[H-GEN] 3G router with OpenWRT

[Nick Kwiatkowski]

Russell Stuart wrote on 01/04/2009 08:37:36 AM:
>
> My experience with them (I looked after a dozen or so of them at one
> stage) is the setup is complex as there are pages of settings and you
> have to get most of them right, but once you do that they are fine.
>
I agree with that whole heartily. The issue I had was in part with SPA-3102
(poor / hard to configure echo suppression) and Uniden DECT phones.

> > > This is because of the artifacts that you get from going Analogue ->
> > > Digitial for the DECT -> Analogue for the phone -> Digitial for VoIP

> > > Analogue for the receiving POTS. I have ended up replacing the
> > > SPA-3102 with a Siemens C470-IP, which is a DECT VoIP phone. This
> > > means that now I have Analogue -> Digitial for VoIP -> Analogue for
> > > the receiving  POTS; and much clearer voice calls.
>
> Unquestionably, the less analogue <-> digital conversions you do the
> better off you will be.  Avoid them where at all possible.
>
> > I had been debating as to whether to go for an ATA + analogue phone or

> > a VoIP phone. It sounds like I would be best just getting a VoIP
> > phone. Out of interest, are there any cheap and reliable Australian-
> > based VoIP hardware resellers that you could recommend? Most of the
> > ones I have bookmarked seem to be either US or UK based, and I'm a
> > little reluctant to just trust whatever the first one I find on Google

> > is.
>
> VoIP hardware is a commodity item.  Your problem isn't finding a
> supplier - use a search engine like staticice (which only returns
> Australian retailers) to do that.  Your real problem is finding a phone
> you will like.  Nick says the Siemens C470-IP is good, so if you are
> after a DECT phone go with that.  In the more traditional style of
> phone, I think the Aastra 9133 provides the best price/quality tradeoff.
>
whirlpool.net.au is the site that I got the best pointer to where to
purchase the unit that I got. I like and use staticice, but it was from
Whirlpool that I got the tip that I would be about to push JB-HiFi staff to
get a good price for the unit.

The thing I like about the unit is the failover ability to the hard
landline. The fact it is a standard DECT base station, to additional DECT
handset can be associated with it. The only downside, it is a pitty that
the C475-IP isn't sold in Australia is it has built in answering machine.
However, the C470-IP works well with the Internode NodePhone voicemail.

> A more radial solution is a mobile phone that has 802.11 and SIP.  The
> high end Nokia's do that.  Their quality is better than either of the
> above.

:) Can comment on that too, I have a Nokia N95 8G and have that set-up so I
can make VoIP calls from home. I would say the call quality is on a par
with the C470-IP unit so far.

Nickolas Kwiatkowski
Senior IT Architect (Certified)
Architecture Services
Global Business Services - Application Services
IBM Global Services, Brisbane, Australia
phone:  07 3213 2149,  mobile:  0412 121 276,  email:  nickolas at au1.ibm.com
"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity" - Albert Einstein