Hi!
I’m looking to replace my family’s landline phone with a VoIP based hardphone. From my research it seems that I’d need a SIP server and a SIP Trunk provider. But I also happened to find Jami that has a SIP account feature.
- Could I make and recieve calls with Jami over the hardphone similar to a landline phone (minus the ability to call and recieve calls from normal phone numbers) with this setup (SIP server + Jami + hardphone)?
- Does anyone have experience setting up a similar system?
- Am I overcomplicating things and a used smartphone turned into a softphone would be a better choice?
I’ve just recently begun my selfhosting journey so I’m not very well versed in networking, but I am willing to put in the time and effort to learn. So any (constructive) feedback/guidance is greatly appreciated!
EDIT: The solution for me it seems is to just buy a used Android smartphone and connect it to a bluetooth handset. Thanks everyone :)
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Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t notice anyone elaborate on what I think is the simplest way to handle this.
You can port your existing number to a VOIP provider (I’ve had good experience with voip.ms and Flowroute). Then you get an ATA (analog telephone adapter), connect to the VOIP service and plug your existing landline phone into it. Secure hand ATAs are pretty reasonable priced. I like the Grandstream HT802.
I’ve just recently begun my selfhosting journey so I’m not very well versed in networking
Welcome to the club dude! It will be the most frustratingly rewarding journeys you undertake. LOL
Regardless of what you choose, consider what happens when you lose Internet service or power. A copper line needs neither. If a bad storm comes through and someone gets hurt, you need to be able to call 911.
A UPS can keep the modem and phone running for a couple of hours. If you have satellite internet, it will work for as long as you can power it. Cable or DSL will go out when the battery dies in the ISP’s equipment.
Landlines have gotten a lot less reliable in a lot of areas because the phone companies don’t want to maintain them. Mine would go out as soon as the power did when I cancelled it.
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I’ve had trouble getting Jami to work at all, I think because of incompatibilities between versions and whatever. You might have better luck with something like Linphone.
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I haven’t tried a VOIP hardphone but I use Linphone on Android sometimes. I would say call quality is worse than normal cellular voice calls even those are certainly VOIP at some level too.
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VOIP is more crap to fool around with and periodically troubleshoot, but you can get it to work if you have to. I don’t find landlines to be worth it any more (I just use mobile voice) but they’re probably still the most reliable of the approaches, and I guess it depends somewhat on your family’s discomfort level with technology.
VOIP hardphones are nicer to use than mobiles, but I guess unlike traditional landlines, they don’t work in power outages. All the ones I’ve seen rely on a power cube.
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I did the Vonage thing back when it first came out, then eventually landed on Ooma. Have had their service for -years- now. Basic service is “free”, as in $99 for the box initially and monthly fees amounting to about $4.
What you would like to have is not paying your ISP for the landline anymore right?
This is easily done by buying a SIP phone (used Yealink T30 start at 15€) and register a virtual number at a SIP provider local to you (e.g. https://sip.us/ starting at 1€/month). Just connect your phone to your regular network, they will give you a set of parameters to configure into your phone and it will behave like a regular landline after that.
Just want to throw out another option. They make Bluetooth phones. I got my parents a set years ago so that they would hear the phone ringing no matter where they left their cell (in the house). These are wireless handsets, and they even announce the contact name or phone number.
If you want it completely separate from your cell, connect an old/cheap device with either a low-priced SIM plan, a google voice account or jmp.chat. Pair that with the Bluetooth home phone for the aesthetic.
This is it! Why didnt’t I think of that… Thank you!
Are you trying to learn how this works or just need a landline?
If you just need a landline, the ISP will give it to you. It’s voip anyway most of the way. Just plug regular phone into router done. Maybe needs to be a proper voip phone in which case your ISP will give you connection details. Usually that connects to a voip server running in your router.
I worked at a voip provider so I want to mention: this is not a “set it and forget it”. This is something requiring regular maintenance with pretty strict regulations from the providers side. Like email, most consumer ISPs are very wary about people self hosting it.
If you are “pretty new to networking” this is not the project to start with, because it requires solid networking fundamentals.
If you really want to go anyway, well… You need something like kamailio. You set that up, get a voip phone that you have to program to register itself. Plan a couple weekends for this because those docs are not for the faint hearted and you probably have to read the source to understand it.
Forward SIP and RTP from the internet to your server (do you have a static ip?). Then you need to find a provider that gives you a number and is willing to have residential connect to it. Then you hope your ISP is not blocking those ports.
Then you should set up some kind of monitoring system because those providers are pretty flaky and will tell you stuff is working when, in fact, it’s not.
Are you trying to learn how this works or just need a landline?
Both. I have only one ISP which maybe offers (there is some contradictory wording on their site) landlines for consumers. And they charge outrageous prices for a service which would be used at most once a day for a couple of minutes.
But if you say it’s tough to pull of for a noobie then I’ll look for other solutions.
It isn’t technically tough to do anymore, but you can only self-hosting the sip endpoint, you need to rely on and pay for upstream trunking.
Also, be aware that 911 or emergency service contact is all over the place. In Canada, VoIP providers do not provide 911 unless they have a pots tie-in somewhere, and there are still tragic issues where 911 calls are routed to dispatchers thousands of km away.
If you have any nontechnical people who expect all the features of a landline using this, don’t do it yourself.
Some home internet routers (e.g… from FritzBox) support multiple VOIP providers, letting you configure rules as to which provider is used for outgoing calls (e.g… default for local calls, and another for international calls). And they provide a normal phone connector.
What are your goals here? What are you trying to accomplish?
Trying to replace an overpriced legacy service for my family, because my ISP charges an arm and a leg for a landline subscription which gets used at most once a day (oftentimes even less). So ideally a handset device capable of recieving and making calls to a limited number of devices.
So ideally a handset device capable of recieving and making calls to a limited number of devices.
When you say a “limited number of devices” do you mean a closed system when you have provisioned all the devices or do you mean you also need to be able to receive calls from standard phones?
To replace a landline you can just use a service like Vonage Home for about $10/month. If you want to setup your own PBX (phone system) for calling your own managed set of devices, then you need more. In any case, you always need a SIP service if you want to make and receive calls with regular phone numbers.
usmobile.com does a cellular-based ‘home phone’ (base station you connect a traditional POTS phone to) for about the same ($9.99/mo, $99/yr), plus hardware at about $100. walmart does the same (via ‘straight talk’) at $15/mo and about $50 for the hardware. no internet needed for the service as they use cellular.
If it’s just to make calls I would go used android, big screen and a special launcher that simplifies it and makes text big for typing in numbers. I see the Bluetooth landline phone things have bad reviews but most are from 4 years ago and say to go SIP if you want an actual handset.
I also agree with this. I have a Artphone C1 phone for elderly (from aliexpress) as a “landline” in my house for kids and whatever. Week long battery life, docking, cellphone (sim) so im not relying on internet or power to make a call.
Edit: and I can also take it with me as a spare phone.
Yeah, I gave my dad my old pixel and put a launcher on it, locked down the settings so it wouldn’t get accidentally changed to small fonts and just had a few apps, phone, text, email, door dash. That worked except the time he forgot to charge it but I think he knew I would come over more when I couldn’t call him.
Second for this. You don’t want to be the guy responsible for a failed 911 call.
