PhoneGnome: The Hot Rod of ATAs (comment)

[PhoneBoy]

Please comment on this article here:

[slicemaster101]

Interesting concept, it really is a neat idea. Not all that different from what is already available (FWD and other like services) but it certainly simplifies the process and installation for those who aren

[PhoneBoy]

As I previously pontificated in my blog, it's stuff you can do with a SPA-3000 if you're clever enough to set it up on your own. Most people are not that clever, and there's some service aspects to it that you can't easily replicate on your own as well. It's a good deal, certainly.

[bmwright]

This appears to be nothing more than a pre-configured SPA-3000 that talks to their SIP server/PBX, which is where the "special sauce" comes from. I would wager that it is very unlikely that they have actually done a custom firmware for this. I would also guess that the configuration web interface the user sees is a web server running on their site which then centrally provisions the device via manage profile and not the internal web server running on the SPA-3000
.
I guess it's exciting if you don't know how to set these things up on your own, but otherwise nothing revolutionary, just packaging.

If anyone wants to buy a overpriced SPA-3000 and report back to us...

[DracoFelis]

Originally Posted by PhoneBoy

As I previously pontificated in my blog, it's stuff you can do with a SPA-3000 if you're clever enough to set it up on your own.

It's actually pretty easy to get essentially that feature set (or even a more powerful feature set) with an SPA-3000. Just combine a decent "free service" ("Free World Dialup", SIPphone, etc) with a decent POTS service (either some phone service hooked up to the FXO port, or a decent BYOD VoIP service) on the same adapter, roll up a decent "Dial Plan", and stir to perfection. You can even use a Sipura's "Dial Plan" to block area codes (such as the Bahama's) that are costly international calls.

However, IMHO they appear to be offering at least one thing that is unique, and that is an easy to setup "plug and play" solution. Let's face it, while us techy types may be happy to "roll our own" with something like an SPA-3000 (or even a small * box), most users just are not up to the challenge (just as most users can't program a VCR). While "plug and play" limits your options (especially if there is something unique about your setup), it also brings comfort to the masses. And I'm sure that their $30/unit "referral program", will give them a lot of "word of mouth" advertising as well.

NOTE: When I checked out their web site, I didn't see any mention of allowing inbound calling to their users (by SIP URI or any other method). I did see a brief mention about allowing PhoneGnome users to call other VoIP customers by internet address (SIP URI), but not a peep about how another VoIP user would call a PhoneGnome customer! While this may have just been an oversite on the part of the web site (or maybe I even missed the page that info was on), it could also have been the standard marketing ploy of "lock in" (the old, if you want to be part of the fun, you have to sign up with our service game). I would really like to know if PhoneGnome is trying to be yet another "walled community" (where you can ony "play" if you join in that community directly), before I would even consider suggesting the service (and their adapter) to my less tehnically skilled friends/family. IMHO if I'm going to recommend an adapter/service to someone I know, I would really like that adapter/service to be "open enough" that others (myself included) can easily call them from some other equipment...

[CAMILO]

Which are the VOIP Suppliers that the Phone Gome presently will work with ???

[DracoFelis]

Originally Posted by CAMILO

Which are the VOIP Suppliers that the Phone Gome presently will work with ???

I don't think they say. And it looks like none of us what to fork over the $$$ to get an adapter to play with.

But since they admit that that their PhoneGnome adapter is a "heavily modified" SPA-3000, we can guess as to it's features by looking at what an "unlocked" SPA-3000 does.

1st of all, the PhoneGnome is designed to be "plug and play", so you can assume that they are doing "remote provisioning" of the SPA-3000 hardware adapter. 2nd, the PhoneGnome is designed to automatically talk to other PhoneGnome users, so it is reasonable to assume that PhoneGnome itself is the "default" (Line 1) VoIP provider for the device. 3rd, PhoneGnome is designed to work with your existing telephone line/service, so obviously they have the "Line"/FXO port of the SPA-3000 enabled. This should also mean that you should be able to substitute the output of some other VoIP adapter, for a real "phone line". 4th, PhoneGnome mentions using the device with other VoIP providers. Since the PhoneGnome is essentially an SPA-3000, it is reasonable to assume that it can do a lot of what a "nomal" (for example, as purchased from the Voxilla.com web site here) SPA-3000 could do. In particular, an SPA-3000 can use most "BYOD" (Bring your own device) VoIP providers via the 4 "Gateway" entries (on the "Line 1" tab). While it's just (educated) guesswork on my part, it is reasonable to assume that the PhoneGnome may allow the same flexibility.

But the bottom line is that the PhoneGnome web site is heavy on hype, but thin on technical details of what they are selling. While I see nothing wrong with "hiding the details" from the users that just want an easy to use device, why is there no hard technical data for those of us who would understand it? To me, that is NOT a good sign, and smells a lot like a "snake oil salesman". Of course, I could be wrong (and PhoneGnome may be a really nice service), but we just don't know. Until PhoneGnome releases more technical details, or someone forks over the $$$ for one of their adapters, and runs it though its paces, we are left with nothing but educated guesses.

BTW: Has anyone at Voxilla asked PhoneGnome if they would be willing to freely loan a adapter to review? I have no idea if PhoneGnome would be open to such an offer (although their answer to that question may be interesting in and of itself). But it doesn't hurt to ask, and it is true that genuine "industry press" can sometimes get free equipment to review and write about...

