[VoIP] Cisco 3810's

[John Novack]

Donald Froula wrote:
> Sorry for the basic question, but I'm curious what
> these are used for.
>
> Can they be used simply as an ATA with FXO and FXS
> ports that can support dial pulsing?
Pretty much the way they work.
When loaded with a SIP IOS image, they communicate with Asterisk much 
the way other ATA's do.

The ports support DP, DTMF and MF, though I haven't tested them as much 
as John  Jones, who is off to Germany this week.
>  Can they be used to interface a T1/E1 channel bank to SIP? 
AFAIK no one has yet successfully done that. JJ has tried, so far 
unsuccessfully.
> Do they have any other unique capabilities?
>   
MF and E&M are kind of unique for an ATA. They also support 6 ports, and 
if the dialplan is set up correctly, dialing between the 6 ports without 
Asterisk in the stream.

> How difficult is the SIP firmware to come by? 
Ask John Jones. He has it, and AFAIK distributes it freely, if not 
anonymously.
> Are they difficult to configure? 
No web interface that I have seen.
One begins with a serial connection into the console, and once a few 
items are set up, then telnet can be used. One problem with the serial 
interface is no flow control, so shipping a configuration file into it 
doesn't work.
Once one telnets into it, then a configuration file edited off line works.
> They look like a fun unit to experiment with.
>   
As much fun as a broken leg!

John Novack

-- 
Dog is my co-pilot