Voice Over IP in UK - Experiences with the Safecom SIP-5000 + alternatives

Author

Experiences with the Safecom SIP-5000 + alternatives

Linker3000

2006-03-25, 9:45 am

This is my first forage into VoIP and for no better reason than my usual
stockist had them in, I purchased 2 x Safecom SIP-5000 phones for a trial.

I have them kinda working, but outbound calls drop after 32 seconds (it
doesn't seem NAT related as I have tried the phone in the DMZ and a PDA
running SJPhone works fine). I am working on this with both Safecom and
VoIP.co.uk but wondered in general what experiences others may have had
with this phone.

Looking at the phone marketplace, the phones seem to be split into two
bands - around £50-£99 and then £129-£229+ - OK, maybe three bands if
you add 'and then Cisco'!

Anyway, if I was not looking at the Safecoms, what are the most reliable
phones (regarding setup and call stability) in the low-to-mid brackets -
in this market sector, the following brands seem to crop up a lot:

Sipura
Snom
Aastra
Zyxel

I have also been looking at the myphonecall.co.uk Web site and at the
low end they have 'Grandstream'.

Also, can you recommend a supplier of either the unlocked PAP2 (PAP2-AN)
or suggest a good alternative. The PAP2 was for testing but in the real
world I'd need an ATA that also connects to the PSTN and can handle
calls from both - incidentally, can ATA's transfer inbound PSTN calls
through to other phones with VoIP accounts?

I am sure 'you get what you pay for' applies, but any practical advice
would be appreciated.

Thanks very much.

L3K

Andrew Gabriel

2006-03-25, 9:45 am

In article <4423c00b$0$675$fa0fcedb@news.zen.co.uk>,
Linker3000 <linker3000@google-mailminushyphen.com> writes:
> This is my first forage into VoIP and for no better reason than my usual
> stockist had them in, I purchased 2 x Safecom SIP-5000 phones for a trial.

I've had a Safecom SIP-5000 phone for a couple of months,
but I haven't been using it as my main phone, just trying
out it's configuration.

It's a very nicely made professional quality office phone.
It supports two VoIP calls, and you can conference them
together which works well. Only one very slight niggle
I have with it is you can't reprogram function key 5, which
is kind of strange given all the other function keys are
reprogrammable (it has 8 of them). I've also seen a lower
spec Safecom phone, SIP-3000. It didn't have the function
keys and possibly not the speakerphone function.
Both phones support multiple (3 I think) SIP accounts, and
I think both contain a router and second ethernet port to
route a computer connection through the phone (the 5000
certainly does).

> I have them kinda working, but outbound calls drop after 32 seconds (it
> doesn't seem NAT related as I have tried the phone in the DMZ and a PDA
> running SJPhone works fine). I am working on this with both Safecom and
> VoIP.co.uk but wondered in general what experiences others may have had
> with this phone.

I've not had that problem.

> Looking at the phone marketplace, the phones seem to be split into two
> bands - around £50-£99 and then £129-£229+ - OK, maybe three bands if
> you add 'and then Cisco'!

I paid £59(incl VAT) for the Safecom SIP-5000. It was an
impulse buy at a computer fair, but I was looking for a VoIP
phone anyway for a distant part of the family. On reflection,
the SIP-3000 would have been fine in this case, but I wasn't
aware of it at the time.

> Anyway, if I was not looking at the Safecoms, what are the most reliable
> phones (regarding setup and call stability) in the low-to-mid brackets -
> in this market sector, the following brands seem to crop up a lot:
>
> Sipura
> Snom
> Aastra
> Zyxel

Mostly I use Sipura SPA-3000's. These work very well.
I buy them from Gradwell.

> Also, can you recommend a supplier of either the unlocked PAP2 (PAP2-AN)
> or suggest a good alternative. The PAP2 was for testing but in the real
> world I'd need an ATA that also connects to the PSTN and can handle
> calls from both - incidentally, can ATA's transfer inbound PSTN calls
> through to other phones with VoIP accounts?

SPA-3000 should be able to do this, although I don't use it in
that way. It has some 700 configuration parameters, which makes
it both very powerful, but also potentially complex to configure.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Linker3000

2006-03-25, 9:45 am

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
> In article <4423c00b$0$675$fa0fcedb@news.zen.co.uk>,
> Linker3000 <linker3000@google-mailminushyphen.com> writes:
>
> I've had a Safecom SIP-5000 phone for a couple of months,
> but I haven't been using it as my main phone, just trying
> out it's configuration.
>
> It's a very nicely made professional quality office phone.
> It supports two VoIP calls, and you can conference them
> together which works well. Only one very slight niggle
> I have with it is you can't reprogram function key 5, which
> is kind of strange given all the other function keys are
> reprogrammable (it has 8 of them). I've also seen a lower
> spec Safecom phone, SIP-3000. It didn't have the function
> keys and possibly not the speakerphone function.
> Both phones support multiple (3 I think) SIP accounts, and
> I think both contain a router and second ethernet port to
> route a computer connection through the phone (the 5000
> certainly does).
>
>
> I've not had that problem.
>
>
> I paid £59(incl VAT) for the Safecom SIP-5000. It was an
> impulse buy at a computer fair, but I was looking for a VoIP
> phone anyway for a distant part of the family. On reflection,
> the SIP-3000 would have been fine in this case, but I wasn't
> aware of it at the time.
>
>
> Mostly I use Sipura SPA-3000's. These work very well.
> I buy them from Gradwell.
>
>
> SPA-3000 should be able to do this, although I don't use it in
> that way. It has some 700 configuration parameters, which makes
> it both very powerful, but also potentially complex to configure.
>

Thanks Andrew - have you managed to setup a mailbox URI on the SIP-5000?
If so, what format did you use - every time I key something in and save
it, it disappears.

Steve B

2006-03-27, 11:56 pm

Hi there,

> I have them kinda working, but outbound calls drop after 32 seconds (it
> doesn't seem NAT related as I have tried the phone in the DMZ and a PDA
> running SJPhone works fine). I am working on this with both Safecom and
> VoIP.co.uk but wondered in general what experiences others may have had
> with this phone.

We have about 20 of the SIP-5000's installed at two sites in the US and UK.
We have never had a call dropped. With regard to the mailbox URI, try this.

Voicemail<sip:*984998>
4998 being my extension. I notice you mention it "disppears". Are you using
firefox? If so try IE. I had that problem until I switched browsers.

Regards,
Steve

Steve B

2006-03-27, 11:56 pm

Linker3000

2006-03-30, 11:56 pm

Linker3000

2006-03-30, 11:56 pm

Steve B wrote:
> Hi there,
>
>
> We have about 20 of the SIP-5000's installed at two sites in the US and UK.
> We have never had a call dropped. With regard to the mailbox URI, try this.
>
> Voicemail<sip:*984998>
> 4998 being my extension. I notice you mention it "disppears". Are you using
> firefox? If so try IE. I had that problem until I switched browsers.
>
> Regards,
> Steve
>
>
>
Dunno if it's the same with your model, but I've just discovered that to
enter the mailbox number you have to add it to the address book and then
select it from there - you cannot type it directly into the mailbox
address field.