VoIP with ATA adapters from north america.

I use a Grandstream HT801 with Vonage.   I use it make and receive US calls frequently,  and have used it to call Europe, as well.  Call quality is good (depending on the Internet connection,  of course), and I  haven't noticed a significant lag.  The Vonage app rolls incoming calls over to my cell wherever I am.

did you get the grandstream ht801 in brazil or did you have it shipped, and how much was the tax on it lol

Vonage provided it, and I brought it in my luggage. 

Figure taxes at 80-100%.  Fortunately, the box is cheap.  Amazon Brazil also sells them.

Check for compatibility with your router.  We ran into a problem when we changed routers, and had to return to the older model.

yea might opt in for a newer one as its going to be ran from a vpn router in my house back to canada to the host connection. so will probably need a most up to date one for masking global location

If you're on a VPN router, why would you need to mask location- won't your router handle that for you?

"Most up to date" won't necessarily mean "compatible".  Be sure to check model numbers on both sides.  But if you know enough to set up the network you're talking about, you know that already.   

ahh i need a basically setup where im using POTS / ATA > voip > international. location masking for work. yea, not worked much with ata over that span of a distance before

Mikeflanagan wrote:

ahh i need a basically setup where im using POTS / ATA > voip > international. location masking for work. yea, not worked much with ata over that span of a distance before

One of the advantages of VOIP over POTS is that distance SHOULD make no difference; when you think about it, both networks are rickety, but the digital signal should generally have a better chance of getting through a rickety network.   My calls to the US and Europe have been equally good, and much better than cell calls across town.

Please let us know how it goes.

Hah! Found this gem hidden in the forum - abthree, is your Vonage service business or residential and did your Grandstream HT801 come configured from Vonage or did you configure it?
Thx
MattB

My Vonage service is residential, and the switch came from  Vonage.  I'm not certain how much configuration it required; not much, I should think, since it's a very simple box. 
I got it just before I left the US with this in mind, and ported the number of my US landline to it.  I believe that Vonage will provide  US number, if you don't have one.  In Brazil, I just plugged it into the router, plugged a phone into it, and I was in business. 
I had to inform Vonage not to accept 911 calls, because I was overseas.   I  did that on my account page.  I also enrolled the number with Nomorobo, which is free for landlines, because I was receiving several robocalls a day.  That swats most of them.

abthree
I too use Vonage Residential and it works fine. I started using it in 2005 because I found it useful when moving around - it was more portable and I always had Internet needs and, at that time, Vonage had a computer option to use my laptop as a phone (long before they invented their mobile app) and I wanted my home phone at work because I had an elder I was caring for (and mom managed to remember my home phone but that was about it). When I moved to Brazil in 2009 all I needed to do was plug it in - except back then the home had OI DSL and it was very troublesome.

The thing is, Vonage does not allow residential customers to configure their "Vonage box," aka the ATA. They ship it already set to go and there is no browser method to set up a different ATA (so if mine gets toasted in a power surge I have to have them ship me a new, already configured, ATA to get back in business). I believe that Vonage Business allows the configuration of ATAs - trying to verify that.

So, abthree, have you also added Google Voice to your options? Given a USA-based telephone line you can get a free Google Voice line (validation/verification happens through your "normal" USA line).

While it is true that with Vonage you can get calls on the Vonage mobile app (given you have installed it while in the USA on a USA smartphone), AND you can forward or SimulRing to a Brazilian phone line (I think it is $0.00 if that is a Brazilian "landline" but has minimal costs if it is a Brazilian cellphone), one can also forward/SimulRing the Vonage line to a Google Voice number which you can get over Hangouts (for example, on a Brazilian cellphone that doesn't allow installation of the Vonage mobile app).

Telephony here is nuts. I love to mess with techie things so I find it amusing.....
Currently:
1 Vonage Residential line (no Mobile app) with my Wisconsin area code
1 Google Voice number (used Brazilian cellphone and via browser) with WI area code
1 NetVirtua broadband connection
1 "fixed" Brazilian home phone (actually VOIP NetVirtua)
1 TIM cellphone (has two SIM slots so when I travel I just add service to get 4G
Uninterruptible power supplies to keep components up when the power gets weird
......  BUT now I have to help a friend get set up here in the northeast to meet his business needs and I'm trying to find better and more flexible solutions. He plans to spend months in the states, then months in Brazil and then months in Europe plus he travels everywhere else in between. I think it will have to be a VOIP Business cloud provider but I need to research who has the best service at the best price. The friend bops around the world and wants to keep communication as transparent as possible plus do webinars and office tasks on the move.

