Tag Archives: VoIP

Yeastar NeoGate TG100

2014-Jun-02

Summary

So far, this looks like it is going to be a decent little unit for what I want it to do.

Configuration through the web UI wasn’t a problem. I set up an account on the TG100 and configured my asterisk box to register to it. Once registered – both originating and terminating calls worked properly. I didn’t talk to myself long enough to judge call quality or to see if doing anything in the UI or on the device would load it up enough to impact call quality. Also did not try call waiting, multiple channels, or to see if any voicemail indications were passed through.

SMS didn’t work properly for me with the as-shipped firmware – they showed up in the UI looking corrupted. They have worked properly with the newest firmware (51.18.0.34 released 2014-05-15). It looks like you will either have to use the web interface, or code your own interface to the API to work with SMS messages. I did try sending an SMS while a voice conversation was active. It didn’t send the message until the voice call was over.

Having not used them very much, and it’s not likely the prepaid service I am using supports them anyhow – I didn’t try any MMS messages.

Their API for sending/receiving SMS messages uses the Asterisk Manager interface – with a couple tweaks to the manager permissions there is a lot of potential. With a root shell provided, those tweaks can probably be made. Continue reading

Replacing landline with GSM

2014-May-31

I pay $32.17 a month for a landline that doesn’t see much use. Thank you <telco> for increasing this 7-9% every single year around September for the past three years. The majority of the actual use is telemarketers and survey takers calling me, being put through to my voicemail, and then them never leaving a message.

*Update 2014-06-25 – Received the latest bill. It’s now $32.50/month all-in. With no time like the present when you’re fired up about it already – I phoned <telco> right away to cancel the service. They immediately with no questions asked offered to chop the fees in half for a year. ~$15/month for 12 months, then $20/month afterwards (which would be plus fees and taxes). That’s pretty comparable to the $12.49-$18.82 that I expect be paying under the new regime. I want to think that it would be different if they had offered the lower rate on their own initiative based on my usage, but I’m not sure it would have been. It would have made a huge percentage impact on my initial cost/benefit – and while I would be less perturbed about their incessant fee increases I would probably have justified the capital cost as “It’s a project” and called it even with the same operating costs. OR maybe I’m just justifying it because I already spent the cash. Continue reading