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Unread 11-11-2006, 03:59 PM   #2
DracoFelis
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrHatken View Post
I have my SPA 3000 registered with Voxalot on Line 1 (and can do it on the PSTN side if required). I would like both voip and PSTN calls to go to Voxalot voicemail if they are not answered.
Since your PSTN number is not VoIP (and therefore has little connection to Voxalot's voice mail), you have to find some way to redirect your PSTN line to VoIP and Voxalot. And I personally can only think of 4 approaches that even have a chance of working, to accomplish what you want:

1) Get "call forwarding" on your PSTN line, and forward to a PSTN number that is linked to your Voxalot account.

The approach would work, and would be fairly general (i.e. work with virtually any adapter used with Voxalot, not just one that has a PSTN interface. Essentially what you are doing, is forwarding your entire POTS line to VoIP that you have connected with Voxalot.

However, this one has the disadvantage that you will have to pay the telco for "call forwarding service". And if you don't have a inbound VoIP number that is "local" to your telco/PSTN service, you may also have to pay "long distance" charges for each call forwarding (so it could get expensive). Finally, since you are forwarding all your telco calls via VoIP, your telco line will also go down if/when your VoIP is down.

NOTE: If you don't currently have any PSTN numbers linked to your Voxalot account, you could get a inbound number from http://ipkall.com and point it at your Voxalot account. This is free to setup, but the disadvantage is that the ipkall number likely won't be "local" to you (so your telco "call forwarding" might be more expensive, then if you had a "local" number to forward to).

2) As above, but get "busy/no-answer call forwarding" from the telco.

In this case, if the telco/POTS line is busy or you don't answer for a number of rings, then forward (otherwise go normally). This approach is more reliable (and potentially cheaper), as the forwarding happens only when the telco line isn't answered. But for the same reason, you will have TWO delays (the delay before the forwarding occurs, and Voxalot's timeout before voice mail) before someone will go to Voxalot's voice mail.

3) As number 1, but have the forwarding occur on your local equipment (in your case an SPA-3102).

The details of this obviously vary with the equipment you have, but based upon my experience with the SPA-3000 (an older adapter the SPA-3102 was designed after) it just might be possible (assuming your SPA-3102 has the same options as my SPA-3000). I've never even tried this with my SPA-3000 (and I don't own a newer SPA-3102), but the available options suggest it should be possible (in theory at least).

Essentially what you would probably have to do to get this to work, is setup the PSTN=>VoIP features of your adapter. But instead of requiring a PIN, you would set it up to allow access based upon callerID. And instead of letting people dial anywhere, you would setup your PSTN=>VoIP "dial plan" to always forward to your Voxalot account. This would mean that your adapter will always answer, and forward to your Voxalot account. Voxalot would then ring your "Line 1" side of your adapter, and then (if not answered) send the call to voice mail.

This would avoid needing to pay for call forwarding from your telco (as you would need in approach #1). But, the call is technically "answered" (by the SPA-3000) as soon as the first ring or two. This means anyone calling your will have charges start as soon as the "forwarding" occurs (unlike the telco forwarding, above). And you could end up paying double-bandwidth for a telco/PSTN call as well (i.e. bandwidth to forward the call to Voxalot, and bandwidth for Voxalot to send the call back to you). So make sure you have enough bandwidth (especially upload bandwidth) for this. Also, keep in mind that the two VoIP links (to Voxalot and back) will likely add "echo" to the call...

4) As #3, but only have your local equipment forward after you decide you won't be answering the call.

With an SPA-3102, this setup would look a lot like the #3 setup, except you would have a longer "ring delay" before the SPA-3102 answers the call. However, this has the same "delay problem" that approach #2 has, and the same bandwidth issue as approach #3. But at least if you answer on the first few rings (i.e. before your delay), you pay no bandwidth (as the call is fully "local" in that case).

NOTE: If/when Voxalot is enhanced to give a user an optional SIP address which goes DIRECTLY to voice mail (instead of trying to complete the call first), than approaches #2 and #4 would be more viable. Because if there was some way to start the Voxalot voice mail "right away" (as soon as the forwarding was done), than the disadvantage of the longer voice mail delay would be avoided, and you would just be left with the advantage of the forwarding not kicking in until after the initial forwarding delay.
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