Just for fun, I ordered an Obi200 "ATA" which is supposed to allow me to direct Google Voice calls directly to a POT (plain old telehone) and that would give me more portability of an easy USA line to be taken on trips to the beach or on vacations where network is available.

I would say that anybody considering a move to Brazil (or anywhere outside of the states) should get 1) Vonage Residential as a replacement for a home phone (but you'll need network at your new destination), 2) add a Google Voice number given that your USA cellphone number goes away once you move and the Google Voice number becomes your mobile number should you not be able to replace a stolen or lost USA cellphone (sorry - that might not have been as clear as I had intended).

There may be better and cheaper solutions but this one has worked well for me. I'll say more about the Obi200 once I retrieve it (ouch! Wanting to travel).

Anybody with recommendations for a business solution provider that works well internationally (like Jive.com?) ?

MattB

Matt,
I  really like your solutions!  Great suggestions for newcomers, too.

I don't have Google Voice, mainly because I want to limit the amount of Google in my life.  I realize how delusional that is once you have an Android phone, but some of us draw comfort from a delusion or two.    We each have two phones on a minimal plan  from Consumer Cellular (the Geezer Network) for when we're in the US, that give us live US numbers.  Verizon and I did not part friends, and I lost my old cell numbers.

Brazilside looks a lot like yours, except through TIM, and no uninterruptable power supplies - how many do you need, and how do you have them set up?

When we had NET for Internet,  I noticed an item on our bill for "telefone", so plugged a Brazilian phone into it for giggles and - it worked!  From then on, we had a landline. Tried the same with our TIM router, and it worked, too!  A call to my cell gave us the number; better connection than cell for local calls.

Funny thing with the Vonage app.  Yep, I set it up in the US, with my old number.   I expected it to fail when I lost that number, but it didn't.   On a recent visit to Paraguay we upgraded to new phones.  I installed the app on my new phone and didn't have much hope - but after some initial hiccups, it worked, too!  My Vonage account still shows the dead cell number, so someday it will probably stop working, but I'll ride this horse 'til it drops.

Sounds like you've roughed out a good technical solution to your friend's challenge, so now it's down to price and service.  As usual

abthree you 2 about the last to help PY 
Better half is a mess without PY and AR

abthree, Uninterruptable power supplies get installed anywhere I have to plug in to the wall with desktop PCs or network gear because 1) there can be abrupt outages and I hope to get the PC shut down before damage happens and keeping the network alive these days (offline or damaged) is clearly a new-coronavirus priority    and 2) power here is just wretched at times with frequency issues, spikes, drops and anything else that a power grid seems to be capable of suffering. I'd say things have gotten better over the last 11 years BUT, as previously noted, I dig techie things (shoulda bought the "nobreak" with the app interface - dang!). Two nobreaks because I've got a point where the network comes in, security systems are located and my partner has a computer and then my space is at another spot in the house.

Looks like you also are well-served for telephony!! "Geezer-net?" You know I marvel that the youngsters today have no clue about the level of ease in communication that today exists. Even in the early 80s when I made my first visit to this region it was onion paper and airmail envelopes plus a 4 week one way trip (8 weeks to get an answer) and because telephone was SO expensive people set up fax machines to fax letters back and forth. A landline was an investment that one could actually sell to somebody else because getting the telephone company to install one could take 6+ months.

I know what you mean about Google BUT they've been the easiest solution provider for me in every project that I've been involved in here for setting up a place to archive shared materials, provide email communication groups, web sites, online survey tools, turn over to other project people who had no money to pay for like services  and more. Then everybody became overly enamored by Facebook (I won't have anything to do with that), Instagram, Whatsapp and other [anti  ]social services. I use Whatapp but in very limited ways - few groups and I always protest against forwards containing unsourced information (too many years as a professional to be open to spurious blather by "lightweight" thinkers). The local native  beekeeper Whatsapp group I'm in does a great job of self-policing and keeping the group free of antagonisms.

I have to admit I'd be lost without a means to share ideas with people all over this little green planet. I guess that since it first became an option and I was involved in those first babysteps I've become quite addicted. Can ya tell?

MattB in CG

Tex,
Yeah, we were lucky.  Good planning is nice, but good luck is even better!
You've lost half your metropolitan area, and 99% of your shopping.   That's the opposite of good luck.