[CAMILO]

Originally Posted by DracoFelis

I don't think they say. And it looks like none of us what to fork over the $$$ to get an adapter to play with.

But since they admit that that their PhoneGnome adapter is a "heavily modified" SPA-3000, we can guess as to it's features by looking at what an "unlocked" SPA-3000 does.

1st of all, the PhoneGnome is designed to be "plug and play", so you can assume that they are doing "remote provisioning" of the SPA-3000 hardware adapter. 2nd, the PhoneGnome is designed to automatically talk to other PhoneGnome users, so it is reasonable to assume that PhoneGnome itself is the "default" (Line 1) VoIP provider for the device. 3rd, PhoneGnome is designed to work with your existing telephone line/service, so obviously they have the "Line"/FXO port of the SPA-3000 enabled. This should also mean that you should be able to substitute the output of some other VoIP adapter, for a real "phone line". 4th, PhoneGnome mentions using the device with other VoIP providers. Since the PhoneGnome is essentially an SPA-3000, it is reasonable to assume that it can do a lot of what a "nomal" (for example, as purchased from the Voxilla.com web site here) SPA-3000 could do. In particular, an SPA-3000 can use most "BYOD" (Bring your own device) VoIP providers via the 4 "Gateway" entries (on the "Line 1" tab). While it's just (educated) guesswork on my part, it is reasonable to assume that the PhoneGnome may allow the same flexibility.

But the bottom line is that the PhoneGnome web site is heavy on hype, but thin on technical details of what they are selling. While I see nothing wrong with "hiding the details" from the users that just want an easy to use device, why is there no hard technical data for those of us who would understand it? To me, that is NOT a good sign, and smells a lot like a "snake oil salesman". Of course, I could be wrong (and PhoneGnome may be a really nice service), but we just don't know. Until PhoneGnome releases more technical details, or someone forks over the $$$ for one of their adapters, and runs it though its paces, we are left with nothing but educated guesses.

BTW: Has anyone at Voxilla asked PhoneGnome if they would be willing to freely loan a adapter to review? I have no idea if PhoneGnome would be open to such an offer (although their answer to that question may be interesting in and of itself). But it doesn't hurt to ask, and it is true that genuine "industry press" can sometimes get free equipment to review and write about...

:lol: [b]DracoFelis:
You seem to be quite knowledgeable on the open Sipura 3000, and I have a Friend & Partner in Panam

[PhoneGnome]

Hi foks,

PhoneGnome let's users select a SIP to PSTN termination service of their choice. We have a number of providers that we've tested with, and that that we make available to owners, but there is also a "Manual Settings" option for advanced users that should work with any reasonably compliant SIP-based PSTN termination service. PhoneGnome owners set this up at their my.phonegnome.com site and you can see some screenshots to get an idea of how it works: http://my.phonegnome.com/screenshots.html

It's funny, a lot of people have told us the information we provide on the site, and in the FAQ pages, is already "too technical" and needs to be "dumbed down" so I guess it's very hard to please everybody.

We've found that the more someone knows about a generic SPA-3000, the more they assume things about PhoneGnome, and the harder it is for them to "let go" of those assumptions and sort of accept how it works, what it does etc. In fact, this includes Sipura themselves, who frankly still don't really understand what we've done with their device, because they have a mental model of what SPA-3000 is and what it is "supposed to do."

If you like to tweak all the settings in an SPA-3000, or need to leverage all its fantastic flexibility, PhoneGnome may not be for you. We've tried to make PhoneGnome for people that use phones, that talk to people, and want to spend time doing that, rather than setting up Linux servers, or having to have their PC on to make phone calls. We've made PhoneGnome far more open than other options, in terms of letting users select PSTN termination options of their choice, and in other ways.

To keep things simple in Rev 1.0, we let people select two providers, one for long-distance (in-country/national) and another for International. PhoneGnome also first always checks to see if a call can be completed free, without using your minutes at all, and only if not, then directs the call to the selected Termination serice (if activated), or the PSTN line (if no SIP provider activated, or if the provider or Internet is down). In all cases, users just dial the phone normally.

One can select a provider from any region in the woorld, no matter where they live. Choose a UK based provider that requires UK dialing plans and even if you are in the US or some other country, you still dial using your normal dialing plans. It's seamless and automatic. You don' thave to "train" people how to dial your phone.

We're happy to add more technical details on the FAQ pages, assuming we can segregate to not overwelm the vast majority of people who visit the site who would be annoyed or confused by those details. There's a point at which if you are super-technical and like to get down to the barest levels, you would be better off with a different kind of product. PhoneGnome let's people get under the hood a lot more than others (and watch for announcements to this effect in the coming weeks) but even that may not be enough to suit every ubber-techie.

In terms of it being like FWD or SIPphone, I think those services are great, but PhoneGnome is an entirely different animal. With PhoneGnome I hook it up and then I continue to use my phone as normal. I dial normal phone numbers, and when a call can be FREE it will be. I don't need a separate "batphone" and I don' t need to rememebr different numbers for everyone I want to talk to (or give out special numbers for them to call me). We all just keep dialing normal phone numbers and all of our VoIP calls and PSTN calls are all brought to the same phone together and I don't even think about VoIP or not VoIP anymore.

[skiblast]

Camilo,
I am in S. Miami and trying to impliment a similar plan with Chile. Would it be Ok for me to call you? Your number is posted.

Neil