Can the Linksys DSL/VoIP Router Work in Europe?

m_e_henry asks: "Linksys and Net2Phone have recently introduced a product that is a 4 port DSL router which also has an RJ-11 (phone) jack. You plug an ordinary phone into this box and it routes outgoing phone traffic over the Net2Phone IP network. Very cool. It is an easy way to use Net2Phone's service in a way that is very familiar. Unfortunately for those in Europe, there are currently no plans to release this product here. So my question is if anybody knows a way to make it look like I am in the US, even though I am in Europe. Can I set up some sort of VPN connection with the States so that the Linksys router thinks that I am on a machine in the US? Is there an easier way? I have not been able to find a consumer-oriented product similar to the Linksys/Net2Phone offering but available in Europe." Any clues as to what limits this device from working in Europe and if it's possible to work around such limitations until such a product is offered in these markets?

Comments

Voltages.

[EasyTarget]

Not a big issue, most linksys/netgear/whoever addons these days use a seperate power supply, so you can simply find one thyat is appropriate (I love it when manuals tell you never to use any other power supply, 12vDC is 12vDC right.. sheesh, safety Nazi's to blame I think).

But last couple of products I brought while visiting US came with uiniversal power adaptors anyway, just needed a cheap converter plug and was off and going. Seems that cost of these universal adaptors is now so low that it is cheaper to use them then have two separate specifications for Europe/US.

Did once get caught out with a CD player that, even after I re-linked the PSU (had links on PCB to different transformer taps for 110/240) blew up (big smelly smoke). Turned out that the PSU was also frequency sensitive (60Hz vs 50Hz) and I should have replaced the capacitors too.

EZ

Re:Voltages.

[cperciva]

(I love it when manuals tell you never to use any other power supply, 12vDC is 12vDC right.. sheesh, safety Nazi's to blame I think).

You're probably right in this case, but there is sometimes a technical justification. Some types of equipment have a tendancy to feed AC back up the power line (ie, they draw periodically varying current), and if you use an AC/DC converter which doesn't filter this out you could be in trouble. There was a discussion here a few weeks ago about what types of equipment could be run off of a UPS which centered mostly around this issue.

Silly question but where are you?

[matthew.thompson]

Europe is not a country. (America gasps)

No seriously it isn't. The telephone systems across Europe and the methods of Internet access across Europe are very different - we're still lumbered with monopolistic network providers to a large extent in some coutries and there are big differences in attitudes and technologies for broadband access.

So before I give you a Yes / No answer - how about fessing up to which country you're actually in?

Marketing troll?

[anticypher]

This linksys/net2phone SIP-in-a-box product was just announced yesterday. What great timing to get it published on /. :-) They haven't even updated their websites yet.

A slightly different version of this service was discussed recently on /.

We've been playing around with a SIP gateway server and a VoIP phone on our DSL connection here in Europe. It works, but phone quality to the US sucks at best. The problem is QoS. Without spending US$10,000++ per month on a dedicated IP pipe from Europe to the US with a guaranteed QoS end-to-end, VoIP just doesn't replace regular phone service. But for IP connections within Europe, we get reasonable quality. Now, if only there were more than 3 people who could call us (and two of those are inside cisco TAC who only call to test their SIP setups)

This linksys/net2phone service requires you to pay them a subscription to use their SIP gateway, and the units probably are not configurable to use alternate SIP services. So if your account expires, your box becomes an expensive blinking light source.

It should work in Europe, I doubt they care which IP block you are coming from. But all the sessions will pass to north america for processing on their VoIP network. If you do buy one of these boxes, drop me a note. I'd love to see what kind of "virtual phone number" they assign you.

the AC

Net2Phone works in Europe right?

[CvD]

I don't really see the problem. Net2Phone services work in Europe, don't they? Why should the servers in the US distinguish between a hardware Net2Phone implementation and a software implementation, like the one included with MSN Chat. Or am I make gross assumptions here?

Cheers!

Costyn.

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