Matt,
Believe me, I'm well within the age group that's Consumer Cellular's target market!  We thought that we'd be spending some time each year in the US, but have been going much less than anticipated.  At some point, we'll have to reevaluate our need for US phones, at any price.

I was in Sergipe, three states down the coast from you, in the mid-70s, so I remember onion skin and long mail response times very well.  And landlines as marketable, heritable assets.  And going to the Post Office to send and receive telegrams.  To young Brazilians that sounds like a different country  - and in many ways, it was!

Just be careful about chainloading UPS for power managment, you actually get less ampage/voltage overall and less battery usage.

Here's a Google voice via Hangouts warning: If you get a new cell phone and try to use Hangouts to receive your Google Voice calls 9on your cell phone) it won't work. My new phone's Hangouts stopped receiving calls YET I CAN still make outgoing calls. Apparently we're supposed to start using Google Voice app which is NOT available to those of us abroad (and I tried getting it with my Nord VPN on - still not available).

So - my once-very-useful Google Voice on my cell phone is gone.

BUT - I also did just get my OBi200 Polycom device so that I might receive Google Voice over a POT (plain old telephone) and that DOES work just dandy.

In the states, if one were to have a Google Voice app on their phone and an OBi200 on the home network, both would ring on incoming calls. THAT is what I wanted but given I chucked the old phone with my working Hangouts (zeroed it because I thought I no longer needed it) I'm hunting for a new solution.

There's always some glitch - it should just be easier!!! 

This is deliberate policy.  And Google has been up front in announcing that this is what they intend to do.
Many, many years ago I had an account with Skype, before it was bought by Microsoft.  For $60 per YEAR I was assigned a telephony entrance number in the locality of my choice, worldwide.  I could send and receive calls on my laptop connected to any Internet site in the world, and the user on the other end would see my telephony entrance number in his caller ID and he would be billed according to the local or long distance rules of his telephone network connecting to the area of my entrance point.  And no one could determine where I was actually physically located.

So the major tech monopolies figured out that they were sitting on a huge cash cow and they keep changing the rules, squeezing harder and harder, to get people to pay more money and get less functionality, small changes year after year after year.

This is just more of the same.  Expect it to continue to get worse.

You can still use Google hangouts internationally for free when you connect with someone else using hangouts, as a video call ...you should be taping your video camera at all times except when you explicitly want to see and be seen, anyway .....

Majik Jack bro. It works for me.
https://www.magicjack.com/

Cristal clear.   I have an US number straight out of my ipad.   

They can ship you devices as well.

(Reopening old thread to keep notes on topic close at hand)

Buggers! Looks like my OBI200 (Polycom) ATA with Google Voice (GV) is now dead-in-the-water. Polycom has issued an "end of life" on their ATA products. It stopped working.

My luck with Google Voice has been limited while Vonage (except for being able to get their app on my Brazilian phone) has been largely bullet-proof since 2005.

Looking for a new USA line (Wisconsin area code) over VOIP solutions that work on a "land line" as well as an app (that works on Brazilian phones) for Android.

Before I start calling providers (like Ooma) who'll set their overly enthusiastic (gung-ho) sales persons on me, I thought I'd do a last minute check to see any expats have found a worthy solution.

Just a few notes:
1-My GV still works but only via a browser plus I forward calls to my Vonage line now
2-GV has not changed - Polycom has supposedly because they want out of the consumer market to focus on business solutions
3-GV used to use Hangouts as their inbound/outbound call app but replaced that a long while back with their Voice app which is not downloadable on Brazilian based cell phone accounts
4-VPNs do NOT solve downloading apps issues (I've tried) because it has to do with the setting used by one's Google account and their telephone location settings
5-If you have no need to reconfigure a Polycom device (OBI200) over OBItalk then your service might just last up to Dec2023
6-I plan to port my GV phone number to whatever new service works for me - must allow some kind of land line service in addition to an Android app on a Brazilian cell phone.
7-I'd sure like a very low cost solution because I rarely call or receive USA calls - but it is wonderful when trying to talk to banks/IRS/Gov't services especially when there are long hold times - also for elder siblings that tend to find communications over apps complicated (what can I say?).

I use Ooma.  The monthly cost to me is about $15 USA.  I do not subscribe to texts, not sure if they can do that or not.  That gives me international calling which i am not sure I need.

