30 Jun 2009

Making VoIP Calls with Home Phone - ATA Configuration

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ata5For people who want to enjoy the benefits and low rates of VoIP calls, but are still attached to traditional phone sets, analog telephone adaptor (ATA) might be the answer for you. Imagine the convenience of making cheap VoIP calls anywhere without a computer, just by plugging the ATA in your router and phone set.

An ATA is usually shaped like a small box and normally has two sets of outlets: one for your VoIP service or LAN and another one for your regular house phone. The main job of ATA is to bridge the analog phone system and the digital network or VoIP service.

The advantages of using an ATA are as follows:

1.    You don’t need a computer to use VoIP service.

2.    You are able to use VoIP service when you travel by bringing your ATA device. Just plug it in any DSL modem or router and off you go.

3.    It’s cheaper than buying an IP phone and easier to configure at the same time.

In the following, I’ll show you how to install an ATA so you can make calls from your house phone at OneSuite VoIP rates. To use OneSuite VoIP service, you need to have a OneSuite account, which gives you OneSuite Broadband Access after you download the free SoftPhone. Or, you can sign up for SuiteAdvantage at $2.95 a month, to also get a phone number plus other features like free voicemail, free incoming calls, message broadcasting, free member calls, caller ID, call block, etc.

I’m using Grandstream HandyTone 286 ATA™ as an example. It’s an entry-level device that is both affordable, popular and has good user reviews.

ata4

First, I connect the Ethernet cable from my router to the RJ45 port of the ATA, then my house phone line on the RJ11 port before plugging the device in the wall outlet. Fast forward to configuration settings. I find this ATA really easy to set up on my OneSuite SuiteAdvantage:

 ata1

This is the Basic Settings page. If you need a fixed setting then choose the “statically configured as” and enter the following:

IP Address – It’s the IP address of the ATA. To know the IP you need to dial *** and then 02 to hear the current IP address.

Subnet Mask – It’s always 255.255.255.0

Default Router – By default, D-link router IP address is 192.168.0.1 (which is what I’m using) as opposed to Linksys router default IP of 192.168.1.1. Check the documentation of your router to find the default IP.

DNS server 1: DNS server address can be found on the status screen of your router or you can always check with your ISP (Internet Service Provider). DNS server 2: Same as DNS server 1.

Time Zone: Change it to your current time zone. Otherwise, choosing “dynamically assigned via DHCP” will work for most people.

 ata2

Then proceed to the Advance Settings page:

SIP server: voip.onesuite.com

Outbound Proxy: voip.onesuite.com

SIP user ID: onesuite username-voip.onesuite.com

Authenticate ID: onesuite username-voip.onesuite.com

Authenticate Password: onesuite softphone password Some advance settings highlights:

Preferred Vocoder (Codec): OneSuite supports G711.u, also known as PCMU, so PCMU should be on Choice 1.

User ID is phone number: No. OneSuite doesn’t use SuiteAdvantage number as a username.

SIP Registration: Yes.

Unregister on reboot: Yes. Sometimes the changes won’t take effect if the ATA doesn’t unregister first before rebooting.

Send DTMF: via RTP (RFC2833)

DTMF Payload Type: 101 Click on update then reboot after entering the details.

 ata3

After the reboot, check the status to see if you are registered with OneSuite. If not, then review the details above and make sure everything is configured accordingly. If registered, you are now ready to make OneSuite VoIP calls with ATA. To call a US number, just dial the area code, destination number then press #. For international calls, dial 011, followed by the country code, area code then phone number.

58 comments

  • Comment Link Rose Thursday, 19 February 2015 12:11 posted by Rose

    Hello,
    I set up an OBI 202 yesterday with a Panasonic handset. I get a constant busy signal when I try to call out. When I try calling, I get a message saying 403 (meaning forbidden) in the code coming from my service provider which is ONE SUITE. Any thing I am doing wrong? In the OBI settings, all looks good, saying registered, etc... Thanks!

