I need all Gateway feedbacks . need to replace what am using

[scu]

Our office is getting tired of getting calls (not all) but several times during the day during peak calling hours.. that calls get prematurely cut off. The only way to restore the call stability is hard reboot the Gateway.

All feedbacks are welcome before getting a replacement Gateway. We currently have a Grandstream GXW-4104 and our office is getting busier with calls and so far this has become very unreliable for us to use.

We just have 2 PSTN lines and that needs not too much fancy configurations unlike using with VOIP providers. We have a third line that I can attach to the gateway when the need arises.

I have heard Patton and Audiocodes are better, can you give me your experience on these gateways?
Configuration wise, how are these? Call stability, call clarity handling, echo cancelling and so on. Which is the easiest to configure and most stable.

Thank you for reading. I hope we can switch soon, with your help of course.

 

[bluefox8080]

Do you really need FXO PSTN lines?

I find that ISDN lines and gateways much more reliable and with a much better call quality.
We are using the Patton 4554 2 Port ISDN gateway and it works without missing a beat.

 

[scu]

Do you really need FXO PSTN lines?

I find that ISDN lines and gateways much more reliable and with a much better call quality.
We are using the Patton 4554 2 Port ISDN gateway and it works without missing a beat.

Unfortunately yes, that's all this small company can afford to pay monthly for communications. Anyone else have comments about their gateways that I could use? Thanks.

 

[alicic]

If you are using FXO lines then I would recomend you MP 114 AudioCodes Gateway. This one is realy of good quality and you will not be disapointed when you deploy it. I also used Grandstream before switching over to AUdioCodes.

It would be better to buy AudioCodes from Official Distributor in your country, then you will get the newest firmware and technical support.

At the end I have to say that I am very Satisfy with my MP114.

regards,

 

[scu]

Hello,

On Audiocodes MP-114:
-my opinion is getting the latest firmware is harder than it should be
-they support the product through distributor

We thought we had problems with mp114 not hanging up but it appears it was 3cx DR and not mp114. (which is fixed now). We are just starting to use it so we don't have a long track record with it yet.

Hope that is helpful,
Matt

How's the volume of calls being handled? Approximately how many calls in half an hour or every hour are received or called out? This is the most impt thing I need to find out because of my disappointment of how Grandstream drops the calls when it becomes busier.

 

[AlecM]

Hello,

On Audiocodes MP-114:
-my opinion is getting the latest firmware is harder than it should be
-they support the product through distributor

We thought we had problems with mp114 not hanging up but it appears it was 3cx DR and not mp114. (which is fixed now). We are just starting to use it so we don't have a long track record with it yet.

Hope that is helpful,
Matt

Hi Matt,

We currently run a Grandstream GXW-4104 and a couple of months back started getting the occasional cut-offs mid call (seems to be rather random in occurence, but I admit I haven't totally analysed the 3cx log and 4104 syslog).

Would you say that you are now (after a couple of months of use) completely satisfied with your Audiocodes MP-114?

If so, from where did you buy it? I can only find one active official UK "Partner" from the AudioCodes site (there are three listed, but two of them seem to be "off air" so far as their wbesites are concerned).

Thanks,

Alec

 

[amygoda]

Hello all,
I used Grandstream 4104 and it's works fine with me
I think if you reset it to factory set and reconfig it as 3cx guide steps you'll like it
only problem i have is need to reset every 15 days approx.

 

[amygoda]

Hello Matt,
grand stream is the cheapest prices so it's suitable for soho
we dream by a devices "set and forget" specialy when you sale it
but when you lokking for soho you have to chose the cost

 

[AlecM]

Alec,

No, I am not satisfied with the audiocodes mp114. I'm not sure if its audiocodes or 3cx. 3cx says its audiocodes...
why am i not satisified?

1-when we call people, we don't hear their hello and it is a pain. (first seconds of call cut off)
2-when people let voicemails they are always 2 minutes long with a long silence pad at the end (cause pstn doent hangup)
3-fax not overly supported (i didn't even try to make it work)

i cannot recommend an audiocodes since no one appears able to show us how to make it work.
we've fiddled and 3cx says they don't know a solution so now we are tired of fiddling.

I should add, 3cx the latest build really works solid. , so not trying to bash 3cx. I really think 3cx has achieved a very solid build of 3cx.

if there is a gateway/fxo that someone GUARANTEES will work with 3cx and they will personally will make it work correctly in the usa if we can't, i think i would buy right now.

matt

Thanks for your feedback Matt - very helpful. I will probably avoid the AudioCodes in that case, especially as getting updates, etc seems so indirect and unnecessarily awkward.

I totally agree with you on the compatibility issues many of us experience with different kit. Although 3CX do go a good way towards helping by having their compatibility/tested equipment lists and configuration guides for a few brand models, one of the main issues I think many of us face is the poor level of documentation provided by the equipment manufacturer.

As mentioned, I use a Grandstream GXW-4104. The user config guide on this is a 32-page PDF. It covers a reasonable amount and is definitely better than nothing, but it doesn't go quite far enough.
As an end-user without the intimate knowledge of the device the guide author obviously has, having cryptic descriptions of cryptic configuration options is of no value! To be fair, they have improved it since the earlier version, expanding on some topics, but there is still a lack of more useful "why" information that would help us choose approriate settings more confidently rather than have to perform loads of experiments (many hours in my case).

As an example,

Force INVITE: Session Timer can be refreshed using INVITE method or UPDATE method. Select “Yes” to use INVITE method to refresh the session timer.

In this case, it would be helpful if they had described somewhere what the Invite and Update methods actually did and why there is this choice. Is one better than the other? Is there a choice because of compatibility with other equipment or software? What are the impacts of the choice? Just saying it affects the "method to refresh session timer" really isn't adequate for people that are not telephony/sip specialists (how many of us are?).

There are quite a few variations on this type of "explanation". Perhaps this is evidence of a lack of communication between the engineers creating the equipment/firmware and the technical writers that have to author the guides. Whataver it is, it leaves consumer users like us having to scratch our heads for far too long, leading to high (hidden) business costs - not to mention the poor reflection it causes on professional workers (IT in my case) just trying to make things better for users on tight budgets.

Alec