? The VOIP port on the adaptor
> > > would then be made available over the internet, for the remote worker
> > > to connect his VOIP phone to.
> > 
> > A pair of Sipura spa-3000's (see forum at voxilla.com for configs). Also,
> > some combo of spa-1000 and spa-3000 is likely to handle it.

I suggest you log into the voxilla.com site and read the postings from
folks that have already done this to ensure you purchase the right boxes.
I've not tried this personally.

> Thanks Rich, looking at the Sipura site is looke like the SPA-3000 should
> do what I'm looking for, with its FXO port connected to an extension line
> on the analogue PBX, and its Ethernet port exposed to the Internet (with
> suitable security) for the remote worker to point his VOIP phone to.
> 
> > Lots of other vendors out there doing the same thing. Most of those
> > products have been sold in the past as "toll bypass" products, but they
> > are doing exactly what you want.
> 
> I understood the "toll bypass" products as being for connecting an analogue
> *phone* to a VOIP network (e.g. ATA-286), which was the opposite of what
> I wanted. Anyway, the SPA-3000 looks ideal - thanks!

The toll bypass products typically do not show up on this list since 
their target audience is certainly not asterisk users. The Mediatrix
1104 and 1204 are examples of such four-port boxes, but there are lots
of others. They typically don't use words like voip in their marketing
materials and are generally limited to an rj11 here and another rj11
over there, passing some sort of voice encoded packets over IP. They
are oftentimes sold by traditional pbx resellers.

For your objective, the sipura products are about as cheap as you can get.
(Or, should I say 'inexpensive'; not sure. :)