  • Comment Link MVWABC Monday, 24 December 2012 05:12 posted by MVWABC

    The HT 286 has been discontinued. What is the recommended replacement? Where can I find instructions for configuring the recommended replacement for SuiteAdvantage use?

  • Comment Link Michael, Tech Guy Monday, 20 August 2012 05:34 posted by Michael, Tech Guy

    Hi D,

    Yes, the ATA needs to be registered with OneSuite or other VoIP accounts to work. Please log in to your OneSuite account to retrieve the VoIP userID and password for registration.

    Thanks!

  • Comment Link D Thursday, 16 August 2012 03:17 posted by D

    Hi,

    Does the ATA have to be registered to onesuite for it to work? I tried to dial out through a gateway without registeration, but there is no response from the onesuite server it seems.

  • Comment Link Michael, Tech Guy Wednesday, 23 May 2012 02:43 posted by Michael, Tech Guy

    Hi Chow,

    1. It's not recommended to have both softphone and ATA on at the same time. It might cause a problem in terms of receiving calls. So it's either to use ATA or your softphone as primary phone device.

    2. No. You don't need a new password for your ATA. If the password is proven working on your softphone, you should be able to use the same one for your ATA.

    3. Not all IP address contains 12 digits. Everyone's IP is different. Please enter your complete IP address, including 0, when configuring your ATA.

    Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

    Thanks!

  • Comment Link Chow Chang Tuesday, 22 May 2012 14:56 posted by Chow Chang

    Hi Michael:

    Thanks for the response. Please let me know if I understand your answers correctly:

    1. I cannot have the ATA and analog phone on and my softphone logged in at the same time? So if I want to use the softphone, I need to turn off the ATA? Or I can have both on but can make calls on either the softphone or ATA?

    2. I already have a password for the softphone and it works. Are you saying I cannot use the same password to configure and register my ATA? and that I need to change the password and use the new password for the settings on HT286 and then use the same password to log in my softphone?

    3. I should enter all digits (including all zeros in front of the numbers) both for the ATA's IP address (for example:192.168.001.067) and my computer's default router? I looked at the example you have in the blog and the numbers do not have all the 12 digits.

    Thanks.

  • Comment Link Michael, Tech Guy Tuesday, 22 May 2012 02:33 posted by Michael, Tech Guy

    Hi Chow,

    Please see my answers to your questions below:

    1. Yes. You make sure you use either ATA or softphone, but not both, for calls.
    2. Once you change your password in My Account, you need to use that new password for your ATA. No 2 different passwords.
    3. Please enter all digits of your IP address.

    Thanks!

  • Comment Link Chow Chang Monday, 21 May 2012 12:07 posted by Chow Chang

    Hi Michael:
    I was able to get the IP address from HT286 and entered all the information on the web browser. However, when I rebooted, it said "The device is rebooting now" and stayed there for more than 5 minutes without any change. The IP address was not registered and the ATA is not working.

    A few questions:
    1. You mentioned in one of the blog reply that no other softphone from my computer is currently registered at Onesuite when I am using my ATA device and that I cannot use an ATA device normally while a softphone is registered at the same time with the same account. Does that mean that either I use the softphone or the ATA and not both at the same time?

    2. On another post, you advised change password on Onesuite broadband access and use the new password for the settings on Grandstream HT286. You also said that one needed to change the password with the softphone we use on the PC. Does that mean I can use both the softphone and the ATA at the same time but with 2 different passwords, one for softphone and one for ATA?

    3. When entering the IP address on the web page of HT286, should I enter the 12 digits or should I eliminate the zeros in front of all numbers?

    Thank you for your time and advise.

