Cisco SPA2102 VoIP Phone Adapter with Router

I had been paying Qwest, my local phone service provider, almost $40.00 a month for a basic phone line with caller id for over 25 years. Other common options like Skype, Magic Jack, or Comcast did not look like they would allow much flexibililty, so I bought one of these unlocked voip routers. I settled on voip.ms service because they allowed me to port my number, but this voip router will work with a huge variety of other voip service providers. I would say that the SPA2102-NA is practically the standard method now. Your research will probably confirm this. The -NA on the end confirms an unlocked router meaning that it is not pre-configured for any specific voip provider.Set up on this voip router was pretty straight forward for me, but I'm fairly technically inclined. You may need the assistance from your local teenager to help you figure it out. You'll find that most of the voip providers have a setup example page which will usually include the settings for this router or a similar model. Since it provides for two separate phone lines and service accounts, I also had it configured to work with Gizmo5, but Google recently phased that service out.I have mine mounted on a wall in my basement where my main phone line comes into the distribution panel, that way, I can have all of my home phones connected to it. I plugged this router into my home network router and when I want to make changes on it, I temporarily unplug one of my computers from my network switch hub and plug it directly into the LAN port of the SPA2102. I could just leave it connected there, but the 2102 has a maximum throughput of about 6MB/sec, so if your internet connection is provided by your cable TV company, then your connection is likely much faster than that, so it's best to return your computer connection to your main router and surf from there. (Make sure the IP numbers are not the same on both routers.) For good measure, I have all of my networking devices on a backup battery system which smooths out the bumps in the electrical supply and provides many hours of phone and networking during a power outage. I highly recommend doing this on your network too. I have not had to reset my modem one time since I added the UPS battery supply.I'm going to buy another SPA2102 for travel and have it set up and tested before I go. My next trip is several months in China, so I'll be reporting on how well it works from there. It should enable my family and friends to dial my local Portland number and have it ring me wherever I am located, provided my temporary location has a wired Interent connection for me to plug into.My SPA2102 runs warm, but not hot. It has been running flawlessly for the past 4 months. My home phone bill has been averaging about ten bucks a month, so the amount I have saved has already paid for this router. Call quality is tops, but for my voip service, I had to spend some time making some adjustments so that the DTMF tones would be received without a clicking sound. The router also handles faxing fairly well and I have it hooked up to my home security system which has an internal modem to dial out to my alarm company, and it works fine for that too, but faxing and dial type modem success may depend on your voip provider. Some do not support fax tones and protocols. I like the indicator lights so I can verify my connection status.Happy dialing!Update:2018-12-15Happy to report that this device is still performing as new. FYI, I have all of my equipment, such as modem, router, and LAN switches plugged into a small UPS battery backup box. I used to have problems with my routers and modems because of electrical brownouts and spikes from the grid, but after using a UPS system, I have had very few problems. I recommend that everyone invest in a simple UPS box for your sensitive internet equipment. It makes a big difference. This kind of internet equipment draws very little power, so a standard size UPS box for residential use should keep it all powered up for more than an hour or two before cutting off.Another Update:2020-10-1This adapter continues to run trouble free. It's been in constant service for nine years. What other electronic gizmos can you say that about? I must have gone through 5 or 6 cell phones since then. I wish everything ran so well.

The Cisco SPA2102 works well for me. I have it attached to my router so the cable modem is not attached directly to the phone adapter. Even with that, it works great, especially if you install it with its default settings. I ran into difficulty when I first installed it because I tried to customize it immediately to my liking. When I called Cisco support, which is the business support because this is considered a business device, the technician had me reset the ATA and it then worked. I knew I would probably have to do that anyway, but I was hoping that there was some way I could avoid it.The VOIP provider instructions for configuring a PAP2 work great for configuring the SPA2102, so it is widely supported. The only deal is that the fields are in different places so you have to look for them.My biggest complaint is documentation. The manuals pretty much tell you nothing about how to configure the advanced settings. The just repeat what you can see on the screen. I had to search the internet a lot before I found out how to access speed dial from my phone. For anyone interested, the speed dial is accessed by punching in the speed dial number followed by the # sign.I have heard my incoming audio sound very choppy a few times which is the only quality issue I have experienced.Update Jan 6, 2012:I found an issue when I disconnect the SPA2102 from the router or change the network from DCHP to Static and back to DHCP. The issue is that the phone does not call out correctly when I do that. People on the receiving end can hear me but I cannot hear them. To fix the issue, I have to reset the spa2102 to factory defaults and start over from scratch. The first time this happened, I had changed the TCP/IP settings to static values, then I set the configuration back to DHCP. It appears that the device might not have updated its network settings using DHCP. The second time around, I had disconnected the network cable from the router to replace it with another cable. I had to start all over again from factory defaults.My next step is to look for updated firmware. If that does not prevent the issue or there is no newer firmware, I will experiment with making the network settings static and try to reproduce the issue.I am not sure if this behavior happens with people who use normal voip services. I use google voice + sipgate + sip sorcery for my voip.UPDATE: January 29, 2012I fixed the issue. It was a matter of adjusting the settings in the ATA and the router. Because sipgate uses STUN, which is a way of getting through the NAT, you have to turn off the SIP ALG setting in the router and set "NAT mapping Enable" = No in the ATA. I adjusted a few more settings for audio quality, but the above is what took care of my issue. Even though I am using sipsorcery in my ATA as the proxy, I still keep sipgate's STUN configuration.My recommendation is that this is a great, reliable VOIP device, just don't get too fancy with it. My setup is very complex. For most things, you shouldn't run into issues as long as you don't dig too deep into the settings.

