Call for free to regular phones with VoIP using the Sipura SPA3000.
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By Chris Järnåker |
I’ve written a number of articles in the past over calling cheap using your computer. In these cases the setup has been that you have a computer and use this one to connect to a provider like Skype through a headset or a chat-cord (an adapter to connect your regular phone to your computer). The drawback with this is that (1) you need a more or less dedicated computer for this and (2) dialling can only be done through the VoIP provider (like Skype) and (3) it’s often difficult to just pick up the phone and dial. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could connect a box between your telephone outlet and your phone and that box took care of everything for you? There are several solutions for this and some are better and some are very complicated. To name a few:
My pick of a VoIP provider
But calling over the internet will not work if you don’t have a VoIP provider. Skype is such company, another one is Vonage, another one is Net2Phone. But then you have the smaller companies that try to beat themselves into the market, like VoIPBuster, by using ‘Call with us for free to landlines’ deals. Simple business knowledge tell us that there is not such thing as ‘free’ so what is this all about? Let me explain (my theory at least, the companies themselves won’t tell us, duh) A company, lets call them AAA, starts providing free internet calls to fixed phones in many countries. To be able to use their service you need to buy credit worth of €10 / $12 and it will be valid for 4 months. People flock to that company with their great deal. After six months AAA has enough users to start earning money so they remove the expensive free destinations like China and countries in Africa, and start charging below average rates (so you’ll still save money with them even though it’s not for free)
VoIPBuster is one of these companies (AAA), then came SIPDiscount, VoIPCheap.co.uk and last VoIPStunt.com Go to www.VoIPStunt.com and sign up for an account. It won’t cost you anything as long as you’re testing. By paying 10 bucks every four months you can call for free to a number of countries. And when the time comes that it’s not for free any more then you can still call for very very little money. Example from the Netherlands to USA: VoIPStunt currently for free, VoIPBuster (used to be for free) 1ct / min, Tele2 (regular phone) 5ct / min, KPN (state landline) 7ct / min On the next page we’ll have a look at the hardware, the Sipura SPA3000. |
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February 11th, 2006 at 15:05
Be warned, the Sipura SPA-3000 has only a rudimenatary echo canceller. If your phone line has much echo you will have real problems using the SPA-3000.
BTW, you probably never have noticed echo on your phone line because it is an electronic echo that travels on the phone line at the speed of light. Once you put any sort of delay such as an analog to digital conversion such as going to VoIP you will add anywhere from 10ms to 100ms of delay to that echo. If it is not completely cancelled you WILL hear your voice as you talk on the line at delay that can make talking very diffacult.
All analog POTS lines have echo, some are worse than others. With devices like the SPA-3000 it’s a crap shoot if you will experience echo or not. I’ve used them in places with low echo on the line and they do work great. But in other places, they are complete junk for the job.
February 12th, 2006 at 3:54
Chip: That might be so, but I have only noticed this echo problem one out of ten times and then it’s so weak that I can barely notice it.
What kind of device would solve this and what would it cost?
The bottom line here is that for $100 + $10 I can call for free for four months to my friends in Sweden and the states. Write that off over two years and you get $6 per month, and for that kind of money I’ll accept a small echo every tenth call.
In my opinion the Sipura rocks!! It sounds like talking in a regular phone.
February 23rd, 2006 at 3:55
so where do you get one?
February 24th, 2006 at 4:40
How do I use Sipura and skype so Ican call skype users without having my pc on
all the time? Is it possible?
Pasil
February 24th, 2006 at 5:46
Pasil: To my knowledge you can’t.
What you could do is that you have one Sipura and so does your friend in Iran and then you call for free between the two Sipura’s. You could then configure the Sipura in Iran to connect to the telephone line there and then you can call for local prices in Iran from your Sipura.
What this actually means is that you become your own VoIP provider 😉
How to do this you can read here http://www.sipura.com/support/spa3000faq/Section_2.html#4
February 28th, 2006 at 12:01
I have a small and not yet profitable enterprise and I want to use a software instead for a hardware PBX.
I shall be much obliged if you are kind enough to help me find the cheepest solution.
Many thanks in advance to consume your time in replying to my request.
