AudioCodes MediaPack MP-114 2FXs 2FXO Analog VoIP Gateway
I received my AudioCodes MediaPack last week. I've just got to have a way to hook my OCS 2007 Speech Server up to the POTS and I thought this was the best approach. I've hooked up the gateway and I'll be documenting the process of setting up the gateway in a series of blog posts.
I've already screwed up once though if I had thought about it I could have avoided the problems I created for my home phone lines. After taking everything out of the box I proceeded to look at the documentation and hook up the gateway. But before I could do anything I had to make a trip to the local RadioShack to pick up the necessary network crossover cable an a long phone line cable.
After obtaining these items I connected the gateway to my switch using the crossover cable (1st mistake) and then I hooked up the analog phone line (2nd mistake) before plugging in the power. The gateway's lights started flashing and the thing appeared to be working - or at least not dead on arrival.
That was it for the evening and early the next morning I had a meeting to attend. After the meeting I tried calling home only to discover the problems caused by my second mistake. The phone would ring once then disconnect so I called my wife on her cell phone to find out what was going on. Needless to say but she was a little aggravated as the phone had been ringing once all morning as if someone was calling and hanging up after the first ring. I knew instantly what was happening - the gateway was answering the phone but with no dial tables configured it was simply disconnecting. I've learned my lesson though and I'm leaving the gateway unplugged until I get it configured and get another analog line (anyone care to finance this?).
After I got home I discovered the results of my first mistake. When I plugged in the crossover cable I put it into the wrong slot on my switch. The way my switch is setup the up-link that connects it to my router disables the last port on the switch and I had plugged the gateway into that port. I would have thought that this would simply disable the gateway but instead it disabled the switch meaning everything connected to it lost their connectivity. Moving the cable and rebooting the switch solved that problem.
My next blog will cover my efforts to configure the switch as well as my pending contact with AudioCodes' tech support. There isn't a lot of information on the Internet about how to configure the gateway and in fact I can't seem to find anything on the AudioCodes web site either.
Now for some images. The first shows what was included in the box - the gateway with power cable, the software CD and the documentation. The little plastic bag contains the four rubber feet for the bottom of the case.
The front view of the gateway...
The rear panel...
And in case you are wondering about the background in these images it's just the couch in my office. :-)