VoIP Hardware is Boring
I saw a posting on Garrett Smith’s blog about a new analog terminal adapter from Grandstream. My initial reaction was ho hum. Seems almost exactly like the SPA-2102 from Linksys, which my good buddies at Voxilla sell (disclaimer: I have a minority share in Voxilla), though it does support a couple of features the Linksys line doesn’t support, namely UPnP and SIP over TCP/TLS, and the iLBC codec.
Here’s the reality, though. These devices aren’t sexy. They are exceedingly boring. They all suck to configure on some level, both as an end user and as a service provider trying to remotely provision. Grandstream’s tools in particular are ridiculous to try and use. So far, Linksys seems to have the best all-around method for controlling the devices, and they have really thought through a lot of the security issues surrounding it.
I’m pretty much done with ATAs, aside from the PhoneGnome SPA-3000 I have plugged in. The only reason that one is plugged in and still working is because I don’t have to touch it, and it just works. Almost any other VoIP calling I do happens over Skype or Gizmo Project.