February 28th, 2006 at 12:34
Dimitrios: If you want to use a software solution then VoIPStunt will still work for you as you can install this on your computer and use it together with a headset. Another solution is Skype which is more popular but not as cheap.
Where do you call from and where do you want to call?
February 28th, 2006 at 18:22
Dimitrios –
This may help you with what you are looking for.
Product from VoSky. I use the VoSky Internet Phone Wizard with Skype and it works great.
http://www.vosky.com/product.php?pid=321
Good luck.
March 9th, 2006 at 15:47
will Sipura SPA-1001 (about $60 from ebay) or Grandstream HandyTone ATA-286 work with Voipstunt as well?
March 21st, 2006 at 14:16
I have an SPA300 and would like to be able to configure it so that I can use the FXO port to forward my home phone (PSTN) to a soft phone [I am looking at Counterpaths X-Pro or X-Lite]. without using a service provider
– How do I configure the SPA3000
– How do I configure a soft phone
– Other issues – NAT etc?
I am new to Voip.
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:44
the following adapter works with voipstunt,
http://www.echostore.com/skype-phone-adaptor-usb.html
But if the usb adapter with call forwarding functionality could support voipstunt, it would be great.
http://www.echostore.com/usb-to-rj11-adaptor.html
March 27th, 2006 at 18:18
is it possible to convert an analogue phone to ethernet and have some sort of software forwarding skype to an ip address?
(ethernet as in connect it to a router)
would preffer an email, thanks in advance
supermorph^AT^4druids~DOT~com
March 30th, 2006 at 5:11
Hey, thanks for the awesome “for idiots” guide… spent 4 hours playing with the stupid thing, and after going through your guide i finally get it lol 😛
thanks again
March 30th, 2006 at 12:50
SKYPE sucks. They are stuck on the idea of navigating against the waves. 90% of the present market are using the SIP protocol, but skype uses a proprietary protocol and will sink attached to it.
March 30th, 2006 at 13:02
SPA3000 is good like hell! First you can have two VOIP systems attached to it. Let’s say, you live in Spain but have friends in UK and Germany. So, you subscribe free to voipfone.co.uk, in England and receive a free real UK telephone number and subscribe free to Voipstunt.com and chooses a free real Germany telephone number. Now you have 3 phone numbers, in 3 countries. Your friends from germany can dial to that phone in germany, paying local call and your friends in the UK can call you using that phone number in the UK paying local calls.
Of course, you can talk in conference with one person in UK and one in Germany, using SIPURA SPA3000.
You can do hell. Imagine you want to forward all your calls coming to your UK number, to a number of a friend in Germany. So, anytime the UK number receives a call, it cames to your box in spain and is forward to germany, just paying a local call in germany.
Imagine you are in germany and want to call your friend in the UK using your box in spain…. or you are in Brazil, using a laptop and want to call your box in spain, using the web to make a call to your friend in a mobile phone in the UK, paying a local call in the UK…
possibilities are endless…
SPA3000 is not just a voip box, it is what is called a GATEWAY, that can handle 3 simultaneous calls: 2 from web and 1 from regular phone…. and can forward from one to another at the same time…
April 4th, 2006 at 15:33
I have voipstunt, got the linksys phone adaptor.
This site rocks, did what it said on page 3, onlie making calls in seconds.
Thanks
April 14th, 2006 at 10:17
I will like to get names of Voip accounts(bulk traders) who are the cheapest supporting Spa-3000 gateways so that i can create accoounts for my clients on a prepaid basis. Thank you
April 23rd, 2006 at 21:25
hey guys.. i am from usa. as i am very new to voip. i like to know one thing. can you please help me??!!
mostly i call from usa to india. and its cost to much to call india, and i understand it that VoIPStunt dont have india list as a free call to landline. SO CAN I STILL MAKE FREE CALL TO ANY NUMBER IN INDIA?
