Change UPC Phone ?

iMax

Anyone know if I can plug in a different handset to the UPC router rather than the supplied Siemens Gigaset AS 180 ?

I have it on my desk here & would like to get one that has a speakerphone function.

blaz

Yeah, you can use any analog phone.

Solair

Yup, it's just a phone socket on the back of the box that provides a dial tone and normal phone service that works pretty much just like an eircom line.

Any tone-dial phone will work!

I'm not sure if you can use pulse-dial on it for example if you had an old rotary dial phone you'd like to use with UPC.

Eircom's digital switches, Smart Telecom's exchanges and some VoIP routers still understand pulse-dial.

It's amazing actually how little the telephone analogue interface has changed. You could probably connect the dial telephone from Charlie Chaplin's 1920s office to a modern digitally switched analogue telephone line and it would work just fine.

In fact, it would quite likely even work with most VoIP adaptors !

Elbows22

Solair wrote: »

Yup, it's just a phone socket on the back of the box that provides a dial tone and normal phone service that works pretty much just like an eircom line.

Any tone-dial phone will work!

I'm not sure if you can use pulse-dial on it for example if you had an old rotary dial phone you'd like to use with UPC.

Eircom's digital switches, Smart Telecom's exchanges and some VoIP routers still understand pulse-dial.

It's amazing actually how little the telephone analogue interface has changed. You could probably connect the dial telephone from Charlie Chaplin's 1920s office to a modern digitally switched analogue telephone line and it would work just fine.

In fact, it would quite likely even work with most VoIP adaptors !

Usually any Digital Cordless phones, most common ones are Siemens and Phillips.
Argos do a range from €6 and up that are compatible and Harvey Normans have offers every 2 weeks of 4 Phillips for €56

bob11

Just a related question ..

Does anyone know if I can connect an Eircom Phonewatch monitored alarm to the UPC phoneline ?

I had been told that this was not possible, but if the UPC box just provides a standard phone-socket, I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work ..

Any ideas , or experience of this ?

Cheers

Ranicand

bob11 wrote: »

Just a related question ..

Does anyone know if I can connect an Eircom Phonewatch monitored alarm to the UPC phoneline ?

I had been told that this was not possible, but if the UPC box just provides a standard phone-socket, I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work ..

Any ideas , or experience of this ?

Cheers

Your on a different network now.
Eircom Alarm only works on the Eircom network.

Even if you go to another provider they are just reselling Eircom bandwidth on the Eircom network.

UPC has their own network it uses a different cable.
From the UPC Site.


If you use eircom's monitored alarm system and want to switch to UPC's great value Home Phone service you will need to install a wireless GSM solution. This is a simple solution which allows you to benefit from the great savings UPC can offer whilst still knowing your home is secure. To find out more about the wireless GSM solution call eircom PhoneWatch customer support team on 1850 211 765 for details. Prices start from €149 but the savings you make when you switch your phone to UPC will more than cover the cost of the GSM solution.

Solair

Ranicand wrote: »

Your on a different network now.
Eircom Alarm only works on the Eircom network.

Even if you go to another provider they are just reselling Eircom bandwidth on the Eircom network.

.

Well, if you're with Smart Telecom for example, on their unbundled services, you're only using eircom's copper wires. The dial-tone and ADSL signals are provided entirely by their own equipment.

Also, bistream DSL products aren't just eircom broadband re-sold. They use eircom's DSLAM (local exchange DSL) equipment, but the data is backhauled over their own networks either at the local exchange itself or at a regional node. In some cases a 3rd party network e.g. Cable and Wireless, ESB, or an E-net MAN etc) may be used.

UTV seems to use Cable & Wireless' backhaul network for example.

UPC's network is entirely independent though, and doesn't use any aspect of the phone network at all.

bob11

Ranicand wrote: »

Your on a different network now.
Eircom Alarm only works on the Eircom network.

Even if you go to another provider they are just reselling Eircom bandwidth on the Eircom network.

UPC has their own network it uses a different cable.
From the UPC Site.


If you use eircom's monitored alarm system and want to switch to UPC's great value Home Phone service you will need to install a wireless GSM solution. This is a simple solution which allows you to benefit from the great savings UPC can offer whilst still knowing your home is secure. To find out more about the wireless GSM solution call eircom PhoneWatch customer support team on 1850 211 765 for details. Prices start from €149 but the savings you make when you switch your phone to UPC will more than cover the cost of the GSM solution.