However if you want to go this route you must purchase the teleo in the USA and carry it in your luggage.  I first tried to have a unit shipped to me and Receita simply confiscated it with no comment or explanation.  You can purchase a phone in Brazil, any phone that works with a standard 4-wire connection is fine.

Its perfect for my needs except that the number of people reaching out to call me from the "dealer service center" to tell me that i need an extended warrantee on my car, is insane.

Matt,

What you can look at is either getting a dedicated google line , and why i bring this up is because ive been using this frequently myself. so either you can order like i said get a dedicated google line ( google fi ) you can just order one of the sims via amazon or something, you will be able to activate it remotely with a vpn, either from your phone , then you can link google voice to it, I primarily use the google fi data as a backup for when I lose local internet to power. ( google fi will rely on the best networks avaliable for quality signal )

the data is cheap as there is no roaming fees associated with using your data globally.  so thing ive noticed about  pots or ata services, most are coming to an end and are switching to mobile products as its more convinient. real bummer but is what it is.

I am at the moment just using star pbx currently myself. though its more lined for business, and i gave up on ata as well as pots lines

*missing simpler times*

I also think cloud services are stupid. its just a service on someone elses computer.

03/12/22

Mikeflanagan wrote:

I also think cloud services are stupid. its just a service on someone elses computer.

I agree.

I remember when a POTS line was so precious and hard to get in Brazil that people left them to their favorite child in their wills.  I'm not nostalgic for those days, but now all too often it seems like we accept a baseline of mediocre service, and put the bulk of our energy into trying -- and usually failing -- to manage supplier risks.

"stupid" is not the word I would use.
I trained on a computer with hard disk drives the size of clothes washing machines that rented for as much per month as a new VW automobile cost, that held 300,000 bytes.  So I appreciate that memory used to be scarce and efforts to conserve or share it were sensible.
Nowadays, I go through airport security with a device smaller than a pack of cigarettes  that holds 2,000,000,000,000 bytes, more or less.  It cost me $65.  Its solid state, doesn't even look like a computer device.

The reason that they want people to use the cloud is so that they can own your data and then rent it back to you forever, tracking and controlling all you do.  Its not them that are stupid, its the ones who agree to those terms.....

no i stand by stupid. sure devices are smaller. but i run a range of equipment that unequivically if anything bad happens i can fix myself. some items for cloud based services i use other companies to hold them liable versus myself.

this is why i find it stupid. lol

abthree wrote:

03/12/22

Mikeflanagan wrote:

I also think cloud services are stupid. its just a service on someone elses computer.

I agree.

I remember when a POTS line was so precious and hard to get in Brazil that people left them to their favorite child in their wills.  I'm not nostalgic for those days, but now all too often it seems like we accept a baseline of mediocre service, and put the bulk of our energy into trying -- and usually failing -- to manage supplier risks.

my case and point exactly . lol. like even here - i tend to help out my ISP with network related issues outages filtering to enhance their networks. in turn i get free internet. so now im a backbone for thier company hahaha.

Now the good is they are learning things they didnt think previously possible. and with the famous brazilian magician quality to apply patching and fixes. the guys who work for the company are feeling more headstrong in the IT field which is nice to see

Magic Jack, again.

I've used in my Ipad, now I can use on my cell phone app.

I still have the ATA adapters I brought through them in 2012.  Not sure if they work, but again,  I do not use my personal computer for calls. 

Vonage, I recall, back in the day, they spent a fortune on marketing, with little left for actually improving their network.  Perhaps that might have changed since then.

VoIP Services are nothing but to carry the voice through data packets using a gateway ( the old CISCO AS5300 series was very popular then, followed by the defunct Excel Switches ). 

The carrier will need then to prioritize the Quality of Service ( QoS ) through MPLS protocol embedded into the gateway and switches.  It is a coordinated effort to manage end to end QoS, unless you have all the network relay points under your thumb.

I hope it isn't bothersome  to keep an old thread alive, I have good news. With something that Mikeflanagan said to me in a DM I decided to set a second google account up with a USA Country/Region. Google Play (sorry Apple folks) allows one to switch to another account for Play (apps) services.

At first that did NOT allow me to find USA localized apps - but then I turned on my VPN and, VOILÁ! I now have functioning mobile bank apps installed.

There were other little messes I had to clean up (an app that kept indicating I was not on a network) but those cleaned up nicely.

