Linksys Internet Phone Adapter with 2 Ports for Voice-over-IP PAP2T Review

I've been using my unlocked Linksys Internet phone adapter PAP2T for about a year now with my SIP service provider and I thought that I would write my thoughts on it.

Configuring the device was fairly simple. It involved connecting the device to my router and the power supply as well as connecting an analogue telephone to the PAP2 Line 1 port. After waiting approximately 60 seconds, you would pick up the phone receiver and then hit the "*" key on the phone 4 times. You will then hear a message about the configuration menu. Press "110#" and the system will then reply with the IP address for the device.

Using your web browser connected to the same network as the newly plugged in Linksys Internet Phone Adapter, you basically only have to plug in the IP address into the browser's address bar and it will go into the configuration screen for the device.

Depending on your SIP provider, you will have to make the changes in the configuration screen for the Linksys Internet Phone Adapter.

I use VoIP.ms and I found the configuring the Linksys Internet Phone Adapter for VoIP.ms to be pretty straightforward (comparable with configuring SIP clients on my smartphone). Yes, the Linksys Internet Phone adapter has a lot more parameters than the standard SIP client on a smartphone but all I did was configure the parameters that were required.

VoIP.ms actually has a configuration document specifically for the Linksys Internet Phone Adapter PAP2T. I created a PDF (printed to PDF) from the wiki created by VoIP.ms.

I configured each telephone RJ-11 port to work with a different account with different phone numbers.

In terms of the quality of service, like with all VoIP solutions, the sound quality will depend a lot on the speed/bandwidth/latency of the internet connection that it is plugged into. I would say that the sound quality is better than what I am getting with my SIP client on my cellphone configured to use the same wireless router/network because the Linksys Internet Phone Adapter uses a network cable and doesn't connect to a wireless network which is generally less stable than a wired connection. The Linksys Internet Phone Adapter also had the added benefit of using a real phone which I find has better sound quality than most cellphones.

If you are subscribed to a SIP provider, I have no problems recommending the Linksys Internet Phone Adapter (as long as you purchase it unlocked since some Linksys Internet Phone Adapters are locked to a particular SIP provider or SIP carrier). It works very well and set-up is relatively simple.

If you have any comments/questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that the comments are moderated and any comment containing a URL link (whether embedded or not) will automatically be flagged as spam and will not be posted.

DID (Direct Inward Dialing) Phone Number

Some people asked me about my telephone service/features and one of the pay services that I use in order to get a DID (direct inward dialing) phone number is from VoIP.ms.

VoIP.ms offers a lot of features and it would be too long for me to go into all the features so you can check out their website.

I only use their service in order to get a phone number to use as a forwarding number. I find their rates very reasonable for this. When I travel to the US with one of my US prepaid cellphones, I will purchase a local Montreal phone number from them so that my friends/family does not have to pay long distance in order to reach me. I set this Montreal number to forward all calls (or only certain calls) to my prepaid US cellphone. I also use them in order to obtain a Canadian (Montreal) number to forward to my Google Voice number.

I've also done this with a toll free number (purchasing a toll free number) from this website but I found that based on the call volume that I was receiving and the extra costs of a toll free number as well as the fact that when I travel to the US over 95% of the people whom I want to be able to reach me for free at located within the Montreal local calling area, in my case, it was not practical.

In order to use the VoIP.ms services, you will obviously have to register on their website. After registering, you will see all the features and prices. Prior to registering, you are only given a brief cost structure for most of their more popular services. Once you've registered, if you want to purchase a phone number or any pay service, you will have to have a positive balance on your account. The company accepts PayPal, credit cards from certain countries, wire transfer, etc. as a means of payment. The minimum payment is $25 via PayPal.

In terms of the price plans for DID phone numbers, there is an unlimited monthly plan and a pay per use monthly plan. Initially, I opted for the unlimited monthly plan but then later opted for the pay per use monthly plan.

Using VoIP.ms, you can also set up your unlocked VoIP router and get phone service similar to what you would get with the locked Vonage router. I haven't tried this myself but it does look like something that I might eventually try in the future. If I do, I will write a blog entry for it  ;-)

Something else that you can do with VoIP.ms is that you can use their service in order to install/configure your own Asterisk server. I haven't done this either but I know someone who has implemented this and it is definitely an interesting project that I might attempt as well.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

Free Canadian Phone Number (with Free Calling capabilities)

Quite a few people ask me about all the phone numbers that I have as well as the costs associated with the phone numbers. I've already written about magicJack, Skype, some of my GSM service providers, etc. so I thought that I would mention freephoneline.ca.

Freephoneline.ca is a service that I've used to get a free phone number in Toronto. You can see all the free features offered by this service on their website. Using a softphone computer program which can be downloaded from the company's website, you are able to make/receive calls. When you are not logged into the softphone program, you can configure the software to forward to certain Canadian phone numbers free of charge. This is what I did with my Toronto number. I would set it to automatically forward to my Montreal number. This way, people in Toronto could call me in Montreal for free. Unfortunately because I didn't actively use the program, the company canceled my free Toronto phone number.

The company allows 1 free phone number per household. During the registration process, you are asked for the standard personal information (name, address, e-mail address, and contact phone number). You are not asked for any credit card information. Using the contact phone number and your e-mail address, the system calls you in order to complete the authentication process.

The company will continue to conduct their verification process and if the company detects any discrepancies with the registration information that you've provided, you will receive an e-mail informing you that your account has been deleted/canceled even though you've already authenticated yourself via e-mail and via your personal contact phone number.

Based on the information that I've read, the freephoneline.ca service also works with ATA SIP adapter. Unfortunately I've never verified this although I did download the ATA configuration instructions. Using the provided Canadian phone number in your ATA SIP adapter is free as long as you limit your calls to Canadian numbers. It is something that I am looking at trying, if I ever purchase an unlocked ATA VoIP adapter. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the company deleted/canceled my account because of non-use so I will have to get a new free Canadian phone number when I get a chance.

I've also never used the softphone feature. I would assume that the audio quality is similar to the audio quality obtained by other VoIP solutions like Skype, magicJack, etc.

The only thing that I've used the freephoneline.ca service was to forward the Toronto number that they provided me to one of my Montreal numbers. I found that this worked well although once or twice people have informed me that they've called me at the Toronto number and according to them the phone was ringing but my Montreal phone did not ring nor was the call forwarded to my Montreal voice mail box. I find the audio quality of a forwarded call to be good. There was the occasional problem but this might have been due to me forwarding my Toronto number to a Montreal cellphone that had poor coverage.

My actual suggestion for anyone who wants a free Canadian phone number is to install the softphone onto their PC and have it log into their server occasionally in order to keep your account active. I didn't do this since I was only using their service as a free Toronto forwarding phone number to one of my Montreal phone numbers.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.