Back in 2002 when Grandstream was founded, we were one of the first companies in the world to manufacture SIP products – and one of the very first products we made were analog telephone adapters (ATAs). We now have over 15 years of expertise building SIP devices, and we have more experience building VoIP gateways and ATAs than almost any one in the world. Thanks to close relationships with service providers and partners, all of our ATAs and Gateways are not only thoroughly tested within Grandstream, but they are stringently tested with the help from some of the largest service providers in the world. Our devices provide a variety of high-end features and functionalities that allow analog phones not only to be integrated with VoIP networks, but provide VoIP functions for analog devices as well. Let’s take a look at some of the features and functionalities of Grandstream’s gateways and ATAs that you may have missed.
Secondary SIP Server (also known as failover SIP server)
In my personal opinion, this might be the single most overlooked yet important feature that is offered on every single Grandstream product, including our gateways and ATAs. This feature helps prevent the one single problem that annoys users, resellers, IT teams, and service providers the most – service outings. The secondary SIP server option automatically switches the device to a secondary SIP server or service provider in case the main connection goes out for any reason. No matter who you are in within the channel, it is never good for you if a connection is lost, and this feature helps prevent that. It is not only available on all of our gateways & ATAs, but it is available on all Grandstream products.
Integrated NAT Routers
What may seem like a simple feature can actually save any business money while making setup of any solution more efficient. Our HT800 series and HT500 series of ATAs, and GXW4000 series of FXS gateways, offer integrated NAT routers. Ideal for small businesses, home offices, and residential users, this allows any of these devices to not only extend VoIP service to connected analog devices, but to receive internet service and extend it do the rest of a network, computers, wireless routers, etc. It prevents purchase and setup of additional routers, saving time and money, while also allowing one device to manage VoIP and internet connections.
Adds VoIP Calling Features to Analog Devices
Our ATAs and FXS gateways are able to extend popular VoIP features to analog devices. In addition to making and receiving calls on a VoIP network, you can also take advantage of traditional VoIP and IP PBX features like call-waiting, 3-way conference, flash/blind/attended transfer, forward, hold, do not disturb and more.
Adds Powerful VoIP Security to Analog Devices
SRTP and TLS are two of the most powerful VoIP security protocols. TLS provides protection for networks by encrypting all account information, while SRTP provides protection and encryption of the actual packets of information going back and forth during the call. By integrating analog devices with VoIP networks through our gateways or ATAs, these security protections will be extended to your analog devices, and any calls held on them, as well. Our devices also offer different security certificates per unit, which makes these devices nearly impossible to hack into.
Support all major auto-provisioning methods
We make these devices as easy as possible to deploy in large amounts by allowing them to support major provisioning options. TR-069, one of the most popular and efficient mass provisioning platforms, is fully supported by all of Grandstream’s gateways and ATAs. If you are using these devices with our UCM series of IP PBXs, our IP PBXs are able to provision gateways and ATAs through its innovative Zero Config process, which auto-discovers then automatically provisions any Grandstream product. We also support AES encryption, syslog, TELNET, TFTP, HTTP and HTTPS provisioning
Can be used in any remote location thanks to Long Haul support
All of our Gateways & ATAs can be used with circuits or connections that span up to 3,000 feet (1 km). Because of this feature, our devices have been deployed in mining applications, very remote facilities and much more.
Integrate analog fax with IP networks
There are many reasons to integrate analog fax with an IP network, and our gateways and ATAs allow you to do just that. If you are moving your analog phones over to an IP network, it only makes sense to do the same with your fax line. Doing so allows your fax line to use popular SIP features such as fax forwarding to email, while saving you money on outbound fax by sending them through a VoIP connection.
Extend Analog Lines to a remote location via IP
This is one of the most overlooked, yet very useful, applications of our gateways and ATAs. Using ATAs and gateways is a great way to extend the analog lines of a legacy PBX to remote locations through an IP connection. This not only allows you to share a legacy PBX through IP to different locations, but it also allows the phones in the different locations access VoIP networks. This requires either our GXW4200 series or HT series ATAs integrated with a GXW4100 series FXO gateway.
Our Gateways and ATAs have been connecting the world for 15 years, and as we showed you here, there are numerous different ways to use them. To learn more about our gateways and ATAs, check out some of the following resources