I still have telephony issues. Both Vonage and Google Voice apps want to make calls from a USA telephone number (on my Brazilian cell phone) - ouch!


Thanks Mike!

that is why you keep an whatsapp phone number for calls /numbers that originate in Brazil and then your app for your US dialtone.

"I hope it isn't bothersome  to keep an old thread alive, I have good news. With something that Mikeflanagan said to me in a DM I decided to set a second google account up with a USA Country/Region. Google Play (sorry Apple folks) allows one to switch to another account for Play (apps) services."

The VPN is key to validate any cloud services mean to be used in the US. Using the Google account , it allows you to ratify you are using the service in US Footprint. The VPN fools your request origination.

mberigan wrote:

I hope it isn't bothersome  to keep an old thread alive, I have good news. With something that Mikeflanagan said to me in a DM I decided to set a second google account up with a USA Country/Region. Google Play (sorry Apple folks) allows one to switch to another account for Play (apps) services.

At first that did NOT allow me to find USA localized apps - but then I turned on my VPN and, VOILÁ! I now have functioning mobile bank apps installed.

There were other little messes I had to clean up (an app that kept indicating I was not on a network) but those cleaned up nicely.

I still have telephony issues. Both Vonage and Google Voice apps want to make calls from a USA telephone number (on my Brazilian cell phone) - ouch!


Thanks Mike!

Abolutely no problem,

the type of vpn matters too. for instance NordVPN has the option for obfuscated servers which fights against most vpn filtering services. Meaning websites that know your using a vpn - fights against that. its for very specific situations and tasks. more expensive sure but allows more freedoms.

Glad that worked out for you, because not knowing can cause alot of undue frustration!

been in the process of setting up a business here to provide remote solutions for folks ( standard computer users ) just leagues of paperwork to go through lol

sprealestatebroker wrote:

The VPN is key to validate any cloud services mean to be used in the US. Using the Google account , it allows you to ratify you are using the service in US Footprint. The VPN fools your request origination.

The VPN on its own did not grant access to my desired apps because my google account passed info showing that I'm in Brazil.

Mikeflanagan wrote:

....the type of vpn matters too. for instance NordVPN has the option for obfuscated servers,.............

Under "Special servers" on NordVPN I only see:
P2P
Onion Over VPN
Double VPN

mberigan wrote:

Mikeflanagan wrote:

....the type of vpn matters too. for instance NordVPN has the option for obfuscated servers,.............

Under "Special servers" on NordVPN I only see:
P2P
Onion Over VPN
Double VPN

https://nordvpn.com/features/obfuscated-servers/

03/24/22

For what it's worth, my VPN is PIA, and they seem to do a good job at obscuring the fact that I'm in Brazil.  They have some US servers that are optimized for streaming, and they also have a server in Brazil for the times that I want to show up in Brazil, but still be behind a VPN.

abthree wrote:

03/24/22

For what it's worth, my VPN is PIA, and they seem to do a good job at obscuring the fact that I'm in Brazil.  They have some US servers that are optimized for streaming, and they also have a server in Brazil for the times that I want to show up in Brazil, but still be behind a VPN.

Yeah, they have been around for a long spread of time. With what I do on a daily basis I hit restrictions from the list of generalized ^known vpn services which does suck. Nord is niche for that which helps me out substancially.

Biggest thing for me is actual vpn speeds, dont matter so much for streaming. When I am working its all about QoS when it comes to link quality.

I am crazy OCD about quality of service with all services  lol.

03/24/22

Mike,

Brazil is definitely the wrong place to be OCD about quality of Internet service!   

Lol, suprisingly with my help QoS  been on point. had my services rerouted so it doesnt go through 40+ hops then exit brazil. just 3  - then miami then canada , quality is good. you only ironically get higher ping - line noise when it hits miami ( the undersea port im using ) thats where it can jump from 90 - 120ms and really depends on line noise at that time on miami side.

However if your in rural brazil you will experience unlimited amounts of nightmares with internet and depending on who your provider is ( not the brand or isp name your choosing - but who they lease their lines from or if its a reseller of a reseller imagine the beaurocracy with that connection setup )

Mines fine as they work with me.

Raises a few eyebrows when you talk to your isp asking who they are leasing from , but that will let you know if its the right choice for you.

Anything from GVT or any .net service ( verified .net ) you should experience little to no issues.

If you use bbg telecom (as the one leasing the line to your isp) - your connections going to be straight garbage constantly.