VoIP – Page 4 – Graves On SOHO Technology

An Analog Phone For Our Front Gate: Done Deal!

While I ordered the DoorBell Fone back in August the fact of our extreme Houston summer kept me from completing the installation. The buried wire run out to our gate was broken and there was just no way I was going to bury a new wire in 100+ degree heat. This past weekend I was able to find the time and temperature to complete the installation.

The largest task was to completely replace the wiring from the central closet in our house out to the gate. I replaced the old-skool solid copper pair with a length of Cat-5 cable. Using Cat-5 is a bit of future-proofing. It means that I can change to a POE-powered network device at the gate without replacing the cable again.

For the moment I’m using only one pair from the Cat-5 wiring, connecting the DoorBell Fone remote unit to the controller in the wiring closet. The total cable length is about 80 feet.

Freeswitch Community Call October 13th: Phil Zimmermann on VoIP Encryption

October 14, 2011
Michael Graves
freeswitch, security, VoIP

While I have been basically offline for the past week, I took some time while awaiting one of my flights home to read some news. That little exercise revealed that the Freeswitch community call this past week featured Phil Zimmermann…

Invoxia NVX 610: Executive Desk Phone Powered by iOS Device

October 7, 2011
Michael Graves
mobile, VoIP, Wideband

As it happens, I was travelling last week so not able to attend the VUC call on September 30th that featured Invoxia. Thank goodness for the podcast because their product, the NVX610 certainly looks interesting.

In fact, it’s interesting on many levels. For the past few years there have been a number of people I know who have been seeking a re-imagining of the desk phone. Fellow blogger Dave Michels is one of the more notable folks calling for such an effort.

In exploring the space looking for a solution to our latent desire for a wholly new kind of executive desk phone we’ve been distracted by various things.

Asterisk 10 In SSSSuuuuuuuper-Wideband!*

While I am not currently an Asterisk user I still try to stay in touch with what goes on in that realm. Earlier this week Rod Montgomery penned a post at the Digium blog entitled “Top 10 Tricks You Didn’t Know That Asterisk Could Do.”

The post is structured like a Top 10 list. Most of the items included are genuinely useful. However, right at the bottom in the #1 position, he highlights newfound support for very high-sample rate audio, aka Super-Wideband.

Counterpath Weekend Sale on Bria 3.0

September 17, 2011
Michael Graves
VoIP

Counterpath is without a doubt the leader in commercial soft phones. I’ve used numerous version of their products over the years, and found them to be robust & reliable. Thus the fact that they’re selling Bria 3.0 for Mac &…

An Analog Phone For Our Front Gate

DoorBellFone-250 A short while ago I briefed you on my years-long search and utterly frustrating search for the perfect, affordable, SIP/IP-based door phone, preferably with video. Having set aside that lofty goal, I resigned myself to retain primarily the “affordable” aspect of the prior set of specifications, which lead me to look for an analog door phone.

There are many analog door phones available from companies like 2N, Adtran, Avaya, Bogen, NEC, Panasonic, Valcom & Viking, just to name a few. For my project, based upon some advice from friends, I settled upon Door Bell Fon as a suitable choice.

As a vendor I selected Home Controls since they had inventory, a good price, and seemed to have some experience with the product. My order included the DP28C control module, a DP38 NBZF door station and DP38 BXFS surface mount box. The total cost was right around $300.