freephoneline.ca has been such a wonderful free* telephone service, that I have been using since 2010. That asterisk beside “free” had been placed there because the SIP configuration requires one-time fee. The absolutely free phone is a desktop client on your computer to make calls. The SIP configuration is required for a phone adapter and using the phones throughout the house.
When I had purchased the SIP configuration back in 2010, I wanted the full no hassle, easy setup that was provided by freephoneline. So, I had ordered their phone adapter, a GrandStream HT-286. The setup was easy and instructions were provided and I was on my way in no time.
Fast forward to 2015 and I am setting it up for my uncle and in-laws. But for some reason, I had purchased a Cisco SPA112 and SPA122 to use with their freephoneline, and boy has it been such a headache. I am mainly writing this so that I can recall the setup procedure for this, but if it helps anyone else along the way: win-win!
Contents
Prerequisites
- Purchased the SIP configuration from freephoneline.ca
- Cisco SPA112 or Cisco SPA122 with updated firmware
- Telephone
- A device with an Ethernet port
Retrieve the IP Address
Connect the phone into the phone adapter.
For the SPA112:
Have a pen and paper ready. You will hear a message – Enter a menu option, then enter 1 1 0 on your phone. You will now hear a message giving you the IP address of your SPA112 such as – “192.168.001.010” and write this number down.
For the SPA122:
Have a pen and paper ready. You will hear a message – Enter a menu option, then enter 2 1 0 on your phone. You will now hear a message giving you the IP address of your SPA122 such as – “192.168.001.010” and write this number down.
Connect the phone adapter to your computer with the Ethernet cable.
Configure the phone adapter
Open your Internet browser (Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) and enter in the IP address into the location bar
Login using admin / password
In the voice tab, all the pages will remember your changes so you do not need to click the submit button before switching to the next page. Constantly submitting will cause the phone adapter to reset each time, delaying your progress.
Here are the essential settings:
- SIP
- RTP Parameters
- RTP Packet Size: 0.020
- NAT Support Parameters
- Handle VIA received: yes
- Insert VIA received: yes
- Handle VIA rport: yes
- Insert VIA rport: yes
- Line 1
- NAT Settings
- NAT Mapping Enable: yes
- NAT Keep Alive Enable: yes
- Proxy and Registration
- Proxy: voip.freephoneline.ca
- Register Expires: 3600
- Subscriber Information
- Display Name: <Your Name>
- User ID: <User ID from freephoneline.ca>
- Password: <Password from freephoneline.ca>
- Audio Configuration
- Preferred Codec: G711u
- Use Pref Codec Only: yes
- Dial Plan
- Dial Plan: (911|[2-9]xxxxxxxxx|1xxxxxxxxxx|011xxxxxxxxxxxx.|98*|[6-7]x*xxxxxxxxxxx.)
Note: the user ID and password are generated from your SIP configuration file, not your freephoneline.ca website login information. The user ID should be your telephone number and password has been generated.
After setting up the phone adapter, you can connect it to your home’s telephone network by directly connecting the phone adapter into the wall.
Additional Details
Using a STUN server is not required when I had installed it, but if you were having difficulties with the network traversal you can try port forwarding or use a STUN server.
On my Android phone, I am using Sipdroid as a means to automatically connect when I have Wi-Fi. Android does support SIP natively, but there isn’t an option for Wi-Fi only to receive calls.
Hi
I have phone unlock key from freephoneline . I don’t really know how to setup call on my android phone. i have samsung galaxy core.do I still need to setup home phone adept first or m not sure if I can directly set up on my phone. Pls help me if you know about it .
thanks
I’m personally using CSipSimple. I find it simple to setup and use. Here’s a link to the play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.csipsimple&hl=en
Please note that my phone has a different number than my home phone.
If you would like to use the same number as your home phone, you cannot connect to freephoneline from two different places. You will need to set up a PBX (see Asterisk). Another option is to use freephoneline’s followme option allowing you to forward calls to your cell phone.
I kind of shotgunned my answer hoping that one of these will solve your overall problem.
Great post! Thank you!
Very good post.
Helped me in saving a lot of $
My original linksys phone adapter stopped working recently, the only phone adapter in my local computer store is the Cisco ones. Your post helped me set up this new phone adapter in just a few minutes. It really helps! Thanks!
Thanks for this. You made me save time. Works great!