I know what this states, but my question is has anyone tried it ??

The Eircom phonewatch alarm just autodials back to the phonewatch monitoring centre ...

Why will this not work via the phone interface on the UPC modem.
All it has to do is dial the number for the phonewatch monitoring centre ..

If the UPC box provides a standard RJ11 interface, I can't see why this will not work

Solair

I don't really see why it wouldn't work. The Phonewatch alarms dial into a monitoring centre using a Bell 102 modem which is about as slow and robust as you can get. They were designed to cope with 1960s electromechanically switched, poor quality phone lines.

I don't think there would be any problem connecting with a Bell 102 modem over a VoIP line. You would possibly have problems with a Sky Box which uses a high speed modem (56kbps) the same as you would have used for internet access.

I would suspect that phonewatch won't connect it to a UPC line as the phone service is not secure i.e. it requires power supply and could be easily tampered with.

But, from a technical point of view, I don't really see what the issue is.

If you were to locate the UPC equipment in a secure area i.e. perhaps your attic and provide it with a small UPS unit to prevent it losing power, I don't think it would be any issue.

Captain Halibut

Anybody know the output mA/voltage of the Gigaset AS180 power adapter? I've been trawling the net for an hour looking for info and rapidly losing the will to live. (Dead adapter's long gone to recycle heaven) Nothing in the manufacturer's manual.

*Shamelessly piggybacking, but not worth starting a new thread.

antodeco

Someway off topic, but if there are multiple points in (my folks)house with eircom (4 phones) how can UPC connect all of these points up? Dont want to get them to move to UPC if it means that they can only have the phone in one point? Thanks

coylemj

antodeco wrote: »

Someway off topic, but if there are multiple points in (my folks)house with eircom (4 phones) how can UPC connect all of these points up? Dont want to get them to move to UPC if it means that they can only have the phone in one point? Thanks

How are those 4 phones connected back to the Eircom phone line - there must be some kind of concentrator or junction box - I assume you don't have a PBX in the house?

The UPC router has two phone sockets so you can pay for up to two lines.

Cushie Butterfield

You can register up to four additional handsets to the main base station & just place the other three near a power socket using the base stations for recharging. Obviously they would all have to be cordless & compatible phones.

This might be another option.

zg3409

bob11 wrote: »

I know what this states, but my question is has anyone tried it ??

The Eircom phonewatch alarm just autodials back to the phonewatch monitoring centre ...

Why will this not work via the phone interface on the UPC modem.
All it has to do is dial the number for the phonewatch monitoring centre ..

If the UPC box provides a standard RJ11 interface, I can't see why this will not work

The main problem is the UPC unit needs power to work. No power, no phoneline, so if someone was to cut power, then break into house, alarm could not dial out. The whole point is that the system should still work during mains failure, deliberate or normal power cut.

coylemj

zg3409 wrote: »

The main problem is the UPC unit needs power to work. No power, no phoneline, so if someone was to cut power, then break into house, alarm could not dial out. The whole point is that the system should still work during mains failure, deliberate or normal power cut.

This thread has gone off the rails, that question you're answering was asked two years ago.

L1011

zg3409 wrote: »

The main problem is the UPC unit needs power to work. No power, no phoneline, so if someone was to cut power, then break into house, alarm could not dial out. The whole point is that the system should still work during mains failure, deliberate or normal power cut.

The fact that they're more likely to cut the lower power phone line than the easily fatal mains line doesn't make much of this.

GSM blockers are also used for GSM based alarms at this stage. I suspect a cable unit is probably one of the safer ones by now.

Solair

A few answers that should clear up everything:

1) You can use *any* phone with UPC, as long as it's tone-dialling - Doesn't matter what type, as long as it's not a rotary dial / pulse dial only ancient phone.

2) You can connect UPC to your extension sockets if you fully disconnect the old eircom phoneline where it enters your home (this is vitally important or you could damage your UPC device). Then, once that's done, simply plug any phone cable from the UPC box to a spare phone socket and you'll have dial-tone all over the house just like eircom.

3) In theory UPC works with PhoneWatch, but PhoneWatch prefer hardwired non-VoIP landlines for security reasons as your UPC modem must remain plugged in to the mains for the phone to work. This is not the case with a traditional landline.

4) Most people seem to find UPC works with Sky boxes for the phone connection.