Secondary ATA

[pitcritter]

I am currently using my PAP2T at home with FreePhoneline. It works great. I have a trailer in upstate NY. I have good wifi there and I'm currently using the SoftPhone there (on another FPL account) with good success.

I just picked up a SPA2100 at a thrift shop for $1.99. I'm sure they didn't know what it was. I've played with it a bit, and it works, although it appears that it might be locked.

My question is this: Can I take the SPA (assuming I can get it unlocked somehow) and use it at my trailer using the same login as my PAP? I know I won't be able to use both simultaneously, I'd unplug the home unit before leaving. I know I can just bring the SPA, but this way is much easier.

[TheHardy]

My question is this: Can I take the SPA (assuming I can get it unlocked somehow) and use it at my trailer using the same login as my PAP? I know I won't be able to use both simultaneously, I'd unplug the home unit before leaving. I know I can just bring the SPA, but this way is much easier.

Nice score! As far as I am able to tell, this should work just fine, under the parameters that you have laid out. Before leaving home when undoing the PAP2T, fire up the softphone with that account (the same one the PAP2T) and make sure that the SOFTPHONE works (ie: that the PAP2T unregistered correctly...). Otherwise you will get all the way down there and find you are hooped!

[pitcritter]

Good point on the deregistration part. Is there a process I can follow to make it happen or just unplug it and then reboot my router?

[TheHardy]

Good point on the deregistration part. Is there a process I can follow to make it happen or just unplug it and then reboot my router?

I know that the registration DOES time out after a while, but I am not sure if there is a process to FORCE unregister an ATA ... I know that for the softphone, closing it does the trick, but I am unsure with an ATA. I would see if any of the "senior" forum members reply, or alternately you could try PM'ing one of the FONGO staff with that direct query and see what they say ... Steve or Mike is probably a good bet...

I just try to foresee things that could be an issue and try to head them off ...

[FONGO_steve]

Good point on the deregistration part. Is there a process I can follow to make it happen or just unplug it and then reboot my router?

I know that the registration DOES time out after a while, but I am not sure if there is a process to FORCE unregister an ATA ... I know that for the softphone, closing it does the trick, but I am unsure with an ATA. I would see if any of the "senior" forum members reply, or alternately you could try PM'ing one of the FONGO staff with that direct query and see what they say ... Steve or Mike is probably a good bet...

I just try to foresee things that could be an issue and try to head them off ...

Unplugging is going to be your best bet in this situation

[dibsmft]

If you get the SPA2100 unlocked one option might be to get an account with a free voip account provider (eg. getonsip.com or similar) to run on both devices and that will allow you to easily call home if you want to be able to do that. As far as I know you cannot use the SPA2100 to forward from one line to the other as that would be really nice.

[j8van]

If you are the only user (I mean there is no other family member would use the service after you leave home),

Set PAP2T with FPL account A (home);
Set SPA with FPL account B (trailer);

When you leave home, enable FollowMe from home account to trailer account, then every call received at PAP2T will be forwarded to SPA even though the PAP2T is till running, and you can enable/disable this feature by loging into your home account, online, anywhere, anytime.

[pitcritter]

I only have one paid account. It's running on the SPA. I'd like to use the PAP2T with the same login and avoid paying another $50.

[TheHardy]

I only have one paid account. It's running on the SPA. I'd like to use the PAP2T with the same login and avoid paying another $50.

I sorta figured that is what you were after. As Steve has confirmed, turning it off will de-register it ... as I don't have an ATA to tinker with, I was just unsure if there was another way to "manually" de-register it first, rather than just "cutting the cord" (so to speak) and letting the reg die with the TTL timeout. If that is known to work tho, then your issue is solved.

As I did note, do a quickie test via loading the softphone to make sure you don't encounter an error before you pack up and head on down the road, just to save yourself hassle, in case it is taking an excessively long time to de-register once you discon the power.

[Jake]

As soon as you power up the 2nd ATA it will take registration away from the first instantly. Even if the first is still powered up.

You can't leave the first powered up though as at some point it will try and register again unregistering the second.

You will be fine setting up the account on both ATAs and just unplugging the onoe you don't want to use. Just make sure you remember otherwise it could be a long trip back to the cottage to unplug it again. You will end up in a mess if you keep both plugged in.

[j8van]

I only have one paid account. It's running on the SPA. I'd like to use the PAP2T with the same login and avoid paying another $50.

I see.

You may use a PBX system (eg. http://www.pbxes.com) to handle these arrangements, you would have your paid FPL account as a "trunk" within the root interface, your PAP2T and SPA2100 registered as 2 "extensions" of the PBX system, you can decide which extension (device) to receive the calls by routing the calls to it, and you can change to another one any time you want without touching any of the devices.

[TheHardy]

As soon as you power up the 2nd ATA it will take registration away from the first instantly. Even if the first is still powered up.

You can't leave the first powered up though as at some point it will try and register again unregistering the second.

Ah, the voice of experience weighs in ... good to know that they will steal the reg (and then fight over it); I was unaware of that, as I would have thought that the second attempt may fail if the first was still active. I can certainly see how the "stealing" of the reg would create an endless loop if both devices configured to the same account were to compete over the registration status!! Sort of like a Parliament Hill feeding frenzy where absolutely nothing useful ever gets accomplished and both parties just run around in limbo wasting time, effort and getting nothing done.

[TheHardy]

and you can change to another one any time you want without touching any of the devices.

Interesting solution and sounds workable, but may be overkill for what pit was after. I do not think that for his intent that touching the devices was an issue tho, although I am sure that your solution may of interest to others that may attempt a similar setup/installation!

As for me, I have learned a bit about how to do this, should I ever chose to!