James Rathbun

As part of my home PBX server project , I needed the ability to connect my existing home phone infrastructure into my Asterisk PBX server.  In addition to regular phones, I have a DVR and home alarm system and poor cell phone coverage.  The solution to connecting a regular phone to a modern PBX Server is a VoIP adapter such as the Linksys SPA-3102.  The great news is that this product is only about $80 if you shop around for it.  This may seem like more than it should cost, but when you consider the price of phones these days, and the monthly cost of phone server in the home, this cost is covered in just a few months of savings.

The Linksys SPA-3102 is a VoIP media gateway which allows you to connect your regular phone using an RJ-11 phone jack, and convert audio signal into a SIP compliant TCP/IP signal.  The original configuration for this device is that it replaces your home router.  Currently, my home router of choice is a Netgear Prosafe VPN Firewall FVS318v3.  I am very pleased with the reliability and performance of this router, is it succeeds where many other routers failed.  This fact alone forced me to set up my Linksys VoIP gateway a bit differently.

Connections

Connecting the VoIP gateway into my network is simplicity at its best.  Plugin the WAN interface into my internal network switch, plug the  phone into the green “Phone” RJ-11 connection and plugin your device.

Configuration

Once you have powered on your VoIP gateway, the next step is to configure the phone.  To accomplish this:

1. Connect the gateway with your web browser and login to your gateway.  The directions for this step are part of your packaging.
2. Once connected, click on the WAN tab, which allows you configure the network for the gateway.  Because I am not using this as my primary router, the WAN adapter is really just the LAN connection to my home network.
3. Fill in/change the settings to suit your network needs.  I prefer to a static home network as SOHO routers are not very sophisticated.
4. Once your WAN/LAN is completely configured, you may be prompted to restart the device.  Please do so, and reconnected to the gateway as need.
5. When connected again look for the painfully small link in the footer or navigation bar, which reads “Admin Login” and click on it.  Once clicked, many new options and tabs are available to you.
6. Click on the “Voice” tab to configure your phone line.
7. Click the “Line 1″ tab.
8. Enter the IP address or server name of your PBX in the Proxy text field.
9. Enter the Display Name, User ID, Auth ID and password you used when you setup the extension on the SIP server.
10. Reboot as needed.

Calling

Once you VoIP gateway reboots, you should be able to login to your sip server and see the extension registration.  Additionally, you may call from phone from another extension, or call in and out of the system depending on the configuration of your PBX.