  • Comment Link Michael, Tech Guy Wednesday, 16 May 2012 06:37 posted by Michael, Tech Guy

    Hi Chow, Please follow these steps to reset your ATA:

    1. Make sure your Internet connection is still on.

    2. Double check your current IP address by dial *** and then 02 on the phone.

    3. Enter your IP address in a web browser and you should be able to see the admin page.

    4. Double check your IP address, OneSuite SuiteAdvantage username and password. Make sure you have correct information entered in each fields.

    Thanks!

  • Comment Link Chow Chang Tuesday, 15 May 2012 12:51 posted by Chow Chang

    I tried to configure the HT-286 and was unsuccessful with a Onesuite agent on the phone after 2 hours. When I called again and talked with another agent, I might have entered the wrong IP address. Now I when I entered the IP address on the web address, nothing showed up. I contacted grandstream and they told me to reset the ATA which was not successful. Please help.

  • Comment Link Stella, Penny Saver Tuesday, 20 September 2011 03:46 posted by Stella, Penny Saver

    Hi Jim,

    This is a great question! And our most recent post gives you just the right answer! Please see the blog post at http://blog.onesuite.com/index.php/blog/item/300-voip-is-great-but-how-do-i-use-it.html

    Hope it helps!

    Stella

  • Comment Link Jim M. Monday, 19 September 2011 03:21 posted by Jim M.

    My wife must use her laptop to dial out (with modem) and connect to mainframes. Yes it's old technology, but this is why we keep a landline and we want to save money by going VOIP. Would she need to purchase an ATA or use a SoftPhone?

    Thanks,
    Jim

  • Comment Link Michael, Tech Guy Tuesday, 16 August 2011 03:42 posted by Michael, Tech Guy

    Hi Les,

    The first issue brought up is occurring because the phone is losing registration with our Suite Advantage servers. It doesn't appear to be reconnecting for whatever reason. Two things that can be checked on the device are the keep alive timers, or the registration timeout settings. Make sure these are occurring at 1 hour intervals (3600 seconds). Our system is currently set to one hour, so it would lose registration after that time period. This is one possible issue. Another possible issue is that your internet connection is losing connectivity, and when it comes back up, the phone isn't re-registering. You might want to check settings regarding registration for this as well. One other possible issue could be with your ISP itself. They might be changing the IP address regularly, and for some reason the phone isn't re-registering with the new IP address. ISP's regularly change a subscribers IP address to prevent them from running servers from home.

    As far as your router is concerned, the phone can be in front of or behind the router; if it's in front of the router, the phone must pass through the internet connection(unless you're by-passing it or splitting the connection). If there are some issues with the phone's ability to forward the packets, this might cause your lack of internet connectivity. It's generally better to keep the phone behind the router, but if your shutting the router off, I guess it will not work for you.

    The ATA probably should be statically configured if it's behind the firewall, and it will most likely use the internet connections IP address.

    You might also want to just reboot the router every now and then because they sometimes will need to be reset.

    Michael

  • Comment Link Les Thursday, 11 August 2011 05:00 posted by Les

    Michael:
    In April I signed up for SuiteAdvantage and bought an HT502. I used your 286 configuration to set up my 502. Any fields that didn't appear on your setup screens I left with their defaults.
    It all worked as you said it should, and we were making phone calls within an hour or so.
    Since then, two problems have developed. Don't know if they're related. Here's the first one:
    On weekend mornings and some weekday mornings, usually until around 1300 or so, I can't make calls. I get a dial tone, I dial the number, then nothing. Dead air. Incoming calls also don't get through. They go to the voicemail server, which dutifully emails them to me, but I can't call back. Does this have to do with call volume? Are the Onesuite servers rejecting my connection attempts? What can I do?
    The second problem is with my router, a D-Link DIR-825. If I understand your configuration correctly, your ATA hangs off your router. Mine is between the cable modem and the router. It's set to DHCP, and the device mode is NAT router.
    For the first two months, the router worked fine, then it began dropping out.
    The router instructions say that to connect to another router to use as an acess point, disable UPnP and DHCP and change the LAN IP address...the 825 LAN ports cannot accept a DHCP address from the other router. This all means that my ATA must be statically configured?, in which case the default server address would be that of the cable modem?

