Thank you all very much for your help and advice, I do appreiate it. My isp is making a significant upgrade to their network next week, which hopefullybwill vastly improve dropouts and latency. (When working correc tly it is excellent with minimal delays or jitter). So I shall spend a few days reseaching my options then if all goes well make the switch to a voip providor and ditch the landline as it is so rarely used and no has bb on it either). My landline is so bad voip cant be any worse,lol

Woody

You may wish to look at the Gigaset N510 IP as it is cheaper than the N300 and a pure VOIP base station without landline support. All the Gigaset's VOIP base stations can be used with either Gigaset handsets or other DECT handsets (although you lose some functions for non Gigaset handsets).
Have a read of the manuals online to see what each device is capable of before buying.

In reply to a post by ukwoody:

Thank you all very much for your help and advice, I do appreiate it. My isp is making a significant upgrade to their network next week, which hopefullybwill vastly improve dropouts and latency. (When working correc tly it is excellent with minimal delays or jitter). So I shall spend a few days reseaching my options then if all goes well make the switch to a voip providor and ditch the landline as it is so rarely used and no has bb on it either). My landline is so bad voip cant be any worse,lol

Woody

My use of VoIP goes back as far as 1988 and has enabled me to have extra lines at an affordable cost. But there is one often overlook issue of when power is lost, you are then in a communications black hole. A mobile is not always a get you out of jail card as a prolonged power outage can see that service going off line as well. A corded POTS phone has an unenviable reputation of always being live except under the most extreme circumstances. For that reason alone I will always retain a landline even if it was no longer a requirement for a broadband service.

In reply to a post by ukwoody:

Thank you all very much for your help and advice, I do appreiate it. My isp is making a significant upgrade to their network next week, which hopefullybwill vastly improve dropouts and latency. (When working correc tly it is excellent with minimal delays or jitter). So I shall spend a few days reseaching my options then if all goes well make the switch to a voip providor and ditch the landline as it is so rarely used and no has bb on it either). My landline is so bad voip cant be any worse,lol

Woody

Why not just ditch it all together then and use your mobile?

if you are set on VOIP, we resell Kube Networks services, based in Glasgow and their support and pricing is fantastic

would recommend taking a look at them, if you buy a phone or ATA from them they will deliver it pre-configures

I would second the suggestion of using Voipfone. We recommend it to customers on our network. I use it myself and we use other lines for customer service. Voipfone will supply configured equipment that will work with most routers & networks. We use Mikrotik routers but I am sure that the kit will work with Ubiquiti routers.

Some points to note

A. It is all much easier if you have a static IP address.

B. Ubiquiti had some serious problems with VoIP in some of their beta firmware for their radios over the last 6 months. The underlying issue is the transition to mixed 11n/11ac operation. Check with your WISP whether they use mixed mode on any of the firmware on the route from you to their central hub. Be careful if they do. We have given up on use of mixed mode for this reason until we are sure that the firmware problem has been resolved.

C. All VoIP services have problems when networks get severely congested, unless the ISP has implemented quality of service (QoS) management of traffic. The general characteristics of wireless links - latency, etc - are absolutely fine for VoIP. It is delays caused by congestion that mess things up. If this is a concern, eg about evening calls, check with your WISP about whether they have or are willing to install QoS for VoIP traffic. Generally it is good business to do so because it means that customers can cut the BT cord.

In our experience Voipfone are helpful and reliable, but don't expect them to sort out network problems that are outside their control.

Edit: For the avoidance of doubt. There is no problem of VoIP compatibility with Ubiquiti's router firmware. The issue concerns the recent versions of some firmware for the Ubiquiti radios which I assume that your WISP (like many other WISPs) use for their network. There would be no problem if your WISP uses, for example, Cambium radios.

