SUGGESTIONS bridge wifi router to a cellular hotspot

[Brianmac]

I'm looking to setup hardware for future demo's to demonstrate VOIP. Most prospective customers are not going to want me to plug into their network. I was thinking about getting a cellular hotspot, wifi router and tie that into a PiaF on a small shuttle PC, with two GXP-2160, and a switch. This should give the customer a good idea of the functionality of VOIP and the whole "phone" experience.

Has anyone done anything like this before, curious of the results....

Thanks for any help,
Brian

 

[phonebuff]

Brian,

Been using CradlePoint units this way for years. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the MiFi units though.

Just be careful of buying on Ebay, as some more current LTE is not supported on older units. For example I have a CBR400 I love, but I can't put a new Sprint Netgear LTE on it.

Might also want to look at a pfSense or Untangle with a LTE Dongle.

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[Brianmac]

phonebuff,

Thanks for the heads up. Actually I was going to try a service like freedompop - its free for 500mb/month. If this works for sales I would definitely move up to Verizon they are about the best network here in the northeast(most expensive, too).

No go on MiFi - because this was what I was looking at? I could just use my Samsung S4 as a hotspot too???

I am familiar with those, although I use smoothwall routers. The LTE Dongle, sounds really interesting, I need to look into this.....

Thanks,
brian

 

[wa4zlw]

You need to be careful. WE had a customer on a verizon cradlepoint. Customer was moving from site to site across east coast. when we failed over to the cradlepoints the latency was horrible as the packets were VZW backhauled across the US to california and then to NYC. VOIP calls to NYC were fine even with the cross country latency since it was consistent and not jittery BUT any time you tried to go extension to extension out at the remote site then you would get double cross country latency and it died. WOuld not work. The data stuff was fine with the latency they were running voice was not.

Leon

 

[phonebuff]

No go on MiFi - because this was what I was looking at? I could just use my Samsung S4 as a hotspot too???

Has to do with the way the Public IP is NATed to the private IP to the WiFi Client to the LAN -- Just to much going on, and when I moved to IPSec I had many other issues so I stay far away from the MiFis with this type experience. Also, since most of the carriers are doing IPV6 to IPV4 mapping between the end points and the network these days, you will probably need a tunnel of some sort, I use IPSec to a pfSense box.

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[Brianmac]

Thanks for all the help....

phonebuff, you lost me on the IPSec to a pfSense box, are you connecting your phones to a cradlepoint and then IPSec to a remote PiaF box? I'm looking to bring the whole show to the demo, 2x IP Phones->router ->PiaF(either small PC or laptop) -> and some sort of internet hotspot to tie into the router to make and receive outside calls. I might be missing something.

brian

 

[wa4zlw]

You need to be cognisant of the Cellular latencies. As I said this morning if you try to run multiple extensions remotely talking to each other it will not work. If its one extension going to POTS you will probably be ok but YOu need to check the latency and see if there is jitter.

Leon

 

[Brianmac]

Leon,
I'm wanting to run the whole demo locally at the client( 2x phones, PiaF server, router). I only need cellular to connect to in/out provider to show calling to the outside world and calling from outside world in. All the extension calls(2x phones) will be working off the PiaF at the demo.

Does this make sense? I'm not the greatest communicator!!!!

Thanks,
brian

 

[wa4zlw]

hi brian...yes it does...in the example i cited the pbx was in NYC and the customer was remote. You should be ok but still check the latency to whoever you will be using as a sip gateway. also be careful if you have issues try changing 5060 to like 5080. VZW has been known to cause issues with 5060 sometimes.

THanks leon

 

[MGD4me]

Brian,

You may want to "fake it"...

I would configure a small 'local' system only; no outside connections. Get preferably 3 phones if you can, with each extension configured with voicemail,and a conference room or two. Perhaps play with having one extension set to DND, to see how the voicemail greeting is presented. Having a strictly local in-house system like this can be easily configured and tested ahead of time, so there will be no surprises when you get on-site with a client.

Yes, it might be nice to have a trunk to the outside world, but if the voice quality of your trunk just happens to turn sour at the most in-opportune time (and Murphy says it will), then your client will not only not be impressed, it will turn him off to the technology, and your credibility. A stand-alone local system will work exactly as it did when you set it up prior to arriving on-site, so you can demo all the salient features with confidence, without having to worry about issues that will pop up unexpectedly.

 

[Brianmac]

Again, thanks for all the help.....

MGD4me - I'm leaning this way, VERY valid points and pretty much everything can be demonstrated locally. Might just setup my cell to make a call to an offsite PBX to show voice messages enter my email in front of them and they can listen to the voice quality on my laptop....

Really great points from all, I really appreciate all the help and your time!

Brian

 

[wa4zlw]

I agree with that. KISS principle always work.
Good luck

Leon

 

[kevinfvc]

Keeping it simple is probably best. If you decide you need to demo, take a look at Accelerated Concepts http://www.acceleratedconcepts.com.

They make an Ethernet to LTE bridge similar to Cradlepoint. It takes USB LTE so you can change carriers if necessary.

 

[Brianmac]

Gang, thanks for all the input. I decided to forgo the cellular hookup and just show them everything locally, I can demonstrate voice quality, by making a call to another offsite PiaF server and have it shoot me an email for them t listen too. I am also not going to use a shuttle PC. I have an old Dell latitude d830 collecting dust(dual core 1.8ghz/4gb ram). I'm going to test PiaF on that. This way if there is some stupid boot up halt, I can just flip the screen up and react.

Thanks again!
Brian

 

[himala76]

I have set up like that. i use raspberry PI 2 with wifi dongle and two desk phones . over my tmobile (note3) wifi hot spot . use Google voice for in and out calls. work fine for me.

Note3 (wireless) ---->wifi--(raspberryPI)---Lan port---->(lan port)desk phone (pc port)---->desk phone ( no switch)

 

[Brianmac]

Thanks, I am forgoing the use of cellular. As MGD4me stated, I don't want to be in the middle of a demo and have the connection not work properly. This would kill the presentation and credibility. I am using a laptop as this is small enough to transport..

brian