    I set things up this way because the phone needs to be available all the time, but I power the router down at night and when we're not home. Also, throughput (Cox) became good enough for VOIP recently, when FIOS appeared. I was concerned that going through the router might degrade the signal - perhaps that worry is unfounded.

    Thanks for your help.
    Les

  • Comment Link Michael, Tech Guy Monday, 18 April 2011 02:00 posted by Michael, Tech Guy

    Hi gomaxus,

    To solve your problem with the ATA, please try:

    1. Logging in to your OneSuite account and go to Long Distance > Summary; scroll down to see the "Broadband Access" section then click "Change Password".

    2. The system will generate a new password for you. Use the new password for your settings on Grandstream HandyTone 286.

    3. You will also need to change your password with the softphone you use on your PC.

    Please let me know if this works!

    Thank you!

    Michael

  • Comment Link gomaxus Friday, 15 April 2011 05:38 posted by gomaxus

    I just got my new Grandstream HandyTone 286 and tried to set it up as Michael described, but I keep getting the red flashing light indicating "not registered" error. I can see the "STATUS" screen showing the same (Registered: No) problem.

    Since mine may have a newer firmware, it does not have the exact same screenshot as Michael's (90% of them are the same, though). I tried both static and dynamic IP allocation on basic setting, but it did not make any difference.

    By the way, my account info (SIP server, outbound proxy, SIP user ID, authentication ID and password) should be correct because I use the same info for configuring the soft phone on my PC (it works fine)

    I can punch in "***" and get correct IP address (192.168.1.7) and error message (not registered error) from the phone

    Any idea what should I do to get it fixed?

    Thanks in advance

  • Comment Link Michael, Tech Guy Monday, 04 April 2011 02:45 posted by Michael, Tech Guy

    Hi Ming,

    The voicemail server setup is not supported. There are, however, 4 ways to access your voicemail with OneSuite SuiteAdvantage:

    1. Receive voicemail through your web account and play it on your computer.
    2. Receive voicemail through email when it arrives.
    3. Check your voicemails by pressing *0 on the SoftPhone keypad.
    4. Dial your SuiteAdvantage number from any phone, and enter password.

    Thanks!

    Michael

  • Comment Link Ming Friday, 01 April 2011 17:51 posted by Ming

    Hi,

    I have a SPA-1001 and a phone support voicemail indicator. Can you tell me what "Voice Mail Server" I should put into the SPA-1001 in order I can see if I have new voice mail in your system on my phone?
    Thanks!

  • Comment Link Michael, Tech Guy Wednesday, 30 March 2011 01:48 posted by Michael, Tech Guy

    Hi Gwen,

    When you say your "router is unregistered", did you mean router or your ATA device? Assuming router or ATA device is still working and didn't get affected by power surge, you can try to reset both.

    On most routers, just press the reset (usually at the back of the device) button for 30 seconds while the router is power on and it should reset the device to factory defaults. Do not reset your router if the router is functioning properly as you may need to configure it again to work with your DSL service or ISP.

    On ATA device, some has a reset button and some doesn't. You need to consult the manual to reset your ATA device.

    Before resetting your ATA, please check if your Onesuite VoIP credentials (username, password, IP server) are still typed in your ATA configuration.
    If not, then please type it in and click save then reboot your ATA. You should be able to see your ATA register to Onesuite after the reboot.

    Keep us updated.

    Regards,

    Michael

  • Comment Link Gwen Tan Monday, 28 March 2011 15:26 posted by Gwen Tan

    Hi Michael,
    You helped me setup my Sunrocket router before. Things were going smoothly until we have a power failure and my router is "unregistered". I am not sure what or where to look first on the configuration.
    Hope to hear back from you.
    username: gwent77

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