The Latest IP PBX From Linksys
Well I get to toot my own horn here for a moment and refer to an article I wrote on what the Linksys SPA9000 can do. In this blog entry, I take a slightly different take on the SPA9000 than I wrote for Voxilla.
I’ve actually had the SPA9000 for a few months now. I have been constantly using the thing along with my Linksys SPA941 IP Phone, which I also love. I’ve put it through a number of different paces and other than the usual bugs that go along with beta products, it’s worked amazingly well. It has all the goodness from the former Sipura, so it should be compatible with a wide range of Internet telephony service providers–ones that give SIP credentials anyway.
For the average SIP geek looking to integrate and use multiple VoIP providers from a single handset, but don’t want to deal with an Asterisk server, the SPA9000 is the thing to get. Both Asterisk and the SPA9000 have a bit of a learning curve to them, but at least with the SPA9000, you’re not also potentially having to learn Linux too. Asterisk can certainly do a lot more, of course, but not everyone needs Asterisk and the SPA9000 is certainly a good alternative if all you are looking to do is use a few different SIP services from the same handset.
Since the SPA9000 comes with a couple of FXS ports, you can buy the SPA9000, use your existing analog telephone, and use up to four different service providers with it. You can ignore the PBX functionality if you want, but it’s there when you need it. Later on, you can use the other FXS port for a different analog extension or start using different IP Phones.
All in all it’s a very cool piece of kit. If I didn’t already have one, I’d be lusting for one myself.
