[asterisk-users] Re: What's the story with X10*P FXO cards?

[Rich Adamson]

Martin Joseph wrote:
> 
> On Jul 9, 2006, at 10:51 PM, Vincent Delporte wrote:
> <snip>
> Thanks for the info. This little experiment is getting expensive ;-)
> 
> LOL!  I know that feeling... I actually thought I would save money with 
> VOIP, what a joke!  Actually I am happy with my setup,  but spent an 
> intial $75(us) thinking the HT-488 would provide an FXO for my PSTN 
> connection, only to find it doesn't work well enough to actually use for 
> that.
> 
> I then spent an additional $200(us) for the Wellgate 3701a (1FXS+1FXO) 
> which, although horribly documented is a HUGE improvement over the 
> Grandstream garbage (HT-488).
> 
> So yeah,  it gets expensive quickly.  It's annoying that so many of the 
> products are marginal or straight up garbage,  but I guess we are still 
> in the infancy of the standards based VOIP business, and many of the 
> products are in search of a firmware update, or a decent manual.
> 
> Oh well, More work for the stubborn techo-maniacs who refuse to give 
> up(like me).

I've gone through the same basic devices over the last three years, but 
have also tested the Mediatrix 1204 box as well.

I've got four analog pstn lines here coming from two different central 
offices, both of which are on relatively long loops with somewhat 
unusual echo characteristics. I have also gone through the spa3000, 
ht488, x100p's, multiple h/w versions of the TDM04b, etc. Also have a 
TDM2400 here for testing, but testing has been held up due to delays in 
being able to run current trunk code on the test machine.

To date, the best devices from a "quality of audio" perspective are the 
Mediatrix 1204 and the Sangoma A200D. The last time I worked with the 
1204 was about two years ago and the box had several compatibility and 
security issues that hopefully have been resolved since then. Its retail 
price is higher then the A200D (in the US). The A200D has been in use 
now for several months and has provided excellent audio (etc), supports 
modem use (fax and POS), and just hasn't failed in any way.

Rumor has it that Digium will be announcing some new cards in the near 
future that should also help address the space for small numbers of 
analog pstn lines. Unknown as to what the current status happens to be.