PLEASE HELP ME. thanks you
April 29th, 2006 at 8:34
for sam
to SPEAK TO UR GUYS IN INDIA —
IF THEY HAVE A PC U CAN TALK TO THEM VIA THE NET
HERES HOW
1. STANAPHONE.COM GIVES U a free new york number(similar sites give nos in other states)
2. GET MTNL TRIBAND rs.200 plan – cheapest and best
3. get a US unlimited nation wide calling plan
4. now u can call the NY stanaphone number and ur folks in india who r
online will recieve the call on their pc
hence u get unlimited calling for a flat rate
this is by far the best possible arrangement
hope this is useful,
Jimmy
April 29th, 2006 at 11:44
guys, I am in UK, i want to call another country. PSTN for free from my PC ?
what do i need?
cheers
May 23rd, 2006 at 15:02
hi guys,
read the info here but can’t connect to the PAP2(linksys adapter) web interface? only thing between me between me and free calls. any ideas?
May 28th, 2006 at 21:57
Great job guys…
May 30th, 2006 at 15:48
Is It possible to call a softphone from Sipura? How can I make It?
May 31st, 2006 at 8:32
Daniel: I believe so. If I remember right then you need to program the IP of that softphone as a quick dial number, but I’m sure there are ‘direct’ ways also.
May 31st, 2006 at 15:06
Please help. I am in New York and would like to call Haiti for free.
If it is possible, how can i make it.
June 3rd, 2006 at 15:54
Hello i follwed the instructions to configure my SPA1001 but i always get a “Registration State: Failed ” message. Can anybody help me please?
Thanks
June 10th, 2006 at 7:38
you can call india unlimited by http://www.wengo.com
June 12th, 2006 at 7:00
I got it all set up, but calls die after 1 minute. Anyone have the same problem?
June 16th, 2006 at 14:45
I get also the same problem.Now after 2 days it doesnot allow even to call to any phone in India. The client also getting crashed!!
June 21st, 2006 at 16:39
quero configurar o linksys spa 3000, comprei mais não estou conseguindo, pago pela ajuda pois estou precisando muito
June 22nd, 2006 at 7:30
get the bundled PhoneGnome. give 1 to your friend, keep one to you. connect phonegnome adaptor to broadband internet, and to any analog telephone. then start calling each other for free as long as you want, just like new lovers!
visit http://www.phonegnome.com
Phonegnome is simply Sipura simplified – if you want to avoid all those nasty configurations and just need to call.
June 25th, 2006 at 8:31
please tell me how can can i get the 60 minutes free phone calling
July 6th, 2006 at 2:20
How can i Call to India Land Line / mobile numbers from Malaysia using Internet ..please let me know..
July 15th, 2006 at 19:06
Hi.. technically, calls will never be free. For instance, you need to pay your ADSL
connection or whatever internet connection you’re using. If you’re gonna make calls
with a PSTN like hooked to your local company: you’ll –or your family abroad–
be using the line so you’re paying to your local company.
But… it makes you feel that it is free since you’re not getting any bill for international
calls. I personally love my SPA-3000, I only use it to call my mother and my wife’s mother,
and they call us. So I don’t need to have number in any other country.
What I did was to sing in in FWD (Free World Dial up – http://www.freeworlddialup.com) in both
SPA-3000, and I have “free” calls to my mother’s house, and very cheap calls to my wife’s
house. They can even call us from a public phone (0.08USD for 3 minutes) by mean of the
PSTN gateway to VoIP. It is just great.
there could be some problems in the service some time… not that it is a big deal, usually
it is a terrific service.
August 5th, 2006 at 9:17
I was wondering if you could help me figure out how to start a virtual service using you home number and some virtual extention
numbers
using the spa 3000 as you may well know its impossible to get candian telephone numbers and i am trying to work my way around that
because even skype cant get Canadian numbers or if there was cheap way of getting them canadian telephone numbers or virtual nos?
Any ideas are welcome
dufster444@yahoo.com
August 30th, 2006 at 3:26
Reading over the deluge of comments I noticed that nobody picked up on Jajah. (http://www.jajah.com) I have just signed up and it works great and for now between a number of countries calls are free on landlines and mobile phones! Check it out!
October 27th, 2006 at 19:12
hello.. iam in new zealand,, i need to call india,, is there any cheaper way to call india ,like,, voip or any other,, ?? please reply.. thq
November 2nd, 2006 at 15:24
Hello Chris,
I followed your tutorial but I cannot get it to work. I have the same issue as Giovanny (comment number 26), it tells me Registration state: failed. Any idea what can go wrong? Also, is there any way I can get any logs from the SPA3000 so that I can check where’s the problem?