I have several of these, all operating trouble free. However:1. Cisco stopped selling these in May of 2012. Search "spa2102 discontinued". Although some companies bought tons and never used them, most of what you can get by now are used. I've bought used ones without any problems. I typically pay, with shipping, around $35.2. The user interface is extremely technical. These are designed for someone who knows what they are doing. The average non technical person is going to be flummoxed. Definitely not plug and play. Those having intermittent problems and the like probably didn't configure them properly.3. The one I bought in 2010 is still working just fine. I have two others bought two years ago, used, also working fine. But these are now 5-8 years old, and you shouldn't expect an infinite life out of them.4. These have been replaced with a newer model SPA122 that's around the same price of these. As far as I know, they are basically identical: same complex user interface. Will probably last much longer than these. See that "was this review helpful button" at the bottom? Answer that Yes and then go buy the newer one if you are technically inclined. Think of all the heartache I just saved you.

I've been considering jumping into the residential VOIP phone thing for a while. When I moved into my new place this summer, I got a 3-month freebie home phone from Rogers, and enjoyed the convenience of being able to make my work conference calls without using up my cell phone minutes. At the end of the three months, I returned that home phone - I don't see the point of paying almost 30 dollars a month for just a couple of calls.Having used and set up VOIP phone installations before, I knew they could be complex. Then I heard about Callcentric, checked out the reviews about them on dslreports, and checked out their website for installation instructions. Decided that I'd rather go with a Cisco/Linksys device (available for immediate shipping) rather than wait two to three weeks for them to ship me the Grandstream one which was about 20 dollars cheaper.Lucky me - I received it the very next day after I ordered it! Living in Toronto has some major pluses, especially that it's close to the Mississauga shipping hub for amazon.ca!In less than 30 minutes after receiving this device, I was up and running, following the generic Linksys PAP2 instructions (okay, I did have to also adopt one step from the SPA3102, to enable the WAN access) at callcentric.No hassles, except for needing to figure out that I had to stop and restart (read, "unplug and plug back in") my wireless internet router after connecting the SPA 2102. And a little weirdness on the callcentric site when I purchased an incoming DID, but didn't realise that I also had to actually put funds into my account before I could actually receive calls on my home phone.The actual device set up was maybe ten minutes. The rest was figuring out that I needed to restart my wireless router, and then that I needed to fund my account before placing or receiving calls (not anything to do with the adapter!).I immediately used the phone to place a call to India - I've been using calling cards so far, and I guess they are heavily congested: my parents tell me the connection is crystal clear, except for a slight delay at the beginning of the call (I could hear them, they could not hear me).So ease-of-setup: 5 starsDelivery time: 5+ stars (I did NOT expect to receive this less than 24 hours after placing the order)Call quality: 5 starsWhat's not to like? Best of all, I have the option to add another line to the setup - this device can handle two lines, and so can my ancient Bell Vista phone!

The product is just as advertised and in perfect working order. The only thing I can criticize is the expedited shipping to Hamilton, ON took just over 10 days!

this is for my office voip phone and it works well.

Purchased this device as a VOIP replacement to Bell. Product arrived a couple of days after purchasing it and I was able to configure it with my (freephoneline.ca) VOIP settings in about 5 minutes.Call quality is superb and the interface to put in my settings is extensive to say the least.There are 2 phone line ports on the back with each one having its own voip configuration capabilities which gives the user a ton of options for configuring voice options.There are screen shots of the interface here;[...]I used this link to set the router and just subbed in my settings provided by freephoneline.ca and the router worked like a charm in under 5 minutes.

This product was very good and functioned correctly. I reccomend buying this