Edited by deleted (Sat 27-Aug-16 13:33:57)

In reply to a post by connormill:

In reply to a post by ukwoody:

Thank you all very much for your help and advice, I do appreiate it. My isp is making a significant upgrade to their network next week, which hopefullybwill vastly improve dropouts and latency. (When working correc tly it is excellent with minimal delays or jitter). So I shall spend a few days reseaching my options then if all goes well make the switch to a voip providor and ditch the landline as it is so rarely used and no has bb on it either). My landline is so bad voip cant be any worse,lol

Woody

Why not just ditch it all together then and use your mobile?

if you are set on VOIP, we resell Kube Networks services, based in Glasgow and their support and pricing is fantastic

would recommend taking a look at them, if you buy a phone or ATA from them they will deliver it pre-configures

Becuae living rurally, mobiles are unreliable with poor coverage here, especially indoors. Furthermore we still need a landline "number" so people are not paying mobile rates tocall us (like my elderly parents)

In reply to a post by gah789:

I would second the suggestion of using Voipfone. We recommend it to customers on our network. I use it myself and we use other lines for customer service. Voipfone will supply configured equipment that will work with most routers & networks. We use Mikrotik routers but I am sure that the kit will work with Ubiquiti routers.

Some points to note

A. It is all much easier if you have a static IP address.

B. Ubiquiti had some serious problems with VoIP in some of their beta firmware for their radios over the last 6 months. The underlying issue is the transition to mixed 11n/11ac operation. Check with your WISP whether they use mixed mode on any of the firmware on the route from you to their central hub. Be careful if they do. We have given up on use of mixed mode for this reason until we are sure that the firmware problem has been resolved.

C. All VoIP services have problems when networks get severely congested, unless the ISP has implemented quality of service (QoS) management of traffic. The general characteristics of wireless links - latency, etc - are absolutely fine for VoIP. It is delays caused by congestion that mess things up. If this is a concern, eg about evening calls, check with your WISP about whether they have or are willing to install QoS for VoIP traffic. Generally it is good business to do so because it means that customers can cut the BT cord.

In our experience Voipfone are helpful and reliable, but don't expect them to sort out network problems that are outside their control.

Edit: For the avoidance of doubt. There is no problem of VoIP compatibility with Ubiquiti's router firmware. The issue concerns the recent versions of some firmware for the Ubiquiti radios which I assume that your WISP (like many other WISPs) use for their network. There would be no problem if your WISP uses, for example, Cambium radios.

Thanks very much. I do currently have a static IP, though not sure if that may be about to change to a small range of IPs - will dbl check. I will contact my Wisp and ask about mixed mode. They have just upgraded my router firmware AirOS, because of the recent secuirty concerns. Can't comment about the rest of network, However the mast I connect to will shortly have a fibre link as opposed to a wifi relay to the main mast 30KM away, so that may in itself negate some of those issues??

woody

Yes agree about mobile coverage, especially here, and totally understand your concerns. It is something that has not escaped my attention and I need to think more about.
woody

Just check that they are not running one of the beta versions of AirOS 6.0. If you are on AirOS 5.6.xx (most likely) you should be ok. As far as I am aware the VoIP problems were all associated with AirOS 6.0betaxx.

I am sure that they will be running mixed mode on any of the links upstream of your relay, especially for a 30 km link. Still, ask them to confirm that they are not aware of any problems with VoIP on those links. There should certainly be no problems from the point where you are connected to fibre backhaul since everyone feeds into that somewhere.

Woody - you don't need to buy anything to check VOIP out - don't start paying for high-falluting stuff you may not need, and using your computer means no need for '4-port hubs' or the like at this stage.

Voiphone or any 'Soft Phone' programme for your computer will do fine - and these are free. As said, they have 'test' numbers you can dial for free.

I assume you probably can rustle up a headset and mic which will plug into your sound card input so you can test the system? If not, a few quid will buy one, or borrow one.

I use Sipgate for my VOIP - they are fine and I also endorse Gigaset products if you want to proceed.