My Setup for 3cx and SPA3102

[rpn84]

Wow. It has taken me a while to get all set up with my 3cx home phone system, and also a few late nights up reading the forums. So I though I would post my final settings now that everything is perfect (while almost!) so maybe someone else who is having trouble getting set up can save some time.

My setup consists of the latest version of 3cx running on Windows Small Business Server 2003 SP2 with 2 NIC’s, a Linksys SPA3102, a VoipCheap account and a number of external and internal extentions.

How I use 3cx:

I have it set up so that when family in NZ dial my PSTN line they are greeted by an IVR and choose an option. If they want to talk to me and choose the right option the call will be routed by 3cx to my cordless phones hooked up to line 1 of the SPA. Choosing any of the other options on the IVR it will rout the call to other family members in other countries who I have given external extensions to. This is great because international calls can cost quite a bit down under, and it allows family to keep in touch, essentially for the price of a local call placed to my PSTN number. We also use the system in reverse. Dialing a 1 to make outbound calls via the SPA or 3 to make calls via my voip provider (VoipCheap). This is set up in the dailing rules section of 3cx.

Problems along the way:

1. Registering of External Extentions:

For some reason, my earlier version of 3cx would always bind to my internal NIC (192.168.16.1) when I installed it and I believe this is the reason why external extensions would not register. I thought that changing the order of NIC’s in windows might help but it didn’t, so I was stuck with only being able to make calls between internal extentions. When I updated to the latest version of the software, to my surprise it bound its self to my external NIC (10.1.1.2). Problem solved!
I have seen many posts by people saying that you cant run 3cx on a box with multiple NIC’s, but this is not true and would be silly if it was. What good would a SBS be with only 1 NIC? and I think 3cx provides a very attractive BPX option for small businesses.

2. Configuring the SPA3102:

I had a problem for a while where I could make outbound calls from my soft phones over my PSTN line, but could not call in. It came down to a silly mistake by me in the dial plan line. Instead of having (S0<:xxxxx>) I had put (S0<.xxxxx>). Putting in the colon made all the difference!!!

So here are my setting for those who are interested with a network diagram to see where all the hardware is placed..

Network Layout:

SPA Settings:

 

[rpn84]

Just though I would add a few more details about the connection of the SPA.
On the Ethernet (yellow) port of the device I have a Media Center PC connected and the Internet (Purple) port of the device is connected to one of the ports on my modem/hub. To get this working though I had to use the Media Center PC to turn off DHCP, set the device in bridge mode and turn on the administration web server. Once this has been turned on I could access and admin the SPA from any computer connected in the network.
I set it in bridge mode basically because I ran out of ports on my 4 port modem/hub. In bridge mode it enable me to just run an ethernet cable from the yellow port of the spa to the Media Center PC and allow it to receive an IP address from the server.

 

[amygoda]

Hi rpn84

My advice is to save your time in SPA3102 reset it to the factory set then configure it again using 3CX support configuration
http: //www.3cx.com/voip-gateways/linksys-3102/ - NO LONGER AVAILABLE

For external extensions read my posts in this topic
gxw-4104-free-edition-server-4725.html

And try to make your own solutions
1- Using routers with VPN
2- Using real IP or DYNDNS
3- Make server in each side (it does not need dedicated PC"

 

[nngeek]

I have almost the same setup, only my spa3102 doesn't have a computer behind it. I am getting a very long I think, 10 second delay from when I dial an outside number to when it begins to ring. Do you have this problem? I am using vonage.

Thanks,

J.R.

 

[rpn84]

I have almost the same setup, only my spa3102 doesn't have a computer behind it. I am getting a very long I think, 10 second delay from when I dial an outside number to when it begins to ring. Do you have this problem? I am using vonage.

Thanks,

J.R.

Hi J.R,

I dont have this issue sorry but might I suggest you have a look on the spa under the FXO timer values, look at the PSTN dialing delay settings. I have mine set at 1s.

Hope this helps

 

[rpn84]

Hi rpn84

My advice is to save your time in SPA3102 reset it to the factory set then configure it again using 3CX support configuration
http: //www.3cx.com/voip-gateways/linksys-3102/ - NO LONGER AVAILABLE

For external extensions read my posts in this topic
gxw-4104-free-edition-server-4725.html

And try to make your own solutions
1- Using routers with VPN
2- Using real IP or DYNDNS
3- Make server in each side (it does not need dedicated PC"

Sorry Amygoda,

I dont think you understood the purpose of this post. I dont need to reset the SPA as I have set up everything and it is now working perfectly

Sorry if I was not clear but the external extention issue that I had mentioned, was one of the issues that I had faced under an earlier version of 3cx, however updating to the latest version fixed this problem of one way audio. Hopefully this suggestion will help someone who is having this problem and has not yet upgraded. Infact that was my main reason for starting this thread. Hopefully by posting the settings that I have been successful with, it will help some one else who is struggling with setting up their own 3cx system and SPA, and save them a bit of time. I also hoped it might spark some conversation about how and what other people are using 3cx for 8)
How do you use 3cx?