November 2nd, 2006 at 15:38
Ok, I figured out why it said registration failed by looking at the logs, it was because it couldn’t resolve the sip.voipstunt.com host (I don’t use DHCP and the DNS server field was empty). Now I can register, however, it still doesn’t work, it doesn’t even ring when I try to call somebody, it waits for, like, 10 seconds, then I get the busy tone.
Any ideas?
November 25th, 2006 at 7:19
Hi Chris
I have spent some hours to find a solution to reroute calls without finding what I am looking for. I’m pretty new to this. I need to receive calls from external any phone and rerouted to one of three ( or many) dedicated other external phones/mobiles in a round robin schedule to acheive an even work load for the receivers. I have tried to understand SPA3000 , 9000 and Asterisk but …. Any advice?
December 18th, 2006 at 19:37
Hi everyone. I have softphone on PC. I heard that i can convert softphone to IP phone using
setting from softphone and ip box. Met a guy who told me that he did it using Sipura.
Is anyone knows how to do it? email volgininc@yahoo.com
January 6th, 2007 at 4:31
Hi every one,
Can some one help, need to call India and Dubai frequently, I have a BT Home Hb with a softphone attached, heell its still to expencive, can I get an account with some to call free to India and Dubai via my Broadband VOIP would appreciate the help..thanks
February 17th, 2007 at 19:23
Hello everbody looking to call india unlimited,
I have a solution for only $34.95 you can call india unlimited(This is unlimited 24hrs a
day and good thing is you dont need any internet in india you will call regular pstn or
mobile phone and talk to your loved ones.
if interested call me at 207-838-7814 or e-mail me at rutanju@gmail.com.
rutanju
April 25th, 2007 at 21:18
Chris, thanks for this simple setup … I was making it too hard!! Now I’m able to make & recieve calls on my PSTN line & my VOIP account here in Mexico. Next, learn how to DISA in to make international calls from my cell via my SPA!!
June 1st, 2007 at 23:48
i just got my self a pap2 linksys device and hooked it up with 2 lines and a free incomming # and i get the free outgoing. but they limit u to 5 mins a call if you dont have credits in the account. anyone know any free no time limit ones
June 4th, 2007 at 2:12
I would normally make lot of call from Singapore to India(mumbai),can anyone please suggest me a free/below average voip sevice,
with normal to descent voice quailty.Any suggestion would be appericated.
regards,
Nish
June 15th, 2007 at 11:47
hello friends i am staying in india i want to call free of cost to gulf and uk country is there any website 4 it to make a calls to my friends plz tel me on my mail id ashfaq4u28@yahoo.com
July 24th, 2007 at 16:01
does anyone knows a software that could permit me to call haiti for me. plz send me an email ally912007@hotmail.com thz
July 27th, 2007 at 10:19
Hi friends,
i am in germany ,plz. any one tell how can i free calls to INDIA .PLZ.send me E-mail
thanks
regards,
Harbinder nahal
August 30th, 2007 at 14:00
i have a web site,but no money for internet advertising,it is a great site,offering all the items on Ebay and more
September 11th, 2007 at 14:37
There is a new way to call Free to a ton of places around the globe, I found this one last night and called my sister this morning in England, it was excellent
You just have to email them at talkitup.50megs.com
Then thewy send you an access number and code.
Enjoy
C
September 28th, 2007 at 14:50
Talkitup.50megs.com is great, the site needs a redo but the calls are free, that is the point right?
FW
October 14th, 2007 at 9:18
hi guys,i am in dubai.This govt. blocked all internet calls to india.If any body is there unblock these sites.
I hope lot of software engineers in this world,please help our guys
October 14th, 2007 at 9:22
If any website is there for free calls from dubai to india?Pls help us
November 13th, 2007 at 12:01
Chandra, just find someone who’s willing to host a voip server in another country. Connect to it & get the guys in India to connect to it too. You guys can have conference calls free
April 10th, 2008 at 11:58
I need to know from where in dubai i can get grandstream IP phone and linksys IP phones. I need the contacts of dealers or distributers.
