a better home phone adapter

[dani85]

I am going to buy a home phone adapter. FPL offers one with $99.99 one-time fee. Any suggestion?

[dibsmft]

I think the adapter that Fongo offers is really $49.99 + $50 for the unlock key(and you need this for any other ATA that you buy if you eant to use FPL and DellVoice with it). The Grandstream GS286 they offer is simple to configure and not a bad little ATA (particularly if you are new to voip. There are plenty of other ATA devices available but the one you need depends on your needs.... do you want to keep PSTN .. do you want to have extra voip lines available etc?

[dani85]

Thank you for the response. Actually there are 4 phones shared with a phone number in my house. I signed up as a new member of FPL and I want a home phone adapter works in a similar way.

[dibsmft]

The GS286 can probably connect support the 4 regular phones but it might be better to use a cordless phone set. I have two regular phones and a cordless base station (4 handsets) connected to mine and it functions OK. Basically, it there is good wiring in your house and you are dropping the regular landline phone line you can simply diconnect the external line from your current phone network and connect the ATA into the network and it should work OK. (There are too many variable to say for sure). If you are keeping the PSTN line then you could use a SPA3102 (or similar) that will effectively allow PSTN and Voip services over the same phones.

[Jake]

Just watch out for the REN number. Look on the spec of the ATA to see what is the max REN, then you can work out how many phones you can connect before you get problems. As a general rule of thumb a phone has a REN of 1, but as mentioned by dibsmft connecting a cordless set will still only take a REN of ~1, but you can have many phones off that one base.

If you go over the specified REN number you might find that some, or all, of the phones don't ring.

[bridonca]

I believe the ATA that FPL sells has a REN of 5. And we are talking phones with bells. The newer phones use a lot less juice, so in a practical sense, you do not have to worry if your phones will ring.

[FONGO_mike]

I believe the ATA that FPL sells has a REN of 5. And we are talking phones with bells. The newer phones use a lot less juice, so in a practical sense, you do not have to worry if your phones will ring.

With older phones, or none cordless phones, the Ren could is pretty close to a REN of 1 per phone. With newer cordless phones, although not all of them, even a cordless phone set of 3 phones can be closer to a REN of 0.5 (high estimate to be sure)

However, a cordless phone set is what i have always recommended to people. It is simpler to just plug in a single base unit to your ATA device (instead of having splitters and such weakening the connection every step of the way) and have the other chargers around the house. This way you have a line in any room you need and don't need to make sure the handheld you are picking up is from the base that is plugged into the ATA device.

As far as brand names for these phones, it is really up to the individual. Based on look, design, distance from the base you need to go and budget, they can be worth looking into to find the right one for you.