Linksys by Cisco 8-Port Ip Telephony Gateway (Spa8000-G1)

I have been deploying cisco ATA-186 and ATA-188 units on our system for quite some time. We have roughly 300 analog and fax devices on our ShoreTel system that require a sip gateway.As you know, availability of the Cisco boxes is getting tight and the price of the used gear is now beyond reasonable, they just aren't worth it and they work no better than the Linksys branded stuff.I decided to experiment with the Linksys PAP2, 2-port units at first. I deployed 5 or 6 of them for a trial run and they performed flawlessly.I do have quite a few locations where multiple analog device ports are required in a more confined space like in the data centers or IDF closets. We considered the Cisco VG series, but at over 2K each plus support, we just laughed at them and bought these SPA8000's instead.I have to say, these units perform just as well as the SPA2 units and it doesn't make nearly the mess as having a truckload of the 2-port units in a huge pile along with all of their A/C adapters. If you have ever configured an ATA before, you can do this one without reading the manual... there are just a few settings for each port (Don't get intimidated with the hundreds of customizable settings, you will rarely ever need to change any of them). I would change one thing about the SPA8000 if I could... get rid of the A/C adapter and put the power supply internal so I can use a regular power cable. 208v support and some way to rack mount would be nice additions as well. I'd pay an extra 50 bucks each for just the internal power supply. Do manufacturers realize how badly we HATE A/C adapters?We are successfully using these units for voice, data, faxing and credit card terminals without any issues as long as you stick with G711. This is not a Linksys limitation though, that is true for SIP in general. If you try to do faxing via G729, just go ahead and get a hammer and smash all your fingers with it. You can inflict all the pain on yourself at once instead of dragging it on for months and months.I highly recommend this product if you need analog presence with more than 2 ports, I would buy this over a cisco VG even if I did have the money to burn.If you are only needed 2 ports, go with the Linksys PAP2 units, they work just as great and are like 60 bucks retail.

I purchased five of these for a critical telephone to analog phone satellite relay station. The system supports critical communications and the SPA8000 works excellent for this application. After locating the programming manuals on-line the installation went better. The only negative is the lack of documentation and little to no Cisco support. Functionally it works well. I will purchase additional units as this system grows.

I was very disenchanted with this product. It was incappable of hunting from L1, to L2..... we called tech support and spent 20 minutes trying to explain to the "tech" that we wanted a 2nd or 3rd or 4th, and so on to roll or hunt a second call path if mulltiple callers call in. He said that we have to have different numbers on each individual port. 20 minutes later he finally understood or delema and researched that issue. He came back with our software was 6 years old, even though there was only one release newer. He did o ahead and assist us in the upgrading of the unit: but; and this is a big but; the unit would not reboot. It round robin boot, reboot, continuesly, until he read somewhere that we needed to reflash with the upgrade software. After 3 times of doing that, he wanted to try it for a forth time; we said "oh Hell no". 3 hours and twenty minutes later we brought it back to the office to mess with it here. NOT TO IMPRESSED SO FAR.

Wouldn't get an IP address at first. Called tech support and they recommended a firmware update.That did the trick now gets an IP address.Only other issue is the fan.... It's super loud.

I am a fairly technical person that was just starting out with IP telephony. Our startup needed a phone system and didn't have any money to pay for it. So, based on another review here, I downloaded Trixbox CE(a free Open Source IP PBX based upon Asterisk) and installed it on a machine we had laying around. I was very impressed with Trixbox. It allowed me to do everything I needed it to do. I signed up with a SIP provider - [...] and was able to get a SIP based phone number with 3000 minutes for $[...] per month (no taxes). I tried a software based SIP phone and I was actually able to make call from my laptop out through the Trixbox. I was also able to receive them to my laptop through the Trixbox PBX. I then decided that I need to use some old phones that I had lying around to hook up to the Trixbox. This is where the SPA8000 came in. I connected 6 old analog phones lying around the office into the SPA8000 and then configured it to talk to the Trixbox. What do you know? Everything worked flawlessly and it wasn't a pain in to get everything working. So I took 6 old cheap analog phones that I had around the office, an old PC, and invested a little money into the SPA8000 and I have a complete PBX system. I will say that I am an extremely picky person and I was absolutely surprised by how good the sound quality was throughout the system. The key here is that for $[...] a month, I have up to 8 channels coming into our new office and the international rates are ridiculously low. IP telephony is the way to go.... I hate traditional phone companies.