June 11th, 2008 at 0:02
Hi, Is there any technique to reset (factory defaults) of SPA3000..???
Plese guide me…. how to do so…
Thanx…
July 17th, 2008 at 21:47
Hi,
i use 3G wireless internet via a USB device and then share that internet connection to other computers with my ethernet port on the back of my laptop.
But when I plug in the spa3000 it doesn’t work.
Is it because the 3000 is not a router?
I tried it with a 3102 and it works fine, but not with my 3000.
I wondering if there are some setting in the 3000 that i can change?
Any help would be very much appreciated.
thankx.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:09
voip with sipura for free to world, means can i use it to make free call from AMERICA to land line phone INDIA? if know about this let me know.
February 1st, 2009 at 12:16
I want to make free calls from my PSTN phone to USA number. I have sipura SPA 3000 and I am in MUMBAI INDIA.
Look forward to help.
UdayUkidwe@yahoo.com
February 2nd, 2009 at 0:49
I have been able to get USA Calling. Thanks to Chris J.
Now my next project is to receive calls and the caller ID. Can some one share?
Thanks
Udayukidwe@yahoo.com
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:10
I am able to call USA number. USA party can hear me but i can not hear at all. Also i can recieve normal local phone calls but I can not make local phones.
I also want to receive calls from USA.
I look forward to help
Thanks
UdayUkidwe@yahoo.com
March 2nd, 2009 at 14:57
hi,
I want free voip calling and I have a ATA device. Right now I use a pay service, but I want free calls can anyone help? jokers32463(at) yahoo.com
April 2nd, 2009 at 19:22
First,thanks for the guide.I’m absolutely new to this Voip deal.
I followed it through,but get no dial tone.When I hit a number on the phone,it sounds like a busy signal.I’m unsure how to correctly fill in my proxy,and the dial plan.I’m using a SPA1001,and Skype in Canada.Tried the dial plan at the apparent default,and what is in the guide.For proxy,I have skype.com.
Does anyone have any ideas to help me get up and running?
April 2nd, 2009 at 19:23
First,thanks for the guide.I’m absolutely new to this Voip deal.
I followed it through,but get no dial tone.When I hit a number on the phone,it sounds like a busy signal.I’m unsure how to correctly fill in my proxy,and the dial plan.I’m using a SPA1001,and Skype in Canada.Tried the dial plan at the apparent default,and what is in the guide.For proxy,I have skype.com.
Does anyone have any ideas to help me get up and running?
ecm_this@hotmail.com
April 2nd, 2009 at 19:23
First,thanks for the guide.I’m absolutely new to this Voip deal.
I followed it through,but get no dial tone.When I hit a number on the phone,it sounds like a busy signal.I’m unsure how to correctly fill in my proxy,and the dial plan.I’m using a SPA1001,and Skype in Canada.Tried the dial plan at the apparent default,and what is in the guide.For proxy,I have skype.com.
Does anyone have any ideas to help me get up and running?
ecm_this@hotmail.com
April 4th, 2009 at 21:33
Skype doesn’t use the SIP protocol to communicate over the internet, so it will not work with a SPA. You need to register with a provider that does, eg VoipStunt which is a twin of the other Betamax companies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voipstunt), they are one of the cheapest out there. Remember that with Betamax, unless You buy credit, you will be able to make only short, 1 minute test calls to regular phones. Voip-Info.org is a great site which lists different providers, for both incomming and outgoing calls.
April 4th, 2009 at 21:41
I forgot to mention the Voxilla forum (http://forum.voxilla.com/), it’s a good reading for someone new to VoIP and has users willing to help.
April 5th, 2009 at 4:05
Hi Guys!
I am Das from Dubai. Here all the voip services are blocked. But I can have access to the voip sites still. Is there any possibilities to call for free ( or atleast on cheaper rates to Sri Lanka. I am spending large amount of money when I am calling home comecountry. Please let me know about this.
July 7th, 2009 at 5:02
Hi
contact me regarding grandstream phones for dubai i have bought a few from supplier
regards